*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: A relatively short-lived entrant in DC’s early 1970s horror boom was 1972’s Weird Mystery Tales, presenting superior horror stories with most of the usual cast of DC’s horror artists of the time represented. Most issues now in stock.

*Girls’ Comics: Once more, the twilight curtain parts… to reveal a substantial restock of the cult girls’ weekly Misty, the horror/mystery anthology which redefined the expectations of girls’ comics during its brief span. Our sloe-eyed hostess (created by artist Shirley Bellwood, who illustrated many ethereal covers and frontispieces) narrated, week after week, tales of mystery and imagination written and drawn by many of IPC/Fleetway’s finest. Owing to the proliferation of sought-after artists, Misty is keenly collected, and prices trend high, and this new selection, averaging VG, are clean attractive copies with moderate wear, comprising 80 issues from the 102 issue run, and ranges from the first to the penultimate issue, with, as a bonus, the 1979 Holiday Special, which, like all the Holiday Specials, features a centrefold pull-out, and is seldom found intact. Issue #1 is GD/VG at £50, and the 1979 Holiday Special is VG also at £50. For prices and conditions of the others, consult the auguries and oracles… or better yet, our online catalogue!

*Collected Editions: We’re delighted to see the wealth of classic British material being reprinted in handsome new editions these days and welcome them to our catalogue. A classic example is Marney the Fox from Buster (1974-76), the adventures of a fox cub alone in the beautiful but deadly Devon countryside, and featuring the wonderful artwork of John Stokes; the complete story in Hardcover for £18. Not technically a reprint since it features new stories from favourite strips, the Scream & Misty Halloween Special for 2017 nevertheless belongs here alongside its spiritual cousins in this eagerly awaited revival of two favourites from the 1970s/80s; Softcover at £4. 

*DC: In the Sixties, it was a common, if somewhat unethical, practise of the UK distributors of American comics to return the covers of unsold copies for credit, then rebind said coverless unsolds, four to an issue, in extra-thick collections behind a bodged-together cover as ‘Double Double’ Comics. These are literally random – any given issue of, say, Superman Double Double Comics may have copies of Superman, but is just as likely to have any other DC title of the period, from Super-hero to comedy to romance to war, or even the occasional Marvel and ACG comic that slipped into the pile! Most of them – not all – had at least a token issue of the series claimed on the cover, but after that, all the rules went out of the window, and even copies of the same issue, according to the cover, may have entirely different contents! (Hey, speculators – EVERY copy is a variant issue!) We have three of these daft beauties new to our lists, Justice League of America Double Double #2 (GD/VG £15) and Superboy NN (presumably #1) & #2, in VG £20 and GD/VG £15 respectively, listed under ‘Double Double Comics’ in our DC catalogue, where you’ll also find content details of the issues we have in stock. Remember – you’ve got to buy them all!

*Marvel: Although popular in its own right, New Mutants, the ‘X-Men-In-Training’ title from the 1980s, has become in retrospect more famous for the fact that two hugely popular characters made their debuts as supporting cast; in New Mutants #87, having stuck his face into the previous issue, Cable made his first full appearance. Hailing from an apocalyptic near-future, the son of Scott Summers by a cloned replica of Jean Grey, came back in time to prevent his own future from coming to pass, eventually taking over the headmastership of the Academy. Appearing in the forthcoming second Deadpool movie, interest in the character’s early appearances has skyrocketed. And speaking of Deadpool, New Mutants #98 saw the first appearance of the Merc-With-A-Mouth, who became Marvel’s greatest phenomenon of recent decades, his libidinous guttersnipe antics delighting urchins of all ages. This copy of New Mutants #87 is VF/NM p at £95; #98 is an exceptional NM p at £225. Competition for both of these modern-age key issues is going to be intense, so early ordering is advised.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: Small updates to four of the idiosyncratic horror titles from the 1970s: Creepy Things, Midnight Tales, Monster Hunters and Scary Tales.

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Two of Marvel’s 1970s hits in their magazine line recharged this week: Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu, which boasted not only Shang-Chi, Iron Fist and a host of their martial arts characters, but also the non-fictional Bruce Lee, plus Rampaging Hulk (later just Hulk), which boasted just the Hulk, but hey, isn’t he enough?

*Undergrounds: Our last update of Undergrounds was such a success that we’re heading subterranean again for another rampage through the counterculture on both sides of the Atlantic. From the UK, we have the infamous Nasty Tales, the comic which promoted a notorious obscenity trial in the 1970’s; Issues #1 and #2 of this scarce series back in stock. We also have RDH Comix, a 1971 small-press featuring very early work by Brian Bolland on his ‘Little Nympho’ series, and Ogoth and Ugly Boot, from Cozmic Comics in 1973. From the US, we have Fantagor, the 1970s anthology featuring Richard Corben’s art; Corben also looms large in From the Pit, new this update. Robert Crumb, probably the most acclaimed and most reviled underground artist, is heavily represented with new issues of Half Assed, Id, Mr. Natural and Weirdo, and the Furry Freak Brothers turn up not only in their own series, but in Fat Freddy’s Cat: War of the Cockroaches TP and the 20th Anniversary Freak Flyer. There’s a long run of Jack Katz’ groundbreaking ‘ground level’ saga, the First Kingdom, and other alt/indie series from the 1970s: Imagine, Star*Reach, Orb and Quack, while George Perez makes a surprising appearance in the first (and possibly only?) issue of Oracle. Deja-Vu brings us Wrightson, Kaluta and Jeff Jones, Ghita of Alizarr brings us Frank Thorne’s saucy Red Sonja-alike, the current series of Love and Rockets continues, Rip Off celebrates its 20th Anniversary, and Steve Ditko’s Mr. A hits the streets… but out of all these diversities, the most oddball is probably the Cathy collection, collected from Don Lawrence’s work in men’s magazines. This full-colour paperback from Aircel presents its heroine in a variety of situations which are light on plot, but heavy on gratuitous nudity! Pictured are Cathy Vol 1 (VF £35), Fantagor #1 (2nd Print) VF £25 and #2 (1st Print) £20, Nasty Tales #1 VG £40 and #2 VG £30. For price and grade details of the others, please see the Underground section of our online catalogue.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In 1970, the short-lived Thunder promised much to an expectant audience: deathless warrior ‘Adam Eterno’, diabolical mad-scientist antics with ‘Black Max’, WWII robotics with the ‘Steel Commando’, time-stopping shenanigans with ‘Phil the Fluter’, and more – a personal favourite here at 30th C is ‘Paddy McGinty’s Goat’, in which a young lad is helped out by his magical goat. (Oh, all right then, a shape-shifting alien who assumes the form of a goat; does that really sound so much better?) Despite a strong selection of strips, though, Thunder didn’t ‘catch’, and after only 22 issues, merged with the veteran Lion, where a full third of Thunder’s roster enjoyed much longer careers than in their parent. We have the first two Thunders available in mid-grade: #1 GD £15 (pictured) and #2 GD £10. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Humour Comics: We’ve finally reached the end of our mammoth Buster series of updates and, as Halloween appraoches, what better way to conclude than with a series of Christmas issues? Three from the 1970s (71, 74 & 75) and then a consecutive run from 1990-1998, the last decade of Buster when print runs were smaller – not commonly seen and great value for a glut of festive fun! More Busters lurk in our future no doubt, but for now that’s the lot!

*Younger Readers’ Comics: A plethora of premieres this week, many of them having Free Gifts to enhance their collectability. First issues with Free Gifts include Alf, Beep Beep, Disney Weekly, Get Along Gang, Goofy, Lamb Chop, Mickey Mouse & Friends, Postman Pat Fun-To-Do and World of Wym – no, we have no more clue about that last one than you do. As a bonus, we have the second issue of Maple Town with a free gift finger puppet, because we’re just too good to you! First issues without the free gifts include Buttons, Donald Duck (both #1’s from 1975 and 1987), Little Star, Mickey Mouse (1975), Teddy Bear and 1961’s Bimbo Weekly – a title which, thanks to linguistic shifts, would be a very different series if launched today! These pre-school debuts span almost three decades from 1961 to 1990. Bimbo #1 (pictured) is PR/FA at £5, owing mainly to a bit of ham-fisted interior colouring on four pages (Kids, eh? No coordination). For the grades and prices of the others, see our online catalogue.

*Girls’ Comics: For nearly 13 years, June (more commonly remembered as June & School Friend) was the premier IPC/Fleetway girls’ weekly, until toppled by the upstart Tammy in the 1970s. We are pleased to have approximately 35 issues new to our listings, a token dash from 1966 and 1967, but the bulk being from 1971 and 1972, years traditionally under-represented in our inventory, as we suspect circulation was already faltering prior to the series’ ultimate demise in 1974. However, the quality of the stories and artwork was unafflicted, with ‘My Name Is Nobody’, ‘The Lonely Ones’, and ‘Gymnast Jinty’ being the newcomers during this period, and of course long-term regulars such as ‘Bessie Bunter’ and ‘Lucky’s Living Doll’ keeping a steady hand on the helm. These are mostly affordable low-to-mid grade copies of these scarcer years, so if you’re looking for gap-fillers, now’s your chance!

Spider-Mania invades our What’s Old feature this week! “Does the Green Goblin Look Cute To You?…” The rather twee opening line of the blurb on Amazing Spider-Man #14’s cover heralded the first appearance of Spider-Man’s most dastardly and persistent enemy – his “Joker”, so to speak. The sinister and malevolent Green Goblin has plagued Spider-Man ever since, causing chaos, destruction and the deaths of some of Spidey’s most beloved friends, and this masterwork by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko is where his villainous career kicked off. And guest-starring the Hulk to boot! A pence copy, this is an attractive Fine, with minimal ‘blunting’ at corners, tight staples, excellent interior page quality, and extremely light wear at spine. Beautiful unmarred cover scene with deep unfaded covers, priced at £600. SORRY, THIS 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:
*Undergrounds
and in our British section:
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics (S -U)
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Annuals: A nice selection of diverse Annuals this week, mostly in mid to high grades: Beano between 1971 and 1974, a scarce Doctor Who Annual featuring Jon Pertwee from 1975, 1950s sci-fi action with ‘Space’ Kingley, 2000 AD (1st Annual from 1978), Valiant and a range of Kit Carson between 1955 and 1959.

*Clearance Corner: Every now and again, something turns up in a collection which isn’t in our line, but is still vintage and interesting. We’ve put together a selection of these oddities into one Clearance Corner lot, comprising some 17 publications as follows:
Sunday Times John Lennon tribute circa 1980
Rolling Stone 1969
Blighty 1957 (Glamour and humour)
Blighty Parade 1959
Picturegoer 1957
Billy’s Weekly Liar (x 2 1956/66 humourous paper)
Ghoul #1 (1976 Horror film mag)
Boys Own Paper #1 (facsimile of 1879 first edition)
Boys Own paper x4 (2 x 1963, 1 x 1964, 1 x 1967 with George Best cover)
Spare Rib #3 (feminist magazine from 1970s)
Eve (women’s mag from 1973)
War #1
New Witchcraft #1 circa 1980
All these for just £15; because of the nature of some of these, this lot is only available to readers of 18+. These fit into a small box weighing 1.9 kg and UK postage if required would be an extra £3.50.

*DC: We conclude our Golden Age DC Greats event where we began, with the Man of Steel. Five vintage issues of Action Comics, the series which brought Superman to the world and, arguably, kicked off the entire super-heroic genre. All, of course, star Superman, but other features in these issues include popular and long-running series Zatara, Congo Bill, Vigilante and Tommy Tomorrow. All five of these beauties are pictured: #77 features an early appearance by the villainous Prankster and is VG- at £170; #83 features the debut of Hocus and Pocus, comedy foils who aggravated the Man of Steel for several years and is GD+ at £115; #117 is a classic Christmas themed cover and story FN at £200; #154 features Lois Lane cheating in a ‘survival’ contest with Superman’s aid in “Miss Robinson Crusoe!” GD at £65 and #158 features the first extensive retelling of Superman’s origin and babyhood in “The Kid From Krypton!” VG £210. Issues from this period are uncommon in the extreme, so rapid ordering is recommended.

*Marvel: The return of an old favourite event for us with the first of a series of Spidey updates, beginning with a classic. Of the post-Ditko run of Amazing Spider-Man, one of the most in-demand issues is #50, wherein artist John Romita hit his stride and started doing some of the finest work of his career. The cover to #50 has become etched in the minds of a generation, endlessly imitated and ‘homaged’, and as if that wasn’t enough, this epic issue featured the first appearance of the Kingpin, one of Spider-Man’s most significant villains! (Later shoplifted by Daredevil, but that was a decade or two in the future…) Our newest Spider-Man #50 is a VG+ pence copy, with minimal edge & corner wear, an unmarked cover scene (other than pence stamp) and flexible, off-white interiors. On sale for £150. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: Let’s be honest, most of the Human Torch’s villains from his solo series in Strange Tales were a bit rubbish. Paste-Pot Pete? The Painter of a Thousand Perils? The Sorceror? The Plantman? While some of them later got makeovers, Johnny spent much of his time harassing a succession of burly beardies in overcoats, hardly striking terror into the hearts of comic readers. But the Wizard was an exception: a criminal genius akin to the likes of Doctor Doom or the Mad Thinker, he went on to form the Frightful Four, and spend decades as one of (well, one-quarter of) the Fantastic Four’s most notorious nemeses. In Strange Tales #102, by Lee and Kirby, the Human Torch (in his second solo outing) faced off against the Wizard for the very first time, and this cents copy, with no UK overprint or price stamp, is a beautiful copy with vivid deep colour, which we have graded as Apparent FN because there is evidence of slight trim to the right edge of the book, which does not impinge upon the story pages. In every other respect a superior copy, this is relatively bargainaceous at £65.

*Archie: Contrary to popular belief, Archie and his pals weren’t the only hit series for his eponymous company; two well-loved ‘cousin’ series were Josie (later Josie and the Pussycats) and Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch, both co-created by the legendary ‘funny girl’ artist, Dan DeCarlo. But neither of those ladies made their first appearances in their own titles; they had to win their spurs as supporting acts, and we have the first appearances of both, though sadly neither was heralded on the cover. Archie’s Pals ‘N’ Gals #23 featured among its many strips an unobtrusive story, ‘Tongue Twister’, which introduced the world to maladroit and well-intentioned Josie McCoy (and her stunning curvaceous chum Melody Valentine). Predicated, as many stories were, on Josie and her pal Pepper trying to brighten Melody’s ‘dim bulb’, this proved popular enough that Josie gained her own series, running 40-odd issues before being remade as a touring fictional pop group for an even longer run. Meanwhile, another anthology, Archie’s Madhouse, was doing creditable business as a Comics Code-Approved Mad Magazine, and showcased a bunch of recurring features, some of which stuck, and some of which didn’t. One that stuck big was Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch, a space-age update on ‘I Married A Witch’ and ‘Bell, Book and Candle’, in which a teenage sorceress tackles the challenges of dating, studying, cheerleading and having to make her assigned quota of Evil Deeds! Sabrina, while continuing to appear in Madhouse and many other Archie titles (as indeed did Josie) headlined various series of her own title for a combined total of, so far, more than 200 issues. Also a long-running TV show starring Melissa Joan Hart, Sabrina is rumoured to be returning in the hit ‘Riverdale’ series, so interest in the character has never been higher. Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals #23 is a FA/GD cents copy, with undamaged interiors, but a piece out of the lower back cover, and slight wear in the cover’s centre on sale at £35. Archie’s Madhouse #22 is a superior FN cents copy at £250.

*Humour Comics: Amalgamating two of our ongoing update events, we bring you a very attractive selection of Buster Holiday Fun/Holiday Specials, commencing with 1969 (illustrated, VG/FN £17.50), consecutive through to 1980 (skipping only 1978), and then wrapping up with a selection from 1993 to 1998, which, being the series’ final decade, probably had lower print runs. We also offer a handful of Buster and Monster Fun Holiday Specials from 1993-1995 (the latter being the final B & MF Special). Join Charlie Peace, the Misers, Galaxus, Gus the Gorilla, Clever Dick, the Rent-A-Ghost crew, Fishboy, and of course Buster himself for seaside shenanigans!

We turn our attention this week, in our previously listed spot to an international classic. Following the success of Mad’s American incarnation, transitioning seamlessly from comic book to the parody mag which became an international institution, it wasn’t long before British publishers had an eye on borrowing some of Mad’s success. In 1959, Thorpe & Porter, who distributed many American magazines in the UK, launched a Mad #1 reprinting selections from the American mag, and started a series that would endure for decades and almost four hundred issues. Our Mad (UK) issue #1 is a highly attractive Fine copy at £100, crisp, clean, unimpeded pages, with only moderate corner and edge wear belying a higher grade, and with a classic cover image of Alfred E. Neuman to boot!