*Marvel: Following the success of Tony Stark’s armoured alter-ego, it was inevitable, given the Cold War tensions of the time, that his opposite number from beyond the Iron Curtain should surface, and in Tales of Suspense #46, for the first time, Iron Man faced an armoured juggernaut whose might may equal or even surpass his own! There have been several holders of the Crimson Dynamo identity, both heroic and villainous, over the ensuing decades, as well as several other contenders for the post of ‘evil Iron Man’, but this is where it all started! This copy of a key villain debut is GD+, pence copy, vivid cover colour and unimpeded cover scene, minor corner creasing and slight pressure damage at top left edge. On sale at £50.

*Marvel: Spider-Woman, like She-Hulk, was created as a last-minute copyright defence by Marvel when a TV company planned a “Spiderwoman” TV series. Rushed into production, the origin of the arachnid avenger was intended as a one-off to ‘guard’ the name, and it was to everyone’s astonishment when sales spiked to the extent that a rapid return for Spider-Woman – first in a Marvel Two-In-One story arc, then in her own series, with a more ‘sympathetic’ origin rewrite – was required. Jessica Drew (as she eventually became) lasted 50 issues in her first run, and remains prominent in the MU today – not bad for a bodged-together legal ploy! This copy of Marvel Spotlight #32 is a desirable VF, obviously cents as it was never distributed in the UK, and on sale at £40. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: Transformers, the battling shape-shifting robots who fought a covert war to save Earth while disguising themselves as common vehicles, are back in stock! The series, based on the insanely popular line of Hasbro toys, originally launched in 1984 as a four-issue mini, but response and sales were so huge that with #5, it became an ongoing title, eventually racking up 80 issues plus a number of spin-offs before the wheels fell off in 1991. We have second printings of the original mini-series (aka #1-3 of the ongoing) back in stock, plus a further 12 issues between numbers #18 and #60. Pictured is #1 (2nd print) VF p £10. For details of the others, please see our online catalogue.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: More Valiants have been added to our listing, ranging from 1972 right up to the final year, 1976. Many gaps have now been filled, and highlights include 1/1/72: 1st appearance of Yellowknife of The Yard, Christmas and New Year issues and the piece de resistance, the final issue (16/10/76FN £15). In various grades from FA to FN, something for every Valiant collector here.

*TV & Film Related Comics: TV Action, the successor to and continuation of Countdown is fully recharged in our stock this week with a complete run from 1972/73, first issue #59 (continuing the Countdown numbering) to final issue #132. Dr Who, UFO, the Persuaders, the Protectors and many other TV favourites appeared in its pages. Issues from #101 onwards are considerably scarcer in supply and featured one big story on a rotating basis as well as several shorter ones. Our incomings are nice copies, mostly FN or better, with many VF graded copies. 

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.

*Clearance Corner: This week’s bargain lot features Viz, the ‘adult comic’ that shamelessly exploits classic tropes of traditional humour weeklies with a scatological twist. Home of ‘Johnny Fartpants’, ‘The Fat Slags’, ‘The Pathetic Sharks’, ‘Millie Tant’, ‘Sid the Sexist’ and a personal fave here at 30th Century, ‘Meddlesome Ratbag’. This infamous parody mag was once the best-selling magazine in the UK, and is still going strong today every other month, but we feel it sits ill with our more conventional funnies, so we’re waving bye-bye to this torrent of toilet humour. Forty issues: 19, 21-25, 27, 34-49, 51-55, 58, 59, 61, 62, 67, 70, 71, 90, 91, 93, 97 and 98, averaging FN, originally on sale for a cumulative price of £142.50, now yours for £25! UK Postage (3.7 kg parcel) if required will be a further £14 for hours of sweary fun!

*DC: “Stop! This is the new Green Lantern co-starring Green Arrow!” So proclaimed the 76th issue of what was the Emerald Gladiator’s Silver Age series. With sales falling as GL’s traditional sci-fi adventures began to look a bit dated, editor Julius Schwartz turned to the creative team of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams to add Green Arrow to the title and re-invigorate the series. And that’s just what they did, bringing in contemporary ‘relevant’ storylines dealing in issues such as drugs, racism, pollution, and modern life in 1970s USA of the day etc. The fame of their run extends to this day and it is avidly collected. It all kicked off here in #76, as Social Justice Warrior Green Arrow (himself only newly made over by O’Neil and Adams in Brave & Bold #85) confronts GL with the issues arising on Earth while Green Lantern’s off among the stars. This copy of GL/GA #76 is a very appealing cents copy, no pence price or overstamp, with unimpaired cover scene and only light corner and spine wear. VG+ at £160.

*Marvel: Although Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts had premiered some issues earlier, it was Strange Tales #115 which explained how dissolute and egotistical surgeon Stephen Strange had sought help from mystical sources and been drawn on to the path of heroism following a life-altering accident. This, however, was a secret well-kept by Marvel, who were still plugging the Human Torch as a solo star at this point, and as such gave his match-up with Spidey foe the Sandman all the cover space, without even mentioning the Doctor was In! Nevertheless, this is the first telling of Strange’s origin, as greatly expanded upon in the recent Bandersnatch Cummerbund-helmed cinematic blockbuster. This is a VG pence copy. The price stamp itself is not terribly intrusive, covering a small part of the logo, but oddly this copy seems also to have been pence-printed, and that price obscured by magic marker. This defect is what primarily mitigates against an otherwise VG+ or better copy. Official verdict: VG p £105.

*Marvel: While ordinarily we don’t emphasise modern comics much, we have acquired a number of more recent variant copies, primarily of the Amazing Spider-Man. These are all NM, and we open with issue #600, signed by artist John Romita Jr., at £15. #606 is a Jay Scott Campbell Black & White variant, Black Cat ‘liplock’ cover, at £30. #666 is represented by two exclusive variant covers for our distinguished competition, Forbidden Planet; the ‘headline’ variant is £20, the Lizard battle variant is £25. And we wrap up this venture into modern mayhem with a guest appearance by the Uncanny X-Men – issue #500, the Terry Dodson Black & White ‘X-Women’ cover, at £15.

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Because you can’t get enough of these, we have a further huge batch of Marvel’s Savage Sword Of Conan fresh in between #14 & #219 in a variety of grades and prices. Somehow the Cimmerian Barbarian suits the stlish black and white mood of these prized magazines, where the comic code restrictions did not apply. Our recent hauls of these have moved very quickly, so slip on your sandals, and rush to our emporium quicker than you can say Crom!  

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: These three years of Valiant are depleted no longer, with many missing issues replenished, including those with Promotional Flyers for Whizzer & Chips, Scorcher, Score’n’Roar and Jet, and to round it off the 1971 Christmas issue. With most issues being FA or GD this is the perfect time to extend your Valiant collection.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Although Commando became the juggernaut of the Picture Library genre, still running today after close to 60 years, it should be remembered that on its 1961 debut, it was D.C. Thomson’s imitation of other, earlier battle-themed Picture Library series, prominent among which was Fleetway/AP’s War Picture Library, which premiered in 1958. We have the first eight of this long-running and well-remembered series back in stock, in respectable but affordable low to mid-grades. Issue #1, “Fight Back To Dunkirk”, is FA £30. Prices on the rest may be found in our online catalogue. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Girls’ Comics: Following our recent Bunty Bonanza, we have a – Judy Jamboree? – for Bunty’s stablemate who debuted in 1960. This selection begins with issue #4, and lasts until the close of 1967. While not a complete run by any means, it is a substantial one, and incorporates three first appearances of key, long-running characters (plus one oddball novelty). Issue #164 in 1963 sees the debut of ‘First-Aid Fay’, a young girl determined to become a nurse against her wealthy parents’ wishes; after her first story, Fay reappeared many times up to the 1980s as ‘Fay Farrell, (fillintheblank) Nurse’, her subtitle changing with each adventure – Student, District, Army, Island, what have you. (Oddly, ‘Flying Squad Nurse’, a Judy strip which was right in the middle of Fay’s era, was another young lady entirely – to mis-quote Shaggy: ‘It wasn’t Fay!’ Issue #249 in 1964 brought us ‘Wee Slavey, a.k.a. Nellie Perks, maid-of-all work to the pretentious but good-hearted Shelby-Smythe family. Although the title promised drudgery and gloom, Nellie’s quick wits and ready humour meant that the series was a light-hearted read, even when the Shelby-Smythes lost their fortune and were playing a desperate game of Keeping Up Appearances, with Nellie as their only servant! ‘Wee Slavey’ ran intermittently until Judy’s demise in the 1990s, as did the other Judy juggernaut, ‘Bobby Dazzler’, which premiered in 1965’s #263. Roberta ‘Bobby’ Dazzler was the only girl at Westbury Boarding School For Boys, owing to her mother being the Matron-In-Residence. The other third-formers, particularly Mike Norton, believed boys were superior to girls, and Bobby inevitably proved them wrong. This slender concept, with the lively art of Giorgio Lettari, kept proto-feminist Bobby going strong for decades. The final debut didn’t last long, but it’s a wierdie: 1967, at the height of the spy craze, brought us, in Judy #398, ‘The Girl From DORSET’, as Maid Marian, a junior Emma Peel, crushes adult villains and international agents with somewhat startling levels of violence (for a girls’ comic) before reporting back to her department head, ‘Mother’. What did D.O.R.S.E.T. stand for? Buy the comic and find out! This massive update of Judy also includes Christmas, Easter and other ‘special’ issues galore, as well as several with promotional flyers for other publications. Pictured are issue #4 FA/GD £7; #164 VG £18; #249 FN £30 and #263 GD £30. For prices and conditions on the literally hundreds of other issues new in, including the previously entirely unrepresented 1966, see our online catalogue. And join us again soon as we move on up from 1968 into the 1970s!

*Clearance Corner: Artist and writer Jack Katz, despite a career dating back to the 1940s, felt unfulfilled by the art form to which he had devoted his professional life, and in 1974, he took inspiration from the underground commix movement, and the move towards black & white magazine comics by publishers such as Warren and Skywald, to create his own graphic opus, the First Kingdom, in which he saw the potential to create his own story without editorial interference. The First Kingdom is a 24-issue, 768-page series which took Katz twelve years to complete, from 1974 to 1986. The twice-yearly publication and adult content meant that First Kingdom never found broad commercial success, but this story of a post-nuclear civilization rebuilding itself with help from gods and aliens, inhabited by a plethora of characters, is generally regarded as a forerunner of today’s independent comics movement. We have 22 of the 24-issue run, in VF average condition (some second printings) lacking only issues 14 and 21 for the complete set. Average retail was £3-£4 per issue, 22 issues now available for £12. Weight 1.5 kg. UK postage, if required, will be an additional £3.50 as a small parcel.

*DC: After the precedent-shattering events of Superman #199, in which the Man of Steel and the Vizier of Velocity squared off for the title of Fastest Man Alive, ecstatic fans craved a rematch and in Flash #175, the two raced again – with the entire Justice League of America as cheerleaders! But who won? Hey – buy the book, urchins! This copy of the historic issue is an appealing FN+ p copy, with tight corners, firm staples, excellent cover colour and very good interior page quality. There is light, barely perceptible edge & corner wear, but overall a great-looking copy, on sale at £50.

*Marvel: Two of the most popular villains-turned heroes debut within a few issues of each other in early 1960’s Tales of Suspense. Issue #52 saw the debut of the deadly-but-delicious Black Widow, virtually unrecognisable to contemporary audiences, in her original guise as a slinky Dragon-Lady style femme fatale who was the puppet mistress of her cybernetic ‘muscle’, the Crimson Dynamo, who premiered beside her. Madame Natasha soon abandoned the power-behind-the throne routine and started taking a more proactive role when, having lost the Crimson Dynamo, she acquired a slab of malleable beefcake in the shape of Hawkeye, latching on to toxophilic carnie Clint Barton in his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #57! Originally doing bad things for good reasons, it was comparatively easy for both Natasha and Clint to slide over to the right side of the law, and they quickly became the Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin of the super-hero set, their original romantic attraction simmering into a deep friendship during their long association with the Avengers. Both the Black Widow and Hawkeye are key components of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, of course, which has driven their first appearances up in price markedly over the last five years. We have Tales of Suspense #52 VG p at £200; a beautiful copy with unfaded deep purple background and only the faintest of horizontal lines/creases towards the cover, just bisecting the ‘S’ of the logo. The Tales of Suspense #57 is even nicer – FN- cents copy, lovely white background, no pence price or overstamp, on sale at £250. But buy them both – it’d be cruel to separate them… SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Marvel: This week’s foray in our Spider-Mania event: 1992’s one-off, Spider-Man Special Edition: The Trial of Venom. This was an extremely limited issue which could only be obtained, at the time, by making a $5 charitable donation to UNICEF. By Peter David and Jim Craig, the one-shot co-stars Daredevil (hence the legal framework for the plot), and comes with a poster bound in. Although the print run is uncertain, very few copies are in circulation, and this one comes with – in addition to the still-firmly-secured poster – the postcard from UNICEF acknowledging the original purchaser’s donation. This NM/M edition with provenance is on sale at £50. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: One of the phenomena of the last decades 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 ever since its inception, but with Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet at the centre of the forthcoming Avengers/Guardians of the Galaxy cinematic crossover, demand for this issue is at its height. Infinity Gauntlet #1 is VF/NM p £30.

*Marvel: By 1982, 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 which saw Logan return to Japan. A few years later, he was awarded an ongoing series in 1988, from Claremont and John Buscema, kicking off the whole subplot with him being a crime-lord in Madripoor (in his copious spare time, between being a member of every Marvel team ever!). We’re chuffed to have both his debut issues from the 1980s back in stock; the 1982 #1 is FN/VF p £45, and the 1988 #1 is VF p £30.

*Marvel: We’ve got all our ducks in a row here at 30th C., with a substantial restock of Howard the Duck, the cult satirical series created by Steve Gerber. Gerber took endless potshots at the wider world of the 1970’s with his tale of a misanthrophic anthropomorph trapped in, as later taglines averred, “A World He Never Made” (which is a damn silly tagline, if you stop to think – I mean, who do you know who has made a world lately? But I digress). Be that as it may; this cult series, illustrated at first by Frank Brunner, then (mostly) by Gene Colan, became a short-lived sensation, fizzling out only when Gerber, in his own words, decided that the political and social scene was beyond further satire, and lesser writers simply couldn’t make the Duck fly. We have most of the first 27 issues newly available, from #1 (VF- £22.50) upward; full details as ever in our online catalogue.

*Marvel: Several issues of Incredible Hulk added to our inventory between #160-183, including several previously missing from our listings and featuring the first Wendigo appearance in #162; consult our catalogue for grades and prices. 

*Annuals: Plucky guardians of the good abound in this week’s Annuals update, with Dan Dare Annuals (new and classic, from ’74, ’79 and ’91), Judge Dredd from 1986, and a selection of later classic Eagle Annuals, opening with 1966 and continuing with a range from 1972 to 1975 – in the grand tradition of British comics, the Annuals continued to come out for several years after the weekly’s demise! Those are all in the Boys’ Adventure Sub-Section of our Annuals listing, but in Film & TV Related Annuals, we have one of the greatest British action heroes of the later 20th Century – Danger Mouse, from 1984 to 1987!

*TV & Film Related Comics: Another year of our massive TV Century 21 update, featuring the televisual brainchildren of Gerry Anderson – Thunderbirds, Fireball XL5, Stingray, and, most significantly for this year, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, tying in with the then-latest TV series. The indestructible agent of SPECTRUM fought his never-ending battle against the alien mind-controlling Mysterons, aided by the stunning artwork of Mike Noble. The Captain Scarlet strip premiered in TV Century 21 #141, which is pictured in VG with the original Free Gift – 3-D Video Specs – in FA, at £30. We have most, though not quite all, of TV Century 21’s issues from 1967 – sorry, ‘2067’ – in stock, 70 new copies to our lists (including many duplicated issues providing a variety of grades) in a year previously entirely unrepresented in our inventory. SORRY, #141 NOW SOLD