*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: A dash of early Warren mags this time – before they were even known by that name, pre-Creepy – with their very first title, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and its companion title Spacemen! These had no comics content, focussing primarily on articles concerning vintage genre movies, which were in many cases playing widely on TV for the first time in the US. Replete with page-filling stills, they also threw an occasional sop to a more modern audience by featuring films or shows coming out at the time, such as the then-new Outer Limits. We have issues 2 and 4 of Spacemen new in from 1961 and 1962, a selection of the US edition of Famous Monsters of Filmland from 1962 to 1965, and, most significantly, the first UK edition from 1958 (pictured GD- £25), which, as far as we can tell, was released contemporarily with its US sibling.

*Girls’ Comics: A significant amount of Jinty new in between June 1977 and February 1979. Always a popular choice of many of our regular customers, another chance to fill those elusive gaps in your collection!

*Humour Comics: A big update to our stocks of Knockout, 2nd series, which ran from 1971 to 1973. Many issues added previously missing from our listings; included are the Fireworks and Christmas issues from 1972; many copies in Fine condition.

*DC: Updates to many titles in our DC Silver/Bronze Age stock, including Aquaman, Atom, Detective Comics, Green Lantern (inc. 1st Guy Gardner in #59), Hawkman, Justice League Of America (inc #100 & the 100 page #110), Strange Adventures, Superboy (Giant #129), Superman (inc. #233 – ‘Kryptonite No More’), Teen Titans, Wonder Woman (inc. the less common #115) & World’s Finest.

*Annuals: Small updates to two sub-sections of this category: in Humour, the Beezer and Buster annuals for 1971, plus in TV/Film Related: the wacky Impossibles 1968, TV Comic 1970 & TV21 1971.

*Western: Several issues from the big two, DC & Marvel from the 1950’s to the 1970’s, including from DC: All-Star Western (1970’s series), Tomahawk (from #27 and inc. the 1st Miss Liberty in #81) & Weird Western Tales, and from Marvel: Kid Colt from #106 (inc. the Kirby Big Panty Monster cover #107 and the rare Giant-Size #1) plus Two-Gun Kid, a run of low grade issues from #60 upwards.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A massive update to our stocks of Valiant, one of the best and our most popular Boy’s titles, right from 1963 (the title started in late 1962) through to the last issue in 1976. Joys along the way include the first Valiant & Smash (with 1st Swots & Blots and Janus Stark) and 1st Valiant & TV21 (with 1st Star Trek in title). A whole heap of adventure from the 1960’s and 1970’s and a chance to fill your gaps!

*Marvel: Not the soon-to-be-released All-New, All-Different X-Men, you understand; that’s different. No, this is the original 1975 ‘reboot’, in Giant-Size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94, in which Len Wein, Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum bestowed a multinational twist to the established Marvel Mutant franchise, and kicked off a sales blockbuster that thrives and multiplies today. Giant-Size X-Men #1 featured the first ever appearances of Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Thunderbird, and the second full appearance of Wolverine, as they teamed up with Cyclops and with established X-Men allies Banshee and Sunfire in forming a new team to investigate the disappearance of the originals! In issue #94 the story continued, replacing the reprints which had dominated the title since #66, with the departure of all the originals barring Cyclops, leaving the neophyte heroes up against the menace of Count Nefaria. Neither of these were ever distributed in Britain, so their scarcity gains an extra layer here, and copies are vigorously sought-after. Our Giant-Size #1 is VF- at £400; X-Men #94 is a stunning VF at £275.

*Marvel: Our Spider-Mania event really moves into high gear this week as we release several dozen issues ranging from the first full Mary Jane Watson appearance in #42 up to the anniversary issue #100. Along the way, we encounter the first appearances of such luminaries from Spidey’s Rogues’ Gallery as Silvermane, the Prowler, the Kangaroo & the Schemer, guest appearances by Ka-Zar, the Human Torch, Quicksilver, Medusa and the Black Widow and Spidey fighting in Merrie Ol’ London in #95 (cor blimey!). This new selection is characterised by all being cents copies and the vast majority being high grade, averaging VF with many VF+ and even VF/NM issues in evidence, just a few of which are shown here: #59 VF+ £95, #70 VF+ £69, #75 VF/NM £80, #77 VF+ £58, #82 VF/NM £77. Next week, the cavorting conclusion to our Spider-Mania event!

*Modern Reprints: We’re nostalgically delighted to have 13 of the Alan light ‘Flashback’ reprints from the 1970’s available. Fondly remembered by fans of a certain vintage, each of these is a facsimile of a Golden Age comic, complete with editorial and advertising matter. Reprinting early works from DC, Timely/Marvel, MLJ/Archie, Fawcett, Quality and other publishers, these were the first concerted attempt at archival reprinting of Golden Age material, long before the age of Archives, Masterworks, and interweb streaming thingies. (Kids today, you don’t know you’re born. When I was your age…) Erm, anyway. Re-presenting a plethora of goodies, highlights include first issues of Pep, Human Torch, Military, Sub-Mariner, early issues of All-Star, Captain Marvel Adventures and All-Star Comics, and the dazzling debuts of such immortal characters as the Shield, the Comet, Blackhawk, and, erm, the Red Bee and Michael. This selection ranges from issue #5 (Military Comics #1) to #37 (Captain Midnight #1), and averages Fine+ grade.

*Humour Comics: Small updates to many favourite funnies from 4 decades as follows: Buster 1967 and Buster Special Puzzle Book 1976, Giggle 1967, Hoot 1986, Krazy 1977, Nutty 1980/81, Plug 1978, School Fun 1984, Topper 1958, Whizzer & Chips 1975 and Whoopee 1976.

*Girls’ Comics: The finale to the mammoth Mandy project we’ve been working on for some time, with virtually all of 1988 added and the start of 1989. We’re sure they’ll be more Mandys in our future, but for the time being, we have plenty listed to be getting on with!

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

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.

*Charlton: Updates to two of Charlton’s sci-fi/mystery titles from the 1950’s: Mysteries Of Unexplored Worlds & Out Of This World; each one of these low grade and inexpensive issues new in features one or more stories by Steve Ditko, many with Ditko covers too.

*Girls’ Comics: A long overdue update with 35 new issues of Jackie added to our lists, mostly from 1978 or 1980, but including samples from 1969 (Halloween issue!), 1977 (Silver Jubilee issue!), 1979 (Christmas issue!) and 1981. For decades, Jackie was a weekly confidant to generations of girls who’d outgrown Bunty, dispensing style tips, fashion advice, relationship counselling, romantic picture-stories and pop pin-ups galore. So whether you want to plan a New Look For Summer, discover whether a celebrity is Right For You, discuss personal problems with Cathy and Claire, or yearn to learn more about Lief Garrett, you’ve come to the right place!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Another selection of incoming Lion issues from the 1950’s – carefully selected for your reading pleasure, and not at all the result of a pile being set aside and overlooked. Honest. These issues date from 1957 and 1958, with a remarkably unvarying line-up of features: aviator “Paddy Payne”, space adventurer “Captain Condor”, schoolboy hi-jinks with “Sandy Dean”, felicitous prankster “Lucky Guffy” and Bruce Kent’s invitation to “Spot the Clue” being mainstays throughout. Among the few debuts of this selection is the premier appearance of “Jungle Jef” (it was a poor jungle, they couldn’t afford the second ‘f’), whose greatest achievement was escaping the attentions of the lawyers of Burne Hogarth and the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, for his two-year run in the title!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: “Warning: Not to be purchased by those easily frightened!” So ran the tagline on Legend Horror Classics, a monthly periodical which briefly enlightened the UK’s newsstands in 1975 and 1976. An ingenious fold-out format presented one (sometimes two) giant horror posters (usually stock photos from movie studios), and an all-new comic strip, many of which – as well as most of the series’ covers – were generated by a baby Kevin O’Neill (famous for Marshall Law, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc.), in what must have been one of his first pro gigs. Criticised by Mary Whitehouse and her League of Meddlesome Ratbags for violently corrupting the nation’s youth, this was one instance in which Mrs. W. and her chums need not have exerted themselves to get on their high horses, as issue #12 was the final edition. We have the first 9 issues in decent shape, averaging Fine – they have all at one point been folded out, but they’ve been folded back carefully, and have no tears, stains, scribbles or excessive creasing – and since with issue #10 they dropped the comic strip, we don’t really care about the rest, do we?

*Marvel: What better way of tying in our Spider-Mania event to Halloween Week than by featuring several issues with appearances by his arch-nemesis the Green Goblin, that most Halloweenesque of all the classic Spidey villains? We have the early issues #23 (FN+ £125) and #26 (VF £200), as well as the classic #39 featuring the debut of John Romita on art duties, plus the non-code approved drugs Goblin trilogy (#96-98) and the first two appearances of Harry Osborn as the Goblin in #136 & #137. Goblin issues are always among the most fiercely sought after of Spidey’s adventures, so don’t dally if you want any of these. And more from Spider-Mania next week!

*Horror 1940-1959: Our first visit in Halloween Week to the Mother Of All Pre-Code Horror Fests features four issues of the long-running Atlas title Journey Into Unknown Worlds. The earliest issue (pictured) is #21, in a very nice FN- with a decapitation cover. The remaining issues in this update are post code, but still feature the same quality artists from the Atlas stable. Stay tuned for a further visit to our Fest later in the week!

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980’s: A further update to our 1970’s DC stock for Halloween week, including a substantial update to DC premier horror title House Of Mystery between #190 & #235, when the company were really taking some time and trouble over this venerated title by running the work of such notable exponents of the genre as Neal Adams and, in particular Bernie Wrightson. Mostly high grade copies here. We also have a couple of contemporary issues of House of Secrets in nice shape (#93 & #94) from that title’s ‘gothic’ period. Rounding off with a couple of Unexpecteds (inc final issue #222) and an early Witching Hour (#5), a superior batch of classy horror!