*Marvel: A huge update to our Marvel file this week, with the most significant of these ‘sweeps’ through various titles that we’ve added for some time. Included are: Captain America (with #112 Kirby album issue plus #172-175 guest-starring the X-Men), Conan, Dr. Strange, Fantastic Four (inc. #31 & #57, Him (Warlock) in #66 & #67 plus low grade annuals), Hulk, Iron Man (#8-11), Marvel Premiere, Amazing Spider-Man (from #52 and inc. issue #400), Spidey Super Stories, Star Wars Return of the Jedi, Sub-Mariner, Tales Of Suspense (inc. #54 2nd Mandarin), Tales To Astonish (Giant-Man & Sub-Mariner issues inc. #90, 1st Abomination) & X-Men (from #6, inc. 1st Lucifer & X-Men/Avengers clash in #9, 1st Mimic in #19 and 1st Barry Smith art in #53). Quite a haul added to our Marvel inventory, and you can check out grades and prices in our catalogue.  

*Western: Launched as a reprint title in 1970, DC’s All-Star Western chugged along, adding a couple of original series, including the rather splendid ‘El Diablo’ illustrated by Dick Giordano and Gray Morrow, achieving respect but not a great deal of attention. With its tenth issue, dated Feb-March, 1972, all that changed. Jonah Hex, a horribly-scarred, surly and cynical bounty-hunter with a compulsion to defend the innocent, joined the line-up, and a superstar was born. Created by writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga, Hex was heavily ‘influenced’ (ahem ahem) by the spaghetti-western fad prevalent at the time, as popularised by such actors as Clint Eastwood, but his own twisted code of honour kept readers fascinated through his own 92-issue series and myriad subsequent relaunches, as well as other-media appearances in film and in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow TV show. This copy of All-Star Western #10 is FN-, and on sale at £100. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Modern Reprints: We have new in the 1998 reprints of Valor, second of EC’s short-lived title which was the second in its ‘New Direction’ line – an attempt to win fresh audiences following the introduction of the Comics Code Authority. Valor was dedicated to tales of action and adventure in various period settings, including Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, the Crusades, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic era, but despite glowing art from the likes of Reed Crandall, Bernard Krigstein, Joe Orlando, Angelo Torres, Al Williamson and Wally Wood, the series never took flight, and ended after five issues. The entire five-issue series was reprinted by Gemstone, and is in stock at between £2 – £2.50 each. We’re in rather more traditional territory with Vault of Horror Vol. 6, in Gemstone’s self-styled ‘Annual’ series, representing six issues of the ‘floppies’ in consecutive order. Gore and ghoulishness unbridled from Graham Ingels, Jack Kamen, and all the gang, NM at £12.

*Power Comics: There was only one Summer Special for the Power Comics series Fantastic, and it’s rather clunky full title, as seen in the header above, indicates that by this time it had already devoured two of its weaker weekly siblings, in the hatch-match-and-despatch pattern so beloved of traditional British weeklies. This is “A Treasure-Store of Power Style Super-Hero Action and Laughs containing the nest of FANTASTIC, SMASH and POW weekly!”, as it says on the packet. Not common in any condition, dating from the dying days of the Power Comics regime, it’s exceedingly hard to find in high grade, as most known copies tend to have very rusty staples, as does, indeed, this copy. The staples have rusted through to the point that the cover is detached from the body of the comic, but structurally the rest of it is very sound. A difficult one to grade because of this dichotomy – like the proverbial curate’s egg, parts of it are excellent – but we’ve compromised on GD+, and are asking £25. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Following the success of 1969’s Whizzer & Chips launch, the USP of ‘two comics in one!’ with an inbuilt rivalry proved so popular that publishers IPC/Fleetway went back to the well with Score ‘n’ Roar, two football comics in one – neither of which had existed previously as an independent entity. The rivalry aspect was provided by brothers, ‘Jack of United’ and ‘Jimmy of City’, who played for opposing teams – and in rival halves of the comic! Other strips included young prodigy goalie ‘Peter the Cat’, supernatural striker ‘Phantom of the Forest’ and obligatory comedy team of ne’er-do-wells, ‘The Mudlarks’, and things ran comfortably along until the following year, when Scorcher took a decisive lead in the battle of Fleetway footie rags, and S’n’R (by then just ‘Score’) ended with the traditional ‘Great News, Readers!’ straplining the issue of 26th June 1971. ‘Jack’ and ‘Jimmy’, plus ‘Nipper’ and ‘Lord Rumsey’s Rovers’, moved into Scorcher, where they had respectable further runs. We have almost a full run of Score ‘n’ Roar, 40 issues, lacking only the third. Averaging Fine condition, this exceptionally nice run of a scarce niche series is a real opportunity for collectors. Issue #1 is GD/VG at £30; for the rest, grades and prices are shown in our catalogue.

*Girls’ Comics: If you did know Suzy, you’re apparently in quite a small and select club, as, for a series that ran at least 230-something issues from 1982 to 1987, it’s curiously un-remembered. A slick magazine from D C Thomson, a sort of half-way house between Bunty and Jackie, it featured a mix of traditional comic strips, photo-strips (adventure themed rather than romantic, from a more innocent time when photographers taking kids off to warehouses was less likely to be met with restraining orders) and pop features, never afraid to over-sell Adam Ant and Bucks Fizz! Along the way, it incorporated the companion paper Tops (sometimes known as TV Tops), making very little difference to its profile, as it was always media-heavy anyway. Eventually, after a perfectly respectable run, Suzy stumbled into the jaws of Bunty, in turn making very little difference to the ‘host’ title – the eponymous hostess co-starred on Bunty’s front page for five or six issues, and then every trace of Suzy was gone as if it had never been. We have 24 copies of this amnesia-inducing curiosity available for purchase, from 1982’s #2 to 1986’s #177. Check our online catalogue for details, before the Mists of Lethe overwhelm us all…

For this week’s foray into our previously listed stock, the spotlight falls on Thriller Comics # 1 from 1951. This digest-sized comics series, most famous under its later title of Thriller Picture Library, ran for 450 issues until 1963, and while it featured a plethora of characters during its lengthy run, the trend for the early years was for historical swashbucklers based on fictional (but serendipitously copyright-free) characters such as Robin Hood, Rob Roy, and so on. One such was the Three Musketeers, who were chosen to lead off the series in this volume. The artists were all accomplished Fleetway professionals, and readers thrived on these beautifully-illustrated pocket adventures. This copy of #1 is GD-, structurally sound but with considerable spine wear, interior pages clean and flexible. On sale at £150.

*Clearance Corner: They’re too good to throw away, but we can’t support these Younger Reader’s Comics any longer, so it’s time for them to fly the nest! We have 78 issues of six early to mid-20th century titles: Harold Hare’s Own Paper, Playbox, Puck, Rainbow, Tiger Tim’s Weekly and Tip Top. Evoking a gentler, more innocent time, when children made their own entertainment and certainly didn’t use iPhones for teething, these will bring back many memories for readers of a certain age. We really want these to go to a good home, so they’re priced at less than 20p each, £15 all told. Postage (UK only) is an additional £13.50 if required. These fill a medium box, weighing just under 4 kg. Conditions vary from PR to VG. Details as follows:
Harold Hare’s Own Paper -2 issues 1959 and 1960
Playbox – 8 Issues dating from 1925 and 1949 – 1953
Puck – 2 issues from 1925
Rainbow – 26 Issues dating from 1925 and 1927 plus 1946 – 1952
Tiger Tim’s Weekly – 37 Issues dating from 1925 – 1929
Tip Top – 3 issues from 1948 and 1949
SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*DC: While ordinarily items from the 1990s are too recent to significantly cross our radar, there are inevitable special cases, and these items – key chapters in the ‘Death of Superman’ event which rocked fandom in the 1990s – are such exceptions. In Superman: The Man of Steel #18, readers were treated to the first full appearance of Doomsday, Superman’s genetically-engineered nemesis; in issue #19, there was the definitive Superman/Doomsday battle, which led  directly into the notorious Superman (2nd series) #75, in which the Man of Steel met his demise. For a while, at least. In view of their importance and popularity, we’ve elevated these to catalogue status. Superman: Man of Steel #18 is NM p £30; issue #19 is NM p £10 and Superman #75, the Collectors’ Edition, First Print, still sealed in polybag with all premiums and extras, NM £25. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Marvel: From the dawning days of the Marvel Universe, issues of Tales of Suspense featuring the premier appearances of some of Shell-Head’s vilest villains: in Tales of Suspense #46, he met the armoured might of the Crimson Dynamo; #47 featured his first encounter with the Melter; #50 presented the menace of the Mandarin, Iron man’s greatest foe; #51 brought us the sinister Scarecrow, and in #48, there was the debut of Mr. Doll. Yeah, we know, “Mr. Doll?” But the Poundland Puppet Master, though he did re-appear in the Marvel Universe (I think he split into two, became the Brothers Grimm, something of that ilk), he wasn’t the unique selling point of ToS #48; rather it was the debut in that same issue of Iron Man’s red & gold armour, which (with variations on a theme) has been the consistent look of Tony Stark’s armoured alter-ego ever since. Our newly-acquired #46 is VG+ p £80; #48 VG p £90 and #50 GD/VG p £60. Details of the others in our online catalogue.

*Harvey: The Golden, Silver and Bronze Age publisher Harvey is probably best remembered today for its humour line that started populating the newsstands in the 1950s, and in the second part of our Harvey Hits event, we focus on more classic characters: Devil Kids, Harvey Hits itself with Stumbo the Giant, Hot Stuff the Little Devil, Hot Stuff Sizzlers, Little Dot, Little Dot’s Uncles & Aunts, Little Lotta, Little Max and Playful Little Audrey, all freshly added to our catalogue. Watch out for the third and concluding part of Harvey Hits coming soon!

*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: This eternally-popular and seldom updated section gets a refresh with a dozen new additions, half of which are the delightfully daffy debut issues. From DC, we have Binky’s Buddies, Debbi’s Dates, Swing With Scooter, and Windy & Willy; from Marvel, Chili, Harvey, Mad About Millie and Millie the Model; Harvey Comics provide us with Bunny, ‘Queen of the In-Crowd’, and the short-lived Atlas/Seaboard group of the 1970’s offers us the vivacious Vicki. The giant-sized Bunny #1 and Mad About Millie #1 (pictured) are both VG at £15 each; for the buzz on the rest, you’ll have to make the scene at our groovy online catalogue, cats & kittens!

*Alan Class Reprints: We continue our spotlight on Alan Class issues featuring reprints of the classic Marvel heroes, which are becoming ever-more sought-after as collectors realise that in many cases, these were the first reprints of these iconic issues, before they were ever repackaged in their native land! We have twenty new entries in this category, covering the AC series Astounding Stories, Creepy Worlds, Sinister Tales, Suspense, and Uncanny Tales, and featuring Spider-Man, the Avengers, Daredevil, Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD, the X-Men, and more! The stars of the selection, however, are probably a nice clutch of Creepy Worlds reprinting the very earliest issues of the Fantastic Four, and Suspense #55, with the first appearance of Ant-Man in costume, from Tales to Astonish #35! Creepy Worlds #32 reprints the legendary Fantastic Four #1 and is GD/VG £100 – the ‘shadow’ on the picture, it should be noted, is due to spine roll, not present on the comic. Suspense #55 is VG £30. Details on all the rest may be found, as always, in our online catalogue.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Why yes, we did just have a substantial run of the short-lived cult title Scream in recently – but you can never have too much of a good thing, and we’re not going to turn away a complete series if it falls into our lap! Scream was launched in 1984 as a deliberate attempt by IPC/Fleetway to for for the horror genre what 2000 AD had done for science fiction; with talented contributors including Eric Bradbury, Gerry Finley-Day, Jesus Redondo, Mike Western and a novice writer named Alan Moore, the series seemed set to catch on; but public outcry against the horrific nature of the stories in a ‘children’s comic’, coupled with internal wranglings at the publisher, meant it had only a short shelf-life, ending with its fifteenth issue, without even so much as a ‘Great News, Chums!’ to warn readers. “Thirteenth Floor” continued, in much tamer form, into the second series of Eagle, but the series lived on for five years in the form of glossy Holiday Specials. The full run of Scream is back in stock, in low to mid grade, and therefore very affordable copies, together with the 1985 and 1986 Holiday Specials – the latter of which includes a substantial amount of new artwork from superstar artist Dave Gibbons!

*TV & Film Related Comics: A trio of Film & TV themed Holiday Specials, connected by the A-team, a media phenomenon of the 1980’s. The hugely popular TV show starring a quartet of ex-Special Forces Soldiers, framed and on the run from the military police, had our heroes stopping to perform random acts of high-profile kindness (and high-profile violence, though with no fatalities and barely any injuries) on a weekly basis, and ran for close to 100 episodes. In addition to the A-Team’s own Holiday Special from 1983, FN at £10, we have the Look-In Holiday Special from 1986 in FA/GD £4, with Hannibal Smith’s chums heavily featured, and TV Comic Holiday Special from 1984 FN £6, with Mr. T. nestling uneasily among Popeye and chums. We pity the fool who don’t buy these!

*Humour Comics: The Beezer, which, together with its stablemate Topper, exploited the broadsheet format for far longer than most folks would have believed practical, ran from 1956 to 1990, (though it did succumb to a smaller format from 1981 on) introducing a variety of much-loved strips including frontman ‘Ginger’, ‘Baby Crockett’, ‘The Banana Bunch’, and superbly-illustrated adventure series such as ‘The Voyage of the Bushwacker’ and ‘Lone Wolfe’. We have four of the first five issues of this long-lived and much-loved series back in stock.  Issue #2 is VG £60, #3 VG- £40, and #4 & #5 VG/FN £40 each.

*Younger Readers’ Comics: Even the pre-schoolers had their own extra-thick versions of their weekly comics to entertain them while Mum and Dad hit the bar & bingo during the summer months, and we have four popular Holiday Specials back in stock: Bobo Bunny from 1970, in FN at £7; Toby, the loveable pup, from 1976 GD £6 (the first Toby Holiday Special), and from 1974 and 1975, Bonnie! Bonnie was Fleetway’s answer to the hugely successful Twinkle, the only other weekly dedicated specifically to pre-school girls, and while even the star power of the Magic Roundabout gang didn’t help Bonnie to ultimate victory, she did give old Twinkle a fair old run for her money. These new-in Holiday Specials are VG £9 (1974) and FN £12 (1975).

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: From 1957, IPC/Fleetway published Schoolgirls’ Picture Library, a pioneering digest-sized comic which took the same themes as had been running in the Schoolgirls’ Own Library text digests, but added the exciting new dimension of a pictorial narrative. From Autumn 1963, Micron, a small publisher of picture libraries and story magazines, put out Schoolgirls’ Adventure Library, the content, format, title and even logo of which were strikingly familiar to those of Schoolgirls’ Picture Library. We are, of course, sure this resemblance was entirely coincidental and in no way intended to mislead consumers. Ahem. Be that as it may, we are pleased to have the first issues of both series in stock; Schoolgirls’ Picture Library #1 is FA/GD £50, featuring the adventures of Silent-Three wannabes in “Leader of the Secret Avengers”, while Schoolgirls’ Adventure Library #1 catches the zeitgeist of the day with “Penny Pop-Star Pupil”, and is an extraordinary VF/NM at £75.

*Clearance Corner: Our latest bargain lot is an unusual one: 11 issues of the vintage Buffalo Bill text story library. This series featuring the classic Western icon ran from 1899-1932 and our lot is timed around the First World War, between #132 & #168. In conditions ranging from FA to VG, the lot is available for just £5. UK postage (if required) would be an extra £3.50.  SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

In our What’s Old feature this week, where we spotlight items from previously-listed stock, we showcase the December 1949 #50 issue of All-Star Comics in which the original super-team, the Justice Society of America, battle “The Prophecy of Peril!”. The Justice Society finds they must capture Mr. Alpha, a new villain with a connection to Jay Garrick, the Flash, who uses his scientific knowledge to commit seemingly foolproof crimes. The definitive JSA lineup – Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, Atom, Dr. Mid-Nite and the Black Canary – pools all its resources to thwart the master villain, in a tightly-plotted adventure courtesy of writer John Broome and the art team of Arthur Peddy and Bernard Sachs. This is GD+, an attractive copy with above-average interior page quality. The cover has been glued at the spine, and the back cover has suffered a long tear which has been carefully taped, but neither of those drawbacks impinges on the cover scene, and the interior pages, as noted, are above average quality for the vintage. On sale at £140.

*DC: In 1963, the Scarlet Speedster was at the height of his popularity, and this fact was recognized by DC’s issuing him his own 80-Page Annual, in which the first appearances and origins of his most famous friends and foes were related. On the Good side of the ledger were Flash himself, his protégé Kid Flash, and his malleable chum, the Elongated Man; while representing the powers of Evil were Gorilla Grodd, Mr. Element, Katmos the Metal Monarch, and – in an exciting twist at a time when the Golden Age was an unknown country to most – a Golden Age Flash story with the first appearance of the 1940’s villainess, the original Star Sapphire! Our copy of this treasure trove is an attractive VG+, with virtually no impediment to the cover scene, and is on sale at £50. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: In the fourth issue of Marvel’s Avengers series, the already formidable team of Iron Man, Giant-Man, Thor and the Wasp was augmented by one of the legendary heroes from the past. Captain America returned to action after years in Post-WWII suspended animation, and rapidly became the acknowledged heart and soul of the Avengers, who have never flourished for long without him! This copy of an iconic issue is an attractive VG-, virtually unmarred cover scene with only a faint diagonal crease across Cap’s head and torso. Very nice nice page quality, tight staples at spine and centrefold. A pence priced copy, it is on sale at £300. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Harvey: The iconic, and often overlooked, Harvey Comics comedy universe will be the subject of a spotlight for the next few weeks, commencing with Baby Huey, the Baby Giant (who’s also a duck; why don’t they ever draw attention to that?) and Casper, the Friendly Ghost (who’s all very adorable until you consider that he’s the departed spirit of a dead child; buzzkill or what?) Regardless, the Harvey Comics stable of dead babies, infant demons, duck and human giants, and children with obsessive-compulsive disorders delighted generations of Americans, and we’re happy to have more in stock! Our selection of Baby Huey comprises 11 issues between #11 and the giant-sized #88, plus additions to our extant stock of Baby Huey and Papa. Casper is resurrected (sorry) with issues from both his first and second series, plus the first issue of the 1972 spin-off Casper Space Ship, an extra-length giant (but not a baby giant).

*Western: It’s the last round-up! Our special event to tie-in with our Western comics window display concludes this week with the previously most underrepresented member of Marvel’s big three cowboy heroes, the Two-Gun Kid. About a dozen new issues in between #66 & #109, including #89, guest-starring both Kid Colt and the Rawhide Kid.

*Annuals: Pop! Fashion! Beauty! Love Stories! Pin-Ups! So the 1975 edition of the iconic Jackie Annual promised on its cover and so the interiors delivered. These days, perhaps the most fondly remembered publication for teenage girls, we have a lucky 13 Jackie Annuals new in, nearly all in a pristine FN or VF grade from 1975-1993. At prices from £6 – £10 each, great value for a big nostalgia hit!