Ken Aldred

I was lucky to be a kid at the time these were first published, and to receive such a broad-based, cheaply-priced education about the back catalogue of DC's (and Quality's and Fawcett's) stories from the Golden and Silver Age, as well as some great, new Bronze material. My favourite run is Archie Goodwin's Detective Comics; the most consistently-excellent new stories and quite an inspired choice of reprints, overall.

It's a shame. There is some nice artwork in there. Michael Golden and Alex Nino, from memory.

Some nice Michael Golden art in the early issues. Good comics.

Topps Comics X-Files 1 During the mid-90s, at the show's peak of popularity, this was regularly seen at £35 / $50 with UK dealers. Well before the end of the decade, I picked up another high grade first print copy for £2.

The first true comic shop I went to was the original Forbidden Planet in London; a fantastic shop and a treasure trove for me as a kid, and far different to the boring, soulless, corporate entity it later became. I'd never seen such a wide range; so much imported new material not distributed to the UK, independent books I previously didn't know existed such as Cerebus and Richard Corben undergrounds, and my first exposure to original EC comics, with a long wall dedicated to them. Whenever we had a school genealogy trip down to London my teacher would, after an hour or so, and very liberally, allow me to go off around the city, and I'd quickly rush over to the shop and spend most of the afternoon there, meeting up with the group again at the railway station around 4pm. Also, I hated school even though I tested well, and would have a 'day off' each term when I'd go down on the train from Manchester to buy another stack of new imports and a few back issues. Great, magical memories.

I prefer the ( un-inked?) Marvelmania cover version to the more familiar, final Conan 1 cover. Much grittier and more detailed, and works well with the battle scene.

I recall by about 1980, here in the UK, that Fear 19 and HTD 1 were a bit of a joke, and the comic shops I went to at the time wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole, books so badly tainted by price volatility.

And Bropper. A versatile book.

I find the frequent graphic scenes and general attitude a bit too sadistic. I've never been one for sniggering at someone else's misfortune, and I feel there's a lot of that in Ennis's work generally. When I've had a discussion about this in a comic shop, a common explanation is that the excesses are justifiable within the context of the story, but I just don't get it.

I was being a bit diplomatic. I really, really don't like Garth Ennis' writing.

It was entertaining enough. Not exactly a huge fan of Garth Ennis, and so I wasn't too bothered by the omission of some of his excesses by the show.

First series Gen 13 # 1

I found it a little bit boring and safe for most of the time, although it did get more interesting towards the end, especially with the unexpected reappearance of a very cool character. I should watch it again sometime, when I've had more than two hours sleep, and didn't take a short, involuntary power nap about halfway through. Rogue One remains my favourite Disney era Star Wars film.

The Watchmen slipcased hardcover. Leading up to the film it was selling for several hundred dollars ( I can't remember if it was around $400 or £400) but after the film this soon dropped to around £50.

Yup. That’s one of the most-renowned 80s indie price crashes.

Dark Horse wasn’t perfect. They did some great original material, but the digital recolouring in the Marvel reprint trade paperbacks was generally terrible; garish and obscuring a lot of detail.

Pre-Unity Valiants such as Harbinger 1 have fluctuated dramatically. Peak in the 90s in the UK of £100, £5 or less by circa 94. Rai 3 was more expensive still. I saw around £150 in a London comic shop back then, followed by a similar trajectory. Of course, prices revived mid-2000s for UHG slabs, still with considerable subsequent volatility.

The 1997 continued series is where his stories, especially under Joe Kelly, started to get really good. I was largely oblivious to the character until a friend recommended the series to me.

his healing factor negates advanced terminal cancer and keeps it in remission. The sense of relief, freedom, and darker undercurrent, which helps stimulate compensatory humour and destructive behaviour. That said, Wilson's funny even before that.

I always found Deathstroke and Taskmaster to be better 'separated at birth' candidates.

In the 90s, Marvel produced a consistently-funny Deadpool comic, quality, prior to the more recent oversaturation. So, I can recall the potential of those good days, after a poor start by the character's creator, and enjoy the films.

I didn't at any point think it was quite as bad, in this respect, as many Mad parodies, even going back to stories in the early, original 50s comics such as 'Superduperman' or 'Bat Boy and Rubin', which I find extremely forced and trying much, much too hard.

Great taste, and a high point. That was a good time for X-Force, along with the preceding Kyle / Jost / Crain run.

Especially a telepathic and telekinetic one. They could put Agents of Atlas’ Ken Hale in the next film.

I'm sure it didn't help that he was being directed by David Goyer, a comic book writer and screenwriter with no previous experience of directing.