*Annuals: More stock for our ever-popular Annuals section, with the jewel in the crown being the Doctor Who Annual for 1968 (the copyright date, which is our policy for Annuals which don’t carry a year on the cover; it’s also known as the 1969 Annual). This is more highly sought-after than most because it features not only the Patrick Troughton iteration  of the Doctor with his actual TV companions, Jamie and Victoria, but also because it also cover-features the Cybermen, who are second only to the Daleks as the Doctor’s greatest nemeses. This copy is in sound shape, with moderate corner and edge wear to cover and spine, but with an unclipped original price, and no owner/gift inscription. Graded GD at £50. Other entries this update are Star Trek (1978), Warlord (1984), X-Men (1996), Ripley’s Believe It or Not (1974 and 1975), Debbie (1981), and a pair of TV Favourite Comic Annuals from 1958 and 1959, featuring popular Western stars Lone Ranger, Matt Dillon, Roy Rogers, Rex Allen and Rin-Tin-Tin!

*TV & Film Related Comics: A small update to a few titles in this very popular category: the first issue of Chips from 1982, based on the Channel 4 TV show of the same name for little kids, Look-In from 1979 with the 1st Dick Turpin strip, several Marvel UK Planet Of The Apes all featuring the Apeslayer strip (inc. the 1st Apeslayer appearance in #23), and TV Comic, 1 from 1958 and 4 from 1982.

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: With this week’s CSD spotlight, we turn our attention once again to the fairer sex, with updates to three series: the obscure Girls’ Diary from 1964, a short-lived entry in the genre, the first three issues new in plus #8 (#1 pictured); School Friend, a more famous name, from its 1962 premiere issue (pictured), featuring the adventures of WWII resistance girl Linette, My Friend Sara, fashion model Tracy, and others; and Micron’s Schoolgirl’s Story Library, a text companion to their Adventure Library series, with a handful of early issues – we would tell you the year of publication, but apparently Micron though copyright dates were for sissies! With titles like “The Blue Lagoon”, “Typhoon!”, “Thunder Island”, and “Mystery Girl at Fairburn”, you’re guaranteed the usual heady mix of exotic foreign travel and boarding-school intrigue. Full details in our catalogue.

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:
*Charlton
*Dell
*Gold Key/Whitman
*Harvey
*IW/Super
*Miscellaneous 1940-1959
and in our British section:
*Girls’ Comics (M-Z)
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: A small run of DC’s try-out title Showcase featuring the following characters: Tommy Tomorrow, Dr Fate & Hourman (#55 FN £55), Teen Titans (#59 VF+ £110), Inferior Five (inc 1st app in #62), Angel & The Ape (1st app in #77), Firehair, the New Doom Patrol, Power Girl, Hawkman & the 100th Anniversary issue.

*Marvel: Uncanny X-Men #141 and #142, towards the end of Claremont and Byrne’s hugely popular run on Marvel’s Merry Mutants, a two-part story featured an adult Kitty Pryde travelling back in time to her own teenage years, to prevent her own dystopian future, in which Mutants were interned in prison camps or hunted to death by Sentinels, from coming to pass. This powerful story was already a sought-after two-parter, but its popularity (and value!) skyrocketed after the release of the X-Men film, “Days of Future Past”, which adapted the narrative to the big screen (though, it must be said, Wolverine was very unconvincing in the role of Kitty Pryde…). These are now back in stock – though not, we suspect, for long – with #141 VF- £40 and #142 VF- £35. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: A cult newspaper strip in the 1940’s, Sparky Watts is all but forgotten today, but this everyman super-hero – who preferred fighting crime and having bizarre adventures in a comfy cardigan-and-slacks ensemble, rather than the traditional tights – is one of the more imaginative creations of the 1940’s. Written and drawn by Boody Rogers, Sparky’s newspaper strip adventures ran in Columbia Comics’ Big Shot anthology since 1941, and he was launched in his own four-issue series in 1942. After an hiatus for that pesky WWII – during which Rogers was on active service – Rogers returned to draw all-new segments for Big Shot and for a further six issues of Sparky’s own series, during which things got really weird! Rogers is best remembered for the outré “female Li’l Abner on acid” strip, Babe, but Sparky’s adventures into wacky realms were just as distracting and endearing. We have issues #1 & #2 (the premier issue cover-featuring Hitler and Mussolini), and #4-7 of Sparky’s ten-issue solo run. Mild-mannered and bespectacled, yet irresistible to the ladies, Sparky shrinks into microscopic realms, revives the dead, ventures into space, and everywhere finds shapely ladies who’re warm for his form! (Even if their shapes are sometimes a little bit unusual…)

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: A couple of dozen or more of Warren’s seminal horror magazine Creepy fresh in between #14 & #96. Such is the fame of this publication, that it needs little hype from us here, since new stock of Warren magazines is a beacon for  many collectors with its superior selection of stories and moody black and white (and occasionally colour) art.

*Marvel UK: New stock from the House of Idea’s British outpost, mainly focussing around Avengers (selection from #83-127) and Spider-Man Weekly from #81, all the way to #636 (and a 1996 Special!) including several ‘Super Spider-Man & Captain Britain’ issues, without which no Brian Braddock collection is truly complete. No, really. Also, light dabs of Mighty World of Marvel (around #200). Fantastic Four (second series), Super-Heroes, and Spider-Man and Zoids.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: It’s the final selection of Westerns from our CSD: Putney event as we saddle up with a whole posse of popular Picture Libraries embracing the Wild West mythology – Micron’s Cowboy Adventure Library #5 and Western Adventure Library from #16 to #33, World Distributors’ Picture Story Pocket Western, featuring heroes such as Tim Holt and Wyatt Earp, a whole parcel of Pecos Bill from 1963’s issue #4 through to #25, the Australian-distributed Silhouette Western Library ranging from #2 to #14, and Fleetway’s Wild West Picture Library and Lone Rider PL #2 (pictured) from 1961. Although that completes our CSD Putney pure Westerns, there will still be more Western adventures to come in this event where they are part of a more generic title, such as Top Three, Thriller PL or Valiant PL, all in the near future.

*Humour Comics: Another update for the most famous British humour comic of them all, with more than 30 Beanos new in from 1975 and 1976, mostly in GD and VG with a few FN.

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’ Comics (Titles beginning with G-L)
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Marvel: A scintillating sextet of Spider-sagas from the early Steve Ditko illustrated years this update, with issues #21-23, and #26-28, all in high grades with a vivid cover colour and superb lustre and gloss that belies their vintage. To be specific: #21 VFp £175, #22 FN/VF £135, #23 FNp £85, #26 FN+ £115, #27 FN/VFp £125, and #28 FN+ p £225. This selection includes two debuts for Spidey’s Rogue’s Gallery: the pulchritudinous plunderer, Princess Python, joins the already-extant Circus of Crime in issue #22, and the malevolent Molten Man makes his move in #28. This striking selection of high-grade copies is highly collectable, and we anticipate early demand.

*Alan Class Reprints: An event new to our listings for 2017 is what we’re calling ‘Marvellous Alan Class Reprints’. In recent years, much collector attention has been paid to those issues of Alan Class comics that reprint early Marvel Silver Age issues, and prices on them have risen accordingly as more collectors are seeking them out. So, from time to time, we will be listing selections of Alan Class comics that feature such reprints, starting this week with the reprints of four early issues of Strange Tales, two featuring the Human Torch and two with the Torch and Dr Strange. Creepy Worlds #64 (VG £15) reprints Strange Tales #121, Creepy Worlds #65 (VG £15) reprints Strange Tales #105, Secrets Of The Unknown #62 (FA/GD £12) reprints Strange Tales #120 and the post-decimal Sinister Tales #136 (FN+ £7.50) reprints Strange Tales #102. This event will run intermittently throughout the early part of this year and concurrently with our Alan Class Reprints Redux event which features new certificated copies of Alan Class issues and with which it will occasionally overlap. It’s going to be a big year for Alan Class collectors at 30th Century!

*Western: One of Marvel’s ‘Big Three’ of Western Heroes is refreshed this update, with new issues added to our stock from 1963’s #64 to 1968’s #92, with Matt Hawk, crusading lawyer, taking up the masked identity of the Two-Gun Kid to tackle outlaws beyond the reach of the law. Dick Ayers, Don Heck and Ogden Whitney were among the prominent artists on this run, which began with #60 (when the previous iteration of the Two-Gun Kid was revealed to be a dime-novel hero who ‘inspired’ young Mr. Hawk) and ran until 1977, though the series became largely reprint after 1970. In the years in question, though, Two-Gun followed in the footsteps of Rawhide Kid and Kid Colt in fighting a series of increasingly fantastic menaces, including many proto-supervillains such as Goliath,  the Rattler, and the Silver Sidewinder. Later (much later), Two-Gun was integrated into the Marvel Universe proper, in Avengers and She-Hulk, so every true Marvelite has to load up their saddlebags with his adventures!

From time to time, we have to make decisions to discontinue certain titles from our stock for reasons of space. Such is the case with the classic Story Paper incarnation of Girls’ Crystal. Girls’ Crystal, which started out as ‘The Crystal’ for its first 9 issues in 1935 and existed as a Story Paper (i.e. a compendium of text stories with illustrations) until 1953 when it was rebranded as a sequential art comics strip comic. Stories such as ‘The Cruising Merrymakers,’, ‘The Schoolgirl Detective’, ‘Bunty & The Gay Cavalier’, ‘The Mystery Boy Of Castaway Isle’ and countless more thrilled at least a couple of generations of schoolgirls. 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 approx. 250 issues (between 1941 & 1952) at a bargain price of just £25 (a £400 value) to the first person to order them. Grades range from Poor to Very Good. NB They don’t come bagged and boarded (as our normal stock does) and if the buyer wants them posted to a UK address, the postage cost would be an additional £17 (if you’re outside the UK, we’ll quote you for postage). We don’t want to throw them away, so we hope this limited-time offer will see them relocated in a good home! First come, first served — the first person to pay for them gets them! SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Marvel: The Black Panther’s series in Jungle Action, which attracted a lot of acclaim at the time, was known for being verbose, introspective, reflective and philosophical. When Jack Kirby took over as writer and artists on T’Challa’s follow-up solo series, however, the results were… a considerable contrast. Shouting! Explosions! Aliens! Time-Travel! Burly ladies with black lipstick! Cosmic critters! All were here, and all playing at full volume all the time, in the crazed kinetic frenzy that Kirby was renowned for, as the King of Wakanda faced off against the Six-Million Year Man, King Solomon’s Frog, the sinister Agents of Kiber, Yetis, Samurais, and other bizarre menaces. Owing to one of Jolly Jack’s ongoing creator disputes with Marvel, he departed the series abruptly with #12, and other hands brought the outstanding plot-threads to a conclusion with #15. We have virtually the entire series (lacking only #11) new in in high grades. Klimb aboard for Kirby Kraziness!

*Marvel UK: We’re delighted to announce the conclusion, for now, of our massive re-evaluation of the British Marvel section of our catalogue. Whereas many numbers had previously been flat-rated and ungraded, the increase in interest of recent years has prompted us to bring our Marvel UK stock up to the same standard as you’ve come to expect from the rest of our inventory, with accurate grades. With the refurbishment of the ‘final five’ titles, Marvel Team-Up, Punisher, Secret Wars, Super-Heroes and Titans, our Marvel UK stock is comprehensively graded for your collecting convenience!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: An unusual addition to our CSD: Putney event this week, as Pearson’s TV Picture Stories Library featured both cowboys and detectives, alongside other TV favourites – though as far as we’re aware, no schoolgirls – on a regular basis: New comic-strip stories featured popular TV heroes of the day, some well-remembered (“Charlie Chan”, “Highway Patrol”, “Dixon of Dock Green”, “Adventures of Robin Hood”) and some of which would draw blank looks from anyone under 60 (“Murder Bag”, “OSS”, “Sword of Freedom”). We have added ten new items to our inventory, numbers ranging from #4 to #36, and have also added numbering information for our existing stock which was previously missing from our listings. Thrill to Charlie Chan in “The Sweater!” (gasp), join the Highway Patrol in the mystery of “The Stolen Brain” and watch the TV (so it looks like) with the cast of Dixon Of Dock Green!

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980’s: Dozens of issues of Marvel’s vampire saga fresh in this week. This selection of Marv Wolfman’s and Gene Colan’s horror magnum opus is a tale of two halves: issues from #8 – #29 (#10 is not included) are mostly low grade and very affordable pence copies, whereas from #41 onwards (complete to the final issue #70), the average grade is VF/NM, and all are cents copies. A chance for collectors of high grade material to acquire copies not often seen as nice as this. Please consult our catalogue for full details.

*Marvel: Another one of our very popular sweeps through the Marvel Silver & Bronze Ages, this time adding Astonishing Tales #25 (FN+ p £20 1st Deathlok), Daredevil (inc #81 Black Widow joins & #100), a nice graded range of Fantastic Four between #81 & #109 (cents copies), Hulk Annual #7 (John Byrne), a consecutive run of cents copy Strange Tales from #121 to #125 featuring the Torch & Thing and Dr Strange, Thor and the X-Men (inc #100).

Due to major disruption to public transport in London today we are finding it difficult to complete the journey to the shop. Please bear with us, as we hope to open soon, and accept our apologies if you have been inconvenienced.

We’re pleased to announce that the shop is now open. Thanks for you patience.

*DC: Our second Batmania Max instalment this week features one of the most influential one-shots of the 1980’s, themselves a transformative decade for the comics medium. The Killing Joke had humbler beginnings, having been intended originally just to be a regular Batman Annual. As the months crept on and it became evident illustrator Brian Bolland wasn’t going to get the job done in time, (shocked face), plans were altered and it became one of the earliest Prestige Format one-shots – and in so doing, gained a place in comics history. Alan Moore’s script explored and redefined the origin of the Joker, and kicked off a chain of controversial events which transformed Barbara Gordon, the then-retired Batgirl, into the covert intelmeister Oracle, a pivotal figure in the DC Universe. Bolland’s illustrations are superb; Alan Moore’s script is generally highly acclaimed, and the whole package is acknowledged as hugely significant in the ‘maturing’ of comics. This copy is in a superlative VF/NM condition, with only the most minute signs of wear at the corner preventing a NM grade. Yours for £50.

*Marvel: Despite the Human Torch & Thing combo valiantly clinging to top billing in Strange Tales by this point, everybody who mattered knew that Lee & Ditko’s Doctor Strange was the real selling point of the title, and that appeal was only sharpened when issue #126’s Doctor Strange mini-epic introduced not only the Dread Dormammu, who was to become Strange’s greatest foe, but also the then-nameless Clea, who was to become Strange’s greatest love and partner-in-mystic-peril (well, except when she’s occasionally mad. Or dead. Or evil. Hey, it’s the Marvel universe…) This highly desirable double debut is a pence-stamped copy with lovely deep purple background colour, still vivid and unbroken. The narrow gap between the logo and the cover’s top edge has raised the question of trimming, but we see no evidence of that, and online image searches disclose most, if not all, other copies have the same logo placement. Offered in FN- at £85.