Ken Aldred

Yup. Old topic, again. Same ending and continuation.

I can believe it. It’s the kind of book that might be appreciated by someone with a sense of humour. Interesting, ridiculous concept. I’d have gone for it.

Nothing like starting with one of the classics.

Once you adjust to the procedural dialogue it’s involving enough throughout. It’s often compared to The West Wing, but I haven’t seen that series at all, so my analogy was Law and Order, which has the same type of debating on moral and political issues. I suppose I appreciated it for being something different to a generic slugfest comic. The final issue is a bit strange, as Mitch’s character changes quite jarringly.

Ex Machina 1 to 50, and Ex Machina Specials 1 to 4 Liked it. A lot of discussion about political issues of the time, some of which have shown progress in the intervening two decades, but that’s always a risk with the relevance type of comic book, as with Green Lantern back in the 70s. Still, I found Vaughan’s dialogue very engaging throughout, and there’s lots of great art from Tony Harris, Chris Sprouse, and John Paul Leon. Well worth reading. 2023 total = 96

Then again, we are talking about a comic book probability superpower, and so it doesn't need to follow real world mathematics and play out by those rules.

Scarlet Witch, I think?

Yup. I’m at that age.

Perhaps read his Superboy's Legion next ?

Shipping internationally always has the complication of being unpredictable and slow at times. Surface mail to the U.K. required a lot of patience. Remember that well.

Yup. With time I appreciated his artwork more and more. Same for Palmer’s inking. Two of the greats.

Avengers 264 to 300 Alpha Flight 39 Avengers vs X-Men 1 to 4 Roger Stern’s stories were a consistently good read, the highlight being the classic Masters of Evil arc, Under Siege, the Super Adaptoid arc, Heavy Metal, co-written with Ralph Macchio, although the ending of that is a bit unconvincing, and finally providing the better of the two Kang stories in this run. Walter Simonson’s work here wasn’t his best, with his Kang storyline being a desperate hunt which in the end really doesn’t go anywhere significant after the build-up. The real highlight for me is a long run of artwork throughout by John Buscema and Tom Palmer, which often is really excellent. Strong visual storytelling, great figurework and expressions. 2024 total = 42

That's the 10 issue Strazewski / Parobeck series? One of the most underrated hidden gems of the often terrible early 90s.

Yup. There was a general atmosphere of melancholia.

It’s always the same. A descent into paranoia, crushing uncertainty, the concern that I would never receive positive reinforcement again. It was agonisingly tough. Somehow, though, by a miracle, I made it through. I suspect it was thanks to a combination of irony and British fortitude.

We've both seen comics reprinted in DC trade paperbacks that are nowhere near as good as Infinity Inc, in terms of both story and art. Some of their choices have been quite surprising. Might seem like going on a bit about the topic for some, but we're both JSA fans.

I’m sure he polarises opinion, and different readers have different tolerance thresholds for his increasing level of stylisation. I’m fairly similar to you, okay up until the end of his Moon Knight period. Elektra Assassin and his Daredevil Marvel Graphic Novel were where it got a bit too much for me.

Quite a well-executed cover, and quite sanitised compared to Jack Davis’s similar panel in EC’s “Foul Play” story.

It’s Mike McMahon, cover and interior art.

Doubtful.

Didn’t ever make sense to discontinue the run, especially as it’s more-or-less immediately taken over and illustrated for quite a while by McFarlane, and you’d think there would be sufficient demand.

Good choice. I was thinking about re-reading those. I'll leave it until next year. A shame the McFarlane issues haven't been reprinted.

I never boarded (and bagged) absolutely all of my comics individually. Some were just 3 to a bag, never more than that.

Yup. His forced perspective was also starting to suffer badly at this stage, such as the arm on the female figure in the background.