Ken Aldred

I found this quite confusing, as he looks nothing like Jacques Cousteau. I know this because I enjoyed watching his Undersea World show, back when I was a kid.

For me, no point downgrading as I'm too much of an OCD perfectionist.

Yup. Honey Badgers don’t mess about. Straight for the privates. Thankfully, I doubt we’ll see that in a mainstream Marvel comic, unless Garth Ennis starts writing the book, in which case I’d expect an emasculation on the first page.

Complete runs of ‘Ghost in the Shell’ and ‘Battle Angel Alita’. A lot of quality Manga there. Also, every volume of ‘Ajin: Demi-Human’ (11 in total), ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ (22) and ‘Inuyashiki’ (10), which I haven’t looked at yet.

The ones I got in the bundle were complete storylines, such as the 12-issue Green Hornet Year One. I recall getting their very readable Lone Ranger series quite regularly about 10 years ago. Admittedly, though, as a publisher, not even close to the consistency of modern Valiant.

Some of their stuff’s quite readable, such as Matt Wagner’s Green Hornet : Year One, Jeff Parker’s Flash Gordon.

I haven’t downloaded the PDFs, but those look like much larger file sizes and higher res images. The ‘stingy’ was comparative, such as 6 Mb images in the Frank Thorne Red Sonja Artists Edition from Dynamic Forces, and many 3 Mb + images in the near 40 Gb .cbz bundle from Kodansha.

I recently ordered it. My caveat is that the .cbz versions of the Deluxe Editions are low resolution copies, which is easy to tell from the overall file size. I suppose they would be okay with a decent upscaling comic reader, but it’s still a bit stingy when compared to the recent Kodansha manga bundle.

Good choice. As a slightly more obscure variation on this, a similar style was applied by Wagner to his Green Hornet : Year One origin storyline, which I read recently as part of a Humble Bundle digital comics pack.

+1 Good series. More outside the mainstream too, such as his work with one of my favourites, Richard Corben.

Something a bit different from Warren Ellis. Actually excellent.

My favourite issue in Hellstrom’s Bronze Age run, and, for me, easily the best. Many of the Marvel Spotlight issues are still readable, even though Gerber’s stories aren’t as imaginative as, say, those in his Fear / Man-Thing series. In this short, 8 issue, eponymous run, the preceding 7 issues by a now forgotten writer, John Warner, are overwritten and poorly paced, but the series finishes, or is cancelled, with this excellent story. Some of Russ Heath’s best-ever artwork, very reminiscent of Bissette and Totleben’s later 80s interpretation of Hell in Swamp Thing Annual 2, and a very inspired story from Bill Mantlo; one of the weirdest Christmas comics you’ll ever read.

The initial Thanos storyline hasn’t finished yet. We’re in a cliffhanger situation, only effectively halfway through it. Plus, the Mad Titan’s a much better character. But, I digress from the thread’s topic, which is about money, not content.

Terrible name.

Yup. I noticed that. I didn't care enough about the OP's post or Daryl to correct it.

Okay. So then there’s no problem with what’s been said previously by us.

I found diminishing returns at the last LSCC I attended. Not willing to pay the escalating back issue prices and art sketch commission charges that are quite unrealistic on my budget, stories both old and modern that I can read more cheaply in digital format rather than lugging home a stack of moderately-discounted trades or hardcovers, and a journey and environment that’s too stressful and not worth the effort for the meagre quantity of items I’m returning with. I admire some of the boardies who’ve posted in this thread, who sound far more committed to the cause than I am now.

I find the new post is best read as comedic irony.

Wouldn't work for the first imported cent copies I bought from a local bookshop here in the UK, when I started collecting seriously in 1977. The prices were gouged into the back cover in hard lead pencil, so aggressively that it negated the point of using 'removable' pencil in the first place. Maybe a good pressing would work instead?

Yup. And, that tied into my thinking, that they'd never grow up, big and strong, without appropriate anthropoid nutrition - from bananas rather than plankton.

I'm a very literal person, and was much worse as a kid. If they actually were sea-living monkeys, then, in order to make them thrive, I'd think to myself that they'd need to be fed appropriately with some monkey food, and would try dropping a chunk of banana into the water for them to enjoy. Foolproof.

Of course, they're never going to look as impressive as in the ad artwork by Russ Heath.

I can imagine the frustration.

Yup. No wonder we get along. Very similar tastes in comics and submarines.

Yup. That was my first comic book obsession as a kid when I saw them advertised in DCs. I couldn’t figure out a way to send off to the States for them and, strangely enough, neither did the adults I spoke to, including a couple of my school teachers that I asked as well, even about the existence of International Money Orders. I was absolutely elated when I had a pleasant surprise, eventually finding them distributed to the UK.