*Marvel: Listen very carefully, we shall say zis only wornce… Okay, we’ll spare you the rest of the cod-Français, but the first two appearances of the ragin’ Cajun, Gambit, have been newly received here at 30th Century Towers. Gambit’s cameo debut as an enigmatic figure in 1990’s X-Men Annual #14, as part of the ‘Days of Future Present’ storyline, was rapidly followed by his premiere in the X-Men proper, as Uncanny X-Men #266 saw him teamed up with the then teenage and powerless Storm, aiding her against the Shadow King. Becoming in the fullness of time an integral part of the team, he has become hugely popular, and enjoyed (if that’s the word) a tragic romance with the untouchable Rogue which has inspired slash-fictioneers the world over! X-Men Annual #14 is NM at £25; Uncanny X-Men #266 is NM/M p at £100.

*Marvel: After the introduction of Him, the cosmically-powered character who would become Warlock, in Fantastic Four series 1, Marvel attempted to follow up with a distaff equivalent in the mid-1970’s; Her, mate of Him (Mother of Them: from Over There. No, not really). The character zig-zagged around the Marvel Universe for a number of years with various names – Paragon and Kismet among them, but it wasn’t until Chris Claremont and Salvador Larocca, in #11 of the third series of Fantastic Four, rechristened her Ayesha and gave her a new kick-ass attitude that anything really ‘took’. Now, under the name of Ayesha, the character has been announced as appearing in the second, upcoming, Guardians of the Galaxy movie, so of course collector interest is now high. Her first appearance in the guise of Ayesha, FF Vol. 3 #11, is new in stock, Near Mint, offered at £20. Because this is such a recent issue – and not expected to remain with us for long – this isn’t entered in the body of our main catalogue, so this is the only place on our website you’ll see it!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In the penultimate stage of our marathon Free Gift Farrago – for now – we have a trio of 1970’s adventure weeklies. The third issue of sci-fi anthology Starlord presents the lucky reader with a ‘Starblast Auto-Starship Battle Log’ (or Battlships game, to us older folks); VF with VF Gift at £20. Victor 818, from 1976, brings us a selection of press-out stand-up figures of famous footballers – mostly not pressed out, though one nameplate has popped out over the decades; comic GD £7.50, Gift VG. And Warlord #1 from 1974 has the original gift of ‘Golden medal’ stickers plus folder – assembled, with the stickers already stuck in. Comic and gift both VG, £30 the pair. Join us next time for the pulse-pounding conclusion of our Free Gift Farrago — and we’ve saved the best till last!

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Twenty+ vintage horror mags new in this week, in the ‘Miscellaneous Publishers’ sub-section – and these are more miscellaneous than most! In the wake of Warren Publications critical and commercial success in the early 1960’s with Creepy and Eerie, restoring the traditional twist-ending horror story to the field by publishing them as magazines (not subject to Comics Code censorship), it was inevitable that imitators would arise. One of the earliest was Eerie Publications, which, under both its own heading and its sibling imprint of Stanley, launched in 1966 with Weird, and became incredibly prolific, with at least a dozen titles and scores of bashed-out mags reprinting pre-Code horror material, re-edited to be even more gory and cheesy than ever! The lurid and miasmatic covers add to the feeling of a bad drug trip, incoherent and garish, giving the series a definite ‘feel’ that was the antithesis of Warren’s carefully-crafted thrillers. New in for your – if this is the right word – enjoyment, we have issues of Ghoul Tales, Horror Tales, Shock, Tales From The Tomb, Tales of Voodoo, Terror Tales, Weird, Weird Worlds and Witches’ Tales. Buy them! Try them! And get ready to recalibrate your definition of schlock!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Following recent significant sales on Fleetway’s premier war title of the 1970’s and 1980’s, Battle, we’re delighted to be able to add dozens of new issues to our stock, including a large number from 1975, the first year of publication, through to 1986.

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: New stock for Fleetway’s Love Story Picture Library from the early 1970’s between #976 and #1154. Less seldom seen, these done-in-one tales of romance feature gorgeous painted covers and appealing interior art, with titles like: ‘Untamed Heart’, ‘Saturday Only Girl’ and ‘Never’s Too Long’ etc. 17 issues just added to our stock.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Just a handful of the larger format Tigers new in this week from 1960/61, but in nice high grade.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: About 20 issues of Lion new in from the following years: 1967, 1969 and 1971, nearly all not previously represented in our listings. Lion remains a constantly top selling title for us and a perennial favourite among our customers.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: We present the finale to our series of updates to Fleetway’s Battle Picture Library, from issues above #100 right through to over #1000, with many dozens of issues added previously missing from our listings. This update is particularly strong on issues between #100 & #150, but we also go right into the second series as well.

*DC: New in, first printings of all four issues of Frank Miller’s dystopian near-future Batman opus, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. One of the seminal works, together with Watchmen and V For Vendetta, which finally persuaded the world, in the 1980’s, that comics really weren’t just for kids any longer, this powerful story has been constantly in print in myriad formats since its publication – but these are the very first editions, in high grades!  #1 VF/NM £50, #2 NM £35, #3 NM £25, and #4 NM- £20, the complete groundbreaking series as it originally appeared!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Eight of the extra-thick Summer/Holiday Specials of Battle, the picture weekly which starred, among others, Johnny Red, D-Day Dawson, The Rat Pack, and Charley’s War! The brainchild of Pat Mills, Battle’s more realistic attitude towards combat strips was such a hit that the first Summer Special launched in the same year – 1975 – of the weekly’s debut! We have that first Summer Special in FN/VF at £22.50, and subsequent Holiday Specials from 1980, 1981, 1985 (during the Battle Action Force amalgam), 1987, two in differing grades from 1988, and 1991, encompassing a huge range of the long-running series’ history. Many in attractive high grades, these weren’t commonplace at the time of release, and are increasingly hard to find as the years roll by. Pictured below: 1975, 1980, 1981.

*DC: A favourite here at 30th Century Towers, 1961’s Brave & Bold #34 saw the introduction of the Silver Age Hawkman (not to overlook his lovely bride Hawkgirl), by scripter Gardener Fox and illustrator Joe Kubert, both of whom had worked with distinction on the character’s 1940’s incarnation. In keeping with the other Silver Age ‘reboots’, Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s origin was thoroughly Space Age this time – visiting police officers from the planet Thanagar, here to study Earth law enforcement while masquerading as co-curators of the Midway City Museum. A refreshingly equal partnership – far from being Hawkman’s sidekick, Hawkgirl was his wife, his partner in life and work, and, many of us believe, actually the smarter of the two – smart enough to let him think he was in charge, at least! One of the best relationships in comics, some of the most inventive and diabolical villains, and sumptuous, beautifully-detailed artwork. Katar and Shayera (or variants thereof) are now co-stars of the DC Legends of Tomorrow TV show, so this is an excellent opportunity to get in on the ground floor of their history! This clean, attractive FN p copy with vibrant cover colour is offered at £280.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: 100 or more issues added to our stock of Victor for the years 1977-1979, all numbers previously missing from our listings. The paper with the ‘Tough of the Track’, as well as many famous sporting, adventure and primarily war stories. Christmas issues present, and many issues with promo flyers for other titles, along with #906 from 1978, the first issue of Victor with Wizard, following the cessation of that other long-running title.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: The second update in our series of restocks for Battle Picture Library covers issues #41-100. Almost all the first hundred issues are now included in a very comprehensive stock for this classic title, in very many cases in a choice of grades and prices. Consult our catalogue for full details.

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 American section:
*Marvel
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: We turn to DC for this week’s instalment of our Slab Happy third party graded extravaganza. The World’s Greatest Super-Heroes, following their successful tryout run in Brave & Bold, gained their own series with Justice League of America #1, in late 1960, and their adventures have remained in print, in one series or another, constantly throughout the intervening decades. We are proud to have added to our stock a PGX graded and sealed copy of Justice League of America #1 – the first time the team clashed with Despero, who was to become one of their arch-enemies – as created by scripter Gardner Fox and artists Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs, with a stellar Murphy Anderson cover. Given the imminent arrival of the Justice League movie franchise, following the successes of the Superman and Batman films, this issue will only accelerate in price in the next few years. This item is graded at 6.5 FN+ and priced at £2,500.

*DC: A further 50 issues added of the Caped Crusader’s main title in our Batmania Max event this week, from #150-199. A period of change this for Batman in the mid-late 1960’s. The aliens and monster dominated stories were fading out as the editorial tenure of Jack Schiff came to a close and #164 ushered in a new ‘more serious’, crime/mystery orientated phase with Julius Schwartz at the helm, with foes old and new more heavily featured. This tied into the spirit of the phenomenally popular Batman TV show which aired at the time, although the comic itself was hardly ever played for laughs or sent up the characters as on the small screen. It was also the period when DC experimented with 80 Page Giants in the regular numbering run, and several times a year we were treated to an evocative mix of classic reprint material from the 1940’s and 1950’s. So, this run has much to recommend it. Sadly, a couple of the most significant issues are not at their best: #171, the 1st Silver Age Riddler, is GD+ only with both staples off; #181 the 1st Poison Ivy, apart from being very low grade, also has the Batman & Robin pin-up missing from the centrefold and, while Ivy’s debut story is complete, the 2nd story is not so. Nevertheless, nice gap fillers for the budget conscious. Many Joker cover and stories in both the old look and new look phases, and of particular note is #168 (pictured), blessed with the binding defect of a double cover, the outer being a sparkling VF/NM (pence) and the inner a totally pristine NM (cents). A true investment copy at £155. All grades and prices may be viewed in our catalogue and next week, Batmania Max continues…

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: While the football magazine Shoot is a bit outside of our remit, having no comics content, occasionally issues do enter our possession – and our newest acquisition is the Tenth Anniversary Special Issue, dating from 25th August 1979. The issue itself is a respectable VG/FN, but it also comes with a set of League Ladders – in VF, still mounted on the original card without any having been punched-out. The mag/gift combo is available for £20.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A trio of scarce Summer/Holiday Specials this update. Victor Summer Special 1973 is an attractive VF at £30, in remarkable preservation; it has been folded once horizontally (as was customary in newsagents’ displays at the time), but is otherwise unmarred, in a vastly superior grade than one normally finds these over-sized editions. Roy of the Rovers Holiday Special 1980 is also VF, and the antic’s of the Mulleted Man from Melchester can be yours for £17.50. And rarest of them all, the one-off Jag Football Special from 1968; the short-lived Jag had very few issues to its name, and this special edition, still riding high on the 1966 World Cup Win, has a token comic strip content but is mostly devoted to articles about the UK’s soccer (and other sporting) triumphs. In VG/FN at £35.

*Marvel: A small update to sundry titles, mostly Fantastic Four between #118 & #183, but also Infinity Crusade, Spectacular Spider-Man and some lowish grade Byrne X-Men: #129, #137 & #138.

*Marvel: More delights from our ‘Slab Happy’ event this week: a brace of significant issues from the early 1970’s: Amazing Spider-Man #’s 121 and 122. In these historic issues, readers were shocked, first by the demise of Spidey’s love interest, Gwen Stacy, at the hands of the Green Goblin – and then, the next issue, the death of the Goblin himself! This being comics, of course, only one of those deaths has been permanent – so far – but nevertheless, they sent shockwaves through fandom at the time, and both remain amongst the highest demand items on very many fans’ wants lists. Both are CGC Universal Blue Labels: Issue #121 is 7.5, a VF- equivalent, while the #122 clocks in at the exceptional and even higher grade of 9.6, or Near Mint Plus. Uncommon in any condition – never distributed over here, so extra-scarce in the UK – and groundbreaking ‘event’ issues. The #121 is offered at £225; the #122, in its superb grade, is £650.

*Marvel: A bit ‘modern’ for us, but nevertheless a significant issue; #2 of the Edge of Spider-Verse series, from 2014, introduced a myriad parallel versions of Spider-Man and his arachnid-irradiated chums, all web-swinging their own ways across a pan-dimensional crossover – but one caught the public’s eye, spinning off into her own series! In one parallel world, it was Gwen Stacy who became Spider-Woman… but now – owing to complications too numerous and tedious to list (Secret Wars….zzzz….coma….), she’s alive and well and active in the mainstream Marvel Universe! Edge of Spider-Verse #2 gave the world its first look at Marvel’s ‘web-stunner’, and prices have been going insane for what was a very limited print-run. This NM first printing is offered at £80.

*DC: For this week’s instalment of our Batmania Max on-going event, we take a sideways step to Brave & Bold, where the Caped Crusader appeared, teaming up with just about everybody in the DCU, more or less continuously from the mid-1960’s up to the end of the title, #200, in 1983. We’ve taken the opportunity to expand our catalogue with this release to take the title right up to the conclusion. So, we’ve added most issues with Batman from #64 upwards, including nearly all the Neal Adams art issues (#79-86 plus #102) and all the Giant and 100 page issues around #100 and later. Every issue in fact is included between #100-200. The earlier issues are a mix of grade and cents/pence copies, but after issue #100, they’re mostly cents, and in remarkable shape, many being NM, NM/M or even M, and many not distributed in the UK and not often seen. Check our catalogue for grades and prices. A selection of Neal Adams art issues pictured below for your delectation, with more to come from Batmania Max next week.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A huge update to our stocks of Victor, the Boys’ paper for ‘War, Sport & Adventure’ with a couple of hundred issues new to our listings between the years 1963 and 1976, with the emphasis on the early 1970’s. This long-lived title remains excellent value for money, coming in at £1.50-£2.50 each.