With thanks to Danie Ware

Crap AI created poster for the 2026 Brighton Fringe, perhaps the idea of someone who spent the art budget on a slap up lunch in some overpriced beach view restaurant rather than, say, commission one of the hundreds of talented artists in the Brighton area to create one instead. But hey, I’m sure that when they decided to go this route, they never thought a lot of creative people would call them out on it, point out the poster’s lack of diversity, or advocate an event boycott because look! They saved some money! Of course, the bean counters might just pat them on the head and decide to cut their job next year to save even more, since a robot did the work, but, hey, they saved money! What could possibly go wrong?

Comedy. Creative. Original. Human. No need for AI, then. Oh, wait, not unless you’re marketing Brighton Fringe, apparently. I’m sure the hundreds of Brighton area based artists are impressed. Not.

Cheers luv, the cavalry's here!

Funny enough that's not even the only kid-friendly take on Tower of the Elephant. The Spanish young adult book that Deep Cuts tipped me off on is amazing in every way.

Zula being directly cribbed from the Marvel comic is weird, but not surprising. Jezmine could have been Valeria, Snagg looks like he was based on Fafnir Hellhand...I think the only villain to have the original name is Zogar Sag.

I watched most of THE ADVENTURER and I would have liked it more if the characters had actually been saturday morning-i-fied Conan characters rather than just made for the show. IE Thulsa Doom or Toth-Amon instead of Wrath-Amon, etc.

The adventures of Uncle Ben's cousin the judge.

KEW deserves his place in the Conan pantheon for being the first to try and get unedited REH collections onto the general market. Didn't quite get there at the time, but a very fine effort.

Yup that's the Commtech figures, each figure comes with a chip with some voice lines (or sound effects for non-speaking characters). In Europe we got a bonus battledroid figure instead

Big Wheel and Devil Dinosaur are the stand-outs so far

No, in fact Gruenwald used him briefly in his Cap run well after the Scourge stuff. That was his second and final appearance

Slash'er? I barely know 'er!

damn, Kirby didn't get Agatha's design right at all, she's barely recognizable there!!!!1

Here are some books I’ve read while I was away

Some stories you're bound to get doubles of. DoS, Dark Phoenix...

Kinda funny that outfit showed up in one of the Scooby Doo crossovers.

Yep, a style of soap opera long-form superhero writing that pretty much died out in the oughts.

I miss it, even in stuff like triangle era Superman.

A black and white photo of Burgos.

Four covers by Burgos for Young Men (featuring the return of the Human Torch), Astonishing, Strange Tales, and Battle.

Today is the birthday of writer & artist Carl Burgos (April 18, 1916-March 1, 1984), creator of the original Human Torch.

The narrator is the villain of the piece whose desire to possess and control the woman he loves becomes hatred, so I'd say you're definitely on the money.

Proctor is not a nice person.

Avengers #374. Written by Bob Harrass, art by Steve Epting and Tom Palmer. Gorgeous colors by John Kalisz. Lettering by Bill Oakley.

The penultimate issue in the Gatherers saga and close to the end of an era for me, and for the Avengers.

Art by Steve Epting and Tom Palmer. Gorgeous colors by John Kalisz

"It was a warm summer's night in New Amsterdam"

Oh yeah I did Gal during my 30-minute art challenge thing. I should bring that back

a close up of a man 's face with white hair ALT: a close up of a man 's face with white hair

The dark side is the gateway to many books about comics, Vinson.

The 2003 edition isn't expensive to get! It's just a bother for me since all the sellers tend to be in the US which means astronomical shipping and then customs on top, so finding it locally was just perfect. You should get it!

We've come a long way from the days when they said this couldn't be reprinted outside of very limited editions. Which is good! It's a fantastic story!

"Sorry but my store doesn't have that sort of liquidity. Try heritage auctions"

It is one of extremely few first-hand accounts of the golden age of comics from one of the major creators of that era and thus very fascinating. Simon comes at it from the angle of the creator vs the businessmen, which is understandable. First came out in 1990, this edition is from 2003.

The Batman one is mostly about the transition between the fading camp craze of the late 60's and the Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams helmed 1970's era, a real interesting period for Batman comics. Tons of interviews with the people involved.

And yeah the Simon one is grand!

It also turned into a good book!

Supporting local business instead of ebay, too!