*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: This week’s update is devoted to Lancer, a publishing company that knew what it liked, both in terms of swashbuckling storytelling and cover art. Writers such as Lin Carter, Gordon R Dickson, Robert E Howard, Richard A Lupoff, C C MacApp, David Mason, Robert Moore Williams, Robert Silverberg and Jack Williamson were published in books adorned by striking covers by artists such as Frank Frazetta (Conan Of Cimmeria – Howard et al, Kavin’s World – Mason, The Reign Of Wizardry – Williamson), Jack Gaughan (One Million Centuries – Lupoff), Jeff Jones (Zanthar series – Moore) and Jim Steranko (Prisoners In The Sky – MacApp and The Shores Of Tomorrow – Mason). Many feature the lovely, distinctive purple page edge colouration, and most are 1st US PB.
30CC
Window Update: Stand By For Action!
Our exclusive window designer, the glamorous but deadly Dr. Evilla, has come up with a tribute to the fondly-remembered TV shows of Gerry Anderson, firmly anchored in the collective consciousness of more than one generation! Thunderbirds, Lady Penelope, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, Stingray, Fireball XL5 and more can all be found in our catalogue and within our walls. And watch out for some significant additions to our Gerry Anderson related stock coming very soon!
Clearance Corner: Swift Volume 1 – Complete bound volume for just £35!
*Clearance Corner: Here’s a real bargain for the first lucky enthusiast to grab it! Swift Volume 1 complete — issues #1-41 from 1954, all bound into a hardback volume and offered for just £35! (Previously on sale for £200!) Binding only Fair, faded, loose at top and bottom of spine. Hand lettering on spine. #1 has loose pages owing to binding damage, some edge chipping on early issues, but stories untouched. Borders of issues trimmed, otherwise averaging GD condition. On offer for less than £1 per issue, and includes the very first issue of this fondly remembered companion title to Eagle. This fits into a small box weighing 2.3 kg and UK postage if required would be an extra £13.50. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
Clearance Corner: 4 complete minis of Captain America & The Falcon: 17 comics for £6
*Clearance Corner: Our latest bargain features 4 complete mini-series, 3 Captain America and 1 Falcon. The Caps are: Dead Men Running (#1-3 2002), What Price Glory (#1-4 2003 art by Steve Rude), The Chosen (#1-6 2007); the Falcon mini is #1-4 1983. All 17 comics are available for just £6. All in VF/NM condition. These fit into a plump twister mailer and UK postage if required will be an extra £3.50.
Housekeeping Update
On a regular cycle, we sweep through our entire stock to delete sold items and keep our listing as up to date as possible. We’ve just finished deleting sold items from the following files in our American section:
*Romance
*Teen Humour/Funny Girls
and in our British section:
*Collected Editions
*Younger Readers’ Comics
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
What’s Old (with a twist!): Flash #108 now with free incomplete copy of #115
There’s a twist to our What’s Old feature this week. As well as spotlighting a nice GD/VG copy of Flash #108 at £100 that predates UK distribution, we’re now offering with it a free copy of #115, in decent shape but incomplete with a story page missing. Both issues feature two stories, one in each with the villainy of Gorilla Grodd. (In #115, the Gorilla Grodd story is missing its final page, but the second story is a lovely, complete Elongated Man and Flash piece, so a great gap-filler until you can get a complete copy and hey, the price is right!). SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: A Double Dose of Bat-Villainy! Silver Age Joker and Penguin Appearances!
*DC: A quartet of criminality, with Silver Age issues of Batman featuring the Joker and the Penguin. Issue #159 FA/GD £15 presents the “Joker-Clayface Feud”, in which the Crown Prince of Crime and the Chameleon Crook vie for Batman and Robin’s attention. #163 features a trail of the Batman with a Joker Judge and Joker Jury VG/FN £39! #169 features the second Silver Age appearance of the Penguin (whose public profile had been boosted considerably by the then-popular Batman TV series). This is an unusually high-grade copy FN/VF at £70 (pictured). And to wrap it up, #190 FN+ £30, matched the Penguin with Batman and Robin again, featuring a truly eye-catching cover scene. SORRY, BOTH PENGUIN ISSUES HAVE NOW SOLD
American Update: 2 early issues of Amazing Spider-Man inc #9: 1st Electro
*Marvel: Two early epic appearances by Spider-Man’s favourite foes: issues #9 of Amazing Spider-Man brought us the deadly Electro, one of Spidey’s most enduring villains, and #11 saw the second appearance of the sinister Doctor Octopus, who probably ties with the Green Goblin as Spidey’s ultimate nemesis. Both separately and together – as part of various incarnations of the Sinister Six – these gentleman have been thorns in Spider-Man’s side for decades, and these early Stan Lee/Steve Ditko collaborations are what brought them to life. Our copy of #9, pictured, is FA/GD at £100; #11 is PR/FA, complete but with extreme spine wear and decent complete interiors, at £49. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD
American Update: Captain America’s Pals N’ Gals! – First Appearances of Madame Hydra and the Falcon!
*Marvel: A pair of premiere appearances from Cap’s Silver Age: firstly, the lovely but lethal Madame Hydra (also known as the Viper, depending on who’s writing her in a given week) in Cap #111, one of the handful of issues drawn by the legendary Jim Steranko. The combination of the debut of a significant villainess and the superlative Steranko art makes this copy, FN/VF p at £30, a relative bargain. Soon afterwards, in #117, Cap encountered Sam Wilson, the Falcon, for the first time, beginning a partnership that would span the decades and continue into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This copy of Falc’s (and Redwing’s!) debut is a cents copy, VG/FN at £60. Generally in excellent shape, the only drawback is a cover crease (probably a subscription crease), extending from roughly the position of the Falcon’s extended left hand down to the base of the cover, slightly off the vertical. That aside, this is a highly presentable copy. SORRY, CAP #111 HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: Avengers Key Issues – Debuts Hellcat, Scott Lang, Taskmaster & more!
*Marvel: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes continue to enjoy rapid turnover here at 30th C., so we are pleased to refresh our Avengers stock with new copies of key issues from the latter 100’s of the series. We commence with issue #144, in which the former teen-humour superstar, Patsy Walker, gets firmly integrated into the Marvel Universe when she dons the costume of the Hellcat for the first time. Moving on to #181, a seemingly innocuous cameo by one of Hank Pym’s associates turns out to be the first appearance of Scott Lang, who would become the second Ant-Man. In #195, we briefly glimpse the polymath kill-pilferer Taskmaster, one of Marvel’s cleverer latter-day villains, and in #196 (pictured VF/NM £55), we are treated to his first full-on appearance. Pausing briefly at the controversial #200, wherein Ms. Marvel made a startling decision which removed her from the MU for a time, we progress on to two important Annuals – #7, with Jim Starlin at his most cosmic, throwing in Captain Marvel, Warlock, Thanos and all the gang for Universe-threatening shenanigans and #10, with not only the return of Ms. Marvel – addressing, thankfully, most of the more egregious and glossed-over aspects of Avengers #200 – and the first appearance of the eventual X-Man known as Rogue! Full details of grades and prices in the catalogue listing, folks – you know what to do next…
American Update: Slab Happy! Hulk Vs. Wolverine in Hulk #340 CGC 8.0
*Marvel: A one-off entry in our Slab Happy feature starring third party graded and encapsulated books. Hulk #340, in which, under the auspices of scripter Peter David, and illustrator Todd McFarlane, the then-grey, ‘Mr. Fixit’ iteration of the Hulk met the most popular X-Man, Wolverine – and not for dinner and a movie! This cataclysmic combat issue has proved hugely popular over the last decade, and this copy is certified by the American CGC company, ‘slabbed’ (Blue Label, no restoration) at 8.0 VF for £40. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: Marvel Silver/Bronze sweep!
*Marvel: Another sweep through the Silver & Bronze Age Marvel universe! In the majority of cases, the newer additions are in substantially differing grades to existing stock, giving our beloved punters even more choice – the high-grade investment, or the more affordable reader? Now the choice is yours! Titles given a light brush-up include Amazing Adventures, Astonishing Tales, Battlestar Galactica, Captain America, and Captain Marvel, while rather more substantial restocks have been done on Avengers (from the early to late 100’s), Conan (#40’s to #70’s), and a swath (is that a buckling swath?) of Daredevil from issue #22 to #121!
American Update: Pre-code Horror Fest Plus with EC
*EC: Universally acknowledged as the apex of comics production in the 1950s, EC pushed the boundaries, not just in terms of what could be depicted – and there were publishers more gory, but less classy – but also in story content. This was never more evident than in their Crime SuspenStories title, where adultery, betrayal, and other unconventional relationships were portrayed in a mature and intelligent way, whereas they had seldom even been alluded to before. The perpetrators inevitably got their just desserts, but the path along the way was fraught and compelling. Haunt of Fear, like its more famous sibling Tales From The Crypt, presented grisly tales of dismemberment and bloodshed with a cynical glee that set it head and shoulders above the competition – and of course, both series had the finest illustrators in the industry at the time! We have new stocks of Crime SuspenStories from #13 to #16, and Haunt of Fear #19 to #24, plus one early issue of Weird Fantasy – the science-fiction series EC’s editors themselves were most proud of. Pictured are Crime SuspenStories #13 FN £130, and #14 (actually the second issue) of Weird Fantasy App. GD/VG at £70. The Weird Fantasy has a slight right edge trim and three small pieces of tape on the inside front cover, hence the low price for such an early issue. For grades and prices on the other issues, see the Catalogue Listing.
American Update: Quirky Corner: “…And Just What Must I Do To Get Those?”
*Romance: While the horror and crime series generally got the brunt of the blame for the comic-burning and mass cries for censorship of the 1950’s, romance certainly came in for its share of criticism, and one of the examples cited by popular psychologists at the time was Charlton’s True Life Secrets #23. The cover depicted a shapely young lady with far too much eyeshadow contemplating some proffered bling, and asking the question; “…And just what must I do to get those?”. Contextually, it looks like the gentleman wasn’t expecting her to do his windows, his taxes, or his motor maintenance. The contents, though competent, are relatively innocuous (sorry to disappoint), but the cover caused outrage, and remains infamous today. This copy is a lovely high grade – FN/VF – and is on sale at £80.
British Update: Spider-Man – and His Amazing Friends! Many new UK Spider-Man issues restocked!
*Marvel UK: The longest-running Marvel UK series launched as Spider-Man Comics Weekly, but went through a number of title metamorphoses during its long life. Here, we have more than a years’ worth of issues, a virtually unbroken run from 529 to 606 (April ’83 to October ’84) at the start of which it was simply Spider-Man, then rebranded as Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends to tie in with the TV cartoon, then flipped back to plain Spider-Man by the end of this selection. Interestingly, a large proportion of these have original covers, including many quite striking painted ones. We also have the 1983 Winter Special for the series, and the 1984 Summer Special, as well as the one-off Superman Vs. Spider-Man, a full-colour magazine sized reprint of the second Supes/Spidey clash, also published by Marvel UK on this side of the pond. The weeklies and Winter and Summer Specials are overwhelmingly high grade, almost all Fine or VF; the Supes/Spidey one-shot is PR/FA, but all there!
British Update: First Quenchers: Pow! #1
*Power Comics: ‘The Brand New Comic for the New Breed of Comic Fans’ proclaimed Pow! #1 across its masthead. In 1967, Odhams Press hit upon its highly successful formula of Marvel reprints combined with original British humour and adventure strips. Nowhere was this more notable than in Pow!, which featured Spider-Man reprints virtually from the beginning, backed up by Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, as well as well-remembered original strips ‘Georgie’s Germs’, ‘The Dolls of St. Dominic’s’, and ‘The Cloak’. We have a copy of #1, GD/VG at £50, structurally sound with some slight sunshadow at the spine and very slightly rusty staples. The Free Gift of Spider-Matic pistol has, sadly, long since scarpered. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
British Update: Annual Top-Up – Humour, Boys’, Girls’ and TV & Film Related
*Annuals: A sweep through our Annuals section refreshes our stock in Humour (Whizzer & Chips), Boys’ Adventure & War (Lion from the 1970s and a 1968 oddity, the Valiant Book of TV’s Sexton Blake), TV & Film Related (Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Transformers) and Girls’ (Girl Talk 1977 and the completely-different Teen Talk 1979, both replete with Fashion, Beauty, Pop, and Romance!) Oh, and a pair of siblings, the 1975 Bumper Story Book For Boys and Bumper Story Book For Girls, with comics and story content.
British Update: First Quenchers – Scorcher #1 (inc. Free Gift Farrago!)
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Football has always been a popular theme of British comic strips, but Scorcher was one of the earliest weekly comics to make it an all-consuming theme, and, given its respectable five-year run, did a decent job of it, even if there was quite a bit of imagination needed to introduce enough variations on the theme; “Lags Eleven” (footballing convicts), “Lord Rumsey’s Rivers” (footballing aristocrats), the superbly bonkers “Kangaroo Kid” (footballing feral child raised by marsupials) and “Billy’s Boots”, in which a klutzy young lad finds a magically-endowed pair of boots belonging to a legendary player, and gains his skills from them – so, cheating, basically. “Billy’s Boots” was the strip that would not die, running for many years after Scorcher’s demise in “Tiger”, and this is the first appearance of the popular series. This copy of Scorcher #1 is only GD – perfectly sound and respectable, but with noticeable corner wear – but the Free Gift Soccer Wall Chart is VF, virtually untouched by the ravages of time. The comic and gift are available for £40. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
British Update: Adventures in Time and Space! New Doctor Who Weekly issues!
*TV & Film Related Comics: The BBC’s famous Doctor has been flying from our shelves lately, leaving our stock of his UK comic/magazine severely depleted, so we’re pleased to welcome back a small selection of issues in mid to low grades, commencing with #1 in FA, several in the first ten numbers, and a few from the #40’s.
British Update: Long Hot Summer – Cor!! Summer/Holiday Specials, 1971-1982
*Humour Comics: Our Summer/Holiday Specials British comics event continues with a virtually complete run of Cor!! Summer/Holiday Specials, lacking only the final issue from 1983, but covering more than a decade of fun & thrills! Starring Gus the Gorilla, Ivor Lott & Tony Broke, Hire-A-Horror, Spoilsport, Andy’s Ants, Jasper the Grasper, Chalky, and a cast of, well it must be dozens, Cor!! is, while not the longest-running IPC/Fleetway comedy weekly, is among the most affectionately remembered, and this panoply of seaside shenanigans will evoke many happy memories. Pictured are 1971 (the first Cor!! Summer Special) FN £20, 1972 FN £15, and 1975 FN £15; for details on the others check out the Humour Comics section of our online catalogue.
British Update: Fine & Dandy 1962-1983
*Humour Comics: A decent update to one of the two bastions of British Humour Comics, the Dandy. We start in 1962, move to 1964 for the New Year & Christmas issues, 1965 (New Year), 1968 (Christmas), stop off briefly in 1973 and then move to a batch from 1983 in superior shape.
British Update: A plethora of Younger Readers’ material from the 1960s/70s inc. first and holiday issues
*Younger Readers’ Comics: Many issues new in for this category from the 1960s/70s: Jack & Jill (inc. two Christmas issues), Pippin (inc #1 and a Christmas issue), Playland (Christmas issue 1970), Robin (Christmas issue 1968), Teddy Bear, Toby (#1), Toytown (#2) and Yogi Bear’s Weekly (1964 New Year issue).
British Update: Jinty 1974 (1st year) & 1975
*Girls’ Comics: Following in the wake of its elder sister Tammy, Jinty launched in 1974 as a more street-wise comic of weekly adventure and fun for girls. At first a standard mix, fronting heavily on the comedy with the long-running ‘Dora Dogsbody’, and cover-featured ‘Jinx from St. Jonah’s’, it soon developed a popular sideline in fantasy and sf chillers, with ‘The Green people’, ‘Golden Dolly, Death Dust’, the haunting WW II refugee tale, ‘Song of the Fir Tree’ and ‘Slaves of the Candle’ all present in these first two years. We have a substantial selection from 1974 and 1975, commencing with the ninth issue (July 1974) to December 1975 – not an unbroken run, by any means, but a nice solid range of one of the most popular girls’ weeklies, and in all cases previously missing from our listings!
British Update: Near complete run of Pixie with Free Gift Farrago
*Girls’ Comics: Pixie was a short-lived title from IPC which commenced in June 1972 and merged with June after 30 issues in early 1973. Printed on better quality paper than most of its contemporaries, and with more colour pages, the star strips mostly featured famous characters etc from literature, such as Black Beauty, The Naughtiest Girl In the School, Marion of Sherwood and Secret Garden. We have almost all the run new in, from #1 to the 1972 Christmas issue, including #3 with Free Gift (a sheet of stick-on doll’s clothes). These latter three issues are shown below.
British Update: Schoolgirls Picture Library
*Girls’ Picture Libraries: Over two dozen new issues in of the incredibly popular Schoolgirls Picture Library. These are mostly low grade copies, and mostly issues not already featured in our listings. They start as early as #2 (pictured) with five of the first twenty and run up to #317. Even in the few cases where we have an issue listed already, this batch offers a cheaper alternative. Probably THE classic title in this category.
Books Update: Sax appeal — the sultry Sumuru
*Crime, Spies and Sleaze: Sax Rohmer is undoubtedly best remembered as the creator of the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, but he also created an equally villainous female equivalent in the shape of Sumuru. Quoting from the back cover of ‘The Slaves of Sumuru’ (one of the three books in this update): ‘Sumuru is a woman of eternal beauty and surpassing evil, a woman who uses all her voluptuous charms to enslave men and change them into cringing, obidient shadows willing to kill and betray at one whispered word from her…’ I think that says it all! Other titles in this update: ‘The Sins Of Sumuru’ and ‘Sinister Madonna’, three of the five books featuring this arch-villainess, all UK editions from the early 1960s.
What’s Old: Countdown #1 (Free Gift Farrago!)
This week, our What’s Old feature, where we spotlight items from existing stock, focuses on a British classic. When the first series of TV Century 21 faltered, competitors Polystyle were quick to generate a successor in ‘Countdown’, featuring many of the most popular Gerry Anderson TV shows in comic strip form. Fireball XL5, Captain Scarlet, Thunderbirds, Stingray all graced its pages, plus a brand-new sci-fi strip ‘Countdown’, illustrated rather spiffily by John M. Burns, and the star power of a Doctor Who comic series imported from TV Comic! This classy, slick package presented in its first issue a ‘Giant Space Fact Wall Chart’ (stickers to be stuck in in successive weeks), tapping into the public obsession with astronautics following the successful moon landing. Our Countdown #1 is FN+, with free gift (FN, four stickers/stamps stuck in) on sale at £110.
Clearance Corner: Large format Comets and Suns – 24 1940s comics for just £10
*Clearance Corner: We’re clearing out our stock of the early large format Comets and Suns, 24 comics in all for a splendiferous price of just £10 (previously on sale at around £150!) . There are 21 Comets from 1948-1951 (one with Supplement/Free Gift) and just 3 Suns (inc two of the same, but also the very first issue from 1947). Full of picture strips and text stories from a charming bygone age; condition ranges from GD to FN, with nothing horrible! These form a small parcel if UK postage required at an additional £3.50. SORRY, THIS LOT HAS NOW SOLD
Clearance Corner: Hulk Bumper Pack – 15 one-shots & complete minis for £7.50
*Clearance Corner: Our latest bargain features Marvel’s ever popular green-skinned behemoth, the Incredble Hulk, in a series of one-shot specials plus two complete mini-series. What you get are:
Hercules Unleashed
Hulk vs Hercules
Giant-size Incredible Hulk
Let The Battle Begin
Monster-size Hulk
Raging Thunder
Winter Guard
Nightmerica 6/6
Hulked-Out Heroes 2/2
That’s 15 VF/NM comics for just £7.50! These fill a small box and UK postage if required would be an additional £3.50 SORRY, THIS LOT HAS NOW SOLD
Housekeeping Update
On a regular cycle, we sweep through our entire stock to delete sold items and keep our listing as up to date as possible. We’ve just finished deleting sold items from the following files in our American section:
*EC
*Horror 1940-1959
*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
Books Update: Spotted At Last – More Philip K Dick!
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: After a lengthier hiatus than we would wish, the Books section presents five Hard Cover works by Philip K Dick. A man of wide-ranging talent, he wrote mainstream novels as well as Science Fiction, and we’ve stretched our boundaries a little to accommodate two non-SF books. So what do we have? The non-SF titles are The Broken Bubble and The Dark Haired Girl, both 1st editions from 1989 and 1988 respectively. The SF titles consist of Valis, World Of Chance and a collection entitled Robots, Androids, And Mechanical Oddities – The Science Fiction Of Philip K Dick (ed. Warrick & Greenberg). In addition to being a 1st UK HC, Valis is distinguished by being a Trade edition, from a run limited to only 1500 copies. This copy seems to have spent some time at W1A, having BBC stamps on the front and back pages. World Of Chance is the only one of the five to lack a DJ, but it is the oldest, being a 2nd UK HC from 1957. Robots, Androids, And Mechanical Oddities collects 15 of Dick’s short stories, each with an introductory note by the editors.
American Update: A Double ‘Double Double Comics’ Update!
*DC: In the Sixties, it was a common, if somewhat unethical, practise of the UK distributors of American comics to return the covers of unsold copies for credit, then rebind said coverless unsolds, four to an issue, in extra-thick collections behind a bodged-together cover as ‘Double Double’ Comics. These are literally random – any given issue of, say, Superman Double Double Comics may have copies of Superman, but is just as likely to have any other DC title of the period, from Super-hero to comedy to romance to war, or even the occasional Marvel and ACG comic that slipped into the pile! Most of them – not all – had at least a token issue of the series claimed on the cover, but after that, all the rules went out of the window, and even copies of the same issue, according to the cover, may have entirely different contents! (Hey, speculators – EVERY copy is a variant issue!) We have two of these daft beauties new in, Lois Lane and Superman, in GD £15 and VG £20 respectively, listed under ‘Double Double Comics’ in our DC catalogue, where you’ll also find content details. Remember – you’ve got to buy them all!
American Update: “By the Power of Greyskull!” DC’s Masters Of The Universe complete 1982 mini-series
*DC: A huge phenomenon in the Eighties was the Masters of the Universe, in which Prince Adam, scion of the world of Eternia, transmogrified into the unfeasibly muscular He-Man to defend his people against the sinister schemes of Skeletor. Masters of the Universe made their comic book debut guest-starring with Superman in DC Comics Presents #47, and rapidly thereafter moved into their own mini-series, which we have in its entirety. Issues #1 & #2 are VF, issue #3 NM, all pence priced copies, and we are offering the complete set for £35. He-Man, Skeletor and their Pals n’ Gals have since had myriad comics series until the present day, have starred in two feature films, and are currently touting for Money Supermarket in TV ad spots. (Hey, even a would-be despot’s got to top up the pension fund somehow…)
American Update: Key issues of the new X-Men
*Marvel: A stunning selection of the ‘New’ X-Men, the phenomenal re-creation of the vintage Marvel team by Wein, Claremont, Cockrum and Byrne which took fandom by storm (see what we did there…) in the 1970s! When the new international line-up was introduced, skeptics said it wouldn’t last, but the creators proved them wrong by the sheer force of quality, as issue after issue, the new team of Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and company kept the readers enthralled and thrilled. The period from Giant-Size X-Men #1 (introduction of the new team) to #143 is generally regarded as the New X-Men’s apogee, and we’re delighted to have a representation of key issues from that run. We begin with #95, the second New X-Men in the series’ own title, and featuring the death of a team member; we have a swathe of non-or low-distributed issues from #100 onwards, including #107 (first Imperial Guard and first Starjammers), #120 & #121 (the first appearances of Alpha Flight – cameo in #120, full appearance in #121), #130 (dynamic debut of the Dazzler!), #137 (Death of the Phoenix), #142 (conclusion of the groundbreaking “Days of Future Past” storyline), and plenty more – plus, as a bonus, a later key, #221, with the premier appearance of latter-day nemesis Mister Sinister! Pictured are #95 FN+ £50, #121 NM- £75 and #137 VF/NM £55. For details on everything else, well, you should know where to look by now…
American Update: Ant-Man/Giant-Man and the Wasp – Tales to Astonish’s Finest!
*Marvel: While fellow Tales to Astonish alumni Hulk and the Sub-Mariner both have their aficionados, here at 30th Century we have to admit to a soft spot for the adventures of Hank & Jan – Ant-Man/Giant-Man and the Wonderful Wasp! Their burgeoning relationship was one of the more credible in the early Marvel Universe (seriously, did you ever believe Reed Richards ever had a passion for anything but science?) and their squabbles and struggles towards romance were easily as much fun as their battles against the super-villain of the month. We’re delighted to have a selection of significant TTA issues, commencing with #38 – a pre-Wasp Ant-Man story with the debut of his nemesis, Egghead. Egghead returns in #45, with the Wasp now at Ant-Man’s side, and in #49, Hank becomes Giant-Man for the very first time, as he and Jan battle the sinister Eraser! Issues #50 and #51, are the two-part premier appearance of the Human Top (later Hurricane), and in issue #60, the Hulk’s own series debuts in TTA – eventually to push our size-shifting couple out of the comic altogether, boo hiss. Pictured are #38 VG+ p £72, #49 FN- p £80 and #51 VF- p £68. For details on the others, check out our catalogue listings.
American Update: Silver/Bronze Marvel Sweep
*Marvel: Another run through the Silver and Bronze Age Marvel Universe, this time featuring updates to: Conan (inc the first annual/king-size), Daredevil, Fantastic Four (inc #51 classic Thing cover and #66 origin of Warlock begins), Hulk, a pre-Thor Journey Into Mystery (#82), Marvel Premiere (Legion of Monsters), Marvel Team-Up, Micronauts, Moon Knight, Amazing Spider-Man Annuals #3 & #4, Sub-Mariner, Tales To Astonish, 2001 and X-Men (inc #14, 1st Sentinels).
American Update: Creepy and Eerie – Early issues of Warren Horror Classics!
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: In the 1960s, enterprising publisher Jim Warren, inspired by the success of classic monster movies on TV, decided to satiate the American public’s growing taste for terror by launching a line of horror comics. But there was that pesky censorship body, the Comics Code Authority. What to do? Why, launch them as magazines, aimed at an adult audience and not subject to the Comics Code! Beginning with Creepy, followed shortly by Eerie, Warren assembled some of the finest talents in the field, many of them alumni of the classic EC Comics line: Johnny Craig, Reed Crandall, John Severin, Wally Wood – and some ‘new guys’ named Steve Ditko, Neal Adams and Gene Colan! For the first few years – apart from an inexplicable weakness for Tony Tallarico – Warren’s publications offered the finest artwork comics had to offer, and paved the way for the eventual liberalization of the Comics Code and the success of titles such as House of Mystery. We are chuffed to present early issues of both series: Creepy from #1 VF- £50, including many from the first 25 issues and Eerie from its first distributed issue, #2 FN+ £30 (issue #1 was a never-circulated ‘ashcan’ to secure copyright). our Eerie stock includes many of the first dozen issues. For full details of the prices and grades, go to the catalogue listing.
British Update: Collected Editions – Leopard From Lime Street, Garth, Trigan Empire, June & School Friend
*Collected Editions: Four more entries for this popular category gathering up strips of years agone; we open with the 1975 Daily Mirror Book of Garth, which reproduced the epic science-fiction strip featuring superlative artwork from Frank Bellamy, one of the acknowledged masters of the medium. Although not the first Garth collection, we believe this to be the first full-size reprint of Bellamy Garth stories, in VG/FN softcover album form at £25. Next up, the Best of June & School Friend, a 2007 nostalgic compilation from Prion remembering the late and much-beloved weekly, with features, fashions and of course comic strips – ‘Lucky’s Living Doll’ and ‘Vanessa from Venus’ prominent among them! NM at £6. Our next spot (ahem) is taken by Rebellion’s release, The Leopard From Lime Street: young man bitten by a radioactive critter, gains powers, fights crime, has an ailing aunt and works part-time as a newspaper photographer… Hmm, does this sound oddly familiar? Well, despite any (coincidental, we’re sure) similarities, Tom Tully’s scripts caught the imagination of Buster’s readers, and with the artistic talents of Mike Western and Eric Bradbury, the series ran for almost a decade. This first in what we hope will be a series of albums is brand new at £15. Finally, the 1978 Hamlyn edition of The Trigan Empire, an attractive hardcover which was the first collection of the epic science-fiction strip by Mike Butterworth and Don Lawrence from Look & Learn weekly. This copy is VG+ at £35.
British Update: Long Hot Summer: Tiger Olympic, Valiant Space and 1st Valiant Summer Specials
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A trio of unusual items this update: from 1976, the Tiger Olympic Special, curiously devoid of any comics content – no, not even Roy of the Rovers – but replete with features, photos and articles on the Winter and Summer Olympics in Montreal that year; FN at £15. Then we have the 1967 Valiant Space Special, in format more reminiscent of a softcover annual, but featuring original, non-reprint adventures of Valiant favourites with a space theme – Captain Hurricane, Kelly’s Eye, the Steel Claw, and yes, even Billy Bunter and the Nutts get into the act! This rarity is VG/FN at £45. Finally, from 1966, the first-ever Valiant Summer Special, again in an unusual squarebound album format, with new adventures of all the weekly favourites; GD/VG £30. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD
British Update: First Quenchers: Nutty, Sparky and Whizzer & Chips (with Free Gift Farrago!)
*Humour Comics: Three fabulous first issues – and one scintillating second ish – grace our shelves this week. First, we have Nutty #1 from 1980, the first appearance of TV and merchandising star Bananaman, who featured in every issue until the title’s close in 1985, after which he continued in Dandy and then leapt over to Beano, where he resides today. This copy is an attractive FN at £20. Then the premiere of the somewhat infamous Sparky from the unenlightened year of 1965, where racist caricature ‘hosts’ were still apparently A Thing. Nevertheless, Sparky had a very respectable run, racking up more than 650 weekly issues until 1977, and this is where it all got started; VG/FN £65. Lastly, we the debut of have Whizzer & Chips, which is extremely well-remembered, running more than a thousand issues from 1969 to 1990. We have two first issues of Whizzer & Chips in stock, one GD with the partial Free Gift in FA/GD at £50 (the ‘Sid’s Stickers’ have come adrift from their backing sheet, and one has gone missing entirely), and another FA at £20. As a bonus, we also have a brace of second issues. The nicer copy is GD/VG £65 with a Free Gift – Sid the Charmer ‘Flick Book’ in VF. The second is a FA/GD £12.50.
British Update: Love is all around! 1950’s to 1970’s Romance Picture Libraries
*Girls’ Picture Libraries: Looking for love in all the wrong places? Well, stop it – we’ve got all the love you need! A plethora of romance comics digest-sized Picture Libraries from the 1950s through to the (early) 1970s, with not only new stock, but in many cases series entirely new to our experience! From D.C. Thomson, World Distributors and more obscure publishers, we’ve topped up titles such as Blue Rosette Romances, Golden Heart Romances, Picture Romance, Silver Moon Romances, Honeymoon Library, Illustrated Romance, Sweethearts Library and Wedding Ring Library to bring you a positive skipload of stardust ‘n moonbeams! Details in the catalogue, lovebugs!
What’s Old: Wonderful DC 80 Page Giants
The spotlight for our previously-listed stock this week falls on DC’s wonderful 80 Page Giant reprint compilations from the 1960s. So popular were their Superman, Batman etc annuals that they decided to bring them out on a more frequent basis, firstly in a series called 80 Page Giant which ran for 15 issues, then in issues numbered in the regular sequence of their parent titles. Always a popular choice for our customers, we have a good selection of these throughout our DC stock, including the examples shown below from the 15 issue run which started the sequence.
Clearance Corner: 3 complete Defenders series for £10
*Clearance Corner: Our latest rock bottom price bargain consists of our three complete Defenders mini-series from Marvel. The first (Defenders) is from 2005 and by Keith Giffen, J M Dematteis and Kevin Maguire and comprises 5 issues; the second (The Last Defenders 2008 ) is a 6 issue series by Joe Casey, Keith Giffen and Jim Muniz; finally there’s the 12 issue series (The Defenders) from 2012 by Matt Fraction, Terry Dodson and others. We’re offering all three series together (23 comics) for just £10. These fit into a twister mailer to make a package weighing 1.35 kg and UK postage (if required) would be an additional £3.50.
Housekeeping Update
On a regular cycle, we sweep through our entire stock to delete sold items and keep our listing as up to date as possible. We’ve just finished deleting sold items from the following file in our American section:
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.
British Update: The British Are Coming! The Wonderful Thing About Tigers is…We’ve Got ‘Em!
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: As promised, this is the first in a series of very special British updates coming up over the next few weeks. The larger format Tigers, as it was in its early years, are not common at all, as we’ve found in our near 25 years of trading, and so we’re particularly delighted to have acquired a complete run of them from 24th October 1959 (1st issue combined with Comet) right up to and including 22nd August 1964. Famous strips include Roy Of The Rovers (of course!), Olac The Gladiator, Jet Ace Logan and Johnny Cougar (in fact we have the first Johnny Cougar story in 31/3/62), as well as very many others. There are also in this selection a couple of the highly-prized issues complete with promotional flyers: 8/7/61 and 22/2/64. Unusually for comics of this large size, this batch is remarkably well-preserved, with the vast majority being nice VG copies; there are many FN, a handful of GD and just one FA. Photos of the copies referenced above are shown below; we’ve never had this many Tigers from this period in all at once before, so this represents a great opportunity to collect them while they’re here — we suspect many of them won’t be for long, judging from past performance! Another star British update coming soon — watch out for it! SORRY, ALL ISSUES FROM 1964 HAVE NOW SOLD
Coming Attractions: The British Are Coming!
We’re currently working on several boxes of British comics that collectively form the most unique selection we’ve ever offered in a short space of time. Fans of classic Boys’ Adventure story-telling, cult TV, fabulous art and the rarest of the rare in British comics will be gob-smacked in the coming weeks with the stuff we’ll be presenting as quickly as time allows. These will be coming your way in a series of Newsletter Extras over the summer, starting next week. Stay tuned!
American Update: Quirky Corner – Batman Book and Record Set – Original Neal Adams B & R Vs. Joker story, Never Reprinted!
*DC: In the mid-1970s, Power Records launched the Book and Record Set, in which a comic book was reprinted (sometimes with some heavy editing, to remove continuity and references to other issues), along with a 45 RPM record in which the comic’s story was voiced-over with staggering ineptitude! Occasionally, however, the budget was found for an all-new tale, and they pushed the boat out with PR-27, ‘Stacked Cards’, a Neal Adams-illustrated Batman/Robin/Joker adventure story that wasn’t reprinted from anywhere else (and, critically, has never been reprinted since!). We don’t know who wrote the story, but it might well have been Adams himself, since it is BONKERS, with the Boy Wonder frequently recommending prefrontal lobotomies all around – but never mind that, just look at the pretty pictures! Insanely rare, especially in the UK, this artistic oddity is VG/FN, with record, at £30. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: Brave & Bold #30 – 3rd-ever JLA, 1st Amazo!
*DC: In their third-ever appearance, the fledgling Justice League of America fought Professor Ivo and his android, Amazo, a ‘power siphon’ who absorbed all the JLA’s abilities and turned them against our heroes. This was the debut of a major Justice League villain – well, two, since the Professor menaced the team often enough by himself – and this classic story by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky has all the key elements in place which made the series such a delight: teamwork, intelligent use of powers, rapid changes of scenery, convincing menaces and exciting, action-packed artwork. (As a bonus, it also showcased the JLA’s inexplicable knowledge of geriatric trivia!) This is a chance to have one of the earliest JLA tales at an affordable price, since this copy, though complete, is in poor condition, with the cover virtually detached and separated, and extensive wear around the edges of the cover scene, especially across the logo. Nevertheless, the interior pages are clean and flexible, and the story remains a delightful folly all these years later. PR at £35. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: DC Silver/Bronze Sweep – from Action to Wonder Woman!
*DC: Another alphabetical top-up to our Silver & Bronze DC stock this update, with more than 60 new additions. Titles refreshed are Action Comics, Adventure Comics, All-Star Comics (the 1970s revival), Brave & Bold, DC Super-Stars (issues with all-new stories), Detective Comics, Flash, Green Lantern (from #3), Hellblazer, Jimmy Olsen (Kirby issues), Justice League of America, Kamandi, Karate Kid, Prez, Shazam, Stalker, Strange Adventures, Superboy, Superman (including two classic tales: ‘Superman Red and Superman Blue’ from #162 and ‘For The Man Who Has Everything’ by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons from Annual #11), Teen Titans (original series), and Wonder Woman.
American Update: Sentinel of the Spaceways! The Silver Surfer Soars Again!
*Marvel: Introduced as a supporting character in Fantastic Four, the Surfer, herald of the planet-devouring Galactus became so hugely popular that in 1968, he was awarded his own series, scripted by Stan Lee and featuring what is universally acknowledged as some of John Buscema’s finest artwork. We are delighted to have a range of these back in stock, including #1, #2 (debut of the Badoon), #3 (1st Mephisto), #4 (rare Thor cross-over number) and others from the first series through to the Spider-Man cross-over in #14. We also have, listed for the first time, the 1988 two-parter published under the Epic comics imprint, in which Stan Lee returned to writing the character, with the artwork being provided by the legendary French artist Moebius in a Trans-Atlantic collaboration! Our copy of issue #4, pictured, is VG- pence at £75. Details of the other issues in stock may be found in the Marvel section of our online catalogue. SORRY, SURFERS #1-4 HAVE NOW SOLD