Ken Aldred

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.

I'm really looking forward to this. Flesk Publications has issued a collection of Al Williamson's Flash Gordon work (A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic) that has excellent production quality, and it's my hope that their Xenozoic collection will be just as good.

Kudos to Howard Greber / EggsAckley More underground comics in great condition. Brilliant packing.

Kudos to Rich Henn. Very nice books, and quite brilliant packing that thankfully allowed my purchases to survive Parcel Force's 'mishandling' completely intact.

Great to see those old ads and fanzine pages again. I started going to the Piccadilly Plaza marts here in Manchester from winter 1979 onwards, so if the London events posted in the thread are the earliest ones held regularly in the UK then I missed the start of things only by a couple of years or so. Nick, I used to read BEM, but unfortunately I don't have any now for you to take a look at.

Kudos to EggsAckley. Superb packing, books in fantastic condition. Truly exceptional.

I lived in London from 1985 to 1990 and went to Showcase regularly. Picked up quite a few reasonably priced books there during that period. There were lots of 70's books like Kirby Fourth World in their boxes, generally very high grade apart from ink spray on the top. Warehouse-find stock, maybe? A lot of that sort of stuff at 75p. I picked up my Avengers 4 there in high grade for £25, Wrightson Swamp Thing 1 for £2, which looks about 9.6 I stopped going there circa autumn 1990, around the time of the speculator boom here in the UK. What spoiled the shop completely for me was the statement "we're putting our prices up, so either you pay them or go and collect something else". Else, not elsewhere. Rather cheeky. A rush of blood to the head because of the way the market was going, I suppose, but because I was leaving the city a few weeks later I left the shop without any regret or a sense that I would be missing something. When I visited London briefly in winter 2003 I had a quick look at what was to be Showcase's last shop on Tottenham Court Road. Quite dark and claustrophobic, only trade paperbacks and new comics on the ground floor, a cordoned off inaccessible original art section downstairs. Barely a shadow of what it was originally, like Nick said earlier. To end on a more positive note, around 1989 or so, maybe, I remember Tim Pilcher working there. Always very helpful, friendly and genuine, and we had some great chats.

2002 towards2112, FlyingDonut, gman, ArAich, greggy, fingfangfoom, Chromium, supapimp, Bronzebruce13, CaptainOfIndustry, valiantman, drummy, nearmint, Zonker, Architect, dena, SilverandBronze, chrisco37, bronty, fantastic_four, mr_highgrade, comic paradox, sborock, TheVisitor, joe_collector, awe4one, tkg2627, scottish, clobberintime, ComicDiva89, comiclink, comicwiz, comix4fun, delekkerste, Borg, drbanner, drice6900, darthdiesel 2003 Shield, r100comics, Scrooge, Earl, BrianR, WEBHEAD, goldust40, sckao, Theagenes, detective27kid, Flaming_Telepath, Aces, Silver, shiverbones, sakaridis, 500Club, BurntBoy, seank, newerthannew, Mephisto, Calamerica, the_beyonder, tth2, DCEng, Aman619, Methuselah, Hammer : ), jbud73 2004 xsmanx, JordanScott, r1970d, Stronguy, namisgr, Currin Comics, marvelcollector, toro, Buck Biggins, Norinn Radd, bounty_coder, iggy, nerfherder-3, comicdey, FFB, FUELMAN, cosmic-spider-man, jeffreykli, jimm94 2005 Sal, kingofrulers, Crows, Cryptkeeper59, theHumanTorch, John72tex, RockMyAmadeus, BigMike, JmC, Benz, Point Five, Inhuman Fiend, GACollectibles, comicdonna, HouseofComics.com 2006 joeypost, nepatkm, lookwhoitis, MCMiles, thirdgreenham, Monstro, TimMaY, DrWatson, Korvac Saga, Ciorac (2004*), Karma23, Superman2006, ernster, Dark Knight, piper, SolitaireOne, JohnT, Loki, Juggernaut 2007 BlowUpTheMoon, MacMan, Count, blue808, Mr. Diggler, trmoore54, cheetah, bosco685, MR. COMICBOOK, JazzMan, bronze_rules, Spidermanontilt, Designer Toast, TupennyConan, shark2557, snitzer, rtarturo, almoe, the shadow knows, cloudofwit, Dale Roberts, nwpassage, Big Daddy, Doctor Svord, Annihilus, szelim, drewincanada, telerites 2008 Comicopolis, Boozad, Nmtg9, Dollarbill, PEP, Black Lantern, Junkenstein99, Cimm, ShortstackComics, Universal Soldier, Lebowski, Beau, jeBailey, oakman29, Insaneclown, Ken Aldred 2009 slym2none, ashsaytr, marino1, gladuchka99

I take your point but, personally speaking.... When I come across one of their slabs online I coldly think to myself...whatever, I'm sure someone on the Boards will eventually offer another copy of the book- same grade, page quality and probably at a much lower price, and so my attention immediately goes elsewhere. That's just me.

I'm really sorry to hear this. It makes me feel gutted just thinking about it.

Petty is an understatement. I once ordered a few hundred magazine bags from him, to be collected from a Manchester, England comic mart, which at the time I attended regularly. When I arrived, he told me he'd decided to sell them all to someone else shortly before, and "unfortunately" had none left. Then he said, very forcefully, "It's OK that?! - Isn't it?! - Yeah?!" That is, attempted to browbeat me, on my first order with him, into accepting that this selfishness and total lack of concern was somehow acceptable behaviour. (Oh, the mart had only been open an hour, so I wasn't late-in-the-day or anything.) I thought quietly to myself, "How utterly pathetic and desperate. All over a few comic bags." I then said, "Well, you could fill my missing order by mail?", to which he replied, in a very angry tone, and pointing extremely aggressively at my face... "Yeah, and you'll pay the postage!!" (This was in front of a pal of mine who has a table at the mart, by the way. I always like to give some indication that I can be substantiated.) So, regardless of the nature or value of the order you place, a few cheap bags or a CGC Batman 1, the misbehaviour never seems to stop. Personally, this makes my skin crawl, literally, and I can't be far enough away from it. One of many here in Britain, apparently.

I've been away for a few days, and so I'm backtracking here...... Ah, Worzel Gummidge. That brings back memories-none of them good. I found this show impossible to watch. It froze me cold. John Pertwee's voice was hostile and disturbing, especially the way he would shout and squawk out "A cup of tea and a slice of cake, Aunt Sally!!" Or whatever it was, exactly. Kind of like a prototype version of Papa "Hello, Daaaaave!!" Lazarou from the League of Gentlemen. Except the way this was played, intentionally dark, actually made it hilarious. A classic case of personal taste and the fine line, I suppose.