A couple of years ago, we were very fortunate to acquire 2 complete runs of the very rare Scottish Vulcans, which were gobbled up by our eager customers at prices between £40 and £100 each virtually as soon as we listed them. Except one. For some reason, the 10th May 1975 issue survived and, amazingly, is with us still. We’d only ever seen a handful of these before then, and none since. For those who might not know, Vulcan was ‘piloted’ exclusively in Scotland for 30 issues in 1975 before being launched nationally (without repeating material) towards the end of that year. Classic strips all the way: Mytek the Mighty, the Spider, Saber, King of the Jungle, the Trigan Empire, the Steel Claw, Kelly’s Eye and Robot Archie — the very cream of Boys’ Adventure. Our sole surviving Scottish Vulcan is VG/FN at £55, pictured here. And for those on a more modest budget, we have plenty of the National Edition in stock as well at less rarified prices.
30CC
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 British section:
*Girls’ Picture Libraries
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.
American Update: Batmania going cheap!
*DC: A one-off Batmania special, with new issues in of Batman between #133 & #226, a couple of dozen or so in total. These are nearly all pence copies and are characterised by low grades, mostly between PR and GD and many copies have book centre stamps. However, an opportunity to get some very affordable copies of the Caped Crusader, including many 80 Page Giants. This selection also includes a FA/GD copy of #181, the first appearance of Poison Ivy, complete with centrefold poster, but off both staples, restapled with three extra staples and a book centre stamp across Robin’s face on the cover. Still, an issue that has become a significant key at a relatively low price of £40. SORRY, BATMAN #181 NOW SOLD
American Update: Marvel XX Month continues! The debut of the wonderful Wasp in Tales To Astonish #44
*Marvel: Our special month-long feature on the first appearances of Marvel’s Silver Age female characters continues with the debut of Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp as Ant-Man’s partner in Tales To Astonish #44. A long mainstay of the Marvel Universe, and founding member of the Avengers, wealthy socialite Jan was a breath of fresh air in the comics world, and her relationship with Hank (Ant-Man/Giant-Man) Pym was nicely portrayed as mature and caring, with a nice line in witty badinage, in contrast to the soul-searching angst on display elsewhere. Later, after she rejoined the Avengers, her fashion interest and constant change of costume (almost every issue) was a source of great entertainment and charm. This debut issue is a lovely copy with just minor wear at spine and the merest suggestion of a half inch sealed tear at centre right cover edge. Excellent unmarked cover with good colour, nice page quality and firmly attached at unrusted staples. A tight, flat copy with great eye appeal. Graded as VG/FN, pence printed and priced at £450.
American Update: Sweet Christmas! It’s Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #1
*Marvel: A 1970’s character who has seen a massive rise in popularity due to TV is Luke Cage, star of his own Netflix series and soon to feature in the Defenders show. His comic life started out in 1972 as ‘Luke Cage, Hero For Hire’ before changing to Power Man for later issues. We have a decent copy of his debut issue new in in VG+ (cents, of course), priced at £60. Minor wear and creasing with a very slight nick at the bottom centre cover. A personal favourite aspect to this series is the attempt to coin American street-wise language of the time — without using swear words. We expect interest in this issue to be very keen! SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: Spider-Mania continues! Amazing #52-98
*Marvel: Further additions in our Spider-Mania event, this time concentrating on issues in the range #52-98 (most issues in this run freshly added). A great period for Spidey this, with John Romita at the peak of his powers and Gil Kane no less towards the end of this time. Debuts include Silvermane in #73, the Prowler in #78 and the Kangaroo in #81, as well as some classic tussles with Dr Octopus, the Kingpin, a pair of Vultures, Mysterio, the Shocker, the Lizard, the Chameleon and the Green Goblin. Swing by and buy!
American Update: Secret Wars
*Marvel: From 1984, a little later than most fare in our catalogue, the famous Marvel 12 issue maxi-series that was to launch a series of successor ‘events’ that still reverberate through the Marvel Universe today. Secret Wars was the first of its kind and featured many landmarks, most famously the first appearance of Spidey’s black costume (later revealed as the alien symbiote Venom) in #8. All 12 issues now in stock in nice grades; consult our catalogue for pricing information.
British Update: Boys’ Annuals from the 1960’s-1980’s
*Annuals: Several dozen classic Boy’s Annuals added fresh to our stock this week: Champion, Fantastic, Jag, Jet, Lion, Marvel, Pow, Tiger and Valiant. Tons of great reading await you!
British Update: Many more Lions 1963-1969
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: The biggest haul of Lion we’ve had in for some time, with about 200 issues between 1963 and 1969 in a mixture of grades. The very popular year of 1967, scare in our listings, is now extensively replenished and this selection also includes the first Spider appearance (26/6/65) and the first merger issue with Champion (11/6/66) both illustrated below. Lion remains one of the most enduringly popular of all Boys’ comics, and this period particularly so.
British Update: Later Jackies inc. Free Gift Farrago
*Girls’ Comics: Further stock for the comic/magazine for teenage girls Jackie, this time for the years 1988-1992, the twilight years of publication before its demise in 1993 after almost 30 years of print. By this time, a ‘soapy’ edge was added to the more traditional line-up of pop, problems and comics, with Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan regularly featured. Free Gift issues abound, each with its original gift: #1438 (Timotei Body Wash — jolly handy for all those soapy issues), #1447 (Trendy Wrist Twist), #1448 (Plastic Key Ring), #1467 (Lipsticks) and #1468 (Crazee Comb). We seldom see issues of Jackie this late on in the run, and these years were previously poorly represented in our catalogue, so if you’re a Jackie fan, a good time to have a delve in our listings!
Books Update: Masters Of The Macabre
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: An update for Horror fans this time, with works by Charles Beaumont (Shadow Play and The Edge, both 1st UK PB), E F Benson (The Horror Horn, 1st UK PB), Algernon Blackwood (Dance Of Death), H P Lovecraft alone (The Lurking Fear, 1st UK PB, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth) and with August Derleth (The Lurker At The Threshold and The Shuttered Room) and Bram Stoker (Dracula’s Guest and The Lair Of The White Worm). All of these authors have strong claims to being a Master of the Macabre: Charles Beaumont wrote many Twilight Zone stories, E F Benson was a wide ranging and versatile author (he also wrote Mapp & Lucia) while the other four authors need no supporting evidence.
What’s Old: Prince of Darkness by Gerald Verner
We turn to our books section this week for our What’s Old feature, spotlighting things from our existing stock you may have missed. Specifically, our Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror category where, lurking under a lurid pulpish cover, you’ll find an anthology of horror stories edited by Gerald Verner, published in paperback for the first time by Pedigree books in 1960. Featuring works by Algernon Blackwood, John Buchan, Margaret Irwin, F G Loring, Cotton Mather (who chronicled the Salem witch trials), Sax Rohmer, Saki, Dorothy L Sayers, Montague Summers and Gerald Verner himself (who also wrote as Donald Stuart) the book covers Witchcults, Satanism, Sorcery and Lycanthropy. This is a very rare edition in a nice VG grade at £70.
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:
*Religious
and in our British section
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics (V – Z)
*Magazines/Books About Vintage UK Comics
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
British Update: Brand New Category! Collected Editions – Classic UK Comics and Newspaper strips
*Collected Editions: It’s rare that we launch a brand new category in our already comprehensive catalogue, but the volume of nicely presented editions collecting classic British comics and newspaper strips has risen enough over the years for us to give them their own space. We’ve taken those that already appeared elsewhere in our catalogue and merged them with a large influx of new arrivals from collections we’ve been buying in to present a nice selection of great material. Nestled between ‘Annuals’ and ‘Rupert’ in the British section of our catalogue index you’ll find this new category, called ‘Collected Editions’. Famous names such as the Avengers, Beano/Dandy, Dan Dare, Eagle, Garth, James Bond, Misty, Robin Hood, the Spider and the Trigan Empire are alongside many others of equal quality which may not be household names such as Axa, Charley’s War, Jeff Hawke, Rick Random, Slaine, Wes Slade, Zenith and many more. A selection of images are shown below — why not take a look through our new catalogue listing to see if there’s a favourite there waiting for you?
Clearance Corner: UK/Aus Reprints Of Vintage American Comics
A lot of more than 30 vintage comics (1950’s-1970’s), the majority humour titles, some UK published, some Australian. Grades vary, mostly GD to VG. Originally on sale with a collective value of more than £60, these are now offered for the bargain price of £10. Postage within the UK would be an additional £5.50. This lot fits into a medium size box, with a weight of less than 2 kg.
The titles offered are as follows:
Laurel & Hardy x 10 (including a bumper issue)
Caspar The Friendly Ghost x 6
Woody Woodpecker x 3
Tweety & Sylvester x 3 (2 the same issue)
Single issues of:
Cookie
Down With Crime (facsimile)
Fox & Crow
Foxy Fagan
Huckleberry Hound
The Jetsons
Richie Rich’s Funtime Comic
Rin Tin Tin
Rusty – Boy Detective
Spooky The Tuff Little Ghost
Easter Opening Times
Over the coming Easter holiday, our hours will be as follows:
Friday 14th April (Good Friday) OPEN 10:30 – 18:00
Saturday 15th April OPEN 10:30 – 18:00
Sunday 16th April (Easter Sunday) CLOSED
Monday 17th April (Easter Monday) CLOSED
Open as usual from Tuesday 18th April onwards
Why not treat yourself to a book or a comic? Much better for you than chocolate or buns!
American Update: Adventure #269 – First Appearance of Aqualad plus cruelty to Krypto!
*DC: An often-overlooked first appearance is Adventure Comics #269, from February 1960, in which Superboy and Krypto faced the menace of “Krypto’s Mean Master!”, but – even though you can’t go far wrong with a crying super-dog on the cover – it was the back-up Aquaman story which featured the breakout character. Aqualad (Misnamed Aqua-Boy on the cover), an orphan from Atlantis, became an almost constant presence in Aquaman’s own series, and a founding member of the Teen Titans. With Aqualad’s 50th Anniversary coming up, this VG/FN pence copy is on sale at £60 and a relatively affordable opportunity to pick up a premier appearance.
American Update: DC Sweeps On – Detective Comics, Flash and more!
*DC: Continuing our progressive top-up of the DC Universe, this week we add stock to four titles: DC Special Series, including #11, the non-distributed, all-new Flash Spectacular, which features not one, but three Flashes, Gorilla Grodd and the return of Golden Age speedster Johnny Quick; Detective Comics, issues from #476 (classic Englehart/Rogers “Sign of the Joker”) to #521; Eighty Page Giant #4, with the Flash’s most treacherous traps and the Flash himself, from #126 (classic early Mirror Master appearance) through to #165, the wedding of our hero to his beloved Iris West, with, along the way, key issues including #135 (1st ‘new look’ Kid Flash) and #140 (1st appearance Heat Wave).
American Update: Marvel XX Month – the Enchantress & the Valkyrie
*Marvel: Our focus on Marvel’s female stars continues with a duet of debuts from the celestial halls of Asgard. In Avengers #83, the mysterious Valkyrie stirred up some (petty justified) resentments in the hearts of the Wasp, the Scarlet Witch, the Black Widow and Medusa and forged them into the Lady Liberators, a team determined to enforce – equality by any means necessary! Needless to say, it was all a wacky scheme by the Enchantress, who used the captive essence of the real Valkyrie (don’t ask) to trick the heroines into rebellion – but subsequently both the Valkyrie herself, and the Lady Liberators team, have returned on multiple occasions. This copy is FN p at £40. And sticking with the Enchantress, we travel further back along the Rainbow Bridge to Journey Into Mystery #103, when she and her cohort, the Executioner, made their debuts. Amora remains one of the most powerful female figures in the Marvel Universe, and one of its few early villainesses who didn’t reform and become a heroine – at least, not yet! Journey Into Mystery #103 is VG+ p at £75. Watch for another Marvel female debut next week!
American Update: Great Guardians! Second appearances in Hulk of Rocket Raccoon and Groot!
*Marvel: Breakout characters from the 2014 cinematic smash-hit, Guardians of the Galaxy, were Rocket Raccoon and Groot, the mis-matched buddies who inexplicably became the heart of the film. Each had made their first appearances many years prior – Rocket in Marvel Preview #7 as ‘Rocky Raccoon’ in a non-continuity back-up, and Groot as the Big-Panty-Monster in 1960’s Tales to Astonish #13. Oddly enough, however, both characters made their second appearances under the auspices of a certain Jade Giant: Hulk #271 co-starred Rocket Raccoon with Bruce Banner’s alter ego, and 1976’s Hulk Annual #5 brought Groot back, with a bunch of his BPM cohorts, to plague the Hulk in a seven-way monster tag-team. Each of these second appearances is new in this update. Our copy of Hulk #271 is VF- p at £60; Hulk Annual #5 is FN- £30. With Guardians of the Galaxy 2 about to hit the big screen, now would be a prudent time to pick these up; accept the word of one who knows. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD
American Update: Spider-Mania! Amazing #201-237
*Marvel: For this week’s Spider-Mania excursion, we add issues between #201-237 of Amazing Spider-Man to our catalogue, a period less often seen than most. Nearly all issues present, nearly all cents copies and nearly all a very nice Very Fine grade. In these years, Spidey encounters the Punisher, the Black Cat, Sub-Mariner, Dazzler, Moon Knight & Foolkiller and tangles with many foes from his Rogues’ Gallery, including the debuts of Calypso and Madame Web.
American Update: Early Iron Man issues, from issue #2 to #15!
*Marvel: The Armoured Avenger’s adventures had of course been running for a few years in Tales of Suspense, but when he got his own title in 1968, the pace accelerated. Johnny Craig provided some very sophisticated art in the earlier issues, joined by George Tuska later in this selection. Iron Man, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and chums face off against the Demolisher, the Unicorn, the Freak, the Crusher, the Gladiator, the Controller and the Night Phantom in a villainous cascade that looks like the trailer for Wrestlemania! These are affordable mid-grade issues, clocking in on average between £10 and £20, in the Marvel Ages’ second wave of expansion.
American Update: Hither Comes Conan – More Mighty-Thewed Barbarian Antics from his first hundred issues!
*Marvel: Commencing with issue #22 and ending (this time) with #78, we have twenty issues of Conan the Barbarian new to our inventory, illustrated (mostly) by Mighty John Buscema. See our Cimmerian hero face off again gargoyles, demons, goblins, golems, shape-shifters and lion-lords, all the while implausibly encumbered by shapely wenches who seem to be superglued to his thighs. Among the gals striking a blow for female equality, however, are the ravishing Red Sonja and Belit the She-Pirate, as well as the ever-wistful Wolf-Woman. Journey back to a fantasy world that never was with the cult creation of Robert E. Howard.
American Update: Non-distributed Marvel Two-In-One from #1
*Marvel: Most of the first ten issues of Marvel Two-In-One, the Thing team-up series, fresh in and not distributed at the time in the UK, including a low grade #1 GD at £7.50.
American Update: Bite-Size Pre-Code Horror Fest
*Horror 1940-1959: A brace (or perhaps a deuce, to use a more American idiom) of Pre-Code horror classics new in: Atlas’ Spellbound #11, in Fine at £90, with the high-quality standard of artwork and stories one expects from the publisher who, by this time, was in the throes of its horror production line, A lovely copy with firm staples, tight corners, and vivid cover colour. Spellbound’s companion this update is Charlton’s Thing! #11 – no relation to the later Ben Grimm, Thing! was notorious for making up in blood, gore, decapitation and giblets what it may have sometimes lacked in terms of uniform quality of art or story. Rare, infamous, and very much a niche market – if you like this sort of Thing!, then this is the sort of Thing! you like, to paraphrase Miss Brodie. Issue #4 is our new addition, VG at £85. And if you’re wondering why our cover zombie appears to be wearing a Davy Crockett chapeau, you’re not alone.
American Update: By the Light of the Silvery Moon Knight – Marc Spector’s debut in Werewolf By Night # 32!
*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980’s: In issue #32 of his ongoing series, lycanthrope Jack Russell (stop sniggering at the back there) met an unusual antagonist, a vigilante mercenary called Moon Knight, whose silver armour caused particular problems for our favourite werewolf. Scoring an unprecedented hit with the readers, the not-at-all Batmanesque Moon Knight made a rapid return after his initial two-part story, and span off into numerous ongoing series. The relative obscurity of his debut (and rumours that he’s soon to play a large part in the Marvel Multimedia Universe) have caused interest in this issue to spike. This copy is a VG p at £175, an attractive mid-grade copy with only very minor corner and edge wear precluding a higher condition.
American Update: Get Your Hands On Some Damned Dirty Apes! – Planet of the Apes Magazine, first to last!
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Based on the hugely successful Planet of the Apes movies of the era, Marvel’s 1970’s Planet of the Apes magazine featured both straight adaptations of the films and additional new material set in the same universe, with the creators having fun imagining the history and development of the world they saw on the silver screen. We have a virtually complete run of Planet of the Apes magazine – seldom seen on these UK shores – averaging VG/FN grades. Only two omissions: the run is lacking a #22, and the #1, while having the same creative content as its US edition, is an Australian version, with differing advertising and to some extent editorial matter. Nevertheless, an uncommon opportunity to get most of the set of 29 issues, in respectable but affordable mid-grades. Go Ape!
American/British Update: Latest Modesty Blaise volumes
*Modesty Blaise: We’re delighted to add the latest two volumes of Titan’s current printing of Peter O’Donnell’s seminal adventuress newspaper strip to our catalogue. Volume 28 (The Murder Game) and Volume 29 (Children Of Lucifer – the penultimate in the series) are now in stock, brand new at £12 each.
British Update: Marvel UK Pocketbooks – Digest-Sized Dollops of Drama and Danger!
*Marvel UK: Among the many diverse formats Marvel’s UK division experimented with in the Eighties was the ‘Pocketbook’ format – a sort of half-way house between a traditional UK picture library and an American comic book, these 8″ x 5″ mags reprinted one or two complete issues of series, rather than the smaller chunks the weeklies carved the original tales into. We have fifty of these new in, including such diverse series as Conan (with early Barry Smith opulence), Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Titans, X-Men, Young Romance (borrowing an established DC name, but reprinting Marvel’s rather lovely titles, My Love and Our Love Story), and the oddball Star Heroes, which started out as a straight sf series, reprinting Micronauts and Battlestar Galactica, but took an abrupt turn left with issue #10 and began replaying the original X-Men from #1!
British Update: The rump end of Odham’s Smash!
*Power Comics: The last 11 issues of Odham’s run on Smash new in (from #152-162), with its mixture of humour and adventure strips, before it became an IPC title and a different beast entirely.
British Update: Girls’ Annuals: June, Mirabelle, Princess
*Annuals: Several Girls’ Annuals added to our stock: many June from the 1960’s, Princess from the 60’s/70’s and a single Mirabelle Sunshine Pop Book from 1975.
British Update: Off On A Comet – Part 2
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Continuing (and for the time being concluding) our massive Comet update, we have solid if not quite consecutive runs from 1955 through to its final year of publication 1959 – after which it was merged into Tiger. This period saw the debut of one of the most popular strips to emerge from the series, space adventurer Jet-Ace Logan, who premiered in issue #426. For most of this period, Comet was a small and slim publication, similar in size, if not thickness, to the US comic book; however, issue #519 saw the switch to a larger format – somewhere between the standard US and UK sizes – and the introduction of Commando One, another popular series which would make the jump over to Tiger. This run, in affordable mid-grades, also includes the final issue published, after more than a decade of fun and thrills with Buffalo Bill, Strongbow the Mohawk, Billy Bunter, Robin Hood and all the gang! Selected covers are reproduced below, including War Eagle, an abandoned waif raised by giant eagles who became the greatest fighter pilot of World War II. As one would. War Eagle didn’t make a lasting impact on Comet’s fortunes, but he’s one of the more engagingly loopy concepts, so we just thought we’d throw him out there!
British Update: Captain Scarlet, Indiana Jones, Masters Of The Universe, Joe 90 inc Free Gift Farrago!
*TV & Film Related Comics: A range of titles all new to our listings in this popular category. Two Gerry Anderson titles from their 1990’s iterations, Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons and Joe 90 are represented along with Free Gifts in #3 of Captain Scarlet and #2 of Joe 90 as shown. We also have many issues of Masters Of The Universe plus a couple of copies of Marvel’s Indiana Jones (#2 & #3).
British Update: Beezer 1971-1974 – A big update for a Big Comic!
*Humour Comics: Just short of a hundred issues of D. C. Thomson’s tabloid size Beezer freshly add to our catalogue this week, covering the years 1971-74. Despite being mainly known as a humour title, Beezer also featured classic adventure strips, usually across the full colour centrefold in this period. A couple of the more fun features debuting here are ‘Barney’s Barmy Army’ and ‘Hairy Dan, the Football Fan’. Please consult our catalogue for more detail.
British Update: School Friend 1951-1965 – Wot, No June?
*Girls’ Comics: Having just brought you a mammoth June update last week, the natural follow-on is School Friend, as the two are inextricably mingled in the public mind, to the point where many people don’t realise School Friend was ever a separate periodical – one which, moreover, preceded June by a decade! (As a comic; it had a long prior history as a story-paper). When School Friend reinvented itself in 1951 as a comic, it also launched the career of the Silent Three, definitive cowled crusaders of boarding-school society, and many of our new arrivals, feature Betty, Joan and Peggy in their costumed identities, but there’s a plethora of other well-remembered features to be seen. This selection of close to 70 new copies to our lists opens in 1951, is quite heavy in 1956 and 1957, then blips to 1962, 1964 and 1965, very shortly before School Friend entered a forced marriage with the upstart June. Along the way at various points, we meet ‘Anita – Beloved Princess’, ‘Yasmin and the Golden Pyramid’, loveable duffer ‘Dilly Dreem’, ‘Gwen and the Gay Highwayman’, ‘My Friend Sara’, ‘Cherry and the Children’, ‘Bessie Bunter’, and scores more plucky young maidens defending Queen and Empire. In very affordable mid-grades, averaging Good, this is an appealing selection of options to fill those pesky gaps!
British Update: Indexes and Guides to Lion, Valiant and more!
*Magazines/Books About Vintage UK Comics: Four tomes from the 1980’s and 1990’s, the nascent period for scholarship about UK comics, which for many years had taken a back seat to their American cousins in terms of research. From 1988, we have Alan Clark’s book, Children’s Annuals: A History and Collectors’ Guide, a handsome hardcover detailing the evolution of the Children’s Annuals from Victorian times to the then-present; also from 1988, Denis Gifford’s Comics At War, a large-format paperback scrutinising the children’s comics of World War II. Although this paperback has at some point been water-damaged along its lower edge, its plethora of information and full-colour illustrations remain unimpaired. Finally, two of the highly-sought-after indexes from Steve Holland’s CJ Publications of the 1990’s: 1994’s Complete Valiant Index, and 1995’s Complete Lion Index (the latter co-authored with Gary Armitage). True labours of love, these fan-produced paperbacks had minuscule print runs, and a goldmine of information about appearances of series, artists and writers, making them highly sought after today.
What’s Old: Phantom Lady #15 by Matt Baker
In our What’s Old feature, we highlight comics from our existing stock that you may have missed. This week: Phantom Lady #15 by Matt Baker. Victor Fox’s line of comics in the 1940’s was notorious for being shoddy, exploitative, and done on the cheap. But on the principle that even a stopped clock is sometimes right, Fox produced, almost certainly unwittingly, a handful of outstanding items, and Phantom Lady #15 is one of them. Sandra Knight was one of those socially-conscious debutantes who decided to fight crime by removing most of her clothing and – presumably – relying on the fact that the bad guys’ gaze wouldn’t get as far as her face. So far, so cheesy. But the primary illustrator was Matt Baker, known now as the definitive ‘Good Girl Artist’, who portrayed our implausibly-behootered heroine as an epitome of grace and charm. One of only a handful of African-Americans working in the comics mainstream in the 1940’s – and because of that, not hired by the major companies – Baker’s attention to details of body language, facial expression, and his keen eye for fashions made what could have been exploitative piffle into breezy, adventurous, classic sequential artwork. This copy of #15 features three Baker-illustrated tales, including one in which our heroine, ever ahead of the curve, faces a plague of zombies. It’s sound, attractive, with only very minor wear at the back cover’s lower edge and a couple of small sealed cover tears to the right cover edge, but a beautiful, unimpaired cover image. In VG+, it’s on sale for £450.
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/British section:
*Tarzan/E R Burroughs
*Phantom
*Flash Gordon
*Spirit
*Modesty Blaise
and in our British section:
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics (T – U)
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
Announcing Clearance Corner
A brand new section on our site is Clearance Corner, where we feature bargain lots at rock bottom prices. From time to time, we have to make decisions to discontinue certain titles from our stock for reasons of space. They don’t come bagged and boarded (as our normal stock does) and are available for collection from our shop (heavy lots may be collected in instalments if paid for up front). If the buyer wants them posted to a UK address, postage would be extra (at cost). Sorry, but these are not available for postage outside the UK. Lots in Clearance Corner will only be available for a limited period. We’d love to see these relocated to a good home. First come, first served — the first person to pay for them gets them! Our first three bargain lots are detailed below:
Clearance Corner (1): Look & Learn
*Clearance Corner: Our first lot in Clearance Corner is Look & Learn, the educational comic that started out a bit earnest and then with #232 was revitalised by the addition of Ranger, most famously featuring the Trigan Empire strip from that defunct publication, sumptuously illustrated by Don Lawrence and later by others. We’re clearing this title from our boxes to make room for some of the vast number of collections we’ve been buying in so we are able to offer our complete stock of approximately 165 issues (between #232 and #859 – #232 being the first issue to add Ranger and the Trigan Empire) with about 40 duplications among them at a bargain price of just £30 to the first person to order them. Grades range from Fair to Fine and as a bonus there’s an original free gift included. If the buyer wants them posted to a UK address, the postage cost would be an additional £25. These are heavy, weighing in at over 15 kg, so if you’re thinking of collecting from our shop, you’ll need transport (although you may take them in instalments if paid for up front)!
Clearance Corner (2): Lot of 72 Classic Marvel Reprints: Marvel Tales, Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics & Fantasy Masterpieces
*Clearance Corner: Our second initial lot for Clearance Corner comprises our entire stock of the above 3 vintage Marvel reprint titles, which all started in the 1960’s. We’re discontinuing stocking these to make room in our boxes for the large number of original Marvel comics coming into our hands. This bargain selection of 72 issues includes:
Marvel Tales #5, #6, #10-14, #16-19, #22, #23 x2, #25-28, #31, #35-77 & #95
Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #1 x 2, #2, #3, #4 x2, #5
Fantasy Masterpieces #3-4
In an average VG/FN condition, a small number a little tatty, many better, with a price guide value in excess of £300. Available for £30. These may be collected from our shop or posted (UK only) for an additional postage charge of £13.50. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD
Clearance Corner (3): Lot of 27 Fantasy Paperbacks
*Clearance Corner: Our final selection for this initial visit to Clearance Corner comprises 27 vintage fantasy paperback novels, as follows:
Raven 1-5 by Richard Kirk
11 Blade novels by Jeffrey Lord
7 novels by Karl Edward Wagner
Messenger of Zhuvastou by Andrew J Offut
Wandor’s Journey by Roland Green
The Dark Straits of Reglathium by Mike Sirota
The Baalbak Quest by David J Kelly
All are in decent, very readable condition. Available for just £5. These can be collected from our shop or posted (UK only) for a postage fee of £13.50.
American Update: Kanjar Ro Double Header!
*DC: The debut and second appearance of the notorious Justice League/Adam Strange foe Kanjar Ro. First up, Justice League of America #3, with his first appearance, GD p at £65, spine split at bottom by a couple of inches, but otherwise nice black background cover. Secondly, in the comic often referred to as Justice League of America #3.5, but in reality Mystery In Space #75, Kanjar Ro tackles Adam Strange AND the JLA, giving readers a chance to see the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes as rendered by the great combo of Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson. MIS #75 is GD/VG p £20, also with lower spine split. Classic outer space adventure from 1961/62!
American Update: DC Silver/Bronze Sweep – All-Star to Demon!
*DC: Our progressive alphabetical top-up of the DC Universe continues with a selection of new items in All-Star (Wally Wood and Paul Levitz’s superlative 70’s revival), Aquaman (stunning Nick Cardy artwork), Atom (including #29, featuring the Atoms of Two Earths!) Batman: the Killing Joke (7th printing of Moore & Bolland’s notorious work), Brave & Bold (including #60, with the debuts of both the Teen Titans team name and their distaff member, Wonder Girl!), Crisis On Infinite Earths, DC Special, DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest, and last but not least, Jack Kirby’s rhyming denizen of the underworld, the Demon! For details of issue numbers, grades and prices, see our catalogue.
American Update: Marvel XX Month Begins with the Scarlet Witch in X-Men #4
*Marvel: Throughout April, we’ll be celebrating the women of Marvel, each week spotlighting the first appearance of a classic character from the dawn of the Marvel Age, in an event we’re calling ‘Marvel XX’, which you can interpret either as kisses or chromosomes, or both! We are delighted to commence with X-Men #4, in which Wanda, everybody’s favourite Scarlet Witch, appeared for the first time as a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants! The crimson-clad conjuress (though erroneously depicted as a Emerald Empress on this very cover) has been a mutant and a mage, an X-Man and an Avenger, a hero and a villain, and a bunch of other stuff besides, including being the alleged offspring of a bewildering variety of people as new writers take over. But however many retcons she endures, she remains one of Marvel’s most popular leading ladies. This issue, of course, saw the premier appearances of a few other folks as well: the super-swift Quicksilver, for many years Wanda’s brother but now maybe not (long story, Google if you’re bothered), Mastermind, the Toad, and indeed the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants itself! It’s an extremely attractive FN+ p copy with vibrant, deep, unfaded cover colour, and only very fine stress lines at the spine. On sale for £500.
American Update: Thor #132 – 1st Ego, The Living Planet!
*Marvel: A rising star in the comics firmament, is Thor #132, in which Ego, the Living Planet first appeared, opposing the titular Thunder God and the might of Tana Nile and the Colonizers; the reason that this issue, nice though it is, has rocketed in price of late is the appearance of Ego in the forthcoming second Guardians of the Galaxy movie, in which – SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER – he is revealed to be the father of Star-Lord. And for those of you wondering how the hell that could work? – (baffled shrug). Be that as it may; this cents copy is an extremely desirable FN/VF at £100 – jump in now before the speculators start circling!
American Update: Fantastic Four First Appearances, and other Early Events!
*Marvel: Marvel’s First Family, the fabulous Fantastic Four, is the focus of this update, as we add early issues and first appearances into our inventory. Among these “FFFirsts” are: #15, with the first appearance of the maniacal Mad Thinker, and his Awesome Android; #19, with the debut of Rama-Tut, the time-twisting pharaoh who at various times has been suspected of being Kang, Immortus, the Scarlet Centurion, Doctor Doom, and Millie the Model (well, we wouldn’t be surprised…); #22, with the debut of Sue Storm’s Force Field power, beginning her transformation from token chick into a fully useful member of the team; #28, with the first X-Men/Fantastic Four fracas; #29, with the classic “It Started On Yancy Street” tale; #30, premier of Diabolo and #35, which brought us the ever-delightful Dragon Man! Issues #15 (GD/VG p £50), #19 (VG p £68), and #28 (VG+ p £65) are depicted; for price details on the others, please see our catalogue.
American Update: Spider-Mania continues! Amazing #101-150
*Marvel: Our massive updates to everyone’s favourite wall-crawler continue this week with a range of Amazing Spider-Man from #101-150, most issues from that period new in, in many cases in a choice of grades. A largely non-distributed in the UK period, in which Spidey tangles with the Hulk, the Green Goblin and many other regular dance partners, as well as debuts of new rogues’ gallery members Morbius, the Gibbon, Man-Wolf, the Grizzly, Cyclone, the Jackal and others. Also significant in this period is the Clone Saga, featuring the first appearances of Ben Reilly (Peter Parker clone) and the Gwen Stacy clone.
American Update: From Beyond the Grave to the Vault of Evil – Charlton, DC and Marvel horror restocked!
*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980’s: A significant update for this popular category sees major top-ups to Charlton – Beyond the Grave, Ghostly Haunts, Ghostly Tales, Ghost Manor, Haunted, Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves, Midnight Tales, Monster Hunters, Professor Coffin, Scary Tales and Tales of the Mysterious Traveler – and to Marvel, with new entries for Chamber of Darkness, Tower of Shadows, Crypt of Shadows (because you can never have too many shadows…), Tomb of Darkness and Vault of Evil. Rounding it out, a DC update to Weird Mystery Tales, one of the 1970’s titles launched in the wake of the company’s success with revitalising their horror line. Mostly in mid-range affordable grades, these offer a chance to see work by some of the stars of the comics business – including Ditko, Buscema, Sutton, Newton, Smith and Zeck – either in their early days or, in the case of Charlton, subjected to least editorial control!
American/British update: More Classics Illustrated!
*Classics Illustrated: A further selection now added to our stock of this evergreen popular title, both American and British editions. The American editions include the Adventures of Marco Polo, The Man Who Laughs, The Time Machine & Faust. British editions include Moby Dick, Caesar’s Conquests, Romeo & Juliet, The Pathfinder and, star of this update, a rare copy of #14 Westward Ho! 3rd printing (Australian edition) with new British cover FN/VF at £57. Many other issues also included — check out our catalogue listings for full details.