Ken Aldred

Reading a British Marvel comic that reprinted Avengers 4 in black-and-white, specifically its classic reintroduction of one of my favourite characters, was the first time I ever got completely blown away by a comic book story. Even 45 or so years on, that sense of amazement still lingers in memory. FF 4 was another great read from that time, but has never, ever had that level of significance to me.

I've recently been re-reading Captain America and, on the way, the entire 70s Kirby run, after he returned to Marvel. There's a lot of dross to wade through before that, and the run is actually one of the highlights of the title; extremely inventive and entertaining.

Some great artists at the Humanoids imprint; Giraud and Ladronn's work on Incal, and Gimenez and Charest's work on Metabarons.

Agreed that FF 12 is a great book, but FF 25, for me, is even more classic. That said, GS XM 1 is far more significant to me. One of my all-time great keys, for my all-time favourite team. It's a nerd rather than speculator opinion, of course. Like Dave / oakman, I have a brilliantly-presenting GS XM 1 9.0

+1 He started out with a poor Image-like style, with very stumpy-looking figurework, but just got better and better throughout the 90s, soon becoming a quite brilliant artist.

I don't think Kane is a terrible artist, but clearly has a style which is Marmite, polarising. He's done some nice work, especially with a well-matched inker, such as John Romita Snr, Wally Wood, P. Craig Russell, or Klaus Janson, and, in this last case, produced a result very close to Miller and Janson's very much more popular Bronze Age combination. Miller was heavily influenced by him, and not averse to drawing an occasional Kane-like, nasal, camera angle image himself.

I quite like Kane's run on Action Comics in the early 80s.

+1 Forgot him.

Although I'd still go with my pick of groundbreaking, mainstream, social relevance as the start point, DC 52 pagers and Marvel 25 cent books are good markers for the transition, with the Marvels also signifying the beginning of the company's picture frame cover era. Issue 102 features Morbius, a character which Marvel wouldn't have published until the CCA rules were relaxed, or followed less stringently, at the beginning of the Bronze Age. ASM 121 is much too late on.

Maybe a transition with ASM 96, the first relevance / drug issue, May 71, although about a year after Green Lantern 76, April 70, but fitting in well with Green Lantern 85, August 71.

Being from northern England I'm very unlikely ever to use y'all, but the above post was very educational.

Lots of talented artists at DC during that time period, for example... John Byrne Jerry Ordway Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez Adam and Andy Kubert Mike Mignola Kelley Jones Kevin Maguire Adam Hughes Norm Breyfogle Stuart Immonen Lee Moder Chris Sprouse Tim Truman Kyle Baker Mike Parobeck

Nothing new. There were several Batman / Judge Dredd crossovers back in the 90s, for example...

I like his earlier 70s / 80s, Kane-influenced work, but not his newer, scratchier, more distorted style.

I recently had another quick look at some of his 90s work, Impulse and Crimson, and found that I don't really like it anymore. His recent art has extreme distortions in the figures, but it's still there, even early on, and a bit annoying.

I've just read the issue of Mark Gruenwald's Captain America where Porcupine dies. A sad story.

I enjoyed Giffen's runs on Legion; the initial run featuring The Great Darkness Saga and the second, late 80s run while he was emulating the art style of Kevin Maguire, along with some consistently-enjoyable stories. In between that, I didn't generally like his work, which you've given an example of there, especially during the period when comics were printed using that horrendous, garish, Flexographic technique. The only exception is Ambush Bug, featuring an insane lead character, and the style fit well with the chaotic nature of his material. That said, Giffen did push it a bit too far for my tastes in the 90s with awful, self-indulgent comics such as Trencher.

Maybe some people like highly-shadowed, Expressionist artwork and others don't like its gloominess. Always liked Mignola, from his lighter, Phantom Stranger / Cosmic Odyssey period onwards. Then again, I admire comics' chiaroscuro masters, including Alex Toth, another polarising artist, but not Stan Lee, especially during his minimalist, black cockroach phase.

I don't recall that being mentioned in the films, and there are huge gaps in my comic book reading here.

They're all aliens. The entire pantheon. Also, they're not truly immortal. It's been given a more science-fictional spin.

Yup. They were mad fer it, our kid.

Fond memories of getting those annual albums at Xmas as a kid. Broons one year, Wullie the next.

Not that northern.

Yup. The polar opposite to my guttural, northern gibberish. In Forbidden Planet, London, some of the locals appeared quite scared. I should proceed with caution if I ever visit the new CGC office.

Shame how so many of the Bronze Age Punisher appearances were ND, due to the Amazing Spider-Man title being absent for such a long while from the UK.