Ken Aldred

It's undoubtedly a book to have. I just focused on my personal top 3 keys from Adams' work on Detective Comics and Batman. Those first, 234 at a later date, maybe?

I only collect books with Adams interior art, so I don't really think of Batman 227 as much of a key, although I agree that it has a brilliant cover. It simply isn't something I'm that bothered about owning. I'll be perfectly happy if I eventually manage to acquire the following books in high grade presentation... Detective Comics 395, 400, 402 Batman 232, 244, 251

My favourite single issue has always been Batman 251, where the Joker is portrayed as a much darker, sociopathic character, and which has fantastic interior art by Adams, doing both pencilling and inking.

yep that's the same whiny girly voice that i heard on the other end asking about a return on a over graded book, and the same voice i heard when he said he never rec'd the book when i was a teen. I can picture him using the pity play strategy very successfully, time and time again.

I think he was. I was selling comics locally the last decade, and his name was nothing more than a modern day Boogie-Man equivalent, and then *poof* he suddenly re-appeared about 3 years ago. I'm guessing a new generation is ready to be duped... Lots of my younger friends and customers don't know who he is and do shop at his booth at his cons... Buyer beware folks. Which is exactly why discussions of this nature are so very important, in order to prevent widespread abuse vanishing under the radar, out of sight and mind and, as you've said here, to break the cycle.

Very cool, Bob! (thumbs u An opinion that can be trusted.

(thumbs u That kind of fear and cautious reserve sounds like a very sensible strategy in this case. I wish I'd had some of it back then.

I hope he treats his patients better than he does his comicbook customers. Yes, that's very chilling to think about.

Being treated with such remorseless disregard is very infuriating and, like you, I've had several such 'one-trial learning' experiences down the years. Bob Storms is a fantastic example of the opposite paradigm, someone who treats the customer with consideration and respect, and who I'm confident and happy going back to, time and time again.

That was at the top of their 80s Marvel ads. (thumbs u

Only honest explanation would be that he has a PhD qualification, maybe? The best explanation I've heard is he overgraded his credentials. Oh, I totally agree. (thumbs u I said it was an honest interpretation, I didn't say it was any good.

Only honest explanation would be that he has a PhD qualification, maybe?

I don't know much about Gerry Ross. Does he have a similar talkative egocentric profile? I'm more familiar with his former partner at One Million Comics, Robert Crestohl. He seemed to fit this profile quite well. In the catalogue I got from him, prior to making the naive 'one-trial learning' error of ordering from it, there was a Chuck-style self-aggrandising story about how his comics money was being invested elsewhere in producing a crime film. A fiction about gangsters, if I remember correctly from back in late 1984, rather than autobiographical recollections from a career as a 'comic book dealer'.

Cole's stories often contained both light and dark moments. Aside from his astonishing artistic skill, it was his ability to effortlessly shift the mood of a story which made me realise I was reading something very special.

What can I say, Bob? Well done!

Mike, these pages are brilliant. Nice to see more from the 'Plas meets the Golden Age Splash Brannigan' story. Can't help thinking about it that way, now the idea's burned in.

Thanks, anyway. (thumbs u I just thought... Splash Brannigan / Eel O'Brian... obvious homage. Nice to see some work that might be the original reference material.

That reminds me a bit of Alan Moore's 'Splash Brannigan' from 'America's Best Comics'. I noticed there's EC-style lettering on some of the pages. When did that start in the run, Mike?

I heartily agree (thumbs u I can't and won't disagree. (thumbs u Thanks for posting the splash pages, Mike.

Thanks for the examples from Cole's horror and crime comics. (thumbs u I have seen this crime splash page - it was reprinted in Art Spiegelman's 'Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Limits' book.

It's always tragic when the work of an artistic genius gets obliterated like that.

I've never had the opportunity to see any of his horror work before, only Plastic Man, specifically the stories reprinted in the first five DC Archive editions.

I love Coles splash pages. Some of the most creative work ever Two of my favourite pieces of artwork from Plastic Man Archives Volume 2, the book which made me understand how brilliant a writer / artist he was. Splash page design on par with Eisner.

I've only just discovered the thread and was a bit disappointed about this too. There's a lot of really interesting stuff being discussed here.

That's a fantastic Cole page. (thumbs u It's a shame that DC never published a one volume Midnight collection after finishing the complete run of 'The Spirit' in Archive format.