Ken Aldred

As gamers we already know the classic, psychological twist ending of the first game. Infinite, of course, has a good one as well. All three are great.

Yup. Many happy memories of mixing the two up for some intellectual variety. I recall the day I read some Plato, and later on sat down to marvel at the sophistication of Youngblood issue 1.

No, I haven't. I'll admit it. My first thought is that it would come out all crinkly and maybe stiff as a board. I've seen one or two soaked, ship's ballast copies that made their way by surface to the UK.

Yup. The OCD threat level is that intense. No understatement.

Generally a very bad situation, leading to warping of the paper at the very least, possibly discolouration. As I stated in another thread, the pedigree Namor collection has books which are naturally resistant to the damage, shrug it off, and are highly sought after for this resilience. There are always exceptions.

I just thought of it as “From the creators of Earth X”. Sort of.

There were quite a lot of tie-in mini-series about the different sectors of Doom’s world, a large number of them very good reads. Impossible to incorporate all of it into that main story arc. Overall, Omnibus material.

As I said, I don’t really think that their choices are must-haves, but that limitation is in part caused by decompressed writing and the fact that most material consists of multi-part storylines, which aren’t suitable products for sampler material of this nature, involving multiple characters and several stories, left to select from an occasional bit of one-shot mediocrity and scraping around for anything truly standout there.

Material that I’d hardly describe as modern must-haves. Much better, high-quality modern comic stories available which could’ve been chosen instead as a promotional tool.

Yup. It’s clearly the must-have, can’t lose, bargain of the week.

Currently watching Oppenheimer. Fascinated by the subject matter. Made it to around 35 minutes before needing a break. (For concentration, not ‘the executive washroom’.)

Love to go. Don't have the attention span.

Nice lady. Met her and Marie Severin together at a convention. Sad news.

As you might suspect, that gif captures my level of excitement about the film perfectly.

Hopefully it'll be available to watch on basic price Prime, and preceded by a few even more captivating advertisements.

4K Blu-ray for me. Part 1 looks absolutely stunning that way. By the time I’ll get around to watching it, much the same price.

Good to know.

The Flash by Mark Waid Vols 1 and 2 Flash (1987 series) 62 to 79 Flash Annual 4, 5 and 6 Flash Special 1 Green Lantern 30, 31, 40 Even in the early stories by Waid there are lots of good and inventive ideas and involving dialogue, and some Flash highlights such as Born to Run (Year One for Wally West), the reimagining of Abra Kadabra as an anarchist rebelling against a sterile, AI-controlled future, and the classic ‘Return’ of Barry Allen Saga. Great to read material from one of my all-time favourite mainstream comic book writers, from right back at the start of his career. Flash Annual 4, the Armageddon 2001 tie-in was good, the others mediocre and unmemorable. 25 comics 2023 total = 134

I always felt that Weird Science was the stronger of the two titles, and the last half dozen issues are incredible, and have some of Bradbury's best Martian Chronicles stories, but I have just as much respect for the storytelling styles of Al Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman as well. I agree that you might see familiar tropes used by them, but the delivery was great. After all, some of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone stories, a few years later, were themselves very EC-like. The debut issue of Weird Science, (issue 12) was the first EC I ever read, and I was immediately impressed by the first story, "Lost in the Microcosm", by Feldstein and Gaines, which uses the familiar Shrinking Man trope. Well told, but elevated by my first exposure to Harvey Kurtzman's artwork, which I thought was fantastic, quite different and much less minimalist than his later war and humour comics. In the early issues, my favourite artist and a great writer as well, also being responsible for an occasional Roald Dahl adaptation. Feldstein wrote great alien invasion paranoia / Red Menace and other allegory stories, classic Atom Age 50's SF, and his stiff, tense, rigored art suited those really well. Some of the early stories and art were quite weak, the comics comparatively patchy, especially the Wood / Harrison collaborations, but, I've always liked recognising potential and watching creators soar progressively skywards, as happened here in every way over such a short period of time. As well as the fan favourite, iconic artists who've been mentioned elsewhere here, I also ended up being very fond of Jack Kamen's EC work, a superficially light style occasionally superimposed over some very dark stories. Fantagraphics has a new book compiling all of Ray Bradbury's EC stories, which is tempting me 'a little'. Quite a collection.

I tend to watch the introductory titles once and then skip on later episodes.

Despite being in a niche, they are absolute classics within that particular genre. Great comics.

I concur. Palpable hatred. Better not to repress and internalise.

Yup. Pretty much the same in terms of quality. After the first couple of issues or so each title featured a cover and lead story by one particular artist; Davis in Tales From The Crypt, Craig in Vault of Horror, and Ingels in Haunt of Fear.