Ken Aldred

I'm not watching the trailers. Concerned, as usual, about having the film itself spoiled. Glad to hear everything looks promising, though.

Yup. I have that one. Only a couple of years later but so much better than the Rocket Raccoon art.

Yup. Just as appallingly bad a story as Hulk 271 was from Bill Mantlo, and I didn't like Mike Mignola's art at the time, which markedly improved in the late 80s.

Couldn't resist that one. Too good to turn down.

Ah, The Slasher. I'd forgotten about him. To a Brit his name is as sophomoric as The Whizzer.

A lot of this basically describes why Marvel's comics improved so much under Joe Quesada. It would be seeing history repeat itself in a good way.

There's the DC Universe Secret Origins trade paperback.

If you really punish yourself by looking at the art in those Dells I mentioned, then compared to Tony Tallarico, JR JR is on par with Rembrandt. Or Picasso, maybe? No, that's unfair; JR JR's art is very blocky-looking at times but hardly Cubist. Anyway, Tallarico's art is appalling.

If we're talking about the World War Hulk mini-series drawn by JR JR, far from the worst I've ever seen. I could've suggested to Joe that he takes a look at the abysmal Dell super-hero monster comics I posted earlier, but I like him and so I don't want something like that on my conscience.

Marvel Firsts trade paperbacks, each volume covering first appearances from a specific decade, 60s through to 90s.

I still buy CDs from Amazon. Like all physical formats, fewer these days, though. Quite often you can also get a free Autorip MP3 version included as well. That said, the MP3 isn't of that high a quality, and I prefer to listen to lossless FLAC or ALAC files made from my CD purchases.

Yup. I had seen that cover but clearly found the experience so horrifically traumatising that I’d buried it deep down in my subconscious and temporarily could no longer recall its existence. It also starts to make me feel disoriented in a way similar to looking at flashing lights.

The additional problem is that there's only a few billion of us, so we can be really difficult to spot.

I don't know. But, for me, it was a very poor decision.

Yup. And, as I said, take 10 seconds' worth of painstaking effort to Google them. Really.

+1 Marvel’s comics improved considerably under Joe Quesada in the early 2000s. A pity it didn’t last and soon we were back to being overloaded with variant covers, and then far too many additional titles being published with subsequent dilution of the talent pool and declining quality.

Talking of monster accents, this guy's heavy Swedish accent would be a great match. You're probably familiar with his work in all-time classics such as Plan 9 From Outer Space. And, it provides me with a gratuitous reason to post this ridiculous image again...

I don't think that, if you were curious, it would be too difficult to Google what's on Colossus' shirt and discover what it's referencing. Not tough detective work at all.

A very unique artist, remembered for some sensitive, very restrained live performances.

Given the diversity in the X-Men and what the message refers to, it seems like very poor judgement on his part.

Yup. Same for me with ASM 171. As a Nova fan I wanted this crossover issue, but it was Non Distributed and eventually I had to send a postal order off to a mail order dealer. Thrilled when I received it, disappointed when I read the story to find it was absolute bollocks.

With time, my high-functioning autism symptoms have become progressively worse, and what I could do in my teens simply isn't feasible anymore. So, an alternative approach exists, one which fits my current circumstances much more appropriately. That's all.

I was just thinking back this Saturday about how I used to go to Manchester as a teen to hunt for comics in the bookshops and comic marts, and how you’d never know what you’d find, whether it’d be a wasted journey, or comics would be frustratingly missing from the UK-distributed bundle, or whether you’d find some amazing stuff, particularly at the comic marts. The thrill of the hunt, unpredictability and surprise. Now, I can read almost any comic with just a few clicks on a trackpad or taps on a tablet screen; instant gratification, fuss, effort and frustration-free, requiring no patience but devoid of any predatory adrenaline rush, as you’d get in the olden days when only those elusive paper pamphlets were available. I can see how the ‘I want it now’ factor appeals more to contemporary tastes, but it’s also useful for those of us who, due to health reasons, find visits to the LCS or conventions a little bit too demanding. Interesting to go back nostalgically and recall how intensely exciting the 70s and pre-online days were for me, and all the travelling around that was involved, but I’ve become much happier in suddenly thinking ‘you know, I’d like to read that series or that particular book’, and just being able to achieve the objective in no time whatsoever, effortlessly. I don’t miss the old ways that much. Of course, not everyone should make such an extreme transition: whatever you enjoy the most.

The confusion comes from a spelling error, an extra r in Torr. They're not referring to the monster, but rather the B-movie actor from this period, Tor Johnson, who was a very big guy.

That's scatological, I'm British, must avoid temptation to respond.... It depends on how long they've been held in that trance by Xemnu. If it's gone on long enough, 'accidents' are inevitable. It's a fair observation you've made there.