*Humour Comics: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. In 1963, D.C. Thomson of Dundee, publishers of the successful Dandy and Beano humour weeklies, put together an oversized ‘combo’ of the two titles for the lucrative Summer Holiday market. A huge success, this groundbreaking edition started a tradition of separate Summer Specials for each title the following year, and was widely emulated, becoming the industry’s standard practice for a plethora of series from Thomson and their competitors in the following decades. This is one of the rarest and most sought-after items ever through our hands, certainly on the UK side, and the first copy in any condition we have seen in our close to 25 years of trading. This copy has a triangular tear in the upper front cover staple area, wear at the centre spine where, owing to its size, it has been stored horizontally folded for a long period, a 1″ tear at lower mid back cover, and slight grubbiness lower mid-spine and mid-edge on the front cover. Offsetting that, however, is the clean, unmarred condition of the interiors, firm staples at centrefold, and, as previously noted, the extreme rarity of this item in any condition.
PICTURED: DANDY-BEANO SUMMER SPECIAL 1963 GD £475

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: One last change for the title that started out as Picture Romance Library. By 1969, Picture Romances was being published by Fleetway, and at last had the issue numbers shown on the covers! This new selection is from 1969/1970, ranging from #554 to #605, and all in a universal VF grade apart from the final issue in this batch (FN). That’s all from this long running multi-publisher title for a while, but we do expect to have more later in 2021.

We’d just like to take this opportunity of wishing everyone a safe Christmas and (we hope) a better New Year. Thanks to everyone who’s supported us through 2020, whether you’ve been adding to your collections or simply enjoying our lockdown articles and stock update write-ups. We’re very pleased to reflect that our transition to mail order only has gone very smoothly and successfully and we’ll be back in January with details of our latest acquisitions to tempt you; we hope to spread a little joy in these dark times. Please stay safe through the holidays and beyond. 

*DC: From 1982, DC’s first maxi-series was Mike Barr’s retelling of the Arthurian legend in the far future, where King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table fulfil the ancient prophecy that they would return when England needed them most. In the year 3000, England, and Earth, is under alien attack, but our reincarnated heroes must face three challenges – the invaders, their ancient enemies Mordred and Morgan LeFay, and the, in some cases, confusing new forms they have been reborn into. Intelligent and deftly plotted, the sweeping saga is lushly illustrated by Brian Bolland, whose compositions radiate malice or heroism as the narrative demands. It took a long time to produce all twelve issues – launched in ’82, it finally concluded three years later – but given the quality of Bolland’s art, the protracted schedule was not only unsurprising, but totally worth it. All twelve issues of this controversial but highly acclaimed series are available as a set, almost all NM, with a couple just a tad off that grade.
PICTURED: CAMELOT 3000 #1 VF/NM; COMPLETE SET #1-12 AVERAGING NM £45 SOLD

*Marvel: Not only does Amazing Spider-Man #134 feature the debut of the Tarantula, Spidey’s arachnid-named foe, but on the last page the Punisher makes his second appearance in a dramatic last page cameo, which leads on to his full second appearance in the following issue. Both our new copies in of #134 and #135 are high grade, tight, flat and glossy with just minor edge/spine wear and would sit well in any self-respecting Spider-Fan’s collection.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#134 VF £80
#135 VF+ £125

*Marvel: Following Kirby’s tabloid-sized Treasury Special, liberally adapting the Kubrick cinematic blockbuster, Marvel green-lit an ongoing series exploring the milieu of 2001: A Space Odyssey, giving artist/writer Kirby a free hand to explore all of time and space – perhaps too free a hand, as while time-transcending spectacle there was in abundance, the lack of a central cast left the readership feeling ‘unanchored’ to the series. This was remedied to an extent with issue #8, and Kirby’s introduction of X-51 (later known variously as Mister Machine and Machine Man), a humanoid robot in search of his soul, who became the protagonist for the rest of the series, spinning off into his own title and becoming part of the main Marvel Universe. The entire 10 issue series of 2001: A Space Odyssey is now restocked; illustrated is issue #8, X-51’s premier appearance. 
PICTURED: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY #8 VF- £37 SOLD

*Marvel: Lots of good things in a sweep through the Marvel Silver & Bronze ages this week. Titles include: Daredevil (inc. #168, 1st Elektra), Defenders (Annual #1), Fantastic Four (#200), Hulk, Iron Man (inc. #219, 1st Ghost), Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics (inc. #1), Marvel Premiere (#2 with Warlock), Marvels, Marvel Spotlight (#3 with Werewolf By Night), Strange Tales (#157 & #158, 1st cameo and full app. Living Tribunal), Thor, lots of What If 1st series (between #3 and #12) and X-Men.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: A small but diverse selection of vintage stuff from different publishers this week, inc Quality’s Blackhawk #52 (our earliest Blackhawk), Brick Bradford #5 from King (Flash Gordon-type adventure), Heroic Comics #37 (true life tales), Fox’s Spectacular Feature #11 (1st issue with the story of Samson & Delilah, featuring a gorgeously coloured cover by Lee Ames) and Avon’s Unknown Man (a film noir adaptation with appropriately moody art by Kintsler).
PICTURED:
SPECTACULAR FEATURE #11 VG+ £50
THE UNKNOWN MAN GD+ £37

*Alan Class Reprints: We present a small selection of the Alan Class title Suspense, the least well represented of the ‘Big Six’ in our listings, all post decimal issues between #121 & #237. #128 reprints not only the Ditko Dr Strange story from Strange Tales #125, but also several Ditko Captain Atom stories inc. cover.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A small update to Micron’s Combat Picture Library between issues #234 & #363.

*Girls’ Comics: A long overdue update to our Debbie stocks, with 10 issues added from its first year of publication 1973, almost all filling gaps in our inventory.

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. Roger Zelazny, who died tragically young at 58 in 1995, is my favourite American science fiction author. I grew up reading his earlier, award-winning masterpieces such as A Rose for Ecclesiastes and The Doors Of His Face, The Lamps Of His Mouth (wonderful tales of Mars and Venus collected with many other gems in the anthology that bears the title of the second story) and He Who Shapes (a novella later expanded into the novel The Dream Master). In the latter, Zelazny touched on a theme he was to explore in great depth over future years; he often depicted characters from myth, set in a modern or future world, calling on several pantheons in various works: Egyptian in Creatures of Light and Darkness, Greek in This Immortal, Hindu in Lord of Light etc. But he will probably be most fondly remembered for his Amber series, a huge ten book epic that has all the Zelazny trademarks: mythologies, experimentation with form, an often clipped and laconic style more reminiscent of hard-boiled detective writers such as Chandler or Hammett and the tension between the ancient and the modern, surreal and familiar. Jack of Shadows (not part of Amber but very much in the same style) is a tour de force and the post-apocalyptic Damnation Alley was filmed (although not very well). Most of the titles mentioned are in stock in our catalogue, including the entire first five book sequence of Amber and many others. If you’ve not discovered Zelazny, I can recommend him as a wonderfully entertaining and imaginative author; I deeply regret that we are denied the continuation of his Amber series, which he evidently had planned. 
PICTURED:
DAMNATION ALLEY 1ST PB 1973 VF £10
JACK OF SHADOWS 1ST PB 1974 VG/FN £20
THE DOORS OF HIS FACE, THE LAMPS OF HIS MOUTH AND OTHER STORIES 1ST PB 1975 VG £8
THE HAND OF OBERON 1ST US PB 1977 FN £10 (Book 4 in the 1st Amber sequence)
THIS IMMORTAL 1ST PB 1968 FN £20

Please note that all orders received by Saturday 12th December  (that’s today!) and paid for by 4 pm on Tuesday 15th December should be posted on Wednesday 16th, which is the last date we are posting before Christmas. Due to the restrictions placed on us by the pandemic, there will be no last minute exceptions, so please ensure if you’re buying Christmas presents (and you’re in the UK) that you get your order in by Saturday 12th December to be sure of getting it before Christmas. Outside the UK, delivery times vary widely.

*DC: For some unknown reason, Action Comics #300 seems to turn up far less often than all the issues around it. Maybe it’s because it’s got a corker of a cover and people who own it hang on to it. Whatever, Superman as the last man on Earth under a red sun is a classic scenario and story. This is a mid-grade cents copy, with good cover colour and gloss, a 2 cm lower spine split and a faint writing imprint on the sun! Great page quality and firmly attached staples.
PICTURED: ACTION COMICS #300 VG+ £40

*Marvel: As the premier series of the Marvel Universe, the Fantastic Four did seem to spend a lot of time incubating the stars of tomorrow, as their guests frequently spun off into their own titles. One of the most popular ‘break-out’ stars was the Silver Surfer, and in issue #50 the former Norrin Radd, having been introduced two issues previously as the minion of the planet-devouring Galactus, breaks away from his master and defends the threatened planet Earth. Cosmic menace, epic grandeur and, hm, college hi-jinks, as the Human Torch commences his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it struggle with higher education. The latter subplot introduces Johnny’s fellow student, Wyatt Wingfoot, soon a staunch ally of the FF. (As well as She-Hulk’s favourite squeeze-toy, but that was a couple of decades later…). This defining issue for the Surfer is lowish grade, pence printed, with moderate spine and edge wear, corner blunting, a colour breaking crease across the top right cover corner, a couple of very small cover edge tears and a tiny chip out of the bottom right cover. Nevertheless, firmly attached staples, reasonable pages and a largely unmarred cover image of the surfing dude!
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #50 GD+ p £80

*Marvel: The Black Panther’s series in Jungle Action, which attracted a lot of acclaim at the time, was known for being verbose, introspective, reflective and philosophical. When the character’s co-creator, Jack Kirby, took over as writer and artist on T’Challa’s follow-up solo series, the results were… a considerable contrast. Shouting! Explosions! Aliens! Time-Travel! Implausibly-muscled ladies with black lipstick! Cosmic critters! All were here, and all playing at full volume all the time, in the crazed kinetic frenzy that Kirby was renowned for. Since the major movie hit, the King of Wakanda’s star is ever-ascendant, and this issue especially always sells very briskly because of its – frankly – high loopiness quotient. We have a copy of #1 fresh in, pence printed, mid-grade with edge and handling wear, but nice cover colour and gloss.
*PICTURED: BLACK PANTHER #1 VG+ p £35

*Horror 1940-1959: Weird Thrillers from Ziff-Davis 1951 is a strange hybrid of horror stories and science-fiction with horror elements. We have two issues of this five issues series, #1 & #3. The former has a notable Rondo Hatton photo cover and interior art by Dan Barry and Ross Andru among others. #3 has a painted cover and interiors by Toth, Anderson, Colan and more. #1 is a solid VG, with some spine wear and small writing on the ‘R’ in ‘Weird’. #3 is lower graded, with spine wear, a chip out at the top of the spine, colour-breaking creases and extensive back cover creasing. 
PICTURED: WEIRD THRILLERS
#1 VG £150 SOLD
#3 FA+ £35 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Fleetway’s popular Lion Picture Library featured in its early issues characters from the Lion comic, but soon concentrated on war-themed stories, and this update features 15 of the latter, between #26 and #119, in grades from GD to FN.
PICTURED: LION PICTURE LIBRARY #36 GD £4 SOLD

*Girls’ Comics: The Nurse Nancy Outfit issued originally with Twinkle #105 must have proven so popular that DC Thomson issued it again later that same year in #146. This time it came packaged in a polythene envelope rather than the brown paper pictorial wrapper originally used, but still the same cap, apron and armbands set. With our FN condition copy of the comic, we have the Gift Set still sealed in its envelope. I doubt that there can be many (if any) of these in this pristine condition still in existence. Its rarity is attested by what appears to be the complete lack of sales records on all known (to us) internet sources. So, if you’ve worn out your existing Nurse Nancy Outfit from overuse, here’s your chance to get a nice new version. Described by our chum Duncan McAlpine in his Comic Book Price Guide for Great Britain as ‘clearly the greatest comics free gift of all time.’
PICTURED: TWINKLE #146 FN WITH FREE GIFT VF £50 SOLD

Acclaimed and controversial underground comix artist, illustrator and animator Richard Corben died on December 2nd, 2020, aged 80, following heart surgery. His widow Dona Corben, the former Madonna Marchant, whom he married in 1965, posted the news via Corben’s frequent collaborator Jack Strnad:

“It is with great sorrow and loss that I must share the sad news that Richard Corben died Dec 2, 2020 following heart surgery. He will be missed tremendously by his family, his friends, and his fans.

Richard was very appreciative of the love for his art that was shown by you, his fans. Your support over the decades meant a great deal to him. He tried to repay your support by working diligently on each piece of art going out to you. Although Richard has left us, his work will live on and his memory will live always in our hearts.”

Born in Anderson, Missouri, Corben achieved a Batchelor of Arts from Kansas City Art Institute.  After working as a professional animator – in which capacity he met his future wife while working on her short film, Siegfried Saves Metropolis – Corben joined the burgeoning field of underground comics, including Grim Wit, Slow Death, Skull, Rowlf, Fever Dreams and his own anthology Fantagor.

In 1970 he began illustrating horror and science-fiction stories for Warren Publishing and in 1975 became a frequent contributor to Heavy Metal, the English-language version of Metal Hurlant.

Perhaps his most famous creation is the fantasy series Den, about a frail young boy who travels to an alternate universe and is recreated as a prodigiously-endowed naked barbarian who battles monsters for the attentions of a succession of equally unfeasibly-proportioned and underdressed ladies. Corben’s frank and enthusiastic attitude towards nudity, eroticism and violent physicality won him notoriety and acclaim in equal measure, but his lush colour palette, expert finishes and skilful use of shadow and line were universally praised.

The winner of multiple awards over the decades, he also illustrated record covers (including Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell) and film posters, and occasionally dabbled in ‘borderline’ mainstream series, including DC/Vertigo’s Hellblazer, Marvel’s Startling Stories: Banner, and Punisher: The End, and a controversial reimagining of Luke Cage for Marvel’s short-lived Vertigo-wannabe Epic Line.

Preproduction work on an animated film adapted from his underground comic Fever Dreams was announced in May 2020.

*DC: ‘Poison Ivy, Poison Ivy
Well late at night when you’re sleepin’
Poison Ivy comes a creepin’ all around’
Batman #181 featured the debut of one of the Gotham Guardian’s most famous female nemeses. Poison Ivy was brainstormed with the idea of joining the hugely-popular TV show as a younger recurring villain – most of the villainesses, aside from Catwoman, being, let’s be kind, ladies of a certain age, it was thought a fresher face was needed! She sadly never made it onto the small screen – at least not in that decade – but the comics audience caught Poison Ivy with a vengeance, and she’s remained a staple of the Batman Rogue’s Gallery ever since, her profile being considerably upped in recent years by her status as Harley Quinn’s… well, the jury’s out, but let’s say very good friend. At least. A recurring role in the ‘Gotham’ TV series has also spurred demand for Ivy’s early appearances over the last few years. Fresh in this week is both #181 with her 1st appearance and #183, featuring her rather swift return! This Batman #181 is a very nice pence stamped copy, with vibrant cover colour and gloss, very little wear, tight and firmly attached staples and good page quality. It would grade much higher were it not for a small chip out of the lower right edge of the cover (see scan); most importantly the centrefold pin-up (frequently missing, depriving the second story of its splash page) is firmly in place! #183 is in a very similar condition, but without the chip! The dynamic Carmine Infantino covers on both don’t hurt any, either!
PICTURED: BATMAN
#181 VG+ p £300 SOLD
#183 FN/VF p £70

*DC: This week we focus on DC titles beginning with the latter ‘B’ (excluding Batman). Specifically, we have many issues of Blackhawk, Black Lightning (from #1, his first appearance), and then a huge amount of Brave & Bold between #33 and #198, starting off with wonderful issues such as Kubert’s Hawkman, Starman & Black Canary and early team-ups, leading to many Neal Adams art team-up issues and high grade 100 pagers, followed by Bronze Age high grade Batman team-ups. Full details as always in our catalogue.

*Marvel: Following his 1976 return to Marvel, the legendary Jack Kirby was anxious not to get trapped in the cycle of just illustrating super-heroes again, and one of his conditions was that he would be allowed to write and draw his own concepts. How much of the Eternals concept was his is, politely, open to debate; heavily ‘influenced’ (ahem, ahem) by the popular Erich Von Daniken paperbacks, which postulated that mankind’s ancient ‘Gods’ were alien visitors, Kirby’s Eternals portrayed the return of ancient immortal extraterrestrials, and the cataclysmic repercussions for humanity. Originally intended to stand apart from the Marvel Universe, it was shoehorned in at editorial insistence, which resulted in Kirby eventually abandoning the strip mid-narrative. Because of this dissonance, the Eternals have been comparatively overlooked by all but the most diehard Kirby Kollectors, but with the confirmation of an Eternals movie, prices are spiralling. Every issue (except #1 and #19, the final issue) fresh into stock this week in a variety of grades and prices, but mostly high grade. As always, consult our catalogue for full details.
PICTURED: ETERNALS #2 VF p £45 SOLD

*Marvel: Two contrasting images of the Golden Avenger here this week. On the anniversary issue #100, Iron Man powerfully smashes a girder in front of the huge ‘100’ lettering; on the cover of #128, we see the dark side of Tony Stark as he confronts his personal addiction in the classic ‘Demon In A Bottle’ story. A great period for storytelling.
PICTURED: IRON MAN
#100 VF p £25
#128 FN/VF p £40

*Marvel: Published in 1994, the series Marvels ran over four books covering the 1939 to 1974 time period, examining the development of the Marvel Universe from the perspective of an Everyman character, news photographer Phil Sheldon. The evocative series portrayed ordinary life in a world full of costumed supermen, with each issue featuring events well known to readers of Marvel comics, as well as a variety of minute details and a retelling of the most famous events in Marvel history. Lovingly scripted by Kurt Busiek and lavishly painted by Alex Ross, this series transcended the vintage/modern divide and provided an experience both generations could appreciate. Various hardcover and paperback collections have remained steadily in print since the series concluded, but these are the originals. Issues #1 to #4, plus the subsequent ‘coda’ #0, are available for sale as a set.
PICTURED: MARVELS #0; COMPLETE SET #1-4 + #0 NM £30 SOLD