*DC: A small selection of issues of Brave & Bold, from its relatively brief life as a try-out title between a high adventure series and a Batman team-up series. We have a couple of appearances of the original Suicide Squad (#38 & #39) with Rick Flag, a couple of the magnificent Joe Kubert Hawkman try-outs (#43 & #44), a couple of Strange Sports Stories (#46 & #47), the 1st Teen Titans by name and 1st Wonder Girl in #60, the superb Starman/Black Canary team-ups in #61 & #62 (personal favourites here), and an early non-Batman team-up in #73 (Aquaman & Atom). Check our catalogue for grades and prices.

*Marvel: Literally, in this case, the Marvel Super-Heroes ‘tryout’ title that flourished for a couple of years in the late 1960’s, which we turn to for this week’s entry in our third party graded Slab Happy event. This extra-thick squarebound presented new concepts to a waiting audience – backed up by vintage reprints! Issue #13, the second in the showcase format, presented the second appearance of Captain Marvel, the Space-born warrior from the Kree Empire – but more importantly, at least in retrospect, it featured the first appearance of Carol Danvers – then a mere security chief, but later Ms. Marvel, and herself current holder of the Captain Marvel title. Issue #18, meanwhile, gave us the first (and for half a decade, only) appearance of the Guardians of the Galaxy, extraterrestrial adventurers banded together to liberate Earth from the all-conquering Badoon in the 31st Century. A failure at the time of launch, the Guardians went on to have a successful career in the 1980’s and 1990’s, before a radically different line-up was concocted for the cinematic version. #13 is a CGC Blue Label 7.0 (FN/VF) at £225; #18 is PGX 8.5 (VF+) at £350.

*Marvel: From the dawn of the 21st Century, one of Marvel’s more recent cult hits – Alias #1, which introduced the world to chain-smoking, swearing, hard-drinking, fornicating private eye, Jessica Jones! Originally pitched by Brian Michael Bendis as a proposal for an ‘adult’ series starring Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, the management’s aneurysm when presented with the idea, so it was switched out for a ‘new’ character, and with the illustrations of Michael Gaydos, the adventures of a former failed super-heroine illuminated the darkened corners of the Marvel Universe, gathering rave reviews and critical acclaim – though, sadly, not that much in the way of sales, as her adventures trickled to a halt after just 28 issues. With her folding back in to the mainstream MU as Mrs. Luke Cage – and the debut of her Netflix TV show – Jessica’s early adventures, never with huge print runs, are now keenly hunted. This premiere issue from 2001 is in NM/M, and offered for £75.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Our Free Gift Farrago this week is a pair of Victor issues, from 1972 and 1973, with their original bonus items. Number #575 is a VG copy of the famous boys’ adventure and war weekly, with the free gift (a plastic “Super Stars of ’72” wallet with 8 soccer images) in FN – generally attractive shape, but the wallet has a slight spine split. Issue #625 is only Good, the main drawback being mild insect damage at lower spine, but its gift of stick on soccer pictures (Or “Stars on Stick-Pix”, as the cover has it) is VF. #575 is £9, #625 is £7.50 – bargainaceous!

*Marvel: Dozens of issues of Amazing Spider-Man freshly added to our stocks this week, including very many issues previously missing from our listings. Numbers range from #46 through to #241, in a variety of grades and a cents/pence copies mix. Highlights include #100 (pictured) VF pence at £75 and #101 (1st Morbius) VG pence at £35. Many other villain debut issues as well, alongside the second Punisher appearance in #135.

*Horror 1940-1959: It’s been a while since we’ve tickled your fancies with some classic horror, but just a morsel this week. Mainly post code, with Adventures Into The Unknown and Forbidden Worlds from ACG, 3 issues of Harvey’s seldom seen Alarming Tales from the late 1950’s, and, star of this show, Atlas’s Mystic #28 in all its Pre-Code g(l)ory, sporting a classic corpse-on-the-slab cover, pictured here. VG at £57.

*DC: One of DC’s classic Silver Age adventure series was Cave Carson, the underground explorer and adventurer. Cave’s ‘gang’ included the usual four person set-up so popular at the time of the leader and brains (Cave himself, of course), his less smart but strong best friend (Bulldozer Jones), his love interest (Christie Madison) and, unusually, the role of love interest’s younger brother was here strangely split between Cave’s rival for Christie’s affections (Johnny Blake) and Lena the Lemur! Cave & chums never made it to a regular series, but went through 8 pilot try-outs in Brave & Bold and Showcase, more stories than many ongoing series! New in we have 3 Brave & Bold issues and 3 Showcase issues, all lowish grade and a very affordable dose of high (or in this case low) adventure!

*Girls’ Comics: Judy, one of DC Thomson’s longest-lived girls’ weeklies, is restocked this week with close to 150 issues from the years 1975 to 1979, previously very poorly represented in our inventory! Laugh along with ‘Bobby Dazzler’ and ‘Wee Slavey’! Thrill at ‘The Survivours’, and ‘Dangerous Days For Diana’! Cringe at the excruciatingly bad ‘pop portraits’ on the front cover in ’76 and ’77! A microcosm of girls’ life in the decade that taste forgot!

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: To this ever popular section this week we’ve added Marvel’s Savage Sword of Conan – 40+ issues, all new to our listings, including many later, post #100 issues, seldom seen on these shores.

*Marvel: “Can you guess why Daredevil is different from all other crimefighters?”, enquired the cover of DD’s debut issue. Well, judging by his first garish costume, one might well have thought it designed by someone sightless – but that sartorial garishness didn’t detract from the energy of DD’s origin, as related by Stan Lee and Bill Everett. Sadly, personal conflicts caused artist Everett to withdraw after the first issue, and the title was visually rudderless until Wally Wood took over with issue #5, bringing a slick, cosmopolitan look to Daredevil’s Manhattan-based adventures which perfectly matched the spirit of the era. He also, mercifully, redesigned DD’s outfit into the ‘red devil’ onesie we all know and love. The first ten of DD’s run are new in, all cents copies, in mid to high grades; issue #1 (VG- £575) has slight chipping at the cover top right edge, and issue #3 has unfortunately been signed by a previous owner right above the Owl’s throne, but these minor drawbacks preclude a still higher grade for generally very attractive copies. Highlights include the first appearances of the Owl (#3), Killgrave the Purple Man (#4), the Matador (#5), Mr. Fear (#6) and the Stilt-Man (#8), plus the classic issue #7, which not only features an epic clash with the Sub-Mariner, but also the debut of DD’s red outfit. Check out our catalogue for grades and prices on remaining issues. Pictured below are #1-4 plus #7.

*Girls’ Comics: Continuing on from our recent exhaustive Princess update, we are pleased to present the Pan-European girls’ weekly, Princess Tina, from its very first issue in 1967! Although technically a continuation of one veteran title – Princess – and the relative upstart Tina, Princess Tina wasn’t a ‘merger’ in the purest sense, as one title didn’t absorb the other, but both series were retooled to join in the initiative to launch ‘Tina’ as a multi-country weekly, with editions in a number of different languages. With its star features ranging from the distant past (Moira, Slave Girl of Ancient Rome), through the swinging 60’s (Jane Bond, glamorous agent for Wordpol), and the far-flung future (sci-fi trolley-dollies the Space Girls), and backed up by the star power of the first sequential comic-strip adventures of the famous fashion doll ‘Barbie’, the title was a huge hit, both for its slicker production standards and the positive, can-do adventuresses who inhabited its pages. We have 65 issues new in, consecutive from the first issue in September 1967 (Pictured) until almost a year later, and then a light scattering through 1970 and 1971. The overwhelming majority of this original owner collection are in a sound attractive VG condition, having been read once and put away carefully.

*Marvel: A bafflingly recent item into our inventory this week: in the most recent of the myriad Iron Man series of late, 2016’s Invincible Iron Man #7 introduced us, on its final page, to Riri Williams, the young lady who (it has been announced) will shortly be taking over the mantle of Iron Man. Predictably,  the interweb has gone bananas, with Riri’s first appearance in this issue being offered at stupid prices online. With our typical moderation, we have an issue #7 at a price which is only a bit silly, rather than outright stupid; this NM 1st printing is available for £25. (NB this item is too recent to be listed in our catalogue, so the only place you’ll find it on our site is right here!)

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: The first in a series of updates to Battle Picture Library, one of Fleetway’s big three long-running war-themed titles, alongside Air Ace & War. Starting at the beginning with #1 (January 1961) ‘The Rats Of Tobruk’, we have a VG/FN £90 copy new in (pictured), but also a FA at £30; this update runs through the first 40 issues, which are now all available in a choice of grade in most cases. Check our catalogue for full details. A fine opportunity to fill the gaps in your collection, or indeed start one! Another Battle PL update soon!

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:
*Western
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Marvel: Here’s your chance to grab a key early Marvel issue at a very affordable price! Prince Namor of Atlantis had had a successful career in Marvel’s Golden Age iteration, Timely Comics, as both hero and villain, but despite rumours of a TV show in the 1950’s (and some exquisite Bill Everett art) had sunk without trace by the end of the decade. But when 1961 saw the return of the publisher, now called Marvel, to super-heroics, their flagship title, Fantastic Four, was the first to bring back a piece of Marvel’s history, with the re-introduction of Sub-Mariner in issue #4! At first an amnesiac vagrant, then a vengeful monarch in exile, Namor vowed vengeance on the surface world and all its denizens – except for Sue Storm – well, a guy gets lonely after years in the wilderness… This UK-priced pence copy is graded Poor/Fair, very ragged and with considerable wear; one page has been removed at some point in its life, then taped back in – the original page, to the best of our belief, not a substitution! Nevertheless, it’s a complete and readable copy of an historic issue, offered at £100.

*Humour Comics: This week’s Free Gift Farrago is the second issue of Monster Fun, 1975’s horror-comedy weekly which brought us such enduring series as “X-Ray Specs”, “Draculass”, “Kid Kong”, “Mummy’s Boy”, and a plethora of others. This issue #2 is graded as Good – a sound copy with mild wear and some discolouration due to aging – but the Free Gift, a Spooky Spider Ring, is still VF in its original packaging, never having been assembled! Both comic and gift offered for £40.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Our mammoth Valiant update reaches its conclusion with the years 1971 & 1972; although these years are not as well represented in the Valiant collection we acquired, there are still many issues listed which fill previous gaps in our stock. Plus, as a superb bonus, we have four specials: Summer 1977, Holiday 1978, Holiday 1979 and Summer 1980, all in very nice condition and pictured below. Check our catalogue for grades and prices, but move quickly on these!

*Flash Gordon: A small update to one of the first and arguably most famous space adventurers of them all, with a couple of American issues in the King/Charlton series, #1 of the UK Miller series and the first volume of the UK World Adventure Library digest-sized comic.

*Girls’ Comics: After some delay, we’re finally able to list the final years of our Princess marathon update, with nearly every issue listed for 1966 and 1967, up to the final issue 16/9/67 (pictured), after which it merged with Tina to become Princess Tina. By this time, comic strips were the mainstay of this ‘magazine’, with a superior standard of art to many of its contemporaries and many excellent series, notably Jane Bond, Secret Agent. Christmas, Easter, valentine and April Fool issues all included. Nice condition on these, particularly 1967 which are mostly Fine.

*DC: A much overdue update for DC’s premier science-fiction title, Strange Adventures, between issues #124 & #185. This update spans both the Julius Schwartz edited period (Atomic Knights, Space Museum) and the later Jack Schiff edited period (Animal Man, Enchantress). We’re delighted to say that our personal favourite, space detective Star Hawkins and his glamorous robot secretary  Ilda features in both editors’ periods.

*Marvel: Continuing our select range of CGC (and occasionally other) slabbed and sealed items, we offer a trifecta of Marvel number ones this week, all published in 1968: Iron Man #1 (CBCS graded) 8.5 (VF+) at £560, Sub-Mariner #1 (CGC Universal Blue Label) 8.5 (VF+) at £225, and the first solo issue of the Sentinel of the Spaceways, the Silver Surfer, 9.0 (VF/NM) at £725. We believe that the Surfer #1 would have scored an even higher grade were it not for two fine and faint vertical lines – an effect of the original printing process, not attributable to wear – which run most of the length of the front cover, and we have priced this item to take this into account. Nevertheless, an outstanding example of a squarebound title rare in this condition. More gems from our Slab Happy event next week!

*Girls’ Comics: As we all know, Girls’ comics are rarer than Boys’ (lower print runs in many cases, plus the fact that girls generally didn’t hang on to them); Girls’ comics with Free Gifts are scarcer still, so we’re particularly pleased to visit this category this week in our ongoing Free Gift Farrago with a copy of Tammy #1 (6/2/71) complete with Free Gift. The comics itself is an excellent Fine copy, and the Free Gift is at least VF: a Ring & Bracelet set, not removed for its plastic surrounds and therefore never used, presented in its original wrapper. Tammy was a long-running cornerstone of the Girls’ Comic genre in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and this first issue, presented virtually as it would have come out in 1971, is a real collectors’ item at £120.

*Annuals: In Boys’, all three Starlord Annuals and both Tornado Annuals added to our stock this week, all in high grade VF, plus Tiger 1984 and in TV/Film Related, the seldom seen Marmalade Atkins Annual from 1984.

*DC: This week’s instalment in our Batmania Max event is a complete run of the main Batman title from #351-429, nearly all in very high grade. This celebrated period in the Caped Crusader’s career is bookended by the life of Jason Todd, who first appears in #357 and dies in #428 (don’t think I’m giving away any spoilers there!). Notable events and storylines along the way include another classic Joker cover on #353, the Clown Prince of Crime again starring on the cover of #366, which is also the 1st Jason Todd in Robin costume, the first official Jason Todd as Robin II in #368, the first Black Mask in #386, the giant anniversary #400 issue, Year One by Frank Miller in #404-407, Ten Nights Of the Beast in #417-420 and, of course, A Death In The Family in #426-429; milestones all! More from Batmania Max very soon!