Ken Aldred

Don’t worry. It’s still clearly top-quality Golden Age. I would’ve expected a few classic Hulk covers as well, though.

Which reminds me...

This one is a nice alternative, with the ‘V for Victory’ effect in the background...

As a science nerd, I approve. Assisted by the military director of The Manhattan Project, I notice.

My favourite Nick Cardy cover. Great representation of the magic of reading comics as a kid, especially if you can identify with the blue-collar look of the neighbourhood.

Nicer without the cover lettering Classic Legion of Super-Heroes 23 Variant.

It is tough. I've been reading comics since 1973; mainstream, indies, pretty much all genres and Ages.

Forgot about that. Exactly the same.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 up - never had any interest in the title or characters.

Yup. Son of Satan 8. My favourite single issue by Russ Heath, and an overlooked gem, as discussed in a recent thread. Such inventive, surreal artwork. A master.

He did some wonderful covers for this team. A sad loss of a great comic artist.

Yup. As my OCD worsened, I considered just this very possibility. I was, in the end, unsatisfied by just settling for the grading differences between the large molecules and atoms in my comic books. Too rough an estimation. I now needed to descend into the world of superstrings, in order to obtain the necessary accuracy, and my final peace of mind.

I think the examples I gave would add or remove much more than that %age. I wouldn’t be able to quantify exactly. I’ve never deliberately soiled or scribbled on a comic or torn a piece out, and then analysed the before-vs-after difference.

Yup. Reminds me of a tiny comic shop I’ve mentioned here before, whose owner had his faithful but constantly-farting dog with him. I imagined the molecules suspended in its noxious emissions binding with the surfaces of the treasured pamphlets, marking them forever. As stated earlier, I’m OCD. I did return one more time, but the dog was doing the same, and I left its cloud of destruction without having bought even a single PLOD candidate. For all I know, CGC could have a black light detection test for this.

And, if they're heavily stained, water damaged, scrawled with writing, then that will add a large number of atoms to the book, which surely represents better value for money, atom-wise, and a current undervaluation.

Staining, soiling, water damage or discolouration would add atoms to the 6.0 . Additional levels of rusting or foxing will significantly change the molecular composition of the 6.0 relative to the 9.0 . Extra colour-breaking creases on the cover will remove large numbers of ink atoms. Chipping, or other pieces lost, remove large numbers of atoms from the 6.0 . A pencilled or stamped date on the book adds a large number of atoms, which could boost either a 9.0 or 6.0's total.

There is variability. Being highly obsessive-compulsive I'm going to be far more stringent than is typical.

As a science nerd, I approve of this thread.

Cates is clearly very talented, and his Thanos story with Geoff Shaw artwork is excellent, as is the preceding run by Lemire and Deodato. Ryan Stegman’s pretty good as well.

Nope. I wouldn’t say that’s at all applicable to me. I’m still reading some modern comics; Marvel, DC, Image, and so, clearly, some of the artwork and storylines still manage to appeal. Yes, maybe fewer than during my 80s peak, and in digital form, but it’s far from a lost cause. The artists and writers working during the previous Ages varied considerably in aptitude as well: the olden days weren’t quite that consistent either.

Quite a lot of that in the Hickman and Fraction runs. I like those, but something different would be good.

I feel a lot of the time it’s using a much cheaper, upcoming artist rather than paying for an A-lister, although here, Pichelli’s been around a while. Here’s some more, polarising modern Marvel art for you to debate...

I’ve seen much worse in modern Marvel comics. From a contemporary perspective, the art isn’t that bad. I’ve clearly become a little bit desensitised by exposure. As an FF fan, I wouldn’t buy it though, as the team has had much better artists, such as Kirby, Perez, Byrne, (Arthur) Adams, Wieringo, Davis and Hitch.