*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: Amongst fans of the ‘funny career girl’ sub-genre of comics (and there’s more of us around than you’d imagine), Sherry the Showgirl is acknowledged as one of the hardest to find. This story of an aspiring singer/dancer and her wacky friends is cut from the same template as Millie, Nellie, Tessie and the gang, but its short run and confusing publication history (it ran three issues, became ‘Showgirls’ with #4, reverted to Sherry for #4-7, then became Showgirls series II, #1 & #2) bewilders even the most diligent pursuer. However, we’re very pleased to have acquired #7, the final ‘Sherry’ solo issue, in an attractive VG with minimal corner and edge wear. Insanely rare anywhere, and with very few copies known in the UK, you can pick her up for £100.
Category Archives: What’s New
American Update: Sgt. Fury #13 with Captain America and Bucky
*War: Shortly after the revival of Captain America in Avengers #4, fans started clamouring for ‘untold adventures’ of the hero in his WWII heyday. There were several such ‘flashback’ stories in Cap’s own series in Tales of Suspense, but perhaps the most memorable one was this crossover with Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos in issue #13 of Nick Fury’s own series. This item is less common than many early Marvel Age landmarks, as the war books, like the westerns, tended to be overlooked by fledgling Marvelites, so copies in any condition are uncommon, and this is an outstanding grade for its vintage. A lovely FN/VF cents copy, with bright and vivid cover colours, tight corners, and clean off-white interiors. On sale for £160. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American/British Update: Modesty Blaise – The End Of An Era
*Modesty Blaise: We’ve finally reached the end of Titan’s sequential printing of all the Modesty Blaise strips from the Evening Standard, with Volume 30 in the series: The Killing Game. This last volume also features The Last Aristocrat and the final Modesty newspaper strip tale The Zombie. It’s taken years to get here, but finally, we Modesty devotees can have all the stories complete in one uniform volume (although some of the earlier volumes in the series are now out of print, we do have a selection of these available alongside this final volume). See our listings for details.
British Update: First Quenchers Plus! Early 2000 AD, including 1st issue, 1st Judge Dredd in #2 – Let the Thrill-Power Commence!
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: The definitive Boys’ Adventure title of the later 20th Century, 2000 AD captured the hearts and minds of a generation, and we are delighted to have most (not quite all) of the first 50 Progs back in stock, including the very first issue and the second issue, which brought the world the first appearance of the series’ breakout character, Judge Dredd! #1 is GD at £50; #2 is FN at £150. Other highlights from this selection include the debut of the popular and long-running “Tharg’s Future-Shocks” in #25, and several covers by Brian Bolland, Kevin O’Neill and Dave Gibbons, at the commencement of their careers! Consult our catalogue listing for full details. SORRY, #1 & #2 NOW SOLD
British Update: Long Hot Summer – Scorcher Summer/Holiday Specials 1970-1979
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Scorcher, the soccer-themed weekly, proved so popular with the readers that it launched its first Summer Special in the same year as its debut. We have that first Scorcher Summer Special, and all the others (save for 1973) up to 1979, which present information leads us to believe might be the final Special – though, as with so many matters related to British comics, a final verdict has yet to be reached! ‘Billy’s Boots’, ‘Nipper’, ‘Lags Eleven’, ‘Bobby of the Blues’, ‘Hot-Shot Hamish’ and more await you! The 1970 Special is VG £20, and 1971 VG £15, both illustrated. For details of the rest, see our online catalogue. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD
British Update: Another nest of Eagles! Volumes 4, 5 & 13
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Another comprehensive batch of Eagles fresh in, this time Volumes 4, 5 & 13 virtually complete, including Christmas issues, mostly around a very respectable GD/VG grade and filling lots of gaps in our stock listings.
British Update: First Quenchers Plus! Countdown #1-43 complete
*TV & Film Related Comics: Our Gerry Anderson celebration continues this week with a consecutive run of Countdown from #1-43 (of the 58 issues before it became TV Action). Not only that, but #1 is presented in a choice of grades: a VG copy (pictured) at £40 and a FA copy at £20. But there was a lot more to this successor to TV Century 21 than just Gerry Anderson, although Thunderbirds, Stingray, Joe 90 and UFO were to be found within its pages; other star attractions included the Jon Pertwee Dr Who strip, the eponymous Countdown strip and later the Persuaders. A great title and very popular with our customers!
British Update: Bring On The Busters! – 1971 and 1974 extensively restocked
*Humour Comics: We continue our massive restock of IPC/Fleetway’s longest-running humour weekly with around 70 copies from the year 1971 (most of the years’ numbers, plus additional copies in varying grades for more buying choices) and – alert readers remembering we already did ’72 and ’73 previously – we then skip over to 1974, in which former Cor! stars such as ‘Ivor Lott and Tony Broke’, ‘Val’s Vanishing Cream’, ‘Chalky’ and ‘Tomboy’ considerably up the humour quotient, while the heartrending and Kafkaesque ‘Marney the Fox’ is a superior new adventure addition by the team of Scott Goodall and John Stokes. More to come as we wend our way through the decades!
Books Update: A Mixed Bunch Of Childrens’ Classics
*Childrens’ Books: As it says on the tin, a selection of classics have joined our shelves, ranging from Lewis Carroll’s Alice (both tales in one book), facsimiles of original editions of Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter’s Bolt and (as Hilda Richards) Bessie Bunter of Cliff House School and Enid Blyton’s first story of the Famous Five, Five On A Treasure Island. We’ve also added The Whispering Mountain (Joan Aiken), The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen (Alan Garner) and The Hundred And One Dalmations plus it’s sequel, The Starlight Barking, by Dodie Smith.
What’s Old: Pre-Code Horror
We’ve been very fortunate over the years to have had through our hands hundreds, if not thousands of issues of Pre-Code Horror, that very infamous genre that corrupted the youth of America in the 1940s and 50s. Vigourously sought after by collectors these days, we still have a very intense turnover of these controversial comics, although in recent years the supply s drying up. Fortunately, still a box and a half full of stock remains in our vaults, including these couple of examples: The Thing #17, a beautiful and uncommon VF copy sporting a Ditko cover and Powell art, the final issue of this Charlton series at £450; and Weird Tales Of The Future #1 from Morse (Key), with Wolverton partial cover and Andru art FN at £290. Take a look through our Horror 1940-1959 category for lots more gruesome specimens!
Clearance Corner: Champion (1st series)
*Clearance Corner: It’s time for our stock of Champion, the boys’ story paper that ran from 1922 to 1955 to make way in our boxes for the huge amounts of stock piling into our shop every day. On offer in our latest bargain lot are 77 issues of Champion from 1946 to 1952, with the year 1949 almost complete (inc. Christmas issue). Condition varies from Poor to Very Good, with most being GD or VG. Evocative boys’ own stuff, with characters like Rockfist Rogan (RAF Pilot and Boxer), Ginger Nutt (The Boy Who Took The Biscuit), Johnny Fleetfoot (The Redskin Winger) and Colwyn Dane (Detective). All available for the bargain price of just £20. (UK Postage if required would be an extra £3.50). SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
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/British section:
*Tarzan/E R Burroughs
*Phantom
*Flash Gordon
*Spirit
*Modesty Blaise
and in our British section:
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics (A – D)
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
American Update: 1st Hawkman in Brave & Bold #34 and Hawkman #1
*DC: In the wake of the successful Silver Age revivals of Flash and Green Lantern, DC decided to try one of their most popular Golden Age characters, Hawkman, recast in a ‘Space-Age’ mode. This version was Katar Hol, police officer sent from Thanagar to study Earth law-enforcement customs, and his helpmate Hawkgirl was no silly debutante as in the original, but rather his colleague in policing, and his wife. A husband-and-wife superhero team was virtually unheard-of at that time, and Gardner Fox’s scripting, gave equal time to both Hawks. Superbly illustrated, first by Joe Kubert, then by Murphy Anderson, the Hawk’s adventures combined a true partnership of equals with derring-do all over Earth and on other worlds. We’re proud to have the first Hawkman revival issue, Brave & Bold #34, and the first issue of the ongoing series Hawkman, fresh into in stock; the #34 is an attractive VG+ cents copy, with minimal corner & spine wear, but vivid cover colour and excellent interiors; on sale at £265. The Hawkman #1, again very nice with only moderate spine wear, is GD/VG p £60. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD
American Update: Slab Happy! CGC Blue Label JLA #12 – 1st Doctor Light
*DC: Our latest third-party graded acquisition is the twelfth issue of the original Justice League of America, the World’s Mightiest Heroes, wherein they squared off against the Villain of the Visible Spectrum, Dr. Light! This issue, by the classic team of Fox, Sekowsky and Sachs, launched the career of one of the League’s most enduring villains, who went on to many battles with the team en masse and individually, as well as lengthy spells as a villain in New Teen Titans and a reluctant hero in Suicide Squad. This copy is a CGC Blue Label (indicating no repair or restoration), 6.5 (equivalent FN+) at £100.
American Update: DC Silver/Bronze Sweep – The Sequel!
*DC: Concluding our most recent sweep through our DC stock, we have additions to Metamorpho (inc #1 FN £30), Ragman, the criminally-underestimated original Secret Six series, Superboy (including 100-Pagers #185 & #202), New Teen Titans (including #10 2nd Deathstroke VF £8.50), Wonder Woman and World’s Finest Comics.
American Update: Worlds Collide – Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man
*DC/Marvel: A key entry in our new category with the first ever DC/Marvel joint effort. From 1976, the ground-breaking cross-company crossover as the two greatest solo stars of DC and Marvel met for the first time in Superman Vs. the Amazing Spider-Man! This tabloid-size event united the creative teams of the two companies, and set a precedent for a number of subsequent, very lucrative, collaborations between the opposing bullpens! This is a VG+ pence copy at £30, and we anticipate it will sell just as rapidly as every other one we’ve ever had in stock, so don’t dilly-dally – order today! SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: First X-Men Crossover in Tales of Suspense #49
*Marvel: In the early days of the Marvel Universe, the idea of characters crossing over and casually teaming up (or more likely having a misunderstanding and clobbering each other for ten or so pages) was a relative novelty, so it was an unexpected treat to see folks ‘break out’ of their own pages. Tales of Suspense #49 has a particular distinction among such team-ups, as the X-Men’s Angel appears in Iron Man’s feature and – amazingly – battles the Armoured Avenger to a standstill! A brief appearance by Warren’s classmates at the Xavier Academy makes this the first X-Men crossover in the MU — and drawn by Steve Ditko to boot! This is a GD p copy on sale at £60. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: New Mutants #87 – 1st Full Appearance Cable
*Marvel: The 87th issue of the ‘junior X-Men’ series, New Mutants, featured the first full appearance (he had made a fleeting walk-on in the previous) of the man named Cable, the man from an apocalyptic near-future, son of Scott Summers by a cloned replica of Jean Grey, who came back in time to prevent his own future from coming to pass. Or something like that. His powers include metal bits, a strappy costume, really big guns, and glaring a lot. With a shiny eye, for no very good reason. Anyway, he took over the stewardship of the New Mutants from Magneto, and eventually honed the survivors into X-Force, a dubious achievement for which no-one should thank him. He’s since bobbed back between ‘now’ and the future, interfering with his own and the world’s time stream, and accosting various mutant children to become the Hope of the World. Kind of like Mary Poppins, he’s a super-powered nanny with metal limbs. Confusing back history and ambiguous abilities or not, he’s scheduled to be appearing in the next Deadpool movie, so interest in the character’s early appearances has skyrocketed. This VF/NM Pence copy is in excellent condition, and believe me, the time will come when you’ll look back upon this as a snip at £95. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: To Infinity And Beyond! Jim Starlin’s Infinity Trilogy – Gauntlet, War and Crusade – Complete!
*Marvel: One of the phenomena of the last decade of the 20th Century was Jim Starlin’s Infinity Gauntlet, in which Thanos, the megavillain Starlin had been building up for nearly twenty years, was unleashed against the massed forces of the Marvel Universe, armed with the reality-altering Infinity Gauntlet, in a struggle for the sake of the universe itself! Hugely popular, the mini-series spawned many, many crossover issues, and two sequels, Infinity War – in which the Marvel Heroes were forced to confront their own dark duplicates – and Infinity Crusade – in which ‘The Goddess’ separated the Marvel Heroes into a super-powered jihad. These three series have been hugely popular ever since their inception, but with Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet at the centre of the forthcoming Avengers/Guardians of the Galaxy cinematic crossover, demand for them is at its height, and we consider ourselves very lucky to have acquired all three series in their entirety. Infinity Gauntlet #1 is NM- p £30; details on the others may be found in the Marvel Comics section of our online catalogue.
American Update: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Hedy DeVine/Hedy of Hollywood
*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: Having had the good fortune to have just acquired a significant amount of the 1940’s and 1950’s “Teen Humour/Funny Girls” comics, we will be releasing these over the next several weeks as fast as we can prepare them – so brace yourself for a barrage of beauty and buffoonery! We begin with Timely/Atlas’ Hedy DeVine, actress and blonde bombshell, whose series title was changed to Hedy of Hollywood for the hard of thinking, but featured the same star throughout. Issue #30 of Hedy’s own series is a highly-attractive VG at £55. (Pictured) Not only starring Hedy, Millie the Model and Tessie the Typist (those girls hung out in each other’s books a lot), but also featuring two of Harvey Kurtzman’s eclectic ‘Hey Look!’ strips, it has a two-pronged fanbase. We also offer a later issue of Hedy of Hollywood, #46, at a more pocket-money price for folks who’re interested in sampling. Look for many more entries in this category: Millie, Irma, Patsy & Hedy (different Hedy), and many more lovelies looming in your future…
British Update: A Fanderson Fiesta of Annuals – Fireball XL5, Lady Penelope, Stingray & more!
*Annuals: Continuing our celebration of the works of Gerry Anderson, we’re delighted to update our Annual stock with new entries for Fireball XL5 (all four Annuals from 1964 to 1967), Lady Penelope (from 1967 on), Stingray Television Story Book (a 1965 rarity which, despite its name, has text and comics stories, resembling a conventional Annual), Story Books – text with illos – for the Angels and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and western adventure — Four Feather Falls from 1961, a very attractive copy of one of the rarer Anderson Annuals from one of his earliest TV ventures. Illustrated: Fireball XL5 1964 VG+ £45, 1965 VG £40, 1966 VG £40; Four Feather Falls 1961 FN+ £25 and Stingray Television Story Book 1965 £25. For details of all the others, see the Annuals category of our online catalogue – and if you’ve a hankering for still more Anderson-related antics, check out Penelope, in our Girls’ Annual sub-category , where more tales of the Angels, Marina and Lady P herself surfaced from time to time!
British Update: Classics From British Comics – Dan Dare, Riders of the Range and the Trigan Empire
*Collected Editions: Three handsome additions to this popular category: firstly, Hawk Books’ deluxe reissue of Dan Dare in oversized colour hardcovers. This fourth volume, reprinting the entire Prisoner of Space story, is VG £30. Hawk also produced a series of ‘Eagle Classics’ paperbacks, including the well-remembered western ‘Riders of the Range’, large-format full-colour in VF at £10. And from Hamlyn in 1978, the first attempt at a sequential reprint of the acclaimed Don Lawrence-illustrated space saga, The Trigan Empire; this copy is Fine at £50.
British Update: Long Hot Summer: Lion and Valiant… and Lion And Valiant!
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Three new additions to the extra-length Summer/Holiday Specials from Fleetway/IPC: Lion Holiday Special from 1977 in exceptional VF+ condition at £32.50; Valiant Holiday Special from 1979 in VF at £30; and the jewel in the crown, the maddeningly-scarce combined Lion and Valiant Special Extra, from 1969. Seldom seen in any condition, this genuine rarity, produced in addition to the respective weekly’s specials that year, is highly sought-after. This copy is VG at £65. Despite the promise of the cover, Robot Archie and Captain Hurricane don’t actually team up, but nevertheless, there’s thrills galore inside!
British Update: A Battalion Of Warlord
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A huge army of Warlord comics have bivouacked in the Boy’s section in our basement, reinforcing those already present. From #8 (1974) to #223 (1978), including the 1st issue of Warlord & Bullet (#220) and filling many gaps in our listings.
British Update: Bring On The Buster! Most of 1970 now in stock
*Humour Comics: We continue our humongous top-up of IPC/Fleetway’s longest-running comedy title with most of the issues from 1970 being replenished, frequently in duplicate copies offering a selection of grades to the discerning punter! Regular features include time-displaced Victorian villain ‘Charlie Peace’, shrinking giant alien monster ‘Galaxus’, amphibious vealcake jailbait ‘Fishboy’, ‘The Misers’, ‘Sherlock Junior’, and in the 7th February issue, the debut of Leo Baxendale’s ‘Clever Dick’, pre-teen boy genius inventor, who graced the comic’s pages for more than a decade thereafter. This selection also includes New Year, Easter and Fireworks issues, and promotional flyers galore!
British Update: First Quenchers Plus – Princess Tina from #1 (1967) to 1970
*Girls’ Comics: Our latest British #1 comes with a whole lot of successive issues! The venerable but faltering Princess weekly had, by 1967, seen better days, but its editors had a cunning plan: Tina, the weekly comic launched earlier that year, was a rollicking success, with translated iterations all over Europe and hundreds of thousands of girls rejoicing in the antics of ‘Jackie and the Wild Boys’, ‘Jane Bond’, ‘Super-Girl Sandra’ and ‘Moira – Slave Girl of Ancient Rome’, not to mention fashion-doll ‘Barbie’. So in the last few days of Princess, they had Tina stalwarts ‘guest’ in order to lull the readership for the upcoming ‘great news, chums!’ announcement, wherein Princess combined with Tina – but this was no ordinary merger, more a virtual relaunch as ‘Princess Tina’, with Princess stalwarts ‘Sue Day’ and ‘Alona’ taking prime positions. The re-branded Princess Tina ran on happily, in one form or another, until 1972, and we have the first issue from 1967, as well as a scattering from 1968 & 1969, and then a reasonable selection from 1970, the year in which Princess T. absorbed the faltering Penelope – though Penny’s own series was the only one to make that jump! Illustrated are the first Princess Tina issue from 23rd September 1967 (VG at £25), and 17th October 1970, just because it’s a very nice cover!
Books Update: Sphere Of Influence
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Our Science Fiction restocking continues apace with a selection of books published by Sphere. With legendary authors such as Gordon R Dickson, Philip Jose Farmer, Robert Heinlein, Fritz Leiber, Larry Niven, Alexei Panshin, Clifford Simak, Cordwainer Smith and Jack Williamson (deep breath), it’s no wonder that Sphere books remain very attractive.
American Update: Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 1964 VF+ £1350
*Marvel: Something very special this update. Spidey squares off against the Sinister Six in his first annual from 1964 in a 41 page Lee/Ditko masterpiece. Dr Octopus, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, the Vulture and the Sandman team up to take on the webspinner in what is arguably Steve Ditko’s finest work on his co-creation. Nowhere is this more exemplified than in the glorious full page panels of Spidey fighting each of his foes in turn. The remainder of this 72 page annual is chock-full of pin-ups and superb features, also all illustrated by Ditko. In VF+ grade at £1350. An extraordinarily well-preserved copy, exceptional in this high grade. Virtually no spine wear, tight and flat, perfect staples, lovely off white pages. Great cover gloss and colour with vivid white background. A couple of tiny marks at spine edge and across bottom of cover stop it being NM. The nicest copy we’ve ever seen of this rare item, which would grace the most prestigious of Spider-Man collections. High resolution scans of front and back covers are available on request. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
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/British section:
*Classics Illustrated
and in our British section:
*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material
*Marvel UK
*Power Comics
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
American Update: Golden Age DC Greats! Batman in 3 titles
*DC: Having spotlit Superman in our previous Golden Age DC Greats alert, we turn our attention this week to the Guardian of Gotham City. Batman #32 features not only a Joker story, but the origin of Robin retold (for the first time at some length), and a time-twisting tale in which our Dynamic Duo team up with the Three Musketeers! This copy is GD-; superficially nicer, but with spine splits at top and botom up to the staples marring the profile of what would otherwise be a very nice mid-grade copy. Bargainaceous at £115! We then have a brace of Detective Comics – issues #111 GD £75 and 138 VG+ £225 (invisible Joker cover and story), co-starring Batman & Robin with Air Wave, Slam Bradley, Robotman, Slam Bradley and the Boy Commandos, among various others. Finally, a lovely copy of an early World’s Finest Comics, #18 dated Summer 1945. This 100-page squarebound extravaganza stars not only Batman & Robin, but Superman, Green Arrow, Star-Spangled Kid, Zatara, the Boy Commandos and others. For its vintage, this is an extraordinarily attractive copy, with an unmarred white cover background, tight binding, and remarkably well-preserved tight interiors, with none of the rolling or sliding normally associated with glued squarebound spines. Its only flaw is that at some point in the intervening decades, the lowest 1/2″ of the spine has somehow been cleanly removed, but still, a thing of beauty; FN- at £320.
American Update: Challengers of the Unknown #1 – Scarce Kirby Classic!
*DC: One of Jack Kirby’s last projects at DC before absconding to Marvel in the early 1960s was to co-create the Challengers of the Unknown, the tale of four daring adventurers who, having survived a disaster in common, were “Living on Borrowed Time”, and decided to devote that time to the betterment of others. After several appearances in Showcase, Prof, Ace, Red and Rocky graduated to their own series. This first issue is exceedingly rare in any condition, and typically features our heroes traversing dimensions and encountering strange aliens by the bushel, as you do. Kirby art, cover to cover. This copy is FA+. The front and back covers have been separated and retaped together, but remain detached from the body of the book. There is also a small back cover tear, and a small amount of writing on the back cover. However, the cover scene is unharmed and vivid, and the interior pages in decent shape. An item of extreme rarity on sale at £125.
American Update: DC Silver/Bronze sweep A-J
*DC: Another sweep through the Silver & Bronze Ages of the DCU to fill gaps in our catalogue for the following titles: Adventure Comics, All-Star Comics, Brave & Bold, Eighty Page Giant, Flash, Green Lantern, Jimmy Olsen and Justice League of America.
American Update: New category! DC/Marvel kicks off with Amalgam Comics plus…
*DC/Marvel: For many years now, we’ve never quite known where to list our DC/Marvel co-productions, so now we’ve solved our dilemma by starting a new category for them shown in our index between the two. There haven’t been hundreds of these, and they always sell fast, so this new category is never likely to be over-populated, but we’re kicking off this week with a selection of Amalgam Comics from 1996/97, the merger of DC & Marvel characters in two series of 12 issue one-shots. With titles like Doctor Strangefate, Generation Hex, Spider-Boy and the X-Patrol, these have always fired up the imagination of fans of both publishing giants. And at a couple of pounds or so each, represent cheap fun and adventure! As a bonus, we also have the 1982 collaboration: Marvel & DC Presents The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans VF+ at £15.
American Update: FF #48: “The Coming of Galactus!” – 1st Silver Surfer appearance!
*Marvel: Fantastic Four #48 presented what is regarded by many as the apex of the FF’s cosmic adventures, as they, and we, met for the first time not only the planet-devouring entity known as Galactus, but also the Silver Surfer, Galactus’ herald, who announced the imminent doom of the planets on Galctus’ platter. Both characters became hugely popular, with Galactus becoming a synonym for cosmic threat, and the Silver Surfer going on to many highly-acclaimed series of his of title, commencing with his Lee/Buscema 1968 series and continuing to the present day with Slott and Allred, with Moebius, Englehart, Rogers, Starlin and numerous other legendary creators along the way. It all started here! This copy of #48 is a cents issue, with no pence stamp, though it does have a small pence price hand-written just above the ‘A’ of Galactus. Several interior pages have narrow margins, we suspect owing to an initial press misalignment, but the story itself is unmarred, and there is a tiny chip off the bottom right cover corner. However, the cover colour is deep and vivid, and the overall appeal of the book is considerably greater than the VG grade implies. This epochal issue is VG at £175. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD
American Update: Captains Courageous! Marvel Super-Heroes #12 and #13, with first Mar-Vell and first Carol Danvers!
*Marvel: Marvel Super-Heroes #12 saw the debut of Captain Marvel, a warrior of the spacefaring Kree Empire who masqueraded as a human on Earth. Actually conceived as a copyright-protecting exercise (Marvel’s lawyers had recently seen off a short-lived ‘Captain Marvel’ from another publisher), Mar-Vell’s genesis may have been a bit less than sincere, but his impact remains enduring in the Marvel Universe , especially his participation in the cosmic events initiated by Jim Starlin later in Cap’s own series. These two issues present not one, but two Captains’ debuts: not only Mar-Vell in #12, but Carol Danvers – later Ms. Marvel, occasionally Warbird, and fifth and current holder of the Captain Marvel title – made her first appearance in #13 as part of Mar-Vell’s supporting cast. Given the imminence of the “Captain Carol” movie, this means that #13 is currently in higher demand than #12, but we are delighted to have both to offer: #12 is FN p £50 and #13 FN- p £100.
American Update: Star-Spangled Suspense! Captain America fights, then joins Iron Man in Tales of Suspense!
*Marvel: After almost a decade in limbo, Captain America was famously returned to the modern-day Marvel Universe in Avengers #4, and proved such a hit that not only did he become the heart of the Avengers, but became once again the star of his own series. In Tales of Suspense #58, through a series of contrivances we won’t go into here, Iron Man, previously the solo star, battled Captain America, and in the very next issue, with an admirable spirit of forgiveness, Shell-Head welcomed Wing-Head as his co-star in what was now one of Marvel’s ‘split’ books. We have both these historic issues back in stock in extremely appealing grades. Both are cents copies, with no UK price stamp or overprint, and both have deep, vibrant cover colour, tight corners and staples, and flexible, off-white interior pages. The #58 is VG/FN £100, and the #59, a truly remarkable FN/VF, is £165.
American Update: Catalogue Expansion: The Age Of Apocalypse
*Marvel: We’ve added the fan favourite storyline ‘The Age Of Apocalypse’ to our catalogue, the major X-Men event of 1995, where, in an alternate time-line created by the actions of Legion, Apocalypse has taken over the Earth and is opposed by various groups of mutant heroes, familiar but not as we know them. The story is told in a number of 4 issue mini-series, bookended by two Chrome foil cover specials, Alpha & Omega, and epilogued by a third, X-Men Prime, which leads back to normal continuity. You’ll find our stocks of these right at the end of our Marvel listings after the regular X-Men. SORRY, ALPHA & OMEGA NOW SOLD
American Update: Marvel Silver/Bronze Sweep D-F
*Marvel: A large update to our Marvel Silver/Bronze stocks, featuring Daredevil from #124-199, Doc Savage, Dr. Strange (both first and second series) and Fantastic Four between #56 & #183. Dozens of new issues added, mostly in nice grade.
American Update: Marvel’s Adult Mag of Fantasy & Science-Fiction: Epic Illustrated
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: From 1980 onwards, we bring you most of the first 22 issues of Marvel’s Epic Illustrated, their attempt an an adult-aimed glossy magazine of the best of fantasy and science-fiction, with many gloriously illustrated picture strip stories. With a team of A-list creators such as Jim Starlin, Rick Veitch, Steve Bisette, Harlan Ellison, Neal Adams, Chris Claremont, John Bolton, Wally Wood, P Craig Russell, Barry Windsor-Smith and many more, this highly popular title always sells through for us quickly, so we recommend your early attention if you’re after ’em.
British Update: First Quenchers with Free Gift Farrago! Marvel UK Premier Issues
*Marvel UK: Our #1 issue event rolls on with a quartet of debut issues from the House of (Repurposed) Ideas! From 1975, the first issue of Titans, the ‘landscape’ weekly (which was cancelled when it dawned on the editors that that format ate up the reprint material twice as fast!) in FN at £15, with its original Free Gift Poster, also FN. And from the 1980s a trio of later launches: Marvel Action #1 FN £12, with Thor sticker also FN (and a new cover by then-newbie Alan Davis!); Marvel Super Adventure #1 FN £12, with Daredevil Iron-On Transfer also FN and finally, Valour #1 GD £8, with free gift – wait for it – Devil Dinosaur jigsaw, in FN!
British Update: The Eagle Has Landed Again: Volumes 7-10 & 16
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A chunkly update to what is considered by many to be the finest comic ever published for boys. Dan Date was the mainstay of the Eagle for its 20 year run, illustrated initially by Frank Hampson and subsequently Frank Bellamy and Keith Watson. Here we have most of Volumes 7-10, mostly with Dan by Hampson before switching to Bellamy midway through Volume 10, with a few issues from Vol 16, inc. the 15th Anniversary special. It wasn’t just about Dan though, since many other quality strips also featured; in this period for example, PC 49, Mark Question, Riders of the Range, Jack O’Lantern and Jeff Arnold, to name but a few. Lots of choices of grade and price now available!
British Update: Victor 1972-74
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Victor, the premier war comic, is freshly restocked this week for the years 1972-74, with virtually every issue for those years now available in a choice of grades and prices.
British Update: A miscellany of mostly war-themed Picture Libraries
*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Some less-seen titles amongst a few more common ones in this update, comprising Pearson’s Air War Picture Stories & Picture Stories of WW2, Attack (from #2) and Battleground (from #1) from Famepress, Battle Picture Library, a rare and unusual digest-sized hardcover Combat Picture Library Annual 1962 with picture stories and text and one Thriller Picture Library (#446 with Jet Ace Logan).
British Update: Small but significant updates to Look-In & TV Comic
*TV & Film Related Comics: Small updates to two of the most popular titles in this category. Just 3 issues of Look-In, but including an issue each from 1971 and 1972, the first two years and the very final issue (pictured) from 1994 (VF £15). 7 issues of TV Comic, starting with the Christmas issue from 1970 with Dr Who & the Avengers, then the remainder from 1978/79, all with Dr Who, including the first TV Comic & Target (#1393) and the Christmas issue for 1978. Check our catalogue for full details.
British Update: Bring on the Buster! Years 1968 & 1969 restocked!
*Humour Comics: Continuing our sporadic top-up of IPC/Fleetways’ longest-running humour weekly, we turn our attention to Buster from 1968 (just after its merger with the foredoomed Giggle) and 1969. Around a dozen 1968 issues new in to our listings, while 1969 is replenished rather more thoroughly, with approximately 70 copies (including duplicate issues to give you a range of grades) added. Highlights include New Year’s, Fireworks, Easter and Christmas issues, as well as series debuts of ‘Crabbe’s Crusaders’, ‘Rent-A-Ghost’ (the latter no relation to the popular BBC TV show, but doubtless ‘inspiring’ it, ahem ahem) and ‘The Misers’. Popular long-running features include ‘Galaxus’, ‘Tin Teacher’, ‘Fishboy’, and ‘Cruncher – the Tiny Termite With A Big Appetite’, among many, many more!
British Update: Later Beanos 1970s-1990s inc special issues & Free Gift Farrago
*Humour Comics: Several dozen Beanos added to our listings, mostly from 1979-1983, inc the 2000th Anniversary issue, plus a few later special issues: #2402 (1988 50th Birthday issue with Free Gift Poster), #2423 (Christmas issue 1988), #2632 (Christmas issue 1992), #2684 (Christmas issue 1993) & #2692 (1994 40th Anniversary Bash Street Kids).
British Update: Long Hot Summer – Princess, Princess Tina and Tina Summer/Holiday Specials!
*Girls’ Comics: The convoluted history of Princess, Princess Tina and Tina is not one we want to rehash here (it’s been a long day, and the diet pills are wearing off), so suffice it to say that the three publications were closely linked, with a common stable of artists and features that lasted through the staid and sedate 1960s to the groovy ’70s. We have a selection of the surprisingly scarce Summer Specials from all three titles: Princess Holiday Special from 1965 FA/GD £30, with crossword neatly completed but paper dolls firmly in place; the first Princess Tina Summer Extra from 1969 GD £30 and the follow-up 1970 GD/VG £40 and the Tina Holiday Special from 1976 FN £50 (1 carefully-completed puzzle feature). Among the features are Sue Day and the ‘Happy Days’, ‘Alona the Wild One’, ‘Chairman Cherry’, ‘Milly the Merry Mermaid’, peripatetic popstress ‘Jackie and the Wild Boys’, and, a personal favourite here at 30th Century, ‘Jane Bond’, the curvaceous blonde secret agent for ‘Worldpol’ whose main method of combat seems to be rugby-tackling her foes and then rolling around on them; astonishingly, very few ever seem to raise an objection!
British Update: Bunty, Debbie, Judy & Mandy Picture Libraries
*Girl’s Picture Libraries: The big four of D C Thomson’s Girls’ Picture Libraries significantly updated this week: Bunty between #226-266, Debbie between #4-88, Judy between #73-266 and Mandy between #4-84. These great value ‘done-in-one’ publications remain constantly popular and now we have dozens more to choose from.
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:
*Archie
*Modern Reprints
*Magazines/Books About Vintage US Comics
and in our American/British section:
*Mad & Other Parody
and in our Books Section:
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
*TV/Film Tie-Ins
*Childrens’ Books
*Mad Books
*Comic Strip Books
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
British Update: The British Are Coming! Complete set of Scottish Vulcans 1975
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: The latest in our series of high profile British updates! In 1975, Fleetway/IPC tried to cash in on its fondly-remembered adventure series by launching a new anthology, Vulcan, in an unusual slick-paper format with dimensions approximating those of the American comic book, rather than the customary magazine size of UK comics. Gleaning features from across its vast inventory, they ran “The Trigan Empire” from Look and Learn, as the lead, with “Kelly’s Eye”, “Mytek the Mighty” and “The Steel Claw” from Valiant, “The Spider” and “Robot Archie” from Lion, and “Saber, King of the Jungle” from Tiger, for a cross-section of top talent, including Don Lawrence, Reg Bunn, Solano Lopez, Joe Colquhoun and Jesus Blasco – an A-list roster for a Z-List budget, as IPC paid no reprint royalties at the time! Vulcan was tried out in a Scottish-only edition with the first issue released in March 1975, and after a successful 30-issue run, re-launched with a national edition in September that year. Any issues of Vulcan are scarce these days – the relative flimsiness of the slick paper stock means that copies are rather too easily damaged, unless stored carefully – but most elusive are the Scottish editions, which had a proportionately restricted print run. We are very happy to have acquired a complete run of the Scottish editions, all 30 issues. Most of these are around VG grade, some higher, some lower, although the #1 issue is Poor only with the back cover missing, affecting the Robot Archie story. Prices on them are high, but we believe they’re justified by the scarcity of the items; in 2015, we had almost two complete sets in at the same time, which completely amazed us, and they flew out again very rapidly – in our near 25 years of trading, we had only ever seen half-a-dozen Scottish Vulcans before then, and we really have no clue when, if ever, we’ll see them again. Pictured below: #1-3 and #30, the final issue. All issues are illustrated in our catalogue, where full grading and pricing information may be seen.