Ken Aldred

Giraud is one of my all-time favourite artists, but for me the Static cover isn’t one of his best. Still, appeal’s subjective.

Surprised it’s that popular. Learned something.

If a DC comic book movie sucks, it usually ends up being provided free on Prime. Recent examples being Wonder Woman 1984, Whedon’s Justice League, and the especially craptastic Harley Quinn movie.

Vampirella Archives Vol 2 (Vampirella b/w magazine 8 to 14) Fairly patchy. Some okay stories, a lot of filler, nothing really reaching the heights and consistency of EC horror comics. The Vampirella series itself starts off strong with some good stories by Archie Goodwin, the main writer for the classic early issues of Creepy and Eerie, with very nice artwork from Tom Sutton. Other art highlights from Wally Wood, Neal Adams, Frank Brunner, Jeff Jones, Mike Ploog… basically, the top artists in horror comics from this period. 2023 total = 284

Quite common to discover that last issues go for a premium - the low print run effect, for example.

I found the Milestone Comics from that period to be very good reads. Also contains early work from one of my favourite underrated artists, John Paul Leon.

X-Men : Magneto Testament mini-series 1 to 5 Excellent story about Max (Magneto) Eisenhardt’s experiences as a young teenager under the brutal Nazi regime. Nothing particularly new here, having read Speigelman’s Maus, and seen numerous documentaries and films, and so on, but attempts were made to make the story as historically accurate as possible. No overt super-powers on display here, just a helpless victim whose horrendous experiences strengthen his resolve once empowered to proactively oppose this happening again, after later finding himself positioned as a member of another, soon emergent minority group; mutants. 2023 total = 277

Good choice. Still have to work through my Complete Terry Moore digital collection that I got from Humble Bundle last year.

Read in this order, basically saving the best for last… Legion of Super-Heroes 1984 series 1 to 12 After a certain classic storyline, the material here is okay, fairly readable but nothing special Legion of Super-Heroes 272 to 283 Very patchy, with Conway and Thomas phoning in some very average stories at best. Some of it’s okay, such as the origins of Blok and Wildfire, and it’s always interesting to see a story with the Legion visiting Superboy in the past, but there’s a fair amount of tedious rubbish as well. Grimbor the Chainsman, who surrounds the Earth with energy chains and holds the planet to ransom… nope. Legion of Super-Heroes 284 to 296, Legion Annual 1 Now then, this is more like it. Absolutely classic Copper Age storyline, peak storytelling by Levitz and Giffen. Well paced, keeps you engaged throughout, and reads with the same big scale, overblown grandiosity that you see a few years later in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Annual is excellent. 2023 total = 272

The Moench / Jones run is classic Batman.

Yup, The story’s great. A lot of grey areas in the choices where you think one might be the most moral choice but it has disastrous consequences, but also the occasional one which doesn’t make sense for Geralt That said, thoroughly enthralling, and one of the best value games I’ve ever played.

Can’t imagine why anyone would want to remake Tec 27, with all that stunning Bob Kane artwork.

Good taste with all three comics. As a kid this was one of the first issues that alerted me to Frank Miller being a talented new artist whose work I should follow. One of my favourite issues of this series. Nice Kane / Janson art, in the end a very sad story. A very silly and enjoyable issue with the wacky Impossible Man, a Marvel bullpen appearance, and some nice Perez art. Here are some covers for you… All nice BA books. There’d be some titles that were regularly distributed to the U.K., and then, suddenly, one issue wouldn’t turn up on the newsstand. FF 176 was an example of this.

Alternatively, my slabbed copy of the first comic featuring the art of the brilliant Richard Corben. I also have a better, easy 9.4 raw as well.

Superficially looks like a wonderfully-presenting NM, front and back. Possibly a stain or something like that internally. Nonetheless, always been very happy with a copy this nice at a comparatively budget price.

After several months of free-roaming fun I’ve finally finished the PS5 upgrade version of Witcher 3 on Death March difficulty and New Game Plus. Absolutely brilliant, masterpiece of an RPG game. The story dialogue choices are very interesting, and trying to do the right thing doesn’t always lead to a happy conclusion.

Yup. Lots of bizarre ideas back in the Silver Age. Inventive, at least. That one’s quite a tame example.

After several months of free-roaming fun I’ve finally finished the PS5 upgrade version of Witcher 3 on Death March difficulty and New Game Plus. Absolutely brilliant, masterpiece of an RPG game. The story dialogue choices are very interesting, and trying to do the right thing doesn’t always lead to a happy conclusion.

That’s a great issue, and choice for the thread.

I was going to say me, but if you’re anywhere in the vicinity of newsprint there’s always significant passive inhalation.

Interesting topic, as speculation and inflation has significantly reduced the pool of likely candidates. Quite a few of the books I’d considered are now out of this budget, bargain bin price range.

I'd recommend the paper stock used in Russ Cochran's EC Library hardcovers. Pure class.

The difference is that I’ve been involved with this for a very long time, and I recall the frustration associated with missing issues and story chapters which I wanted to read when they didn’t appear on the newsstand, something endemic to the 70s in the U.K. when I started out. Then, you were either excluded or paid a ‘non-distributed’ premium to dealers or comic shops. There wasn’t really any other option. What I like about the digital age is that it makes that disempowerment a relic of the past, and gives you more unlimited freedom to choose without being in thrall to many who have interpreted a sincere love of the medium as being closer to an exploitable addiction. I like the distance from all that, the tranquillity. I look forward to my next Humble Bundle.