*Girls’ Picture Libraries: Another top-up to the DC Thomson ‘Big Four’ in this category – Bunty, Debbie, Judy and Mandy, with issues ranging from 1968 (several pre-decimal issues) to the latter days of the 1990’s. With titles like “Horoscopes Rule At Dingley School”, “Lise and the Lilac Ball”, “Slave of the Stable”, and “Terrible Tillie”, all the standard themes – schools, the supernatural, Cinderella transformations and cruelty- are present and correct.

*Horror 1940-1959: A late-night Double Feature in our ‘Carry On, Pre-Code Horror Fest’ this update, with Adventures Into Terror (from the second issue, #44 – oh, those wacky postal licences…) to #8, and Astonishing from #7 to #14, mostly in affordable low grades, and replete with the  high-quality chills you’ve come to expect from these Atlas titles. Featuring “The Long Jump Down”, “Melvin and the Martian”, “They Dwell In Darkness” and, hm, “The Walking Dead”, among many other classic creepy tales.

*Girls’ Comics: We’re delighted to present virtually a complete run of the first 300+ issues of Mandy from 1967-1973. Mandy seemed to specialise in stories which were generally moralistic in tone, with long-suffering heroines finally achieving happiness, while villainous relatives or girls who were liars, cheats and bullies received their comeuppance — good hearty fare for its intended audience! The two most popular and longest-running strips were ‘Angel’ and ‘Valda’, the former a Victorian girl with a year to live who devoted her life to helping poor children, the latter virtually a super-powered heroine of indefinite lifespan. The Mandy #1 in this collection is a decent VG copy with no specific faults at £60.

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: The New Teen Titans, the classic 1980’s series by Marv Wolfman & George Perez, joins our catalogue. Just issues #1 and #2 for now, but what issues they are! #1 (VF p £13) features the team getting together, and #2 (VF/NM p £50) has the debut of Slade Wilson AKA Deathstroke the Terminator, who has of course gone on to many versions of his own series, both in the old DCU and the New 52. Great stories and incomparable art adorn this class act, the best comic around at the time. You’ll find them under ‘Teen Titans, New’ in our catalogue.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: It’s #1 of Air Ace Picture Library, one of the most popular of Fleetway’s war-themed series that started in the early 1960’s (in this instance January 1960). The featured story is ‘Target Top Secret’ and this is a very presentable copy in GD at £45, clean and unmarked with just small tears at top and bottom spine and an only slightly rusty staple.

*DC: A minor milestone for us as we reach the conclusion of our run through our DC extra stock following the space afforded by our refurbishment last year. To conclude this huge task, we present a near complete run of Superman Family (which continued the numbering from Jimmy Olsen after it was cancelled, and featured Jimmy, Lois Lane, Supergirl and a host of other characters from the Superman mythos), first series Swamp Thing, Tales Of The Unexpected (mainly Space Ranger issues), Teen Titans, Wonder Woman (a high grade selection from the Mike Sekowsky years with a de-powered Diana in Modesty Blaise/Emma Peel mode) and finally, a large selection of World’s Finest. Never fear, DC fans, there will be lots more DC titles in the near future, recommencing with the Caped Crusader himself!

*Horror 1940-1959: This week, we shine the spotlight on an Atlas title that began as a TV spin-off; Suspense was first a radio, then a TV show in the 1950’s telling done-in-one stories of crime and mystery. The Atlas tie-in started as a crime title, but quickly moved over to horror and fantasy, often with innocuous titles – ‘The Suitcase’, ‘The Dark Road’, ‘The Strange Man’ – which belied their striking content. Maneely, Heath (a classic Heath cover on #14, illustrated left), Everett, Shores and the usual stable of artistic stars abound. We have fourteen new copies added to our stock, between issues #6-25 – almost half of the entire 29-issue run, mostly in very affordable mid-low grades.

*TV & Film Related Comics: A myriad of Look-In newly listed, with a scattering of issues from 1979- 1981 – but including the crucial debuts of the ‘Worzel Gummidge’ and ‘Charlie’s Angels’ comic strips – and then a substantial run, 80% of the total, from 1983 through to Christmas 1986, extending our stock beyond any previously listed. In addition to the comic strip adaptations of TV shows – highlights include ‘Danger Mouse’, ‘A-Team’, ‘Robin of Sherwood’, ‘Knight Rider’, ‘Terrahawks’ and ‘Supergran’ – there is a plethora of pin-ups and articles about pop-culture phenomena of the day. Stars heavily rotated on the cover include Wham!, Bucks Fizz, Kajagoogoo, Shakin’ Stevens, and Five Star. You have been warned.

*Marvel: Three highly collectible first issues for Marvellous teams of the 1970’s this week: first up, Defenders #1 VF/NM £115 (with #2 FN/VF £20 for good measure), then a stunning NM £85 copy of Invaders #1, the greatest super-heroes of World War Two, and finally, X-Men #94, the first issue of the All-New, All-Different X-Men, a FN £150 copy of the first in the ongoing series, following on from Giant-Size X-Men #1, which would be the leading light of the Marvel Universe for decades to come. All cents copies, of course, and suitable to grace the collection of any Marvelite!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: An alliterative update for 3 titles in this popular category: Warlord from 1974/75 inc. issue #2, Warrior (1982) inc. the Marvelman Special, and Wizard (second series), with issues from the early 1970’s, including some from the first year of 1970.

*TV/Film Tie-Ins: The swingin’ sixties are the main focus for this week’s Books Update. We have 2 Avengers novels (including the first and only Cathy Gale one from 1963), and novelisations of the following films: Bonnie & Clyde, Heavens Above, Taras Bulba, That Touch Of Mink, The Wrong Box and Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines. Oh, and a couple of items from the 1970’s/80’s that go by the names of Star Trek and Star Wars — you may have heard of them. And finally, from 1979, Nosferatu The Vampyre (you may have heard of him too, but wish you hadn’t if he gives you the creeps as much as he does us!).

*Magazines/Books About Vintage UK Comics: The most recent four issues of Spaceship Away!, the lovingly-crafted fan tribute to the Eagle’s Dan Dare and his peers, are added to our stock; #’s 32-35, featuring, in addition to DD himself, Jet Morgan, Garth, Nick Hazard and a plethora of articles, illustrations and reminiscences.

We’ll be open as usual this Easter: Monday to Saturday 10:30 to 18:00. So, Good Friday and Easter Monday we’ll be open as normal, and closed as normal on Easter Sunday. What better way to spend the holiday than browsing our boxes and shelves and adding to your collection?

*TV & Film Related Comics: 1966’s Lady Penelope was launched in the wake of the successful TV Century 21, and was scooped up by girls (and more than a few furtive boys, because of the Thunderbirds tie-in) nationwide, becoming an instant hit. In addition to the adventures of the eponymous aristocrat, ‘British Agent’ for International Rescue, there were TV adaptations with a distaff twist: adventures of Bewitched, and Marina – Girl of the Sea (from Stingray), plus The Beverley Hillbillies, The Perils of Parker (Lady P’s larcenous manservant) and the Man From UNCLE (what’s he doing there?). Later additions to the line-up included the high-flying Angels from Captain Scarlet, the Girl From UNCLE, Daktari, the hugely popular Monkees, and, oh dear, Crossroads. Yes, that Crossroads. Lady P. is rarer even than her stablemates TV21 and Joe 90, so we’re particularly pleased to have fifty new issues added to our listings, in a broad variety of grades. Photos of #3, #9 & #22 below:

*Humour Comics: An oddity this week: the first issue of Giggle, a 1967 IPC/Fleetway launch which features a great many translated European reprints; perhaps they were testing the market to see if corners could be cut on original material? Features include “Hobby Hoss”, caped crusader “Captain Swoop”, detective parody “Herlock Sholmes”, and western adventurer “Buck Bingo”, but  no-one’s heart really seems to have been in it, and it got consumed by Buster in less than a year. Still, an achieveable short run, and a #1 in Good condition, with no significant defects, at £25.

*Marvel: They’re back! Before the Marvel Heroes, there were – Big Panty Monsters! These gargantuan behemoths who bestrode the world, conquering all before them, while rocking enormous reinforced-gusset underpants! New listings for  Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish, bring us the pulse-pounding premieres of Korilla! The Two-Headed Thing! Metallo! Colossus! Gorgilla! Thorr! And the one & only (well, until the other one came along) Hulk! These Lee & Kirby creature features are ranging from GD+ to FN/VF, tempting both the high-grade investor and the curious reader. Cover scans of some key issues reproduced below:

*Marvel: Coinciding with today’s Guardian article on female super-heroes, we present a septet of Mighty Marvel’s fabulous femmes debut issues from the 1970’s/80’s. Beware the Claws of the Cat! Delight in the disco diva Dazzler! This Female Fights Back – Ms. Marvel! She-Devil With A Sword – Red Sonja! She-Devil with a fur swimsuit – Shanna! Gamma ray cousin the Savage She-Hulk! And Spider-Woman – To Know Her Is To Fear Her! All high grade copies set to rise in price in years to come.

*Western: Okay, you rannies, time to saddle up once more and mosey on down to the old corral here at 30th Century to check out our latest round-up of wild west action, all from Atlas (Marvel) from the late 1940’s into the 1950’s. Gunslinging shenanigans with Apache Kid, Black Rider, Frontier Western, Gunhawk, Gunsmoke Western, Kid Colt, Kid From Texas, Outlaw Kid, Quick-Trigger Western, Western Gunfighters, Western Kid, Western Outlaws, Western Winners & Wild Western. Phew! Mine’s a sarsaparilla!

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:
*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980’s
*Teen Humour/Funny Girls
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Pulp Fiction: A mixture of UK and US editions of the classic Astounding Science Fiction series. The UK editions are from between 1956 and 1960 (with the last copy bearing the name change to Astounding Science Fact & Fiction) while the US editions are all earlier, ranging from 1944 to 1949.

*Marvel: A double dose of debuts for the Black Panther this week: firstly, the premier appearance of Wakanda’s favourite son in Fantastic Four #52, where he crosses paths with the first family of the Marvel Universe in what was a groundbreaking event – the first Afro-Carribean superhero ever. This copy is VG-, with the only significant defects being cover chipping at the upper left and lower right corners, and weakness around the upper staple. Offered at a bargainacious £50. Next up – they searched for it! They fought, and even killed for it! But you don’t have to do that, as you can *buy* Black Panther’s first solo issue from 1977, VF/NM £25, and discover the awful truth behind “King Solomon’s Frog!”

*DC: Normally, our ‘Quirky Corner’ features items that are off-the-wall or oddball, but this time, we talk about a series that’s truly unique: Sugar and  Spike! Created in 1956 by Sheldon Mayer after observing his own infant children babbling in what appeared to be a secret language, he came up with the idea of neighbouring kids – Sugar Plumm and Cecil ‘Spike’ Wilson – who were united in a world of incomprehensible grown-ups, and whose misunderstandings and misadventures carried through 98 issues of their own series. This run of additions goes from 1959’s #26 to the very final issue in 1971, and probably gives us the best selection of Sugar and Spike in the UK – given that the series was barely distributed here, few copies are in circulation on these shores. For something that’s heartwarming, funny and truly unique, they’re hard to beat.

*Gold Key/Whitman: New listings for two of Gold Key’s popular and long-running series, Doctor Solar – Man of the Atom – and Magnus Robot Fighter. Beginning with Doctor Solar’s 1962 debut issue, in which a young scientist becomes transformed by an atomic accident into a being of unearthly power. This debut and origin issue is FA/GD, but clean and intact, and very affordable at £10.75. A scattering of Magnus from #9 onwards enriches  our stock, as our hero rebels against mankind’s robot rulers, superbly illustrated by Manning (Russ, not Bernard).

*TV & Film Related Comics: From 1969, new stocks of Joe 90, a spin-off from the Gerry Anderson TV show which, after the successes of Stingray, Thunderbirds et al, never quite caught the public’s imagination. Nonetheless, in addition to Joe’s comic strip adventures, this series features Land of the Giants, Star Trek, and the Champions, all popular shows of the era, and, being an achievable short run, (lasting only 34 issues before amalgamating with its sibling TV 21) is highly sought after today. issues from #3 to #21 new in stock, averaging respectable mid-grades. A cover photo of #17 is appended for your elucidation.