*Mad & Other Parody: Mad Magazine, the parody anthology founded by William Gaines, has become a byword in satirical commentary, and we are delighted, after too long a gap, to announce a significant influx of new stock. We have a scattering of the American edition, between 1975 and 2016, and a soupcon of Sick, one of Mad’s many imitators, but the main thrust of this update is close to 100 copies of early UK Mads, beginning with #4 (illustrated VG £30) and ending with #202. Dave Berg, Don Martin, Sergio Aragones, Wally Wood, Mort Drucker and a plethora of parody stars can be found in these issues at various points, and the satirical targets range from politicians, world leaders and public figures to popular media hits of years agone, including ‘2001’, ‘Peanuts’, and an obscure thing you may not have heard of called ‘Star Wars’. Check out the ‘Mad & other Parody’ section of our online catalogue for all the details!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Three unusual Specials for 2000 AD, the galaxy’s greatest science-fiction comic! From 1977, the very first 2000 AD Summer Special, featuring several of the iconic series and – because the weekly hadn’t been going that long – some other features that looked decidedly quaint to the discerning reader. From 1992, the 2000 AD Action Special, in which some of Britain’s most outlandish comic talents turned their hands to reinventing classic series like the Spider, Kelly’s Eye, the Steel Claw and Mytek – many of which the publishers didn’t actually own, oops, so this puppy’s never going to be reprinted! And finally, the 1988 Winter Special, featuring, among others, the cult slacker superhero strip ‘Zenith’, by Grant Morrison. The 1977 Summer Special ‘Supercomic’ – to give it its full title – is VG at £15; for details of the others, see our online catalogue. SORRY, 1977 SPECIAL NOW SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A massive update to our stock of the long running story paper Wizard, with lots of issues of the first series from 1949-60 and lots of the second series from 1970-76 (from #3). First series features include the Boyhood of Desperate Dan and the story of Charles Darwin; the second series is much more football orientated. Christmas and New Year issues included, with many gaps filled in our stock for both series.

*Humour Comics: Taking a break from our ‘Bring on the Buster’ marathon, we bring you a cornucopia of chuckles from three decades, with new stock in for Beano (from 1962), Buster (a small run from 1976), the Cor! Christmas issue from 1973, Dandy from 1976 to 1979, Magic (a facsimile of the first issue of Dandy and Beano’s forgotten sibling, launched in 1939), Nutty from #1 (first Bananaman!) to #71, Shiver and Shake from 1973, Whoopee #1 in PR/FA, a dash of Whizzer & Chips from 1972, and two publications oriented towards the older-but-immature: Oink! from 1988, with that year’s Summer Special, and Viz, restocked between #34 and #54. Biffo, Korky, Buster, Gus Gorilla, Tom Thug, Pete and His Pimple, Bananaman and the Fat Slags – all present for a cavacade of fun, frolics, and occasional filth!

Our previously-listed spotlight this week falls on a Marvel landmark! An unassuming back-up story in Strange Tales #110 saw the debut of Doctor Strange, a man of mystery and master of magic who was probably not originally conceived as a series star. After all, just a short while prior, the very-similar, though lesser-powered, Doctor Droom had crashed and burned in the first Marvel series of Amazing Adventures. But Doctor Strange had a secret ingredient that Doctor Droom had not: the illustrative powers of Steve Ditko, who conferred upon the Doctor and his environs a genuinely otherworldly quality, eerie and evocative, which kept the readers coming back for more. Rising to the challenge, scripter Stan Lee soon developed the Doctor’s adventures from short twist-ending one-offs to phantasmagorical sagas, and the Doctor has been the mystic nexus of the Marvel Universe, culminating in the hugely successful film starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Not that you could have predicted any of that from this issue’s cover, which doesn’t even mention Doctor Strange, but focuses solely on the Human Torch battling the Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete, in their pre-Frightful Four days! Never mind, we do promise you it’s in there! This copy of a landmark issue is a CBCS slabbed copy, graded at 5.5 (FN-), with minimal corner and edge wear, and deep vivid cover colour and gloss. On sale at £1,500.

*Clearance Corner: The most famous name in the post-war boom in British gangster ‘pulps’ (curiously, mostly set in the both seedy and glamorous USA) was Hank Janson. Written by ‘Hank’ and telling his adventures as a journalist and later general adventurer, these were in reality written by Stephen D Frances, although by the late 1950s and early 60s, Hank Janson was very much a house name and his novels were written by myriad hands. We have on offer a selection of later Hank Janson novels published by Compact, with titles like ‘Visit From A Broad’, ‘Voodoo Violence’, ‘Dateline Debbie’ etc; these are hard-boiled examples of the genre, with covers featuring scantily clad women drawn with varying degrees of quality. We got rather more of these in from a huge collection than we have room for on our shelves, so we’re clearing them in a great opportunity for bulk reading. 32 books (with one duplicate) for just £10; mostly Good condition, with some Fair and some Poor. (UK postage if required would be an additional £13.50 — these fit in a box weighing 4.5 kg).      

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: The latest in our sequence featuring the best of British Comics! A huge pride of Lions joins our stock this week for the years 1959-1963 (from the end of ’59 to the beginning of ’63). 169 issues fresh into our boxes, with just a few gaps in numbers, and in nice shape, the vast majority being nice VG or even FN grades, with just a handful of GD. Paddy Payne, Warrior of the Skies, cover-starred throughout this period, and familiar favourites such as Robot Archie, Captain Condor, Karl the Viking (by Don Lawrence), Rory Macduff & Bruce Kent awaited the reader inside (I was such a reader, having the Lion delivered at the time!). One of the best of British Boys’ Adventure Comics, and very welcome additions to years previously under-represented in our stock. Illustrated are 24/10/59 (1st Lion & Sun, 1st Rory Macduff) and 29/10/60 (1st Karl the Viking as Sword Of Eingar).

*DC: Continuing our trip through the DC Golden Age of Comics! Following his successful run in the anthology Flash Comics, Jay Garrick – the first Fastest Man Alive – gained his own solo quarterly, rather awkwardly entitled All-Flash, bringing more hyper-speed adventures to an eager public. We have two of these rarities new in. Issue #21 from 1945 is VG- at £110, with the only significant flaws being a small corner off the upper right cover, and a tiny bit of rodent damage immediately below that – see picture – which does not encroach upon the stories. Issue #23 from 1946 is an unabashed FN, with clean unimpaired cover scene, minimal corner and edge wear, and attractive undamaged interiors for £165.

*Marvel: The second appearances of three iconic Marvel characters are the focus of this update: Journey Into Mystery #84 pits the newly-minted God of Thunder against the Executioner (not that Executioner, but obviously Stan & Co. liked the name so much they recycled it soon thereafter); Tales of Suspense #40 has the Armoured Avenger become the Golden Avenger for the very first time, blinging up his formerly leaden-grey armour and up against Gargantus (who?) and Tales to Astonish #35 features the return of Hank Pym (who in TTA #27 was merely a nerdy scientist) as the costumed adventurer Ant-Man for the very first time! All three of these classics are illustrated below; JIM #84 is VG cents £350, but with a possible very slight trim at the right edge – we are not conclusive on the issue; TOS #40 is an attractive VG+ cents copy at £335, with very minimal chipping at the cover edge; the first ‘proper’ Ant-Man in TTA #35, is a VG+ pence copy at £440. SORRY, TALES OF SUSPENSE #40 & JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #84 HAVE NOW SOLD

*Marvel: The Merc-With-A-Mouth struck such a chord with readers in the 1990s that, following his New Mutants #98 debut and a mini-series, he gained his own ongoing book in 1997 – having transmuted from a frankly rather dull and bog-standard Guy-With-A-Gun to the wisecracking multiple-personality-psychotic we all know today. This is what may be regarded as the start of the ‘real’ Deadpool – the one beloved by movie fans worldwide. Our copy of the 1997 #1 issue is VF- at £25, and to back it up, we also bring you #2 NM £15. These won’t stick around for long, so maximum effort, people! SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*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.

*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.

*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

*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! 

*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

*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

*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.

*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

*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.

*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!

*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!

*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!

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.