Ken Aldred

They are nice. Far superior to card-embossed or lenticular covers.

That’s true. But, incredibly, they still seemed to believe I’d buy expensive pamphlets from them. And, got even more abusive when I didn’t. In the end, distance was the wisest option to deal with a toxic situation.

I’ve had far worse attitude than that.

To a degree. Or, alternatively, by those of us with more control, intuition and common sense than money. And, to me, at this stage, that’s a more valuable set of attributes.

The only Vinnie I can think of is Colletta. But, surely not.

The original Clone Saga was okay, if a little short and underdeveloped when you go back and read it. Revolting is maybe a little strong, but the use of clones as a plot device has certainly become overused in the decades since then. At the time it was new and interesting.

I was thinking a box of cigars would’ve been appreciated.

I didn’t like the name at all. And the series itself was quite boring.

I suspect that by ‘File Copy’ the seller would mean, more accurately, “Filed away in a Garbage Bin”.

It’s basically the slow, boring start to a two-part story which gets better in issue 95, with its tragic ending.

That would be an interesting one. Especially to see how much animosity he had towards Bob Kane for taking all the credit. Would he be cool about it, or would you get explosive, vitriolic anger? Careful.

Don’t see that as an unpopular opinion. Quite a common understanding amongst older collectors. Mentioned, with a degree of contempt, several times during chats I’ve had at conventions.

I was reading a lot of European / Heavy Metal material at the time, so the tone, art and storytelling fitted in well with that. American mainstream, not really. Very different.

Nothing much that interesting happens. Cockrum’s artwork is crushed by extremely poor inking. It’s not great.

Thought it was a masterpiece back in the 80s, but I’m in a fairly sizeable group that by now has come to dislike the space squid ending.

For me, it’s overrated because it didn’t read as anything special, anything separating it out from the rest of the Englehart / Wein / Trimpe run from that period, story and art-wise. Part of a solid, consistent, but far from exceptional run. Thought it was okay, nothing more. That still leaves me in agreement with the level of hype imposed upon it. As well as being great slab material, I’ll point out that both the digital and archival remastered book versions look superb.

Great Joe Kubert artwork, though. The stories were fairly typical DC Silver Age standard. From a modern perspective, a lot of the material appears simplistic and formulaic. Same criticism could be applied to other series, such as Justice League, or the science-fiction and mystery titles.

A little better than Lupus ‘Wild Dog’ de Wolff, I supposed at the time of the Origin mini-series. Could’ve been worse.

Yup. Completely forgot about how interesting that would be, as an EC fan. So many stories about so many brilliant creators, together in the same place.

Jack Kirby Always regretted never having had the opportunity to meet him.

The class and sophistication you’ve come to expect from the magazine.

Interesting left field and quite metal choice for an alternative, anthropomorphic funny animal cover.

Nice covers. Particularly like the top one.

Good comic, but not all-ages fun. Unless we were trying to find something for Wednesday Addams, maybe.

Adam Hughes covers can be quite pricey now, but this is within your range, quite nice, and age-appropriate.