*Magazines/Books About Vintage US Comics: Some uncommon items added to this popular section: from 1970, Comic Media #1, the long-running British ‘zine which later became Comic Media News and developed into what was arguably Britain’s first ‘prozine’. From 1977, the first (and only?) two issues of Mark Gruenwald’s Omniverse, in which the later Marvel Editor-In-Chief pondered the parallel universes of the comics medium (he’d have a much harder job of it these days…) and from 1972, the Gloria Steinem edited hardcover retrospective of Wonder Woman, not only a feminist appreciation of the Amazing Amazon’s cultural significance, but also serving as the first significant collection of Golden Age Wonder Woman stories! All this, plus top-ups to our stocks of Alter Ego, Amazing Heroes, Comics Journal, Comic Book Marketplace and From The Tomb.

*Power Comics: ‘The Brand New Comic for the New Breed of Comic Fans’ proclaimed Pow! #1 across its masthead. In 1967, Odhams Press, after successes with the Beano-esque Wham! and Smash!, hit upon its highly successful formula of Marvel reprints combined with original British humour and adventure strips. Nowhere was this more notable than in Pow!, their third launch, which featured Spider-Man reprints virtually from the beginning, backed up by Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, as well as well-remembered original strips ‘Georgie’s Germs’, ‘The Dolls of St. Dominic’s’, and ‘The Cloak’. Odhams Press proudly basked in the glory of the emerging Marvel Age of Comics and copied its style of blurb. The first four issues are now in stock, all in superior FN+ grade (#4 FN); we seldom grade UK comics better than FN. but these are flat, creamy white with vibrant colour and virtually no wear. We doubt they looked any better than this when they were in the newsagents. No Free Gifts, alas, but probably the best-looking copies we’ve ever seen. #1 FN+ £100, #2 FN+ £50, #3 FN+ £50 (all illustrated below) and #4 FN £20. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: One of the most popular Picture Libraries is Air Ace, tales of daring aviators defending the Empire’s skyways, and we’re delighted to replenish our severely depleted stocks with in excess of 200 copies new to our listings, from issue #101 to #544, filling many gaps in our ranks, in affordable mid-grades. Air Ace always (excuse the expression) flies out rapidly, so place your orders promptly to avoid disappointment!

Memorabilia & Esoterica: Strange bedfellows in this update as we present (a) an Airfix Construction Kit Catalogue from 1966 (VG £10) that features all those kits we put together as kids (providing one is of a certain age, of course) and (b) the Laurel & Hardy Book Of Wisecracks, 36 pages of the wit of the immortal duo originally presented as a supplement to Film Fun in 1937; this original (not a copy) has been reported as selling for £200, which makes ours at just £25 (VG) sound like a real snip!

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

*Collected Editions: The bastion of 2000 AD and guardian of Mega-City One, several out-of-print softcover editions of Judge Dredd’s adventures have been added to our inventory: Cursed Earth (NM £35, pictured), The Pit (NM £25, pictured), Necropolis (NM £20) Judgement Day, featuring a team-up between Dredd and fellow 2000-AD alumnus Strontium Dog (NM £20) and the complete Apocalypse War (with Block Mania bonus, NM £20).

A UK classic in our previously-listed spot this week. The short-lived and notorious title Scream!, intended as a horror-themed companion to 2000 AD in 1984, fell foul to censorious cretins early in its existence. Despite prestigious contributors – including Alan Moore in its early issues – was pressurised off the nation’s newsstands during a strike after only fifteen weekly issues, belatedly – and without so much as the traditional ‘great news, chums!’ – merging a couple of its strips into Eagle series 2, albeit in greatly diluted form. We’ve lost count of how many sets of Scream we’ve sold over the years, but they never hang around in stock for long. We offer for your consideration our sole remaining issue of Scream! (at the moment) the #1 issue, a sparkling FN copy, comes with the Free Gift (Dracula Fangs) mint and unopened in its original bag and still taped to the front cover. #1 on sale for £50.

*DC: One of the stories which redefined the concepts of comics narrative and superheroic iconography in the 1980s, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen has been constantly in print since its 1986 debut, with myriad editions, collections and archives, but these are the original comics which set comics fandom and the industry alight. At first intended to be a ‘grim and gritty’ reinvention of the Charlton Comics heroes, who had only recently then come into DC’s possession, Dick Giordano convinced Moore to come up with original characters instead. Often imitated – frequently to the detriment of the medium – but never equalled, the 12-issue series is on sale in its entirety, averaging VF condition (#7 VG owing to an upper cover crease) at £100 the set. We don’t need to say much about the content of this most famous of later comics titles; either you know you want it, or you’re beyond hope. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Marvel: A significant latecomer to the Silver Marvel Age, the enigmatic synthezoid, the Vision premiered in Avengers #57 as a villainous pawn of the evil Ultron. Rapidly being discovered to be misguided, he was offered membership the next issue, in one of the most rapid reforms ever, and became a mainstay of the Avengers and the MU in general, particularly through his convoluted relationship with the Scarlet Witch. Based on a Simon & Kirby character from the 1940s, Roy Thomas’ love affair with all things Golden Age stood him in good stead, as the Vision captured the hearts and minds of readers worldwide… though the exquisite art by John Buscema doubtless didn’t hurt! Now a pillar of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and soon to co-star with the Scarlet Witch in a TV series, the Vision’s star continues to rise. This copy of his debut is VF- p at £200. Glossy cover, vivid colour, tight staples at cover and centrefold, only the very faintest unevenness at edge & corner, truly a beautiful copy of a key issue.

*Marvel: After the extraterrestrial invasion of the Saturnian Stone Men in his debut issue, Thor faced more pressing terrestrial concerns in his second-ever appearance, when, at the height of Cold War frenzy, his alter ego, Dr. Don Blake and Nurse Jane Foster fell into ‘Commie’ hands and became prisoners of the Executioner! (No, not that Executioner, though Stan & Jack clearly liked the name enough to recycle it shortly thereafter for the Asgardian assassin we all know and love.) This ‘Executioner’ was the dictator of the South American Republic of San Diablo, and while it may seem laughable to pit him against the Thunder God now, back then, in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis, it was very relevant. This is also the first appearance of Jane Foster, who’s held the title of Thor herself a couple of times! A Good+ copy, pence priced, this is a sound copy, clean cover image, with moderate wear at spine and edges and a small (half-inch) cover tear at right edge in the middle of the cover blurb. On sale at £180. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: By the 1980s, Wolverine’s status as the breakout star of the ‘New’ X-Men had become evident, and an A-List team of Chris Claremont, Frank Miller and Josef Rubinstein was assembled to give him a solo spotlight in a four issue mini-series. Logan returns to Japan where he seeks to regain his lost honour and win the hand of his beloved Mariko, in an outstanding series which was the basis for the 2013 smash film ‘The Wolverine’ – instead of being merely an outline for the film, many of Miller’s striking visuals for the mini-series were meticulously re-created for the movie. This copy of the series’ premier issue, Wolvie’s first solo flight, is VF+ p £40. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: An update for the budget conscious! Some classic issues from the latter days of Tales To Astonish featuring Sub-Mariner & the Hulk, as depicted by many of Marvel’s finest creators of the time, from #78 right through to the end of the run with #101. Notable within these are the first appearance of the Abomination (#91), the Hulk/Silver Surfer crossover in #92/93, the Subby/Hulk fight in the full-length #100 and the final issue itself where the Hulk goes to Asgard. Mostly in low grades (a lot of Fairs and Goods) with an occasional nicer graded issue. 

*Horror 1940-1959: Our Mega-Fest rolls on! One of Atlas’ earliest and longest-running fantasy titles, Journey Into Mystery is best remembered now for being the birthplace of Thor – and before that, for hosting a plethora of ‘Big Panty Monsters’, including Xemnu – but in its earliest stages, it was full-on horror, tales of the macabre by Everett, Maneely, Williamson, Morrow, Torres, Heath and more. We have fifteen new issues in, ranging from 1952’s #3 to #49, the unheralded ‘relaunch’ issue in 1958 after the publisher’s distribution crisis had caused a year-long hiatus in publication. Six of the new entries are Pre-Code, but all of them feature the top-quality artists associated with the publisher. Illustrated are #3 FN £500 (high resolution images available on request), #19 FN/VF £470, #22 FN+ £385, #32 FN+ £260, #36 FA/GD £57, #37 FN+ £260, #43 FN+ £145 and #46 FN+ £125. But in addition to these mostly ‘showpiece grade’ issues, there are several affordable mid-grade copies for more casual reading.

*Western: While not a ‘superstar’ akin to Kid Colt, Two-Gun Kid or the Rawhide Kid, Ringo Kid is well respected by Western aficionados, mainly because of the high quality of the artwork. Joe Maneely designed many striking covers for the 21-issue series (occasionally ‘subbed’ for by John Severin), but Maneely also drew most of the interiors, with occasional help from Fred Kida, resulting in a consistent ‘look’ to the black-clad vigilante’s adventures with his sidekick Dull Knife and his horse Arab. Ringo Kid never had a civilian name revealed, but was a mixed-race hero, having a Caucasian father and either a Comanche or Cheyenne mother (depending on who was scripting the book that month). We also never found out why he fought for justice, but, as the cover blurb on most later issues averred, ‘Ringo (is) the name that makes killers tremble!’. We have the entire 21-issue original issue series in stock, in a variety of grades. Depicted are #1 (FN/VF £125) and #17 (VF £54), but there are also many affordable ‘reading’ copies.

*Collected Editions: Two extremely rare items this week. In 2009, Bear Alley Books released two paperbacks collecting the entirety of two cult series: supernatural adventurer Cursitor Doom by Ken Mennell and Eric Bradbury from Smash!, and the Phantom Patrol from Swift, the tale of daring timelost aviators who get involved in sci-fi adventures by Willie Patterson (writer of the ‘Jeff Hawke’ newspaper strip) and Gerry Embleton (as accomplished an artist as his more famous brother Ron). These handsome volumes were only available for a very limited period before, owing to copyright complications the details of which remain unknown, they were abruptly and completely withdrawn from circulation. Each is a handsome large-format paperback, akin to the more recent Rebellion compilations, in black and white with lovely crisp reproduction and a brand new full-colour cover (Cursitor Doom by John Ridgeway, Phantom Patrol by Chris Weston). They’re very lovely collections, and it’s a real shame that you’ll almost never get to see them. Both are NM; Cursitor Doom is £50 and the Phantom Patrol £100. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*TV & Film Related Comics: Following her debut in TV Century 21 (where she acted as a ‘stealth pilot’ for International Rescue and the Thunderbirds TV series) Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward gained her own series in short order. Starting out in 1966, apart from Lady P herself, the early issues featured Marina, Space Family Robinson, the Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched and the Perils of Parker, all making an appearance in Her Ladyship’s one and only special edition, the 1966 Summer Extra. Possibly the rarest issue of the rarest Gerry Anderson-related series, this copy of the Summer Extra is only Fair; there is considerable spine and corner wear, especially at the lower left corner, and there is a small hole in the cover (just beneath the ‘x’ in ‘Extra’ on the logo) but the stories are complete and unimpaired. FA £75.

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:
*DC/Marvel
*Horror 1940-1959
and in our British section:
*Girls’ Comics
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: The Phantom Stranger was a short-lived 1950s concept re-introduced by Bob Kanigher in Showcase #80, and promptly spun off into his own series in the wake of DC’s successful revamp of their long-running thriller titles, House of Secrets and House of Mystery. An enigmatic wanderer with unspecified supernatural abilities, he fought otherworldly incursions into the terrestrial realm. His primary writer was Len Wein, and Jim Aparo produced daring and imaginative artwork, which, combined with stunning Neal Adams covers on the early issues, gave the series the distinct impression of being set on the mystical borders of the DC Universe, a far cry from the sanitised world of the Justice League. We have a selection of issues from #10 to #24 newly in stock, and if you haven’t tried the Stranger yet, we can recommend you pick up this under-estimated series – before someone goes and makes a TV show of it, and the prices skyrocket!

*Marvel: Following his debut in Fantastic Four, Norrin Radd, Herald of Galactus, gained popularity as a recurring guest-star, and his status was confirmed when Marvel launched the Silver Surfer’s own series in 1968. The first seven issues of his ongoing were double-sized Giants, with John Buscema’s illustrations on the Surfer, a body of work generally acknowledged to be among his finest, and, in the back, all-new Tales of the Watcher, by various artists. (The first issue, in fact, gave the never-before revealed reasons for the Watcher’s oath of non-interference.) The first run of the Surfer’s solo series has achieved cult status, with the first seven double-sized issues in particular being keenly sought out. We are delighted to have almost the complete series (1-17 of 18) back in stock. The covers of the first four (with duplicates of #1 and #3 available) are shown here: #1 VG £135, #1 GD £115 (Spine split from lower staple down), 2 VF+ p £100 (First Badoon), 3 FN/VF p £180 (1st Mephisto), 3 VG- p £75 (small lower spine split; still first Mephisto) and 4 (FN+ p £275 (Thor/Silver Surfer crossover; extremely low distribution, rare issue).

*Marvel: One of our favourite Marvel anti-heroes here at 30th Century is the Sub-Mariner, aka Prince Namor the First, Monarch of Atlantis, whose heroism is outstripped only by his arrogance and his eye for the laydees! Following the breakage of the distribution embargo in ’68, Namor, who had been rooming with the Hulk in Tales to Astonish, got his own solo series for the first time since 1955, and the grandeur and pageantry of his undersea adventures was aptly depicted by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, who also threw in a few hitherto unrevealed titbits about Namor’s ancestry. This copy of Sub-Mariner #1 is GD/VG, cents with no UK stamp or overprint, sound with off-white flexible interior pages, some browning at spine and cover edges. On sale at £50. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: For a copyright-saving last-minute bodge-job (a TV company had announced an intention to create a Spider-Woman TV series), Jessica Drew, the Spider-Woman, had a surprisingly long and significant impact on the Marvel Universe – heck, despite having died, been erased from having existed (not quite the same thing in the MU) and having been replaced by two other title-holders, she’s still kicking! The early days of her series were characterised by an eerie atmosphere, equal parts horror and fairytale, with offbeat villains like the Needle, Gypsy Moth and the Brothers Grimm, and unusual guest-appearances by characters like the Shroud and Werewolf By Night; the latter part of her run, from #34 to #46, featured stunning art by Steve Leialoha, an ongoing ‘are you my mother?’ subplot with the Viper (formerly Madame Hydra) and many cross-overs with the X-Men universe, including the debut of Banshee’s daughter Siryn in #37. We have completely restocked Spider-Woman from issue#5 through to the final issue of her first series, #50, in attractive high grades, averaging FN/VF.

*Horror 1940-1959: We switch our attention to the Atlas post code era this week. Following the introduction of the censorship board, the Comics Code Authority, all established horror/mystery titles had to take a sharp turn away from gore or cease publication, and three series which sprang up to fill the gaps, all launched in 1956, were the companion titles Worlds of Fantasy, Worlds of Mystery and Worlds of Suspense, all of which featured ingenious twist-ending tales, evocative rather than explicit, to circumvent the Code, teamed with some dazzling artwork. World of Fantasy lasted 19 issues, while Mystery and Suspense clocked up merely 7 and 8 each respectively, but in those short runs they featured a plethora of A-list artists – Williamson, Orlando, Colan, Torres, Severin, Davis, Pakula, Maneely, Everett, Powell and Kirby, to name a few – and some truly startling and imaginative covers. Illustrated here are Worlds of Fantasy #2 GD/VG £53, #4 VG £61, #11 VG+ £61, #13 VG £54 and #15 VG+ £61, as well as Worlds of Mystery #3 VG £50 and Worlds of Suspense #6 VG/FN £50. As with most of our recent Atlas torrent, conditions vary, so while these higher-grade items, lovely though they are, may not tickle your budget, we have a number of cheaper options available in our catalogue!

*Annuals: A quartet of new additions to the Boys’ Adventure sub-section of our Annuals stock: Marvel Annuals from 1974 and 1977, with the adventures of Spider-Man, iron Man, the Hulk and company; Vulcan Annual from 1977, a softcover compilation of classic adventure strips including Trigan Empire, the Spider, Robot Archie and more and star of the update, the rare 1976 Valiant Book of Mystery and Magic, a one-off which, for all intents and purposes, was an annual of the highly-popular ‘Spellbinder’ strip (which actually appeared in Lion, not Valiant, harrumph) with some guest-features, behind a rather splendid new cover by Spellbinder’s co-creator, Geoff Campion. This attractive and scarce item is FN/VF at £35 (pictured).

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A quartet of Christmas issues from two of the most popular Fleetway/IPC weeklies – Lion (from 1969 and 1972) and Valiant (from 1964 and 1969). Often bought by folks who don’t purchase regular issues, the Christmas issues are always popular, so now’s a good chance to get a head start on the festive fun! SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Humour Comics: The veteran DC Thomson humour weekly, Beano, is the focus of our Long Hot Summer event this week, with a spectacular array of oversized Specials dating from 1965 onwards. Following the success of 1963’s Dandy-Beano Summer Special, it was decided to give both titles their solo Specials, launching what became a British institution for generations. We open our Beano selection with 1965’s Summer Special, the second Beano solo, in a very attractive VG condition; minor spine and corner wear, but sound and clean pages with no creasing, stains, scribbles or discolouration. We then have a consecutive run from 1966 to 1977, in affordable grades ranging from FA to VG/FN, a shorter consecutive run from 1979 to 1982, and a final selection from the turn of the century, 1998 through to 2002, in higher grades averaging VF. Depicted is the star of this update, Beano Summer Special 1965, VG £65, but rest assured, there’s affordable Summer fun and frolics with Little Plum, the Three Bears, Billy Whizz and all the gang in our online catalogue listings!