*Annuals: A new range of Girls’ Annuals in stock from the 1970’s and 1980’s, including examples of the following titles: Blue Jeans, Bunty, Debbie, Jackie, Judy, June, Mandy & Misty.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Continuing our massive Valiant update, we hit the full year of 1966, which featured two important series debuts. In the issue of the 25th June, highwayman adventurer ‘Jack O’Justice’ was replaced by his own great-great-great grandson, ‘Jack Justice’, with Diana Dauntless standing in for Jack’s ‘girl comrade’ Moll Moonlight, as the pair investigated modern-day mysteries in a series clearly intended to evoke the Avengers TV series. Even more significantly, the 8th October – not the 29th, as some references would have you believe – brought us the first episode of ‘House of Dolmann’, wherein an eccentric genius created an army of super-powered puppets with whom he ‘conversed’ via ventriloquism while using their abilities to fight crime. The defining line between ‘hero’ and ‘nutjob’ was always a wee bit more tenuous on this side of the Atlantic! Questions about his mental stability notwithstanding, ‘House of Dolmann’ was a huge hit with the readers and ran almost without a break until 1974. This year also featured Valiant’s relaunch as a 44-page weekly, as opposed to the previous 40, and for eight issues from the 30th April it also featured pull-out supplements which built into the ‘Valiant Book of Football’. These are often missing in second-hand copies, but present in all our new additions.

*DC: Of all the titles one could have confidently predicted avoiding a sudden price hike, Shazam!, the 1970’s revival of the original Captain Marvel, would have topped most lists. With respectable but low-impact stories by craftsmen such as co-creator C.C.Beck, Elliott Maggin, Bob Oksner, E.Nelson Bridwell and Kurt Schaffenberger, it seemed fated to drop few pebbles in the speculator’s pond … and then there was not a pebble, but a Rock. Mr. ‘The Rock’, a professional grappler turned thespian, was signed to ‘be’ Black Adam, nemesis of the Captain, in a future cinematic blockbuster, and even before pre-production, issue #28, in which Black Adam makes his first post-Golden Age appearance, started to spiral in price. We have a very nice Fine cents copy available with only a couple of minor defects: a small ballpoint ’35c’ written above the printed price, and a tiny amount of wear on the lower 3mm of the spine. With good page quality and excellent cover colour and gloss, it’s offered at £50. And if that seems ridiculous to you for a comic from the mid-1970’s, well, we don’t disagree – but just look at what people are asking for it on eBay!

*Marvel: A high grade cents copy run of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, complete from #125-165, including the debut of Patsy Walker, Hellcat in #144 VF/NM at £35. A great period for the Avengers this, recovering from the doldrums of the Bob Brown years post issue #100, with much art by George Perez and memorable storylines from Steve Englehart, among a bunch of other good creators. Looking through these to grade them, I was reminded of how much I enjoyed them first time round!

*Marvel UK: A nice update to the 1st series of Captain Britain, the Marvel UK original series, between issues #3 and #25. As time goes by, this series gets more and more popular, and we’ll have lots more Cap through our hands in the weeks to come.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: By 1970, the long-running weekly Tiger was extensively spotlighting sports stories, with the eternal Roy of the Rovers cover-swapping with racing driver Skid Solo and redskin wrestler Johnny Cougar. A chunky update to our stocks for the year 1970, all additions previously missing from our listings.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Our huge Valiant trek continues as we reach 1965, with nearly every issue for that year represented, including New Year, Easter, Fireworks (pictured) and Christmas issues. The only significant debut that year is Jason Hyde. Mostly in decent GD/VG condition. Another big chunk of Boys’ Adventure weighing down our shelves (but probably not for long), with much more to come.

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

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: You know how it is, you wait around for ages for one, and then two turn up at once! A Rara Avis of the comic world this, the forerunner of the Lion Summer/Holiday Special which started in 1968, this extra-thick one-off from 1967 didn’t actually feature any of the Lion regulars, but rather adaptations and articles on ‘the Greatest Films Ever Made’, as the cover boasts. These include Thunderbirds Are Go, Batman, The Lost World, Tobruk, Quo Vadis, You Only Live Twice and others. Amazingly, this week we have 2 copies new in, in very different grades: firstly a FN/VF example (left), with just very minor spine and edge wear, likely to be the best copy you’ll ever see at £100; the second is GD at £40 (right), a bit more worn with stress at staples and very minor ink marks in four interior locations. You pays yer money and you takes yer choice. We don’t expect either to hang around for very long!

*Horror 1940-1959: A very small update to this section, hardly enough for a fest. 2 Pre-Codes in fact, Atlas’s Marvel Tales #110 & Mystic #24, plus 3 Post Code Charlton Tales Of The Mysterious Traveler with Ditko art: #5, #7 & #11. Getting harder to come by this stuff, but updates here are always well received!

*Marvel: Another sweep through miscellaneous titles of Marvel’s Silver & Bronze Ages. Included this time are: Astonishing Tales (with Ka-Zar & Deathlok), Deadpool Circle Chase, Ghost Rider, Iron Man, Marvel Classics Comics, Marvel Premiere (Iron Fist), Marvel Spotlight (Origin and 1st app. Werewolf By Night in #2, 1st solo Moon Knight in #28, 1st Spider-Woman in #32), Power Man & iron Fist, Strange Tales & X-Men Annual #5.

*TV & Film Related Comics: A very diverse selection from this category, including Doctor Who Magazine plus Winter & 20th Anniversary Specials, Galaxy Rangers, #1 of the Real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK’s Indiana Jones, In The Village (the Prisoner Magazine from #1), Look-In from 1979, The Mask Preview issue from 1986, the Sinbad & The Eye Of The Tiger film adaptation from 1977 and the Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi Summer Special from 1984.

*DC: A complete run of Denny O’Neill and Neal Adams seminal run on Green Lantern (/Green Arrow) from the second issue #77 up to the last #89. The series that defined the Bronze Age of comics with its ‘relevant’ storylines, including the Speedy drugs issues and the 1st appearance of John Stewart. Multiple copies in of many issues, although one set in particular is marred slightly by varying degrees of colour bleed from the front through to the inside front cover; all marked accordingly in our catalogue.

*Humour Comics: Who would have thought that a comic full of crude Northern humour produced originally on an amateur basis in a back bedroom would have gone on to become a national institution? Such is the way with Viz, which remains hugely popular to this day and early issues are highly prized and sought after. We have #18 (pictured) & #19 fresh in, both in sparking NM at £35 each, along with a handful of later issues.

*Gold Key/Whitman: The United Network Command For Law & Enforcement is a personal favourite here at 30th Century, and we’re very pleased to have several issues of Gold Key’s Man From UNCLE (which ran contemporary with the TV series) fresh into stock. Featuring variable artistic versions of Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, these form an essential part of UNCLE collectors’ memorabilia. We also have #1 of the Girl From UNCLE with rather nice Al McWilliams art and, as a bonus, the one and only issue of Jet Dream and Her Stunt Girl Counterspies (careful how you say that). Jet Dream and her team of international ‘acrobeauts’ appeared as a back-up feature in many issues of the Man From UNCLE, and she was awarded just one issue of her own series. Open Channel D and get your orders in now!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: We continue our significant Valiant overhaul with almost a complete year of Valiant from 1964 new to our listings. (just a couple of issues missing). Most copies are at least Good condition, with many Very Good and a few falling as low as Fair. This favourite Boy’s weekly was well into its stride by now, and debuts in 1964 included the Wild Wonders, Charlie Peace (who, peculiarly after his debut in Valiant transferred to Buster) and, in the same historic issue dated 26/9/64 (pictured), both Mytek the Mighty and Legge’s Eleven. We’ll be back with 1965 as soon as possible!

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.

*TV & Film Related Comics: Our big Gerry Anderson series of updates continues with dozens of new issues in of TV Century 21 (1st series) between #78 & #221, in a variety of grades, but mostly very nice; includes very many issues previously missing from our listings. The enduring appeal of the Gerry Anderson puppet characters, combined with the superior standards of this publication, both in terms of artistic quality and production values, have kept this series at the forefront of British comic collecting for decades. Watch soon for both TV 21 2nd series and Lady Penelope updates.

*Marvel: From 1969, the 18th issue of Marvel’s ‘try-out’ title, Marvel Super-Heroes, with the first (and for several years, only) appearance of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Created by Arnold Drake, illustrated by Gene Colan, this offbeat science-fiction story was a little too offbeat for the Marvel readership of the day, and the battle of Martinex, Yondu, Charlie-27 and Vance Astro against the nefarious Badoon, Conquerors of Earth, seemed destined to remain untold. But Steve Gerber revived the characters as guest-stars, and they returned throughout several series until, with a completely different line-up, they hit the big screen in 2014. This is the one that started the series’ long odyssey, and this VG/FN copy is now available for £65.

*Marvel: Grant Morrison’s re-invention of the secondary X-Men title took comics fandom by surprise in 2001, rebranding it “New X-Men” and, together with primary artist Frank Quitely, giving us startling and inventive stories which, unlike his JLA run, didn’t usually piddle away into an anticlimactic conclusion. Ordinarily, a series published in the current century would be beyond our catalogue’s remit, but exception is made here for two issues which have attracted unusual attention. Issue #115 (the second of the run), which featured the first appearance of Negasonic Teenage Warhead, a breakout star thanks to her appearance (in substantially different form) in the Deadpool movie; and #128, which introduced the enigmatic anti-hero Diabolik – er, we mean, Fantomex. Both issues are Near Mint, #115 at £20, #128 at £25.

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:
*Miscellaneous 1940-1959
and in our British section:
*Younger Readers’ Comics
and in our Books Section:
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Marvel/Younger Readers’ Comics: The Titan And The Tot! The Comics world has been stunned this spring by news of the latest planned movie blockbuster, the Thanos/Twinkle team-up. The world may not have been ready, but 30^th Century Comics were. It is little known that, back before Iron Man #55 and Twinkle #1, the first appearances of these two seminal characters was in this ultra-rare Anglo-American collaboration. Scrapped before publication, it is believed that only a handful of file copies survive. We’re delighted to offer this outstanding example of the elusive and highly sought after first issue (#-273) featuring the Towering Titan and  the Teeny Tot. Even better, like fine wine it has improved with age and is graded as ESM (that’s Extra Super Mint, folks) or 11.0. More images and further details can be found here.

*Humour Comics: Hundreds of new issues for our listings of the UK’s premiere Humour title Beano, ranging from 1963 all the way to 1994. Christmas issues, Easter issues, promotional flyers galore, as well as a couple of free gifts in later issues. Mostly in very affordable low-mid grade. Also featured in this update are the first strips of such series as Pup Parade, Tom, Dick & Sally, Ball Boy and Sweet Sue.