Ken Aldred

I’ve always wanted to see him make an appearance with the FF. One of my all-time favourite characters. A vital character for anything involving Secret Wars. I’d like to see Hickman’s interpretation, but most likely there’ll be a simplistic, cheapened version, as was done for Civil War’s transformation into the more budget-priced Minor Civil Altercation At An Airport.

Which was the original name of the team before Lee and Kirby settled on X-Men.

It’s already been tried out…

Yup. Kaecilius. If I recall correctly, he was transformed into a Mindless One.

Stopped trying. An extended Phase of phoning it all in.

It’s not Starlin’s best, but a good read. But, made a bit irrelevant because it wasn’t too long before they were brought back.

So, I’ve basically made it quite clear there as to what’s my favourite out of all of 2023’s reading material. Maybe, in a few days, to bring this year’s thread to a close, the other participants might post their highlight as well?

Silver Surfer 2014 series 1 to 15 Silver Surfer 2016 series 1 to 14 The complete run by Dan Slott and Mike Allred. Well, what can I say? The reading surprise of the year for me. This is a brilliant series, with the best work I’ve seen from these two creators. A story that’s inventive, absorbing, grounded, surreal, funny, sad and poignant; effortlessly switching in mood and from indie slice-of-life scenes in a New England guest house to cosmic level depictions. The range on show is incredible. Allred’s a perfect match here, and his Surfer often looks fantastic. Not just my favourite story read this year, but one of the best I’ve read in over 4 decades. Ending the year on a very, very high note. Final 2023 total = 627

Terrible news. I’ve always liked his posts on here. Very much the same happened to my mother when she had a stroke, and so I can empathise fully and feel really, really sorry to hear this. Not a platitude; I’ll be thinking about you, Jim.

Wonder how Chuck felt the first time he descended into Edgar Church’s basement?

Looks like I’ve led a sheltered life over here in England, without any of these shotguns, attack dogs, chained sweat shop workers or martial arts assailants. Quite mundane.

That’s why the OP’s question interests me. Do you just continue sheepishly going along with the escalating demands of a back issue market, or do you reach a point at which you fix a ceiling to the price / quality ratio, rein it in, and call it a day? A good example for me would be Werewolf By Night 32. I could’ve run to around $500 for a 9.4 copy back in the day, but, it’s the kind of book which shows up cover defects easily, and I could never find a copy that was happy with. Still a lot for me to pay on my budget, even if chump change for others here. Once film speculation set in, the book was quickly out of range. I’d read it as a reprint and wasn’t that impressed by its mediocre story and art, though I like the character and his psychological aspects, and realised that it wasn’t a chase I wanted to pursue indefinitely, onwards and upwards, to struggle to afford and sacrifice for at any cost, and it was time to apply that same braking, price / quality limitation to many books; hyped for a character, but with little supportive story and /or art. Ultimately I’m a reader, first and foremost, and I’d already acquired my most important books in great condition at more affordable prices. Time to part company.

As a change from reading mainstream books I’ve gone off on occasion to read some very differently-styled European material, such as Heavy Metal back in the day, and their more contemporary Humanoids imprint equivalent. Then, there’s my manga collection as well. So, I found Ronin to be quite readable, even if jarringly dissimilar to what he’d done before. I didn’t put it up on a pedestal because it was Miller, but I thought it was okay.

I agree. I was very disappointed when I got hold of a run in reprint form during the early 80s. By then, even, barely more than a decade on from publication, the stories seemed incredibly dated and out of touch, especially with the way Britain was by that time, transformed into a hard, cold, cynical environment, devoid of hope for many. As well as boring, it all felt a bit naive and superficial. I did read them again, a few years ago, and my teenage perception of them ended up being quite unaltered, and apart from the Speedy and John Stewart highlights, something I can still give a miss to.

Sorry. I wasn’t aware that Ronin had got so pricey. A little out of touch.

I assumed the OP was thinking more about books up in the stratosphere like Hulk 181 or Action 1. The out-of-reach for many of us stuff.

That’s perhaps subjective. It’s possible that GA collectors appreciate and care about those old stories far more than we do, which then flattens out the quality / price discrepancy ratio far more than it would for us with those books.

I only really ever bought comics that meant a lot to me, that I connect to in terms of story and artwork. I’d already be aware of any such shortcomings, effectively ‘doing the research’ years in advance by having read a reprint. So, I could rationalise quitting the chase when prices started to incessantly escalate a few years ago, thinking really, I’ve got enough that’s personally meaningful, let’s call it a day at this point.

Classic example. Notoriously fugly.

Fantastic Four 67, 1st Him / Warlock, is quite a tough one.

And, with a press, that looks like it has the potential to present superbly. Great book.

Yup. Rather than comparing it to Action and Detective, another more equivalent comparison would be with More Fun Comics, a title which started out with strong GA characters, but which ran out of steam and was euthanised much more rapidly.

Sorry for that. It’s a bit of well-established boardie abbreviation. Shouldn’t have assumed.

A lot of titles did run out of steam and become quite mediocre during that period, with a bounce back in quality in the mid-80s. Certainly true for the Batman titles. Adventure did feel a bit like it had run its course back then, and was resurrected in the late 2000s primarily as a LOSH book.

There’s always some amazing material posted in this thread.