*Marvel: In the distant days of 1975, the X-Men, once mainstays of the Marvel Universe, were a spent force. Reduced to a bi-monthly reprint comic and occasional guest-appearances, the merry mutants were without a home to call their own. Then two of Marvel’s young turks of the time, Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, changed all that. In Giant-Size X-Men #1, the original X-Men were captured, and Professor X assembled a team of international mutants, some known to the readers (Sunfire, Banshee, and Wein’s own creation, Wolverine, who had made his debut in Hulk #181) and some brand new (Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Thunderbird), and sent them out to rescue their mutant brethren. The ‘New’ X-Men were an instant hit, and with issue #94 of the X-Men ongoing, the team was restored to all-new adventures, and on their way to becoming the multi-media stars they are today! We are delighted to have the first two appearances of the ‘New’ X-Men in stock the Giant-Size #1 is a splendid VF at £500, with only a slight miscut (an original printing irregularity, not an attempt at restoration) preventing us from grading it still higher. X-Men #94, first appearance of the new team in the title, is an attractive FN+ at £225. Neither of these issues was ever distributed in the UK, so their already uncommon status is exacerbated by their scarcity on this side of the pond. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Marvel: Early issues of the Avengers, Marvel’s mainstay superhero team, always sell briskly at 30th Century Comics, and we are pleased to welcome most of the first ten back into stock. Issues #2, #3, and #5 to #10 between them bring us the debuts of the Space Phantom, Zemo and His Masters of Evil, Kang, Wonder Man and Immortus, as well as the villainy of the Enchantress and the Executioner, the lethal Lava Men, and the Savage Sub-Mariner. In a range of grades from #2’s PR/FA to #6’s FN+, this selection will appeal both to the collector and the investor among our clientele. See our catalogue for full grading and pricing information.

*Marvel: We present almost complete sets of the Annuals of Marvel’s two key team-up titles of the 1970’s/80’s: Team-Up (mostly starring Spider-Man) and Two-In-One (starring the Thing). Guest stars galore, as you would expect, including the X-Men, the Hulk, Power Man & Iron Fist, Daredevil, Alpha Flight, Nova, Black Bolt and many more. For cosmic fans, the key issue here is Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2  (VF £30) by Jim Starlin, where the Thanos Saga is concluded.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980’s: One of the more spectacularly successful entries in Marvel’s 1970’s diversification was Tomb of Dracula, the meticulously-crafted horror series which had a villain – Bram Stoker’s classic vampire – as a series protagonist. We have two key issues of this highly-acclaimed series new in: #1, never distributed in the United Kingdom, in which the Lord of Darkness was introduced to the Marvel Universe, and #10, with the debut of a character who would go on to his own comic-book and cinematic successes – Blade, the Vampire Slayer! (No relation to Buffy of the same ilk.) The #1 is an affordable GD+ at £15, sound and complete, generally good appearance, with only a tiny cover chip from the lower right-hand corner precluding higher grade; the #10 is a VG+ p copy, decent with light to moderate spine creasing but very presentable interiors and an unimpaired cover scene, on sale at £50. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Tarzan/E R Burroughs: Edgar Rice Burroughs’ most famous creation, Tarzan, strides the fantastic jungle that never was once more! We have new stocks in of the American series of Korak, Son Of Tarzan (Gold Key), Tarzan himself (from DC, a range between #209 – the third DC issue – and #238, including 100-pagers) and Tarzan Family, the anthology that featured not only Tarzan and Korak, but also other ERB creations such as John carter and Pellucidar! On the UK side of events – Tarzan being one of those iconic characters published all over the globe – we have the 1974 Tarzan of the Apes graphic novel with (then) new art by Burne Hogarth (pictured), as well as new entries for the Westworld Tarzan Grand Adventure comic from the 1950’s, the 1977 Tarzan Weekly (early issues including the second and third), the Tarzan Monthly series from Byblos – both the 1977 and 1981 launches – and a 1981 Summer Special!

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: A real mixture of material in this most eclectic of categories, with several issues of the Australian K G Murray Batman series, a Black Magic & a Frankenstein, three digest-sized Miller items, Marvel Tales with Atlas sci-fi, and Space Adventures, #2 with Charlton Blue Beetle and #3 with Ditko and other Charlton sci-fi. Also, a Miller Spellbound with two of Marvel’s Human Torch stories (inc cover) & one Thor and a Young Love from Top Sellers. A selection of cover images below; consult our catalogue for full grading and pricing information.  

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In the hope of invoking more reliable good weather, we’re doing a quick and breezy update with the Victor Summer Special for 1983 – a bit ‘modern’ for us ordinarily, but as any aficionado of Victor knows, the 1960’s lasted until around 1990 in that series, so the familiar strips – ‘Tough of the Track’, ‘Morgyn the Mighty’, ‘Cadman’, ‘Joe Bones’, ‘Hammer Man’ and the gang – are presented in the familiar timeless style. An attractive Fine copy, on sale for £15. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*TV & Film Related Comics: A genuine rarity in our ‘Quirky Corner’ this update, an adaptation of the 1962/3 TV series ‘Space Patrol’. Created by Gerry Anderson alumna Roberta Leigh (who had co-created two early Anderson series, ‘Twizzle’ and ‘Torchy’), ‘Space Patrol’ (not to be confused with the American series of the same name) in which agents of the United Galactic Organization – Captain Larry Dart and his Venusian and Martian chums, Slim and Husky – have adventures in the future of 2100. Although a ‘Space Patrol’ strip ran in TV Comic weekly, this title – also known as issue 12 of Gold Token’s ‘Super Mag’ series – appears not to reprint that, but to be original material, to the best of our knowledge. (As opposed to most of the ‘Super Mag’ series, which were reprints of American comics.) As far as we know, this is the only full-length comics adventure of the U.G.O. lads, and it’s complete with central flyer for the Gold Token series and – most importantly – the clip-and-save gift tokens neither clipped nor saved. FN at £30.

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 British section:
*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics (L – Q)
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: Five fabulous first issues from DC this update, kicking off with the Demon, Jack Kirby’s creation, featuring Jason Blood as the tortured soul who moves from Arthurian times to the modern day. The Metal Men, foreshadowing the ‘artificial intelligence’ revolution, fought the Missile Men in their premier issue after a successful Showcase run. Plastic Man, the Golden Age hero originally published by Quality Comics, returned to publication after a cameo in, of all things, Dial H For Hero. Wein and Wrightson’s acclaimed horror hero Swamp Thing gained his own series after premiering in House of Secrets #92. Wolfman and Perez’s New Teen Titans debuted in their own series following their ‘pilot’ in DC Comics Presents #26. Demon #1 is FN at £20; Metal Men #1 FA/GD p £25, but generally a VG+ copy with only one torn & taped interior page lowering the grade; Plastic Man #1 is FN p £20; Swamp Thing #1 FN/VF £55, with only minor corner and edge wear precluding a still higher grade and New Teen Titans #1 is FN/VF £30. Images of all five may be seen below.

*Marvel: When Marvel’s distribution system expanded in 1968, the ‘double-feature’ books were spun off into their own series, and Jim Steranko, who had been attracting fan attention with his rendition of SHIELD in Strange Tales, took out all the stops with SHIELD’s first ‘solo’ issue, creating an atmospheric cinematic masterpiece which crystallised the height of the Cold War era and the ‘super-spy’ craze prevalent in the Sixties. Topped with perhaps Steranko’s most famous cover image, this beautiful copy is FN+ at £50. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: In 1975, Roy Thomas, notorious aficionado of the Golden Age, launched one of his pet projects – ‘untold tales’ of the Golden Age Timely/Atlas heroes set in the days of World War II. Banding Captain America & Bucky, the Sub-Mariner, and the original Human Torch & Toro together as the Invaders, he kicked off (including spin-offs and crossovers) more than 50 issues of all-new ‘old’ adventures, and a series of revivals which has continued into the 21st Century. We are pleased to have not one, but three different copies in stock of Giant-Size Invaders #1 – the ‘prequel’ which ran into the ongoing comic, and introduced the team to the world. One of them, with an unverified Roy Thomas signature on the front cover, is FN/VF at £20. We also have the first three issues of the on-going back in, with the premier issue being FN+ at £20. Giant-Size Invaders #1 and Invaders #1 & 2 were never distributed at all in the UK, and are therefore proportionately rarer here than in the ‘New World,’, so having these all come along at once is quite serendipitous.

*Romance: We’re always looking for love here in the 30th Century, and we’ve acquired enough now to put out an update for aficionados of the strange and contorted way comics presented relationships, from the 1950s to the 1970s. From DC, we offer Girls’ Romances – a title that would have a very different vibe today – from Charlton, a dollop of I Love You with side dishes of Romantic Story, Secret Romance and Soap Opera Romances; and Marvel steps up with Love Romances and the silly, but exquisitely illustrated, Our Love Story. To round it out, a vintage romance title from Realistic Publishing of the 1950’s, the appropriately-entitled Realistic Romances #2, with such true-to-life dilemmas as “Kissless Honeymoon”, “Fatal Romance”, and “Deadly Triangle”. Read the stories that helped the battle of the sexes carry on for generations!

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Dozens of issues of Warren’s seminal horror mag of the 1970’s (and early 1980’s) fresh into stock, nearly all in nice FN grade or better. This update concentrates on the latter, less common part of the run; after a few issues below #100 (starting with #12), there’s an almost complete run from #101 to #145, the final issue.

*TV & Film Related Comics: The 1971 successor to TV Century 21, Countdown, launched with a heady mixture of new Gerry Anderson material – led by a comics adaptation of the brand-new series, ‘UFO’ – as well as ‘Doctor Who’ (shoplifted from stablemate TV Comic, where it had been running from 1964) and the rather handsome eponymous space opera ‘Countdown’, illustrated by John M. Burns. The Gerry Anderson material, ‘UFO’ excepted, soon reverted to reprints from TV 21, but nevertheless this weekly dose of sci-fi action continued unabated until issue #35, when the Persuaders joined up, and the weekly began its transition from a purely science-fiction comic to a more generalised adventure anthology. To be fair, the editors did brace the readership, as the title and strapline changed to ‘Countdown for TV Action’, then ‘TV Action in Countdown’, before the title ceased publication with #58, to re-invent itself with #59 as ‘TV Action’. ‘Hawaii Five-O’ and other detective/adventure strips joined the line-up, but Gallifrey’s favourite son remained front and centre. We are pleased to have the complete first 100 issues of Countdown/TV Action, averaging Fine or better, with the top creators of the time working on ‘untold tales’ of some of the 1970’s most popular TV series.

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:
*Archie
and in our British section:
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics (H – K)
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: On the DC half of this week’s “Big ‘Uns” mini-event, we have new entries for the series All-new Collectors’ Edition (#C-62, VG/FNp Superman The Movie £10), DC Special Series #25 (FN/VF £12, Superman II), #26 (FN/VF £15, Superman and his Fortress of Solitude), and the highly-sought #27 Batman Vs the Hulk, (FN+ £30), and Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-37, VG+ £12, a Batman All-Villain Issue! While the standout in this selection is of course the Batman/Hulk clash, co-featuring the Joker and with the exquisite art of Garcia Lopez, all of these tabloid-size comics are scarce (poorly or non-distributed in the UK), and very keenly collected, so we advise early ordering.

*Marvel: For this week’s foray into our on-going Spider-Mania event, we’re proud to present an affordable copy of #9 of the Amazing Spider-Man, with the debut of one of Spidey’s most famous Rogues’ Gallery members, Electro. This pence printed copy is graded at GD+, with a nice cover image and colour. There are a few creases and edge tears, including the remnants of what looks like a subscription crease, and a small oil-like stain at the top corner of pages throughout (only in the margins), leaving the story unaffected. Nothing bad in the defect department and priced accordingly at £100. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: In the Marvel half of our “Big ‘Uns” event, we welcome the Tabloid Variant of Marvel Comics Super Special #8 (VG £5, Battlestar Galactica, which was, unusually for the time, released as both a magazine and a tabloid); Marvel Special Edition #3, (FA+ £6, with the entire Star Wars movie adaptation in one extra-thick volume) and a range of Marvel Treasury Editions, three of which (#4 FN+p £12, #15 VG+p £7 and 19 VG+p £7) feature Conan the Barbarian, and the latter two boasting all-new material: issue #25, FN+ £15, co-stars Spider-Man and the Hulk at the Winter Olympics (Bruce cuts a dashing figure on the ice…), while #28 is the second Superman/Spider-Man team-up, co-starring Dr. Doom, the Parasite, Wonder Woman, the Hulk, and more! That last item is a FN+ copy at £25, and we don’t expect it to remain on our shelves for long!

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: It seems you can’t get enough of our vintage mags, so here’s some more of ’em! From Marvel, updates to Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu, Epic Illustrated, Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, Vampire Tales, and because we file them in this section, #1 in the Marvel Graphic Novel series, Jim Starlin’s Death Of Captain Marvel. From the king of schlock horror, Skywald, we have more copies of Psycho and Scream, and one final oddity from Mayfair, a mid 1970’s edition of Quasimodo’s Monster magazine, a movie mag with no comics content.  

*Undergrounds: A dizzying variety of underground and ground-level, alternative and indie commix from the 1970’s through to the 1990’s. In the ‘classic’ underground line, we offer Arcade, Best of Rip Off Press, Cannibal Romance, Forbidden Knowledge, Mu, and inner City Romance; from the ‘ground-level’/indy zone we bring you Avenging World and Mr. A – two slices of Ditko unleashed – the Star*Reach companion book, Imagine, and two other Star*Reach spin-offs, Cody Starbuck and Parsifal; plus Hot Stuf’ the anthology with Corben, Gray Morrow, Alex Toth and more. Best represented this time, however, is the UK wing of the underground movement, with humorous erotica – Hunt Emerson’s Firkin the Cat paperback, collecting the series from Fiesta, and the lavish full-colour Oh, Wicked Wanda!, with Ron Embleton’s gorgeous painted artwork (depicted here); the classic underground paper IT, Cozmic Comics #1 from 1972, Heartbreak Hotel, and the entire ten-issue run of Pssst!with early works by Bryan Talbot, Glenn Dakin, Paul Johnson and Shaky Kane, an unnerving attempt at a British ‘bande-dessinee’ style magazine, with lots of pretention but frequent flashes of brilliance. The oddest new entry, however, is the arts magazine, Art & Artists, from 1969, one issue of which featured extensive coverage of the Underground scene, with a cover by Spain Rodruigez!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A long overdue update for Fleetway’s Lion, one of the most popular and enduring of all Boys’ titles. After a stray issue from 1957, this selection concentrates on the years 1968-1971, and although not plentiful, it does feature many issues previously missing from our catalogue, including the first Gadgetman & Gimmick-Kid issue (4/5/68) and the 1st Lion & Eagle from 3/5/69. A great period for Lion this, with Robot Archie, the Spider and many other fondly-remembered characters.

*TV & Film Related Comics: Released in 1967, Solo, the companion paper to TV Tornado, featured a line-up of film and TV tie ins with guaranteed star power -‘Sgt Bilko’, ‘Mary Poppins’, and the hugely popular ‘Man From UNCLE’. Oddly, the powers-that-be decided to go with Disney’s ‘Scarecrow of Romney Marsh’ as the lead cover feature. Nevertheless, these leads plus lesser lights – ‘Seaspray’? ‘Run, Buddy, Run’? – provided ample entertainment for the young readership, though it could be argues that the multitude of Disney cartoon strips brought the reading age down a bit. Despite its quality, Solo never achieved very wide circulation, and copies are seldom seen – particularly with the free gift – the Amazing Solar Saucer! (or, bit of spinning circular plastic, as we call it.) This copy of #1 is in VG condition, with minor spine weakness precluding higher grade, and the Solar Saucer, though the disc is present, is missing its accompanying launcher (see picture). This uncommon collectable can be yours for £95. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

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:
*Magazines/Books About Vintage US Comics
and in our American/British section:
*Mad & Other Parody
and in our British section:
*Annuals
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics  (E-G)
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: For the last 10 months, we’ve been privileged to present one of the best Batman collections ever to pass through our hands, and we conclude this week with the choicest items of them all! For the final instalment of Batmania Max, we offer a very special selection of Golden Age Batman issues, each one featuring his favourite nemesis, the Joker! Ranging from 1944 to 1949, these vintage issues each have a Joker story, and three of the five feature eyecatching Joker covers. In a remarkable state of preservation for their years, these items present the Dynamic Duo’s classic clashes with the Harlequin of Hate, plus early appearances by the Jokermobile, the Jokerplane, and the Joker-Signal! Other highlights of this selection include the first appearance of the Mad Hatter, the debut of Vicki Vale, historic time-travels to the days of the Three Musketeers and the Arabian Nights, and Batman among the mermaids! We open with Batman #23 FN £900; then we have #32 VG £215, #37 VG £375, #49 VG+ £475 (full disclosure: this one isn’t actually the Joker, but his Arabian Nights equivalent, the Crier – but isn’t it a gorgeous cover?) and #53 VG+ £200. All five are illustrated below (left to right), but further details about the condition may be obtained from our catalogue listings. Given their antique status, these are beautiful copies, and the prices reflect not only their rarity but their relatively high grades. And so we wave goodbye to Batmania Max, until the Bat-Signal lights the skies over Putney once more…