*Humour Comics: The very first issue of the long-running humour weekly, Beezer, is back in stock. Following in the wake of successful stablemate the Topper, launched three years earlier, the broadsheet dimensions of this oversized weekly made it hugely popular with readers, who felt they were getting more value for their thruppence; less popular with newsagents, who found it a bit of a bugger to display. Nevertheless, the antics of ‘Ginger’ ‘Pop, Dick and Harry’, ‘Calamity Jane’, and ‘The Hillys and the Billys’, among others, made the title a hit and it ran for a respectable 1809 issues until 1990. This copy of the premier issue is a very presentable FA, moderate edge wear as might be expected with some brittleness along lower edge, but spine sound, all pages unmarred; on sale for £60. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: We’ve added more Mandy and Judy PLs than you can shake a leg at (even if you wanted to!). The Judy PLs range from #5 to #223, including a much-needed replenishment of issues between #30 and #100. The Mandy PLs range from the very first issue (VF £5) to #43, with almost all issues in between, mainly in FN or VF grade.

*DC: We are pleased to have acquired possibly the single rarest DC Comic – or we should say Comics, since they come as a set – to be issued since the Golden Age. In June 1978, DC Comics, having recently expanded the content, price and number of titles they issued, was abruptly forced to contract their line in the wake of the infamous ‘DC Implosion’. Line-wide cancellations and a drop in their comics’ page count left them with a mound of material in various stages of preparation, which seemed destined to remain unpublished. This included work by Kubert, Ditko, Kirby and many other significant talents. Cancelled Comics Cavalcade was a black and white Xeroxed two-volume collection of all the stories and covers that had to be shelved because of the cancellations, produced to protect the copyrights on all the material by getting it into print, as well as to provide the creators with copies of their work. Al Milgrom and Alex Saviuk were commissioned to create two brand-new covers, and the entire inventory of unpublished material (including some series cancelled a couple of years Pre-Implosion) was photocopied into two telephone-book sized volumes in black and white, with unassuming plain blue outer covers. Paul Kupperberg, who did the copying, confirms that there were only 40 copies made. Contents include Black Lightning, The Deserter, Doorway Into Nightmare, and Firestorm (Vol. 1), Kamandi, Shade, Deadman, Vixen and the Secret Society of Super-Villains (Vol. 2). Clocking in at 200 and 204 pages respectively, these offer not only a great deal of still-unpublished material (though some has been subsequently repurposed), but an insight into the process of comics creation in the 1970s. Since they are photocopies, there are of course ‘bootlegs’ out there; we have provenance – a DC interior memo identifying this set of two as the ones issued to writer Michael Fleischer. Although these don’t fit into the usual parameters of comics grading, we have categorised both volumes as FN+; light wear and some slight marking to the exterior blue covers, with interior pages unmarred apart from some inevitable light yellowing due to age. Priced at £3000 for both volumes of this extremely rare item. Images below show outer and inner covers, plus provenance. NB This set is not kept on our premises, and viewing is STRICTLY by appointment only. 

*DC: One of the most enduring of Superman’s villains – although mostly, despite his vast power, played for comedy – Bizarro and his wacky chums have entertained generations of readers. But his genesis in 1958 was very different in tone. Created during an experiment, the imperfect double of Superboy, despite his good intentions, was shunned and feared by the people because of his grotesque appearance, his only friend a blind girl who somehow perceived his kindly soul. Strongly, and doubtless intentionally, reminiscent of the classic Frankenstein movies which were hitting big on TV at the time, this tragic story proved such a hit with the readers that Bizarro was re-introduced as a player in the adult Superman Universe. This copy of Superboy #68 is a highly attractive VG, minor spine wear and a tiny piece of tape on the lower right inside cover, but unmarred cover image, vivid colour and sound interiors. A very desirable copy of a key debut; VG at £350. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*DC: One of the more oddball entries in the DC annals, Showcase #43 began as a projected issue of Classics Illustrated. The story was ultimately rejected by the Classics publishers as ‘too adult’, and its only first printing appeared in the insanely-rare UK Classics Illustrated #158a. This material was re-packaged by DC as issue #43 of its ‘tryout’ series Showcase with a new cover by Bob Brown, but – being released before the film, it was a bit of a flop, and DC lost the license which, decades later, several other publishers took up to good effect. Subsequent popularity of the James Bond character in multiple media has made this issue highly sought-after in retrospect. We have a newly-acquired Showcase #43 in GD p (respectable copy with one small triangular tear at top cover edge) at £50. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: Iron Man’s very first appearance, in the pages of Tales of Suspense #39, abducted by Reds behind the Bamboo Curtain (it was a different time…) and forced to manufacture advanced weapons to crush capitalism, Tony Stark turned the tables on his captors by devising a cybernetic suit of armour which transformed him into an unstoppable juggernaut of justice – but at the cost of a near-fatal injury to his heart, which required constant contact with his robotic armour to keep beating! Under the artistic talents of (usually) Don Heck (who devoted special attention, bless him, to the many shapely ladies Tony Stark romanced), the sophisticated world of Tony Stark vied with the action-adventure of his Iron Man persona for the readers’ attention. Following the blockbuster success of the Iron Man movie franchise, demand for this issue has never been higher. This is a FA/GD p copy, taped the full length of the spine. Small ‘6’ in magic marker just above issue number. Notable creases at upper and lower cover corners, though these do not impact upon the cover image. Small ‘scuff’ around ‘S’ of title. Upper back cover edge worn with two small tears. Interior pages decent, clean and flexible, staples firm at centre. Generally a presentable, if flawed, copy of the first appearance of one of the central figures in the Marvel Universe. On sale at £1200. Front and back cover scans shown. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: There were many highlights of Frank Miller’s acclaimed and groundbreaking run on Daredevil, but prominent amongst them must be #168, with the first appearance of his former and future lover and nemesis, Elektra, martial artist with a troubled past. A breakout character who became a star in her own right, Elektra’s debut has increased in desirability since the character’s rehabilitation in the Netflix DD TV show (for obvious historical reasons, we do not speak of the Jennifer Garner movie…). To complement this significant debut, we also have #181, the double-sized Elektra/Bullseye duel which resulted in our heroine’s death. Well, her first one, anyway. The #168 is a VF p copy at £80; the #181 is NM p £35.

*Marvel: Launched in 1972, Marvel Team-Up refined the popular guest-star format by having Spider-Man (and occasionally the Human Torch) combine forces with another Marvel star, and proved such a hit that shortly thereafter, Marvel Two-In-One followed the same format with the Fantastic Four’s Thing as host. We have many early (and therefore non-distributed) issues of both series in stock, from #3 of Marvel Team-Up and #2 of Marvel Two-In-One fresh into stock, as well as the distributed, but in high demand, issues of MTU, #65 and #66, which introduced Captain Britain to a US audience.

*Phantom: Following massive sales on the adventures of Lee Falk’s legendary hero, we’re pleased to welcome into our inventory the two DC Comics Phantom series from the 1980s: the first, by acclaimed creators Peter David and Joe Orlando, was a four-issue mini in 1988, followed by a 13-issue run from 1989 to 1990. Both complete series are currently available, averaging VF or better.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: It was a habit of IPC/Fleetway, in the 1960s and 1970s, to create intentionally short-run ‘Feeder’ titles, generated with the express purpose of providing two or three popular strips as ‘new blood’ to refresh their longer-running titles such as Lion, Tiger or Valiant. Some famous examples include Hurricane, Jet and the 1960s Champion, and another such was Thunder, which launched in 1970. Thunder developed several popular features, including time-stopping musician ‘Phil the Fluter’ (don’t ask), WWII robot ‘The Steel Commando’, junior Doctor Doolittle ‘Fury’s Family’, crime-fighting whiz-kids ‘The Jet Skaters’, and lovable mad scientist ‘Black Max’. Star of the show, however, was ‘Adam Eterno’, cursed to wander the Earth forever until killed by a weapon of gold – which, to be honest, is a lot more common than Kryptonite, and you’d think he’d have no bother; but unfortunately for our hero, whenever he looked like being able to end his interminable existence, Circumstances Intervened. Despite its strong line-up, Thunder duly folded after 22 issues, and all of the above-named strips made the jump into Lion, for much longer lives – in fact, appropriately, Adam Eterno dodged death again, carrying on when Lion was absorbed by Valiant! We have the complete run of Thunder back in stock, from the first to the final, in mid-grades – a couple of Fine, a few Fair, but mostly Good on average. Issue #1 is VG at £30; details on the remainder may be found in our online catalogue.

*Girls’ Comics: New to our lists, two Summer Specials of the ever-popular Jinty, starring kennel-maid concierge ‘Dora Dogsbody’, maladroit schoolgirl ‘The Jinx From St. Jonah’s’, all-girl Bash St. Kids ‘The Snobs and the Scruffs’, and crusading nurses ‘Angela’s Angels, among the many features in these extra-thick holiday compilations! 1974 is GD (minor tear at top cover edge) at £25; 1975 VG £35.

Turning our attention to the distaff side in Clearance Corner, we’re offering a honking great load of Blue Jeans, the D.C. Thomson weekly which kept girls informed about pop, fashion, make-up tips and more, with a plethora of romance comics strips (in its earlier days) and photo-love stories later on. Festooned with pin-ups of a galaxy of ‘pop hunks’, many of whom are not yet dead or in prison, Blue Jeans, like many teen-girl mags, is often found with pages or pictures ripped out, but these copies are all complete. Approximately 90 issues, no duplicates, dates ranging from 1978 to 1983, with a quartet of Summer Specials from 1980 to 1993 thrown in for a heaping helping of pop-culture nostalgia! Condition ranges from Good to VF, but averaging VG/FN, clean copies in a superior second-hand grade. Yours for the relatively paltry sum of £35 – though, owing to the weight of these items, postage, if required, will be an extra £17. SORRY, THIS LOT HAS NOW SOLD

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:
*Flash Gordon
*Spirit
*Modesty Blaise
and in our Books Section:
*Childrens’ Books
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Clearance Corner: Our latest rock bottom price bargain lot is 9 issues of Marvel’s Crazy Magazine (plus 1 US Cracked) from the 1970s for just £10. Averaging FN condition, these examples of Marvel’s successful attempt to do a ‘MAD-alike’ are making way in our boxes for tons more stuff piling in. They fit into a small package padded envelope weighing just over 1 kg for a UK postage price (if required) of an extra £3.50. SORRY, THIS LOT HAS NOW SOLD

*DC: Batman: Year One was Frank Miller’s follow-up to the ground-breaking Batman: The Dark Knight Returns storyline of the previous year, and consolidated Miller’s status as one of the breakout creators of the later 20th Century. Unlike the self-illustrated DKR, Year One, serialised in issues #404 to #407 of the ongoing Batman title, was illustrated by David Mazzucchelli in a minimalist retro style whose understated elegance accentuates the suspense of the narrative. As the title implies, this is the first year of Batman’s activities, and inspired a plethora of lesser imitations. These are the original four issues, all in high grades. Issue #404 (VF p £13) pictured; full details in our catalogue.

*DC/Marvel: The fondly-remembered Marvel/DC crossovers from the turn of the century have been refreshed this week with the prestige Format one-shots Batman/Daredevil, Daredevil/Batman, Batman/Punisher and Green Lantern/Silver Surfer, the Marvel & DC Present issue which teamed the X-Men and the New Teen Titans, and additions to the Amalgam line, which featured bizarre mash-ups of DC & Marvel characters, such as the Batman/Wolverine hybrid the Dark Claw. These titanic team-ups between the two leading comics publishers are always hugely popular, and we expect sales to be brisk, so move swiftly!

*Marvel: Following the revival of the First Avenger, Captain America, in Avengers #4, it wasn’t going to be long before the fans clamoured for the revival of Cap’s own series – and in Tales of Suspense #58, resident hero Iron Man was startled when Cap barged into his book for a battle royal! True to Marvel form, it was all a misunderstanding, and with the very next issue, #59, Cap joined the title in his own strip, sharing the book with Shell-Head. We are delighted to have acquired a complete run of Cap’s adventures in Tales of Suspense, from #58 to the final issue, #99. The first Cap feature issue, #59, is a highly attractive FN cents copy at £100 (pictured); the remainder (including the dual debuts of Sharon Carter and Batroc in #75) are in a wide range of grades and prices, detailed, as ever, in our online catalogue.

*Marvel: A cheery jaunt through the Silver & Bronze Ages of the House of Ideas with new stock for the following titles: Avengers, Black Goliath, Cat, Dazzler, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Marvel Feature (with Ant-Man and early Thanos), Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, Shanna the She-Devil, Strange Tales, Super-Villain Team-Up (Giant-Size), Warlock and the X-Men (several from the 1960s including #35 with Spider-Man, #212 & #213 with Wolverine Vs Sabretooth and Giant-Size #2)

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: One of the myriad ‘alternative’ comics publishers of the 1940 s was Columbia, which ran the anthology Big Shot Comics for more than 100 issues from 1940 onwards. Like many such titles, Big Shot started as a collection of newspaper strip reprints – prominent among them ‘Joe Palooka’ and ‘Dixie Dugan’, which stayed with the full run – but it also augmented its content with new series created for the title. Three such were the delightful everyman-superhero pastiche ‘Sparky Watts’, from the wonderfully deranged mind of Boody Rogers, the stylish costumed adventurer ‘Skyman’, illustrated by Ogden Whitney and ‘Tony Trent, aka the Face’, the tale of a young man who dons a mysterious mask, turns green, and gains amazing abilities – hm, wonder if the folks at Dark Horse Comics ever read this? We have a selection of Big Shot from 1945 to 1947 in very affordable low-mid grades, including several (as a bonus novelty) with holiday themes: New Years’ (#52), Easter (#55) and Christmas (#84), as well as the 1947 Thanksgiving issue (#83 pictured VG £17).

*Marvel UK: In the 1980s, Marvel UK’s determination to launch new titles led to some pretty random line-ups, and one such was Captain America’s solo title from 1980, in which the Star-Spangled Avenger was joined by Iron Man, Dazzler and the Defenders. We have the first three issues new in stock, in mid-grades, but with Free Gifts (Super-Hero Stickers) in higher grades, as well as #37 (the first colour issue!), with the Captain America Mask! Issue #1 GD with Cap sticker VF is £10; #2 VG with Dazzler sticker VF £10; #3 FN with Iron Man sticker VF £10 and #37 (scarcer than the early issues, owing to declining circulation) VF with Free Gift VF £12. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: We have the premiere (14th September  1963) and the final (#648 7th February 1976) issues of the long-running DC Thomson adventure weekly. Created as a companion to Hotspur, Hornet’s star was ‘Bouncing’ Bernard Briggs, soccer goalie (and later jack-of-all-sports – British comics presented sportsmen the way American ones did scientists, with all the disciplines being interchangeable), who was the only survivor from the original line-up to make it all the way to the end. After a very respectable run, Bernard, along with everlasting wonder-man ‘Wilson’, crossed over to Hotspur. Our copy of #1 is GD at £40; the final issue #648 is FN at £10. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: It’s the turn of the Picture Library iteration of the UK’s most famous and venerable girls’ title, as we unleash more than 100 issues of Bunty Picture Library, the done-in-one digest-sized comic with a complete story every issue. Newly added we have #7, several previously missing issues from #22-50, then very many gaps filled between #51-225.

*DC: The second part of our current sweep through the Silver & Bronze Ages of the DCU. New issues in of the following: Omac, Plastic Man, Sherlock Holmes, Showcase (Cave Carson & Top Gun), Strange Sports, Superman, Swamp Thing (both 1st and 2nd series, the latter with several Alan Moore issues), Teen Titans, New Teen Titans (inc 2nd Deathstroke app in #10), Joe Kubert’s Tor & World’s Finest.

*Marvel: Uncanny X-Men #141 and #142, towards the end of Claremont and Byrne’s hugely popular run on Marvel’s Merry Mutants, presented a two-part story in which an adult Kitty Pryde ‘Did a ‘Terminator”. Travelling back in time to her own teenage years, she tried to avert her own dystopian future, in which Mutants were interned in prison camps or hunted to death by Sentinels, from coming to pass. This future world also brought us the first appearance of Rachel Summers, later to become Phoenix II, then Marvel Girl II, and the way the Marvel Universe is right now, possibly Iron Man XVI, who can keep track? This powerful story was already a sought-after two-parter, but its popularity (and value!) skyrocketed after the release of the X-Men film, “Days of Future Past”, which adapted the narrative to the big screen (though, it must be said, Wolverine was very unconvincing in the role of Kitty Pryde…). These are now back in stock – though not, we suspect, for long – with #141 FN+ p £25 and #142 VF/NM £50. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD