*DC: Although Deadman shot to comics fame under the artistic hands of Neal Adams in later issues of Strange Adventures, his actual first appearance in #205 was drawn by the no-less capable (in this writer’s opinion) Carmine Infantino. This unique character has gone on to be a regular DCU star. Our debut issue is a VG pence stamped copy at £58, with just edge and spine wear but no significant defects. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: Our celebration of Marvel’s Silver Age female characters continues this week with the first appearance of Medusa in Fantastic Four #36. The first Inhuman to appear in the Marvel Universe, Medusa was presented here as a mystery woman of unknown origin in command of her ‘living’ hair, and recruited by the Wizard into his fledgling Frightful Four. This decent copy is pence stamped with minor spine and edge wear, VG+ at £65. Next week, Marvel XX Month concludes, with another villainess turned heroine!   

*Marvel: 17 low grade issues of Avengers added to our stock this week between #6 and #100, including the following key issues: #6 (1st Zemo & Masters Of Evil), #9 (1st Wonder Man), #13 (1st Count Nefaria), #28 (1st Collector), #52 (1st Grim Reaper), #53 (Avengers Vs X-Men), #54 (1st cameo Ultron), #59 (1st Yellowjacket), #69 (1st brief Squadron Sinister), #93 (Neal Adams art on Giant issue) and #100 (Barry Smith art on Anniversary issue). Take a look at our catalogue for prices on these low grade (mostly GD or lower) copies and you’ll be amazed at how affordable these highly desired issues can work out! 

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Dozens of new copies in of Warren’s seminal 1970’s horror magazine Eerie, home to many of the best artists of the time, inc. Frazetta, Toth, Adams, Ditko, Corben, Wrightson, Williamson, Sutton, Starlin… the list goes on! Issues added to our catalogue as early as #3 and as late as #117, all filling gaps in our inventory. 

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: We are delighted this week to add a #1 issue of the very long-lived Boys’ title Victor to our stock. Over 40 years of war and adventure starts right here with the issue for 25th February 1961. Although perhaps primarily known as a war-themed title, Victor was also home to such adventure strips as Morgyn the Mighty and Tough of the Track. The most famous strip to debut in #1 was ‘I Flew With Braddock’ by Keith Stone. This copy is graded as Good and priced at £60. Some foxing at spine; many minor edge tears and the odd small ink stain at edges only; tanned covers but page quality not too bad. Book centre stamp on cover. Not a comic we see very often at all! SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A chunky update this week for Scorcher, one of the premier football themed titles from the 1970’s and home to such strips as Billy’s Boots, Sub by Ken Reid, Royal’s Rangers, Paxton’s Powerhouse and many more. We cover in this update the entire gamut from 1970 (from #2) and the amalgamation with Score in 1971 right through to the penultimate year of 1973, with dozens of issues added either filling gaps in our stock or offering alternative graded copies.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A real cross-section of titles in this category this week, with one or more of the following: Air War Picture Stories, Battle, Battlefield #1 (pictured) & #2, Buster Adventure, Combat, Commando, Fleetway Stupendous & Secret Agent, Lion, Picture Stories Of WW2, Pocket War, Sabre War Stories, Sea War, Starblazer (from #2), Super Detective (several Rip Kirby), Thriller, Totem, TV Picture Stories, War, Wild West and World War.  

*Humour Comics: In 1965, Buster, itself still a tabloid publication at that time, merged with the even larger Big One, the short-lived gigantic comic that folded after just 19 issues. We have the merger issue 27/2/65 in VG/FN at £20 (pictured), together with over a dozen more issues of Buster & The Big One from March to August 1965. Consult our catalogue for full details.

*Girls’ Comics: This week, a Poptastic! selection of classic Girls’ pop and romance comics from 3 decades: Cherie from the 60’s, Go Girl from the 60’s, Marilyn from the 50’s and 60’s, Mirabelle from the 50’s and 60’s and Valentine from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. These comics, full of romance strips, pop features and other items of interest for teenage girls of the time are great nostalgia fests and always sell quickly when we get them! A choice few are shown below:

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.

*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

*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

*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.  

*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.

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.

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

*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.

*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!

*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.  

*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.

*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.

*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!

*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!

*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.