Ken Aldred

It's quite punitive.

Yup. I think it’s fair to call out a vacuous claim made solely on the basis of an online persona, when diagnosis would actually require something a bit more targeted and detailed, such as an Autism Spectrum Quotient Test. The condition is categorised as a disability, and we can do without the mocking attitude.

Well said. In the UK, existing Aspergers diagnoses like mine will remain as such, whereas new cases will be recategorised as high-functioning autism spectrum disorder.

Also, if you time your visit right, you should take the opportunity to attend the annual Transylvania Comic Convention. Here's the organiser.. Traditional regional attire, not cosplay.

That predates my visits to the original and great FP shop. Never went there on my trips to London.

Very reminiscent of my local branch of Forbidden Planet.

I'm very OCD, and worrying about bending or creasing my books is bad enough. This is on an entirely different level. Nightmare fuel.

Mid July for we Brits.

I won’t be participating this year. I’d never make it through to the end. It’s very frustrating because I always work my very hardest on my grading, and one day I will achieve my ambition of being the most misguidedly-focused and consistently-inaccurate grader in the contest, and, finally, deserving of that highly sought-after last place.

It’s bound to happen. All they need to do is gather together a group of largely-forgotten D-listers into a team, preferably science-fiction and space-orientated characters, and give them a name such as Protectors of the Universe. Their leader could be a relatable, earthborn hero like Captain Comet, and the alien snowman that attacked our world could be included in the team as well, reformed, and with a very limited vocabulary, such as, maybe, ‘Me am Frosty’.

Even with the poor quality of the 50s newsprint, it was still obvious that there was something special about EC’s artwork. It’s great to be able to look at these masterpieces in greater detail, in monochrome and at a larger size, using my chosen intermediate between their original presentation and an IDW Artist’s Edition. I’ve had a look at some of the Dark Horse hardcovers, but, while quite nice, they still have that garish, digital recolouring which puts me off a lot of their reprints.

No idea, actually. Has this one started escalating price-wise now? I give up.

I have this as the entire Russ Cochran EC Library hardcover run. No chance of affording all of the originals. I'm someone else happy with reprints. Hardly slumming it here though, as the detail in the artwork looks incredible in the high-quality black-and-white of these books.

There's my favourite snowman / winter cover.

I enjoyed these, especially the Chris Claremont / John Byrne run.

I agree. For me, graphic novels tell, and have been marketed as, new, self-contained stories, such as A Contract With God, Sabre, Detectives Inc, Death of Captain Marvel, Arkham Asylum, Catwoman: Selina's Big Score, Sgt Rock : Between Hell and a Hard Place, or Jim Starlin's more recent Infinity trilogy, rather than single volumes reprinting already-published material. There is the original graphic novel (OGN) vs. graphic novel distinction, with the above examples falling into the first category, and collected editions of existing, episodic material such as DKR and Watchmen in the latter. I still prefer OGN vs collected as the more accurate categorisation.

That's a great collection. Congrats !

One of the most significant heroes of the Silver Age, too. He does well in any Age, actually. Apart from the period during which he was deep-frozen. That goes without saying, of course.

Fantastic Four Thor Spider-Man Dr Strange X-Men

Sean Murphy's my favourite comic artist of the past decade. Impressed that he can write so well too. A great mini-series.

I'm not particularly bothered about what format I read and accumulate comics in; original issues or remastered trade paperbacks, hardcovers or digital, as long as it makes my access to stories which I want to read much more easily achievable.

Sadly, I'd stopped buying British Marvels in the 80s, a mistake, as I missed out on all of the quality Captain Britain stories by Delano, Moore and Davis.

The Final Incal, in which he finishes what would've been a trilogy graphic novel set by Jodorowsky and Moebius, has some absolutely superb Ladronn artwork in it. You really should check it out if you're impressed by his work.

Yup. Read his run on the title back in the 90s. Ladronn's a great comic artist, and his more recent work is really superb.