*Power Comics: Although Alan Class had been reprinting Marvel super-hero tales in his various titles from the early 1960s – and Len Miller presented some in his anthologies ‘Spellbound’ and ‘Mystic’ – it took until 1967 before a concerted attempt was made to reprint Marvel superheroes in sequential order. That was in the Power Comics weeklies, and after trials in Smash! Wham! and Pow!, they released Fantastic, a weekly devoted entirely to super-heroes, with Thor, Iron Man and the X-Men from the beginning, in glorious black & white and oddly re-edited for the UK market (such as changing American idioms for more intelligible jargon). We may mock – in fact, those of us who’d been reading the originals all along did – but for those benighted parts of the country where the American editions weren’t imported, this was a gift much appreciated, and many people’s first exposure to the Marvel Universe was in these pages. Followed later that same year by Terrific weekly – starring the Avengers, Sub-Mariner and Doctor Strange – these hooked an entire generation of readers on the Marvel habit, and we are delighted to have almost full runs of both, from their first to their final issues (#89 for Fantastic, #43 for Terrific) back in stock for your browsing pleasure!
Category Archives: What’s New
British Update: A Miscellany of Annuals
*Annuals: A tempting top-up to our Annual selection with the Huckleberry Hound Album #3 from – the early 1960’s? (World Distributors didn’t bother with such trivialities as dates), TV Comic 1970 with Doctor Who and the TV Avengers (Steed/Tara King iteration), Action 1978 and 1982, Champion from 1968, Hotspur 1972, Superman Giant Bumper Book 1970 (despite its title a standard-sized hardcover Annual with comic strips), Valiant from 1973 to 1976, Victor 1973 and 1982, and the dynamic duo of Sandie (1973-1975) and Tammy (1976-1978).
British Update: Long Hot Summer – Whizzer & Chips Holiday Specials – 1990s issues
*Humour Comics: From one of the last long-running humour launches, Whizzer & Chips Holiday Specials – the final few editions. The Whizzer & Chips Holiday/Summer Specials began in 1970, one year after the weekly comic’s launch, but by the 1990s W & C was reaching the end of its long run, and the last few are not commonplace. We have what we believe to be the final few W & C Holiday Specials – 1991, 1992, and 1993 – plus an undated and unidentifiable issue from the same period (cover shows the Whizz-Kids invading the Chip-Ites’ sandcastle, if that’s any help at all), all VF at £10 each. Join ‘Sid’s Snake’, ‘Shiner’, ‘Wear ‘Em Out Wilf’, ‘Odd Ball’, ‘The Toughs and the Toffs’, ‘Fuss Pot’, ‘Sweet Tooth’, and more popular features in what, unbeknownst to them, were their final years. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD
British Update: Think Pink! Girls’ Weekly restocked from 1976 to 1979
*Girls’ Comics: Thirty new numbers of Pink, the pseudo-Jackie which featured, as so many did, a plethora of pop pin-ups, make-up and fashion tips, and helpful hints for the young distaff population – but also offered some rather splendidly drawn comic strips, including teenage drama ‘Patty’s World’ (which it inherited from Princess Tina after that title’s demise) and the highly amusing adventures of scheming, venal, wannabe-starlet ‘Sugar Jones’, as well as, in later issues, commerce-themed soap ‘The Store’. Climb into your platforms and prepare for all the David Essex, BCRs and Starsky & Hutch you can eat, as we flashback to the era of Flintlock, flares and flick hairdos! SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD
Marie Severin 1929 – 2018
Marie Severin, veteran comics artists and colourist, passed away on the 30th August 2018, at the age of 89, after moving into hospice care following a stroke a few days earlier.
Born 21st August 1929 in East Rockaway, New York, Severin began her career in the 1950s, by doing a favour for her brother, artist John Severin, who needed help in colouring pages for EC Comics. Her flair for the job was evident, and she became chief colourist for EC, as well as working in production, paste-up and in her own words ‘whatever else needed doing’. Following EC’s demise, Severin worked for the US Treasury Department, producing educational comics on banking and economics.
At Marvel in the 1960s she began, again, in colouring and production, but also started illustrating stories of the Hulk, Doctor Strange and the Sub-Mariner. Her first Marvel Bullpen Nickname, ‘Marie the She’ was a sad commentary on the fact she was at that time the only female comics creator in the superhero field (Ramona Fradon, co-creator of Metamorpho, having retired the year previously to become a full-time mother). Later, the nickname was changed to ‘Mirthful Marie’, to reflect her mischievous sense of humour, as shown in the caricatures of her co-workers she frequently drew. This adept cartooning was pressed into service in Marvel’s parody title, Not Brand Ecch, which Severin stated was one of her favourite assignments, and later in Marvel’s Mad parody, Crazy.
Her versatility, speed and dedicated work ethic led to her becoming, for several years, essentially Marvel’s Art Director, drawing many of the company’s covers, and providing layouts for the majority of the other cover artists to work from. Despite this, she never received the official job title or promotion. During this period, she continued to turn out acclaimed artwork, particularly in conjunction with her brother John on Kull the Conqueror.
In the 1980s she was assigned Marvel’s Special projects, producing illustrations for merchandising and licensed properties. She retired in the early 2000s, but contributed occasional illustrations to special projects until her first stroke in 2007.
In 2001, Severin was inducted into the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame as well as receiving the Comic Con Inkpot Award in 1999. That was followed up in 2017 with a Comic-Con Lifetime Achievement Award.
Russ Heath 1926 – 2018
Prolific comic book artist Russell Heath Jr, better known as Russ Heath, passed away at the age of 91 in Long Beach, California. According to his daughter, Sharon Heath Herzel, the cause of death was cancer.
Born in Manhattan on September 29th 1926, Heath began his career in 1941 on the obscure aviation title Contact Comics and, save for a brief spell in the US Air Force, worked consistently in the field until the early years of this century. His career covered a multitude of genres, including western, crime, horror, fantasy/adventure and even occasional romance stories, but his greatest body of work was for the war genre, most notably in the series Sgt Rock and The Haunted Tank. His hyper-realism, heroic figures and meticulous attention to detail in terms of uniforms, weaponry and artillery gained him huge popularity in the field and among his fellow artists – Heath’s accuracy became so renowned that other artists used his work rather than photos as reference for their own stories.
Unusually, Heath seldom ventured into the superhero field which dominated the comics arena, with only a handful of superhero credits to his name – a 1950s Human Torch story, an issue of the revived Mr Miracle, a story arc in Legends of the Dark Knight and a chapter in the Justice Society Returns event being his only notable contributions. His closest approximation of a regular super-hero title was the adventure series Sea Devils, where his superlative illustration technique made even the (frankly) rather ludicrous stories into glowing fantasy epics.
He did, however, diverge into a different kind of fantasy comic when he produced pages for Kurtzman and Elder’s ‘Little Annie Fanny’ strip which ran in Playboy magazine.
Heath was one of the artists plagiarized by ‘Pop Artist’ Roy Lichtenstein, whose large-format tracings of comic panels created a stir among the art world in the early 1960s. When in his 80s Heath addressed this in a six-panel comic strip and made the same point, somewhat less subtly, to the Boston Globe in 2006, in an article entitled ‘Lichtenstein: Creator or Copycat?’.
Heath’s final comics work was a four-page flashback sequence for Iron Fist in 2009, and illustrations for Dave Sim’s Glamourpuss in 2010 and 2011.
Clearance Corner: Batman mini-series: Gotham Nights and Neal Adams’ Odyssey – 17 issues for £20
*Clearance Corner: Three complete and self-contained mini-series starring the Gotham Guardian in this week’s Brucie Bonus – sorry, Clearance Corner. Gotham Nights II, from 1995, is a follow-up (though not a direct sequel) by John Ostrander and Mary Mitchell to their previous GN series, focusing on the citizenry of Gotham, integrating the everyday lives with the extraordinary events which follow the Caped Crusader. Intelligent and thoughtful, it’s quite a contrast to the two Batman: Odyssey series, from 2010 and 2011, in which legendary creator Neal Adams writes and draws… those. The good news? His artistic skills are undiminished. The illustrations are superb, emotive and breathtaking. The bad news? The script is insane ranting gibberish. No, really. I can’t even describe it. Must be seen to be disbelieved. Don’t ask, just look at the pretty pictures. To clear up any possible bewilderment, Odyssey was originally solicited as a 13-part series, but after six issues, Neal had to go and have a lie down, so despite the strapline saying ‘of 13’, it ended with #6, to be taken up again with series 2, #1 the next year. So: complete four-issue Gotham Nights II, 6-issue Odyssey I, and 7-issue Odyssey II, all around VF/NM, yours for £20 (UK postage if required will be an additional £3.50). Bargainacious!
Housekeeping Update
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:
*Modern Reprints
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
Books Update: Shhhhhhhh…. Secret Seven!
*Childrens’ Books: Although we already have a range of Enid Blyton books we have a few of her iconic series missing, which we start to rectify with this update. We’re adding three HC Secret Seven books, all later printings of the 1st editions. Starting with #3 in the series, Well Done Secret Seven, then proceeding to #6, Good Work Secret Seven and ending with #9, Secret Seven Mystery. Consisting of Peter, Janet, Jack, Barbara, George, Pam and Colin, the Secret Seven also includes the obligatory canine (but unofficial) member, Scamper the golden spaniel. Their adventures include a discovery in a tree-house, a stolen car and a search for a runaway.
American Update: Batmania continues! Detective Comics #43 (1940) App. VG+
*DC: One of the earliest issues of Detective Comics we have ever had in stock, this lovely Golden Age issue, dated September 1940, is contemporary with Batman #2 and All-Star Comics #1, both mentioned in house ads in this very issue! From the earliest days of the DC Universe, this features Batman and Robin in ‘The Case of the City of Terror’, plus Speed Saunders, Slam Bradley, the Crimson Avenger and multiple other adventure features in its 64 interior pages. Given its age, this is in a remarkable state of preservation; cover colours vibrant, even noticeable cover gloss, flexible interior pages, though there has been some careful reinforcement of the staple area and lower spine, visible on the inside front cover. The only drawback is that a narrow diagonal corner has been torn off four interior pages, affecting the ‘Cliff Crosby’ and ‘Slam Bradley’ strips. However, the Batman and Crimson Avengers strips are completely untouched. Given these flaws, which do not detract significantly from the book’s appeal, we have graded it as an Apparent VG+ and are asking £375. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: The Brave & the Bold – many issues new in, including Metamorpho debut
*DC: Additions to DC’s other tryout series, The Brave And The Bold (to give it its full official title), spanning almost 100 issues in range, from #35 (the Second Silver Age Hawkman & Hawkgirl), through to #130 (a Batman team-up co-starring Two-Face and the Joker, less common in the UK). Along the way, we have some of comics’ master artists at the height of their abilities: Joe Kubert (Hawkman in #35 and #42, Cave Carson in #40), Alex Toth (#53), Ramona Fradon (#57 & #58, the first two appearances of cult character Metamorpho) and Murphy Anderson the superlative Starman & Black Canary team-up issues in #61 & #62), Most of this range is from before B & B settled down into being just another Bat-book, when the title still had a dazzling variety of content and creators.
American Update: Sentinel of the Spaceways – Silver Surfer #1 from 1968
*Marvel: Following his debut in Fantastic Four #48, 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 the double-sized format in 1968. This premier issue featured, for the first time, John Buscema’s illustrations on the Surfer, a body of work generally acknowledged to be among his finest, and presented also for the first time a 38-page account of the Surfer’s origins, plus, in the back, a 13-page tale of the Watcher, detailing for the first time reasons behind 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. Uncommon in any grade, this latest copy of Surfer #1 is a GD+ pence copy, with a small lower corner off the cover, and noticeable cover wear at the top edge, but a clear unimpeded cover scene, sound spine, and decent interiors. On sale at £55. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: Fifteen Fabulous First Issues From Marvel’s Silver/Bronze Age
*Marvel: A plethora of pulse-pounding premiere issues, from 1968 to 1985! Star of the selection is Ms. Marvel #1, in which Carol Danvers, long a supporting character in Captain Marvel’s series, broke out into her own superheroic identity. Now the current holder of the Captain Marvel title, and soon to be the star of a big-screen movie, Carol’s earlier appearances are spiralling upwards. This copy of Ms. Marvel 1 is FN+ p £50. Joining Ms. Marvel are a couple of other fabulous femmes: Shanna the She-Devil, from the early-1970s stab at a Women’s Comics line, made her debut in 1972 behind a rather spiffy Steranko cover, pictured here in VF at £27, and Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, originally a copyright-saving action in Marvel Spotlight, proved an unexpected hit and got her own series. Her premier issue, cents copy (ND in UK) is VF £25. Other key first issues are Eternals #1, with the first appearance of Ikaris and the other elements of Kirby’s cosmic odyssey, rumoured to be in pre-production for the silver screen, VG p £17.50 and Howard the Duck #1, by Gerber and Brunner, launching the feathered iconoclast into his own ongoing title, FN+ p £20. But that’s not all! First issues also abound for the Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Nightcrawler, Not Brand Ecch, Nova, Rom, Sub-Mariner, Thing, and Wolverine’s first ongoing series, in varying grades.
American Update: The Man Who Lived Twice! First Series of Brother Voodoo from Strange Tales #169-173
*Marvel: Okay, this is an oddity; the 1970s revival of Strange Tales restarted with the ‘classic’ numbering of #169, and featured Brother Voodoo, a peculiar attempt at a heroic practitioner of, duh, voodoo, intended to broaden the heroic market, and tap into both the ‘blaxploitation’ and horror crazes around at the time. Len Wein and Gene Colan were the creative team, so it was competently done, but a fundamental misunderstanding of voodoo, plus objections to the depiction of non-Christian religion and severe criticism about the portrayal of non-white characters, meant that the heroic sojourn of Jericho Drumm, intermittently possessed by the ghost of his identical twin Daniel, stuttered to a halt within five issues, to be replaced by the hastily thrown-together Golem. That might have been it for this Bronze Age update of Quality’s old Captain triumph (look it up if you want the reference), but for the excessive zeal of fan-turned pro writers, who brought the character back from oblivion. He’s been a Skrull: he’s been the Scarlet Witch (kind of) and now he’s Doctor Voodoo, Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel Universe! Get the early appearances of this bizarre and unique series here; his debut, pictured, is VG £25, would grade higher for a small lower cover tear and accompanying diagonal crease, but still a bright and glossy copy. The entire first run of Brother Voodoo, none of which were ever distributed in the UK, is now in stock. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD
American Update: Pre-Code (& Post Code) Horror Mega-Fest Starts Here!
*Horror 1940-1959: If our celebration of the traditional British Holiday Specials is the ‘Long Hot Summer’, then this update is a curtain-raiser to a ‘Cold Dead Winter’ of Pre-and Post-Code Horror/Mystery Mega-Fest from a variety of publishers, but primarily focusing on Atlas, the company that would eventually become Marvel. After a long drought of such material, a substantial influx of vintage horror/mystery is on the horizon, and will be listed here most weeks as fast as we can process it. We open with nine classic 1950s Atlas shockers, both before and after the advent of the Comics Code Authority, but each loaded with the beloved artists you expect – Everett, Severin, Heath, Sinnott, Maneely, Benulis and scores more. Pictured are Mystery Tales #24 VG+ £110, Mystery Tales #49 VG £78 and Mystic #56 VG+ £67. Check our catalogue listings for Adventures Into Weird Worlds, Astonishing, Journey Into Unknown Worlds, Mystery Tales, Mystic and Strange Tales for the rest of this week’s new additions, and watch out for future updates in this hugely popular category!
British Update: Dan Dare, Romeo Brown, Trigan Empire and More – Collected Classic UK Comics Galore
*Collected Editions: A bane of classic UK comic strip aficionados is that the series were usually, well, serialised in one or two pages per week (or a strip a day in newspapers), so for a good solid chunk of reading, collected editions are the answer. New to our lists this week are a variety of such, some in magazine form (Archive Adventures, featuring Ron Turner’s ‘Space Ace’ and Daily Strips, featuring O’Donnell & Holdaway’s ‘Romeo Brown’), but most in book format. In softcover, we have the 1981 Dan Dare collection from Hamlyn and the 1979 Dragon’s Dream ‘Man From Nowhere’, with a detached cover, but with a Frank Hampson signature! Other paperbacks include a brace of Frank Bellamy; Eagle Classics’ ‘Fraser of Africa’, and High Command, which collects Bellamy’s bio-comics of both Montgomery and Churchill in one volume. In hardcover, we have more Dragon’s Dream Dan Dare volumes – ‘Reign of the Robots’ and ‘Rogue Planet’, but the star of this update is the 1973 Look & Learn Book of the Trigan Empire, collecting the epic space saga by Don Lawrence. The first such collection of the classic series, this is highly sought-after and extremely scarce. This copy (pictured) is a lovely VF condition at £60.
British Update: Long Hot Summer: A Miscellany of Boys’ Adventure & War Specials
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Five different popular series get new entries for their oversized seasonal Specials this week. We open with the 1978 Summer Special of the controversial and short-lived Action – (generally decent shape, but some cover tears.); Battle Summer Special 1978 and Holiday Specials from 1981 and 1982; Lion Holiday Special from 1976; Victor Summer Special 1978 and Warlord Summer Special 1977. Pictured are Lion Holiday Special 1976 VG £20, and Victor Summer Special 1978 VG £30. Prices and grades for the others may be found in our online catalogue.
British Update: Achtung Commando! Huge update to popular Picture Library
*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Over 200 new numbers added to our Commando Picture Library listings this week, commencing in pre-decimal times with issue #400 and ending just short of the 1,000th issue, with many, many missing issues in our inventory being replenished along the way. In a variety of grades, but averaging VG or better, this selection offers affordable opportunities for tracking down those elusive issues for your own collection!
British Update: Long Hot Summer – Beano Summer Specials from the Sizzling ’70s
*Humour Comics: Giant-sized Summer Fun with the Beano Summer Specials from 1976 and 1977, in GD at £10 and VG at £15 respectively. Still at the tabloid size, these feature all the iconic Beano characters – Bash St. Kids, Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, Little Plum, Lord Snooty, and so on – in extra-length all-new adventures!
British Update: Long Hot Summer – Tammy Summer Special 1976
*Girls’ Comics: From the blistering Summer of ’76, the Tammy Summer Special for that year, featuring the all-star trifecta of ‘Wee Sue’, ‘No Tears for Molly’, and street-wise gymnastic urchin ‘Bella’, as well as a plethora of other strips and features. Girls’ Summer or Holiday Specials are increasingly sought-after, being proportionately scarcer than their boys’ equivalents, and this is an unusually nice copy at FN £40, with only a soft lower corner fold and a neatly filled-in quiz page precluding a still higher grade.
British Update: The Last Days Of June: June weekly from 1972 and 1974, including Final Issue
*Girls’ Comics: By the 1970s, June, once the juggernaut of IPC/Fleetway’s girls’ line, was looking a little dated and quaint, having had its crown usurped by the upstart Tammy and her streetwise ways. Nevertheless, June’s latter years saw, in addition to reliable comedy standbys ‘Bessie Bunter’ and ‘Lucky’s Living Doll’, an uptick in Tammy-inspired tragedy stories about terrible illnesses, afflictions, cruel stepparents, abandonments, betrayals, and other fun stuff, often beautifully drawn. Latter June issues are less commonplace, and we’re happy to have two batches in, one from 1972, and June’s final year of 1974, including the very final issue, GD at £9. A chance to fill in those elusive later gaps from years previously unrepresented in our inventory!
Bank Holiday Monday 27th August
Please note that, as usual, we shall be closed on the coming Bank Holiday Monday.
What’s Old: Badger Books – A Handful Of Writers, But A Thousand Names
Written to incredibly tight deadlines and directions (one a month, 45,000 words) Badger Books were published to cash in on the burgeoning interest in Science Fiction, along with established genres such as the Supernatural, Romance, War and Westerns. They never aspired to be great fiction, but relied on luridly attractive covers (mainly by Henry Fox) and entertainingly action-packed, if occasionally incoherent, storylines. Uncommon today, these have now achieved cult status. Whether you feel tempted to sample these, or want to add to your existing collection, we have a wide range of SF and SN titles, some of which are shown here. All issues are listed in the Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror section of our catalogue.
Books Update: Science Fiction Classics Added
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: A fine selection of classic Science Fiction novels and short story collections here, in editions ranging from the 1960s to 2000s. Greybeard and Space, Time And Nathaniel from Aldiss, Dandelion Wine and The October Country (an unusual Ace UK edition) from Bradbury, Babel-17 and Nova from Delany, plus the brilliantly titled Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (Dick) and we’ve only got to D so far! The Radio Beasts (Farley), I Am Legend (Matheson) and A Canticle For Leibowitz (Miller) take us up to M. We have both the 1st UK PB and US PB of Sellings’ Telepath/The Silent Speakers, and to round off we have More Than Human (Sturgeon). If you haven’t read these, then we recommend that you do. As an additional inducement many of these editions have fine cover art by the likes of Bruce Pennington and Richard Powers.
Last Call for Clearance Corner: 13 Free Gift issues plus 5 Specials of My Guy (1992-2000) for £25
As you may realise, the purpose of our Clearance Corner lots is to clear space in our shop by discontinuing titles we’re no longer carrying to make way for new and incoming stuff. As such, they will only be offered for a short time. This Clearance Corner lot, listed on 13th July, has not been snapped up and is nearing the end of its time with us. If not purchased by the weekend, we will have to dispose of it. Here are the details from our original listing:
‘Fans of pouting vealcake jailbait, rejoice – we have a plethora of My Guy issues to tempt you! By the 1990s, the famous girls’ mag had eschewed traditional comic strips in favour of photo-love tales, plus endless photos of Take That, Ant & Dec – sorry, PJ & Duncan – , Boyzone, Paul Nicholls, the Backstreet Boys, Adam Rickitt, and scores more who were popular and pretty back in the day. Oh, but these are special bonus issues, each with the original free gift – thirteen issues in all, with posters, postcards, badges, and incomprehensible plastic trinkets galore! Plus – because we’re just too good to you – five My Guy Holiday/Summer Specials! Steady on now, contain yourselves… all this slightly-past-its-shelf-life hormonal hullaballoo can be yours for £25; UK postage, if required, an additional £4.50 as a small parcel. Go on, you know you want to…’
Housekeeping Update
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:
*Horror 1940-1959
and in our British section:
*Younger Readers’ Comics
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
What’s Sold – Our New Hall Of Fame
Over the years we’ve been lucky enough to encounter many wonderful comics, annuals and books etc. Many of them are very rare and/or highly sought after, and sell so quickly that they barely register in our catalogue, which we feel is a shame. To make up for this we’ve put images of some of our favourite loved and sold items in a gallery for your edification. They’re only added once sold, but if you see something that takes your fancy it may be worth checking our catalogue in case another copy has become available. You’ll find our slide-show of our favourite items in our Extras section — here’s a handy link: Hall Of Fame and below just a taster of what’s in it!
Books Update: Conan Confusion!
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: You just can’t trust minions! Dr Evilla’s been very preoccupied in her Evilla Cave (conveniently situated below her secret alter ego’s stately residence), with her latest plan for world domination. Due to this she tasked her assistant, Greebo, with sorting out more Conan books to sell. Greebo’s pair of neurones weren’t able to cope and Dr Evilla was surprised to find an update consisting of Conan The Usurper and The Conan Doyle Stories! Greebo has now been assigned more menial minion duties, but the books remain enticingly on the shelves. The Conan Doyle stories, selected by John Dickson Carr, range over several genres and include Tales of the Ring, the Camp, Pirates, Blue Water, Terror, Mystery, Twilight and the Unseen, Adventure, Medical Life and Tales of Long Ago. Conan The Usurper has its eponymous hero battling deadly magic, murderous demons and incredible monsters – all in a day’s work for the mighty barbarian.
American Update: Batmania Returns! Batman #40 (1947) – classic Joker cover and lead story
*DC: We commence a new round of Batmania with a Golden Age classic! The Clown Prince of Crime rides again in this lovely item, a superb copy from 1947 featuring bright yellow cover with no scribbling, staining or creasing, tight centrefold and cover staples, only the faintest corner ‘blunting’, barely perceptible, and only very slightly ‘tanned’ pages, off-white and flexible. The content is prime: the lead, ‘The 13 Club’, sees the Joker apparently becoming the butt of the joke when his fortunes abruptly reverse – or do they? In ‘The Case of Batman II’, the Boy Wonder seemingly has to ‘play a Sub’, recruiting and training a fill-in Batman when the original is out of action and the tense thriller ‘The Grand Opera Murders’ is, well, pretty much what it says on the tin. A truly lovely item, with only the faintest dustshadow reining it in to a VG/FN grade. On sale at £475. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: Super-Friends and the Legion of Super-Heroes DC Tabloids new in
*DC: In the 1970s, both major companies experimented with tabloid formats, and DC’s was the Limited Collectors’ Edition, selected reprints in oversized format, which proved popular enough to justify new framing sequences in some issues, and eventually the All-New Collector’s Edition with, as the name implies, non-reprint stories of major characters. We have two more of the oversized treats in stock – Limited Collectors’ Edition #C41 starring the Super-Friends (a selection of Justice League reprints with a new cover and framing sequence by Alex Toth, starring the Super-Friends from TV). Limited Collector’s’ Edition C-41 is FN+ at £20. Keeping it company is one of the most sought-after tabloids – and by a long way the most contentious – All-New Collectors’ Edition #C55, starring Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, at that time one of DC’s strongest-selling series. Featuring the wedding of two founding Legionnaires, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, this was completely undistributed in the UK and not commonplace in the US, with the result that rabid completist Legion fans (yes, like us!) had to have it, despite the fact that, frankly, the expanded page size did the Grell & Colletta ‘artwork’ no favours whatsoever. Didn’t matter to the diehard Legion folks – and still doesn’t, decades later, as every copy to come through our hands has vanished as if abducted by the Time Trapper! This copy (pictured) is an outstanding VF at £50.
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: The Black Panther Debuts in Fantastic Four #52
*Marvel: Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four added to its many innovations in 1966’s FF #52, when they introduced the first black super-hero in comics. The Black Panther was the head of a highly sophisticated and technologically advanced African nation, Wakanda, and was in time to become not only one of the FF’s greatest allies, but a mainstay of their fellow heroes, the Avengers. Following his spectacular big-screen success, T’Challa’s earliest appearances have never been in higher demand, and we have a remarkable FN+ copy, cents, with no UK price stamp or overprint, new in stock. Tight at staples, sharp corners, with strong, largely unbroken black cover background, only a few very faint corner creases, very tricky to find in high grade; considerable gloss, but a very slight central ‘wave’ where the item has been subjected to some pressure in the past. This central vertical curve does not crease the book, nor break the cover colour, and might possibly be alleviated with time and pressure, if you’re one of the folks who does that sort of thing. As it stands, it’s by a large degree the nicest copy to pass through our hands in the last decade or so. This FN+ key debut is on sale at £450. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: Spider-Mania: Amazing Spider-Man #8 with the Human Torch and a crazed robot in High School!
*Marvel: ….What more could you want, really? Oh, okay; this early Lee/Ditko classic is a highly attractive VG+. The yellow cover background is notorious for getting stained or grubby, but this copy is beautifully unmarred, with only a very faint darkening around the arrow on the Torch’s flame trail – check the picture to see what we mean. This tight & bright copy has minimal corner and edge wear, with the only slight break in cover colour being beside Spidey’s head in the corner box. Off-white interior pages, firm at staples, a very appealing copy of a fun story. VG+ p at £185. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts Bonus! Gambit’s First Full Appearance – X-Men #266 back in stock (but not for long…)
*Marvel: A second bite at the cherry for our Mighty Marvel Firsts feature this week! A surprising breakout character from the 1990s was Gambit, the Cajun adventurer who aided Storm when she was running around de-aged to a powerless child (as you do), and quickly became a mainstay of the team, mainly due to his Doomed Romance with the untouchable Rogue. Uncanny X-Men #266 presented the first full appearance of Gambit, and we have a very affordable VG/FN pence copy of this highly-sought issue new in at £45. Rumours of a Gambit cinematic feature have been on and off for a couple of years now, but appear to be back ‘on’, so buy this now before the speculators get it! SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: Huge Silver/Bronze Marvel Sweep A-X
*Marvel: A significant upload of Silver/Bronze Marvel addtions to our catalogue for the following titles: Avengers (from #20 inc #144 1st Hellcat GD £10), Captain America (from #101 inc origin issue #109 FN+ p £24), Fantastic Four, Hulk (from #104), Marvel Premiere (with Dr Strange), Infinity Crusade & Infinity War, Marvel Super-Heroes (from #1), Marvel Team-Up, Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD, Punisher (#10 with Daredevil), Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #2 (listed under Power Man), Silver Surfer (Moebuis series), Star Wars #50, Strange Tales, Tales of Asgard one-shot, Tales of Suspense (#41 low grade 3rd Iron Man PR £26), X-Men (from #44) and a smattering of issues from the X-Men Age of Apocalypse, including X-Men Alpha.
American Update: Hither Came Conan Grand Finale: Savage Sword Of Conan from First to Final Issues
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: We reach the Grand Finale of our Hither Came Conan event this week. Marvel’s comic book interpretation of Robert E. Howard’s barbarian warrior had proved so popular that by 1974, Marvel decided to have Conan as a lynchpin of its fledgling black & white magazine range. Savage Sword of Conan, as a magazine, was exempt from the constraints of the Comics Code Authority, and therefore could present more ‘mature’ stories and themes (translation: ‘giblets n’ boobies), though, to be fair, very few of the creators took this to excess, and most of the stories from SSOC could have been reprinted in the colour comic with minimal changes – in fact, a few actually were, When Deadlines Crunched! SSOC was also the longest-lived Marvel Magazine by far, running until 1995 and its 235th issue, when all of its stablemates were but a distant memory. We are chuffed to have acquired a substantial run of Savage Sword of Conan – not a full run, by any means, but closing in on 200 copies (allowing for a few duplicate issues in differing grades) of mighty-thewed barbarian fantasy action, including the scarce first issue, and, if anything, the even scarcer final issue. Pictured are Savage Sword of Conan #1 FN £30 and the final issue #235 VF £25. The others, in a variety of grades to suit all budgets, are listed in our online catalogue.
British Update: Red Dagger – Restocked from first to last
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: From 1979 to 1984, DC Thomson produced Red Dagger, an extra-thick magazine which collected serialised stories from their adventure weeklies (Bullet, Hornet, Hotspur, Victor, Warlord & Wizard) into complete done-in-one editions for a long complete read. The subject matter ranged from the usual sport (Bernard Briggs, Tough of the Track) war (Braddock VC), sci-fi (Smasher, the Black Sapper), and… pulse-pounding angling action? (Cast, Hook & Strike), and the series managed a respectable 30 issues. We are pleased to have a virtually complete run of Red Dagger, always a popular addition, back in stock, missing only issues #3, #5 and #11, but including several duplicate numbers in differing grades. Pictured is issue #20 FN £10; for grades and prices on the others, see our catalogue listing, as always. SORRY, ALMOST ALL ISSUES NOW SOLD
British Update: Media Madness! Transformers, Action Force, Indiana Jones, Dr. Who and more
*TV & Film Related Comics: Incorporating our Long Hot Summer, First Quenchers & Free Gift Farrago features, we present a plethora of newly added media-derived comics, with Marvel UK’s Indiana Jones Including first, final and free gift issues, Dr. Who Magazine in the 300’s, the 1987 Supernaturals ‘prequel’ issue, with bonus free gift, and a selection of Transformers Specials/Collected Comics to delight Trans-Fans everywhere! We suspect, though, that the most popular addition will be substantial runs of Action Force and Action Force Monthly, the European adaptation of the hugely popular G I Joe franchise which featured, in addition to reprints, a massive amount of new material not available elsewhere (a smattering of it was repackaged for the US as GI Joe European Missions, but by no means all). We have the first issues of both Action Force and Action Force Monthly, and a major selection of both titles, including free gift issues.
British Update: It’s Christmas In August! Christmas Issues for Buster, Cor, Sparky and Whoopee
*Humour Comics: An unseasonably festive top-up on Christmas issues for Buster (1969 and 1972), Cor (1973), Sparky (1970), and Whoopee (1977), plus a Buster Bonus – additional non-Christmas issues from 1975, and the 2009 reprint Special!
British Update: Tammy 1984 including first Princess merger issue
*Girls’ Comics: “But wait,” you ask, “didn’t Princess weekly hang up her tiara in 1967, to merge with the upstart Tina?” Well, yes, but in 1983/84, in the full frenzy of Dianamania, a short-lived revival was launched optimistically by Fleetway/IPC, and when it didn’t catch on, like so many of its stablemates, it was gobbled up by one of its stronger littermates, in this case the omnivorous Tammy. We have acquired a short selection of Tammy from the first ‘Princess II’ merger issue, 7th April 1984, through to 23rd June that same year, when the weekly shook off the last remnants of Princess and reverted to her own name again. These were previously unrepresented in our stock, so fans of gymnast ‘Bella’ and the other Tammy regulars, place your requests quickly!
British Update: A Girls’ miscellany, including Spellbound #2 & #3
*Girls’ Comics: Light top-ups to several popular girls’ comics series in this sweep, including 1978’s Emma (from #3), Girl series One from 1951, Girl series Two from 1987, the short-lived Hi! from 1988, Penny (1979) #2 & #3, Romeo from 1974 – a year previously unrepresented in our lists – and last but far from least Spellbound #2 & #3 from 1976. Issue #2 of Spellbound is more scarce than average in undamaged condition, as the coupon to send off for the Supercats Secret Diary was on the inside front cover, so unmutilated copies are harder to come by. This is an intact VG at £15, and issue #3 is FN £25.
Clearance Corner: 16 Classic Marvel Reprint titles for £25
*Clearance Corner: This week’s bargain in Clearance Corner is another of our irresistible Marvel reprint job lots from the 1960s — those (mostly) giant issues featuring classic tales from the dawn of the Marvel Age (or even earlier, in some cases). 16 issues in this lot: Fantasy Masterpieces x 4 (#2, #6, #9 & #10), Marvel Collector’s Item Classics x 6 (#1, #3, #4, #7, #13 & #20), Marvel Super-Heroes x 2 (#21 & #22) and Marvel Tales x 4 (#4, #5, #6 & #7). All in reasonable condition (except back cover missing from Marvel Tales #7). These always sell very fast indeed, so get your order in early! (UK postage, if required, will be an extra £4.50). SORRY, THIS LOT HAS NOW SOLD
Books Update: Howard’s Way
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Robert E Howard packed an impressive amount of writing into his short life (committing suicide at just 30 years old). His influence can be gauged by the continuing interest in his work and his life. We’ve gathered together six non-fiction works that, through a mixture of biography and selected work by the great man, explore his achievements and lasting appeal. Titles consist of Dark Valley Destiny: The Life Of Robert E. Howard (de Camp et al), The Dark Barbarian: The Writings Of Robert E Howard: A Critical Anthology (Herron ed), Robert E Howard: Starmont Reader’s Guide 35 (Cerasini & Hoffman), Conan’s World And Robert E Howard (Schweitzer), Literary Swordsmen And Sorcerors: The Makers Of Heroic Fantasy (de Camp) and The Last Celt (Lord ed). Nearly all are 1st editions, and they can all be found just after the R E Howard listing in our catalogue.
Housekeeping Update
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:
*DC
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.
American Update: ‘And I Shall Shed My Light Over Dark Evil…’ Golden Age Green Lantern issues in stock
*DC: Before the modern full-spectrum of Lantern Corps, before even the space-faring adventures of Hal Jordan, there was Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern, founder of the Justice Society and heroic legend. Issues of the Golden Age Lantern are scarce anywhere, but particularly in this country, as of course no American comics were distributed here from the start of WWII until 1959. We have acquired two issues: #17 Fall 1945, when the title was briefly published under the All-American imprint (long story, Wiki it if you’re bothered) is in FA/GD condition, but presents much better than that description implies; the cover has been detached and separated, reattached by heavy tape, and there is a relatively unobtrusive Book Centre Stamp on our hero’s chest, as may be seen in the cover photo here, but the interior pages are clean, white and flexible, no browning or brittleness, and the corners are relatively sharp with only minor cover edge wear. Issue #35 from late 1948 is an attractive VG: unmarred cover scene, tight staples at cover and centrefold, vivid colours and gorgeous interiors. Our hero fights two of his Rogue’s Gallery – Gamma and the Gambler – and GL’s pet, Streak the Wonder Dog, gets a solo adventure! What more could you want? There are two tiny (and purely precautionary) tape reinforcements at top and bottom of cover, else this would have graded still higher. Green Lantern #17 is FA/GD £95; #35 is VG £190. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD
American Update: Revenge of the Big-Panty Monsters! Pre-Hero Marvel Horror/SF Restocked
*Marvel: One of the more popular sub-genres we’ve observed in the last couple of decades is the Marvel ‘Big Panty Monsters’ – huge invading aliens who seek to subjugate Earth’s teeming masses (while bedraped for the sake of decency in enormous knickers!). These were usually the lead feature in anthology titles such as Tales to Astonish, Strange Tales and Tales of Suspense, and we’re delighted to welcome a sensational septet of such issues back into stock. We open with the short lived series Amazing Adventures (1961), which introduced the first super-hero of the Marvel Age – yes, even before the Fantastic Four! Doctor Droom (no, not ‘Doom’, not ‘Strange’, either) gained amazing abilities in Tibet and fought supernatural and alien incursions for a very short time, before the reading public decided that his powers of hypnosis and, er, yoga, weren’t really all that much cop. He fared better when revived in the Seventies as Doctor Druid. Two of his early appearances are here in Amazing Adventures #2 and #4, though neither is cover-featured. In Strange Tales #95, the ever-cuddly ‘Two-Headed Thing’ (no relation to Ben Grimm) makes an appearance, and Tales of Suspense #13 brings us ‘Elektro’, who as a robot, was exempt from the panty-wearing requirement. Continuing with Tales of Suspense, issue #34 goes more for quiet drama with ‘Inside the Blue Glass Bottle’, but by #37 we’re back to form with the gigantic Hagg, Hunter of Helpless Humans! Tales to Astonish #31, with ‘The Mummy’s Secret’, wraps up (ha ha) this instalment of monstrous tomfoolery and hullabaloo. Illustrated are Amazing Adventures #2 VG £75, Strange Tales #95 FN p £68 and Tales of Suspense #37, an extraordinary VF- at £170. For details of the rest, please see our online catalogue.
American Update: Spider-Mania! More Steve Ditko Classics
*Marvel: More early Spider-Man issues from the Wall-Crawler’s co-creator, Steve Ditko, still regarded by many (including ourselves here at 30th Century) as the definitive Spider-Man illustrator. This range runs from #21 to #38, taking in such highlights as the premiere of Princess Python in #22, epic clashes with his arch-nemesis the Green Goblin in #23 and #27, and the first appearance of Norman Osborn (as Norman Osborn – shush! Spoilers!) in #37. With one exception, all these new additions are cents copies, with no pence stamp or overprint, and are generally in very affordable mid grades. Pictured are #22 VG £58, #23 VG £69 and #27 FN £90. For details on the rest, please see our online catalogue.
American Update: Catalogue Expansion – Silver Surfer (vol 3 1987), including 1st Infinity Gauntlet
*Marvel: A new addition to our catalogued stock is the hugely popular third series (following the 1968 original 18-issue run and the 1982 one-shot) of the Silver Surfer, Marvel’s Sentinel of the Spaceways. Norrin Radd had been a supporting character for many years, but despite highly-acclaimed work on his original run, his solo flights had never seemed to previously ‘catch’ – but this series, initially helmed by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers, soared, lasting 146 issues – of which we have the majority up to #134, including the enhanced 50th, 75th and 100th issues, plus issue #44 – first appearance of the Infinity Gauntlet – which has become the single most sought-after issue of the series since Thanos’ starring roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most recently in Infinity Wars. Issue #44 is VF+ p at £40; details on the myriad other issues may be found in our online catalogue.
American Update: Hither Came Conan! King Conan/Conan The King
*Marvel: Our Conan event continues this week with its third instalment, a near complete run of the 55 issue series King Conan/Conan The King, including first and last (1980-1989). Tales from the later years in the life of Robert E Howard’s Barbarian, after the events in the Conan the Barbarian series.
British Update: A Miscellany of Annuals: Dan Dare, Phantom, Wham and much more
*Annuals: A nice new batch of annuals in this week. We have just one in the TV & Film Related sub-category: TV Comic Annual 1984 and two in Humour: Whoopee Book of Frankie Stein 1976 & 1977. The main event is in Boys’ Adventure, where we add the Dan Dare Space Annual 1963 (pictured GD £40), Phantom 1968 (pictured VG £12), Roy Of The Rovers 1994, Speed 1981 & 1982, Star Lord 1980, 1981 & 1982, Tornado 1980 & 1981 and Wham 1970 (pictured FN £20).
British Update: Garth – the Daily Mirror’s Classic Adventure Strip
*Collected Editions: In 1943, Steve Dowling and Gordon Boshell created the newspaper strip Garth for the Daily Mirror, inspired by American works such as Superman and Flash Gordon. The orphan Garth grew up with phenomenal strength and, as his adventures progressed, he developed the ability to travel through time and to be eternally reincarnated, courtesy of his true love, the goddess Astra. His devotion to Astra notwithstanding, Garth dallied with a number of shapely ladies through the aeons, a trait emphasized in the 1970s when Frank Bellamy took over illustrating the series. Garth’s adventures lasted in the Mirror until 1997, but comparatively few have been reprinted. This week, we have the two Daily Mirror Book of Garth editions from 1975 and 1976 respectively, the debut volume of the Titan Books series from 1984, and a selection of the Daily Strips reprints issued in the early 1980s. These slick, usually A4 magazines reproduced an entire adventure in one go, but had an extremely limited circulation, being printed in runs of around 400 copies only. A couple of the Daily Strips covers are reproduced for your elucidation: issue #5 VF £10, the Jack the Ripper-themed ‘Night of the Knives’, and #7 VF £12, ‘The Doomsmen’, a Bellamy classic. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD