*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A chunky update for Micron’s Combat Picture Library, several dozen new issues in as early as #5 and as late as #1120. Included is the uncommon Bombers Special from 1961, which is text rather than comics.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Updates to two diverse titles this week: Rover, the long-lived story paper from 1947 through to 1969, over 60 new issues listed previously missing from our stock, plus a selection of Speed from 1980.

*Marvel: A swift return to our site for our Spider-Mania feature, due to a large batch of Spidey incoming. This update: more of Marvel’s most misunderstood crusader, with the Amazing Spider-Man restocked within the 50-200 issue range! The star item this time is a VF copy of issue #121 (£150), with the death of Gwen Stacy, a sought-after issue never distributed in England (curse you, Marvel UK!) Other highlights in this update include clashes with the Punisher and Nightcrawler, the first appearance of the Gwen Stacy Clone, and the debuts of members of Spidey’s Rogues Gallery such as Jigsaw, Schemer, Will O’ The Wisp, the Schemer, Silvermane, and the kuddly Kangaroo! Also present are new copies of Spider-Man’s Annuals from #2 to #8, and a selection of the ND Giant-Size Spider-Man title; Annual #2 (VG+ p £55) is a particularly good example, with both Steve Ditko’s characters showcased with the guest appearance of Dr. Strange.

*DC: From 1960, the debut issue of Green Lantern’s own title, following his three-issue tryout in Showcase. From John Broome and Gil Kane, the universe of the Emerald Guardian expanded with the first appearance of the Guardians of the Universe, the extraterrestrial organization whom the Green Lantern Corps served. GL’s finest nemeses were still mostly in the future at this point, but breathless science-fiction, his other speciality, was well-served in the lead tale, “Planet of Doomed Men”, superbly embellished by Murphy Anderson. This is an unabashed Poor (pence stamped copy at £75), with some interior tears and the covers detached and virtually separated, but complete and all interior pages clear and eminently readable.

*Marvel: We’ve been here before haven’t we? Just in case you don’t know, in the years before the Marvel Universe as we know it was born, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others filled horror/mystery titles such as Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales Of Suspense and Tales To Astonish, predominantly with stories of gigantic creatures, many of whom invariably sported modesty-protecting underpants. We at 30th Century have affectionately coined the term ‘Big Panty Monsters’ for these creations and are delighted to let loose a whole new menagerie of them in a selection from the above titles in low and very affordable grades.

*DC: Several issues of DC’s try-out series from 1975, First Issue Special, fresh in, high grade cents copies. Characters include the Green Team, Metamorpho, Manhunter, the Dingbats Of Danger Street, the Creeper, Dr. Fate, the Outsiders and, in particular, the first appearance in #8 of Mike Grell’s Warlord. With Kirby and Ditko among the artistic hands at the helm on many issues, a series well worth checking out.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Small updates to many popular titles including Action, All-War Summer Special, Champ, Crisis, Dracula, Eagle (1959), Hotspur (1951) and TV Express (1961 – both Christmas issues for that year). Of particular note are two copies in varying grade of the softcover All Worlds Album from the 1950s, reprinting the Swift Morgan story ‘The Feathered Serpent’.

*Marvel: A nice selection new in of everyone’s favourite green giant between #113 and #200; highlights include the first appearances of such foes as The Inheritor, The Harpy and The Wendigo, as well as the 200th Anniversary issue itself. Also included are the Warlock issues #177 & #178.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Substantial updates to three classic Boys’ titles. First up, the story paper Adventure between the years 1946 and 1960; secondly ‘modern’ eagle from 1982 through to a few of the monthly issues from 1993/94; finally Hornet from #2 (1963), right up until its final year in 1975. At around a couple of pounds per issue, these represent great reading value!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: We proudly welcome a complete run of the Fleetway Super Library Front Line series, all 26 issues from 1967 to 1968. Originally published fortnightly, these extra-long digests provided 100+ pages of (as far as we know) all-new adventures, not reprinted from the weekly comics. Like its companion titles in the Fleetway Super Library family (Fantastic/Stupendous and Secret Agent), Front Line alternated its stars, odd-numbered issues featuring “Maddock’s Marauders”, a rag-tag team of international soldiers, and even-numbered copies starring “Sgt. Ironside”, who, to absolutely no-one’s surprise, got the job done while disobeying military rules. Much of this new stock is in surprisingly high grade (given the propensity of the card covers to attract and hoard creases, as collectors know), with the majority being VG to FN, and a few even attaining the coveted VF, almost never given to items in this series.

*DC: Two early appearances of the Silver Age Atom, the Tiny Titan of the DC Universe! Taking his heroic name, but little else, from the Golden Age hero who was basically just a very tough short guy, the 1961 re-imagining of the Atom had young Ray Palmer discover a piece of white dwarf matter and fashion a suit which enabled him to compress his atoms, becoming the World’s Smallest Super-Hero! Scripter Gardner Fox took great delight in finding unusual ways in which the minuscule crusader could turn his short stature to advantage, and Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson kept artistic pace, with each page crammed with delightful and imaginative layouts. Now that the character (in inevitably altered form) is a regular on the Flash TV show, folks are starting to take a new interest in the Atom’s adventures. We offer Showcase #35, his second Silver Age appearance, in GD/VG (pence) at £50, and the first issue of his solo-series (with the first appearance of Jason Woodrue, later the Floronic Man) in GD- (pence) also at £50. We’re particularly fond of Woodrue’s optimistic declaration on issue #1’s cover; “…then nothing will stand in the way of my plant-conquest of Earth!” Well, apart from Superman, Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern…..

*Marvel: A Baker’s Dozen of premier issues from the mid-to-late 1970’s, with the #1’s of Astonishing Tales (co-starring Ka-Zar and Doctor Doom), Black Goliath, Godzilla, Howard the Duck (by the acclaimed Gerber/Brunner team), Dazzler, Ka-Zar, Machine Man (Kirby’s robotic everyman in his own series!), Marvel Chillers, Marvel Premiere (1st Warlock), Marvel Spotlight (Red Wolf, with a Neal Adams cover) Rom, Super-Villain Team-Up, and Jack Kirby’s 2001: A Space Odyssey!

*Younger Readers’ Comics: A round-up of various titles for Younger Readers, including Bobo Bunny (1972), Bonnie (1974), Donald & Mickey (1972 inc. #1), Goofy (#2), & Harold Hare’s Own Paper (1961).

*Annuals: 11 new annuals in the Boys’ Adventure sub-section, including Battle, Dan Dare, Hotspur, 2000 AD, Valiant, Victor, Warlord & War Picture Library.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A chunky update to Commando Picture Library, the premiere title of its genre, with dozens of pre and early decimal issues fresh into stock ranging from the 200’s to the 900’s, with the emphasis firmly on the earlier part of that range.

*DC: The Girl Of Steel took over Adventure Comics from the Legion of Super-Heroes with #381, and we’re pleased here to present an almost unbroken run of her adventures from #400-424, all cents copies, mostly mid-high grade. Supergirl was plagued by all the traditional worries of a young girl — love, friendships, fashion, dubious weddings, secret identities, aliens, monsters, super-villains etc etc, you know the drill… One highlight of this run is spotting the number of costume variations she went through, seemingly every issue, from hot pants to mini-skirts to kinky boots to swimsuits to cat-suits ad infinitum. Included are many extra-sized issues with classic reprints such as the Legion, Animal Man, Hawkman, Robotman and many more, plus a wonderful new Zatanna strip by Gray Morrow.

*DC: High adventure was de rigeur from DC in the Bronze Age, hence three titles that all launched in 1975 featuring primitive worlds and settings: Beowulf Dragon Slayer, Claw the Unconquered & Kong the Untamed. We have near complete runs of all three titles (including all #1 issues), all new to our listings in high grade cents copies. Sadly, this experiment fell victim to the DC implosion which saw the cancellation of many titles around this time, but they offered a thrilling albeit brief excursion away from super-heroes and the like.

*Marvel: A good update to our Silver/Bronze Age stocks of Captain America, from the second issue (#101) and the greatness of Lee & Kirby through many issues previously missing from our stock to #173 by Englehart and Sal Buscema, guest-starring the X-Men.

*Girls’ Comics: Girl’s Crystal started out as a story paper, with a style highly evocative of it’s time, such as the use of headings like Their Camping Holiday and Her Dilemma. The front cover and some internal pages carried illustrations, all of which suggest that women of the time only wore red. The characters were stylised, and intentionally youthful, but impossible to pin down to a particular age – mid-teens to late twenties. Stories were all Grand or Exciting (both if you were lucky), suitably patriotic during the war years, and, with the emphasis on cruises and adventures in exotic locations, offered post-war escapism. We’ve revamped our stock of Girls’ Crystal from its years as a story paper to bring the pricing structure into line with contemporary boys’ story papers, so that our stocks of these (1941-1948) are now approximately half the price at which we previously had them listed. For good measure we’ve added a complete year from 1952 also at the new prices. Bumper reading fun, with cover summaries such as ‘The Kiddies Were Looking Forward To The Mexican Fiesta — And Thanks To The Gay Outlaw All Their Hopes Were Realised’ (#583 1946). And in 1952 we get the Silent Three as well! Treat yourself to some ripping yarns, schoolgirl style!

*Marvel: Borrowing our heading from an Ant-Man special of a few years back, we’re delighted to present at this festive season both the first appearance of Ant-Man (Hank Pym) from Tales To Astonish #27 and of his partner the Wasp from Tales To Astonish #44. Two dynamic debuts for a favourite Marvel couple. Hank Pym, later to become Ant-Man (and Giant-Man, and Goliath, and Yellowjacket, and briefly the Wasp, but we don’t talk about that…), made his first appearance in Tales to Astonish #27 as “The Man In The Ant Hill!”, another of those ‘science gone awry’ stories so beloved of the early Marvel Bullpen. There was nothing in this story to distinguish Hank from myriad other white-coated geeks who had odd encounters at the hands of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but for some reason he sparked the public imagination and returned in TTA #35 as a fully-fledged super-hero, Ant-Man. We have a copy of Hank’s first appearance, Tales to Astonish #27, new in in FN+, a highly attractive copy with excellent cover colour and gloss. The front cover has minuscule chips from the bottom right corner and mid-lower cover edge. There is also a small (approx. 1cm square) piece out of the back cover’s lower edge, which alone prevents a substantially higher grade. (The front and back back covers are pictured below). Ant-Man soon discovered that loyal as his ants were, they lacked something in the companionship stakes – so in Tales to Astonish #44, he was joined by Janet Van Dyne, alias the Wasp, and one of comics’ greatest and most turbulent relationships was born. Our copy of TTA #44 is a gorgeous VF-, with stunning cover and gloss, and only one tiny imperfection – a staple puncture just above the logo. Hank & Jan always had the most believable romance of the Marvel Universe, and the pair have long been favourites here at 30th C., so we’re delighted to see the characters getting their due recognition. Both of these highly collectible items are cents copies, with no UK price or overstamp, and, with the second Ant-Man movie now having been retitled “Ant-Man and the Wasp”, both characters are coming into greater public prominence, so now is the time to buy. Tales To Astonish #27 FN+ is offered at £3,275; Tales To Astonish #44 VF- is £650.

*Marvel: After a well-received run in Marvel Premiere, the Sorceror Supreme, Doctor Strange, won back his own series, commencing with this #1 issue from 1974. His run in Marvel Premiere had been characterised by some of the most inventive and daring storytelling and artwork seen in comics at that time, and the quality continued in #1, written by Steve Englehart and featuring the superlative illustrations of Frank Brunner. This particular issue #1 is a serendipitous instance of the quality of the content matching the quality of the copy, as it’s a gorgeous NM- specimen cents copy at £150. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*DC: Two early appearances of DC’s sidekick super-team. In Brave & Bold #54, the ‘tryout’ title premiered a team-up of Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash, sans their adult mentors, against the sinister menace of Mister Twister. Sales spiked, and the team, christened the Teen Titans and with the welcome addition of Wonder Girl, won further auditions in B&B and Showcase, before graduating to their own series, and never looking back, remaining (with various line-ups) an integral part of the DC Universe to the present day. Our Brave & Bold #54 is an attractive VG+ (cents copy at £65), with only mid-spine weakness and to tiny chips out of lower cover corners precluding a grade of Fine or better; the Teen Titans #1 is a solid GD+ (cents copy at £30), with a narrow strip/chip off the bottom right cover being the only significant defect.