*DC: Five fabulous first issues from DC this update, kicking off with the Demon, Jack Kirby’s creation, featuring Jason Blood as the tortured soul who moves from Arthurian times to the modern day. The Metal Men, foreshadowing the ‘artificial intelligence’ revolution, fought the Missile Men in their premier issue after a successful Showcase run. Plastic Man, the Golden Age hero originally published by Quality Comics, returned to publication after a cameo in, of all things, Dial H For Hero. Wein and Wrightson’s acclaimed horror hero Swamp Thing gained his own series after premiering in House of Secrets #92. Wolfman and Perez’s New Teen Titans debuted in their own series following their ‘pilot’ in DC Comics Presents #26. Demon #1 is FN at £20; Metal Men #1 FA/GD p £25, but generally a VG+ copy with only one torn & taped interior page lowering the grade; Plastic Man #1 is FN p £20; Swamp Thing #1 FN/VF £55, with only minor corner and edge wear precluding a still higher grade and New Teen Titans #1 is FN/VF £30. Images of all five may be seen below.

*Marvel: When Marvel’s distribution system expanded in 1968, the ‘double-feature’ books were spun off into their own series, and Jim Steranko, who had been attracting fan attention with his rendition of SHIELD in Strange Tales, took out all the stops with SHIELD’s first ‘solo’ issue, creating an atmospheric cinematic masterpiece which crystallised the height of the Cold War era and the ‘super-spy’ craze prevalent in the Sixties. Topped with perhaps Steranko’s most famous cover image, this beautiful copy is FN+ at £50. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: In 1975, Roy Thomas, notorious aficionado of the Golden Age, launched one of his pet projects – ‘untold tales’ of the Golden Age Timely/Atlas heroes set in the days of World War II. Banding Captain America & Bucky, the Sub-Mariner, and the original Human Torch & Toro together as the Invaders, he kicked off (including spin-offs and crossovers) more than 50 issues of all-new ‘old’ adventures, and a series of revivals which has continued into the 21st Century. We are pleased to have not one, but three different copies in stock of Giant-Size Invaders #1 – the ‘prequel’ which ran into the ongoing comic, and introduced the team to the world. One of them, with an unverified Roy Thomas signature on the front cover, is FN/VF at £20. We also have the first three issues of the on-going back in, with the premier issue being FN+ at £20. Giant-Size Invaders #1 and Invaders #1 & 2 were never distributed at all in the UK, and are therefore proportionately rarer here than in the ‘New World,’, so having these all come along at once is quite serendipitous.

*Romance: We’re always looking for love here in the 30th Century, and we’ve acquired enough now to put out an update for aficionados of the strange and contorted way comics presented relationships, from the 1950s to the 1970s. From DC, we offer Girls’ Romances – a title that would have a very different vibe today – from Charlton, a dollop of I Love You with side dishes of Romantic Story, Secret Romance and Soap Opera Romances; and Marvel steps up with Love Romances and the silly, but exquisitely illustrated, Our Love Story. To round it out, a vintage romance title from Realistic Publishing of the 1950’s, the appropriately-entitled Realistic Romances #2, with such true-to-life dilemmas as “Kissless Honeymoon”, “Fatal Romance”, and “Deadly Triangle”. Read the stories that helped the battle of the sexes carry on for generations!

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Dozens of issues of Warren’s seminal horror mag of the 1970’s (and early 1980’s) fresh into stock, nearly all in nice FN grade or better. This update concentrates on the latter, less common part of the run; after a few issues below #100 (starting with #12), there’s an almost complete run from #101 to #145, the final issue.

*TV & Film Related Comics: The 1971 successor to TV Century 21, Countdown, launched with a heady mixture of new Gerry Anderson material – led by a comics adaptation of the brand-new series, ‘UFO’ – as well as ‘Doctor Who’ (shoplifted from stablemate TV Comic, where it had been running from 1964) and the rather handsome eponymous space opera ‘Countdown’, illustrated by John M. Burns. The Gerry Anderson material, ‘UFO’ excepted, soon reverted to reprints from TV 21, but nevertheless this weekly dose of sci-fi action continued unabated until issue #35, when the Persuaders joined up, and the weekly began its transition from a purely science-fiction comic to a more generalised adventure anthology. To be fair, the editors did brace the readership, as the title and strapline changed to ‘Countdown for TV Action’, then ‘TV Action in Countdown’, before the title ceased publication with #58, to re-invent itself with #59 as ‘TV Action’. ‘Hawaii Five-O’ and other detective/adventure strips joined the line-up, but Gallifrey’s favourite son remained front and centre. We are pleased to have the complete first 100 issues of Countdown/TV Action, averaging Fine or better, with the top creators of the time working on ‘untold tales’ of some of the 1970’s most popular TV series.

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
and in our British section:
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics (H – K)
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: On the DC half of this week’s “Big ‘Uns” mini-event, we have new entries for the series All-new Collectors’ Edition (#C-62, VG/FNp Superman The Movie £10), DC Special Series #25 (FN/VF £12, Superman II), #26 (FN/VF £15, Superman and his Fortress of Solitude), and the highly-sought #27 Batman Vs the Hulk, (FN+ £30), and Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-37, VG+ £12, a Batman All-Villain Issue! While the standout in this selection is of course the Batman/Hulk clash, co-featuring the Joker and with the exquisite art of Garcia Lopez, all of these tabloid-size comics are scarce (poorly or non-distributed in the UK), and very keenly collected, so we advise early ordering.

*Marvel: For this week’s foray into our on-going Spider-Mania event, we’re proud to present an affordable copy of #9 of the Amazing Spider-Man, with the debut of one of Spidey’s most famous Rogues’ Gallery members, Electro. This pence printed copy is graded at GD+, with a nice cover image and colour. There are a few creases and edge tears, including the remnants of what looks like a subscription crease, and a small oil-like stain at the top corner of pages throughout (only in the margins), leaving the story unaffected. Nothing bad in the defect department and priced accordingly at £100. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: In the Marvel half of our “Big ‘Uns” event, we welcome the Tabloid Variant of Marvel Comics Super Special #8 (VG £5, Battlestar Galactica, which was, unusually for the time, released as both a magazine and a tabloid); Marvel Special Edition #3, (FA+ £6, with the entire Star Wars movie adaptation in one extra-thick volume) and a range of Marvel Treasury Editions, three of which (#4 FN+p £12, #15 VG+p £7 and 19 VG+p £7) feature Conan the Barbarian, and the latter two boasting all-new material: issue #25, FN+ £15, co-stars Spider-Man and the Hulk at the Winter Olympics (Bruce cuts a dashing figure on the ice…), while #28 is the second Superman/Spider-Man team-up, co-starring Dr. Doom, the Parasite, Wonder Woman, the Hulk, and more! That last item is a FN+ copy at £25, and we don’t expect it to remain on our shelves for long!

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: It seems you can’t get enough of our vintage mags, so here’s some more of ’em! From Marvel, updates to Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu, Epic Illustrated, Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, Vampire Tales, and because we file them in this section, #1 in the Marvel Graphic Novel series, Jim Starlin’s Death Of Captain Marvel. From the king of schlock horror, Skywald, we have more copies of Psycho and Scream, and one final oddity from Mayfair, a mid 1970’s edition of Quasimodo’s Monster magazine, a movie mag with no comics content.  

*Undergrounds: A dizzying variety of underground and ground-level, alternative and indie commix from the 1970’s through to the 1990’s. In the ‘classic’ underground line, we offer Arcade, Best of Rip Off Press, Cannibal Romance, Forbidden Knowledge, Mu, and inner City Romance; from the ‘ground-level’/indy zone we bring you Avenging World and Mr. A – two slices of Ditko unleashed – the Star*Reach companion book, Imagine, and two other Star*Reach spin-offs, Cody Starbuck and Parsifal; plus Hot Stuf’ the anthology with Corben, Gray Morrow, Alex Toth and more. Best represented this time, however, is the UK wing of the underground movement, with humorous erotica – Hunt Emerson’s Firkin the Cat paperback, collecting the series from Fiesta, and the lavish full-colour Oh, Wicked Wanda!, with Ron Embleton’s gorgeous painted artwork (depicted here); the classic underground paper IT, Cozmic Comics #1 from 1972, Heartbreak Hotel, and the entire ten-issue run of Pssst!with early works by Bryan Talbot, Glenn Dakin, Paul Johnson and Shaky Kane, an unnerving attempt at a British ‘bande-dessinee’ style magazine, with lots of pretention but frequent flashes of brilliance. The oddest new entry, however, is the arts magazine, Art & Artists, from 1969, one issue of which featured extensive coverage of the Underground scene, with a cover by Spain Rodruigez!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A long overdue update for Fleetway’s Lion, one of the most popular and enduring of all Boys’ titles. After a stray issue from 1957, this selection concentrates on the years 1968-1971, and although not plentiful, it does feature many issues previously missing from our catalogue, including the first Gadgetman & Gimmick-Kid issue (4/5/68) and the 1st Lion & Eagle from 3/5/69. A great period for Lion this, with Robot Archie, the Spider and many other fondly-remembered characters.

*TV & Film Related Comics: Released in 1967, Solo, the companion paper to TV Tornado, featured a line-up of film and TV tie ins with guaranteed star power -‘Sgt Bilko’, ‘Mary Poppins’, and the hugely popular ‘Man From UNCLE’. Oddly, the powers-that-be decided to go with Disney’s ‘Scarecrow of Romney Marsh’ as the lead cover feature. Nevertheless, these leads plus lesser lights – ‘Seaspray’? ‘Run, Buddy, Run’? – provided ample entertainment for the young readership, though it could be argues that the multitude of Disney cartoon strips brought the reading age down a bit. Despite its quality, Solo never achieved very wide circulation, and copies are seldom seen – particularly with the free gift – the Amazing Solar Saucer! (or, bit of spinning circular plastic, as we call it.) This copy of #1 is in VG condition, with minor spine weakness precluding higher grade, and the Solar Saucer, though the disc is present, is missing its accompanying launcher (see picture). This uncommon collectable can be yours for £95. 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 section:
*Magazines/Books About Vintage US Comics
and in our American/British section:
*Mad & Other Parody
and in our British section:
*Annuals
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics  (E-G)
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: For the last 10 months, we’ve been privileged to present one of the best Batman collections ever to pass through our hands, and we conclude this week with the choicest items of them all! For the final instalment of Batmania Max, we offer a very special selection of Golden Age Batman issues, each one featuring his favourite nemesis, the Joker! Ranging from 1944 to 1949, these vintage issues each have a Joker story, and three of the five feature eyecatching Joker covers. In a remarkable state of preservation for their years, these items present the Dynamic Duo’s classic clashes with the Harlequin of Hate, plus early appearances by the Jokermobile, the Jokerplane, and the Joker-Signal! Other highlights of this selection include the first appearance of the Mad Hatter, the debut of Vicki Vale, historic time-travels to the days of the Three Musketeers and the Arabian Nights, and Batman among the mermaids! We open with Batman #23 FN £900; then we have #32 VG £215, #37 VG £375, #49 VG+ £475 (full disclosure: this one isn’t actually the Joker, but his Arabian Nights equivalent, the Crier – but isn’t it a gorgeous cover?) and #53 VG+ £200. All five are illustrated below (left to right), but further details about the condition may be obtained from our catalogue listings. Given their antique status, these are beautiful copies, and the prices reflect not only their rarity but their relatively high grades. And so we wave goodbye to Batmania Max, until the Bat-Signal lights the skies over Putney once more…

*DC: While we’ve been listing all the wonderful Batman and related titles in our Batmania Max event these past few months, a considerable number of Bat-items have popped up from other sources, and in this penultimate visit to Batmania Max, we’re adding them all to our listings. Included are: Batman #171 (1st Silver Age Riddler), the Anniversary issues Batman #200 & #300, Batman #227 with the classic ‘Demon Of Gothos Mansion’ cover, Batman Annuals, several issues of Batman Family, Brave & Bold #200 with the 1st Outsiders and Katana, DC Special Series #15 (Batman Spectacular), a variety of Detective Comics including #500 and much more. Next week, we pay one last visit to Batmania Max, and… we’re saving the best till last!

*Marvel: The 1970’s Marvel Comics series of Star Wars isn’t commonplace in the UK, most of the first 50+ issues having been completely non-distributed in Britain, and the rest having only low circulation here in the Old Country. After a prolonged dry spell of some years when we only had a handful of issues in stock, we recently acquired a complete run, which did brisk business for us – and now, in the best tradition of London Buses, here’s another long run of them! Not quite complete this time, but a very nice selection of issues #1-81, plus the first two Annuals, an original owner collection in mostly outstanding grades, including many VF/NM and several NM. Highlights include, of course, the debut issue, VF+ at £125, and issue #42, introducing the bounty hunter Boba Fett, VF+ at £60. #1 and #42 are depicted here; for grade and price details on the other issues, check our online catalogue. SORRY, #1 & #42 NOW SOLD

*Marvel: A one-off addition to our third party graded stock with a copy of Silver Surfer #18, assessed by PGX at 7.5 (VF-) and priced at £45. As its the final issue in the series, the only one to feature art by the Surfer’s co-creator Jack Kirby and guest stars the Inhumans, there’s a whole lot of bang for your buck with this one!

*Western: Howdy, cowpokes! Our last selection of new stock for Mighty Marvel’s Rawhide Kid proved so popular, that we’re doing it again, with more than thirty new issues to our listings! Opening with #33, a Jack Kirby back-up story framed by two Jack Davis Rawhide tales, we then skip to the range #65 to #112, with plenty of western action from that brother act of Lee & Lieber! The earliest issue aside, these are mostly nice grade issues, averaging Fine or better, with many in the FN/VF to VF range. Our Rawhide Kid stock has also been completely updated, with sold items deleted, so at this moment you can order with confidence – but given the popularity of previous Marvel western updates, y’all had better be quick on the draw!

*Alan Class Reprints: Continuing our new listings for the Alan Class archive copies of his publications, we have our second wave of Creepy Worlds, close to 50 issues between #41 and #115. Our ‘Marvellous Alan Class’ feature spotlights the issues of AC series in which early reprintings – frequently the first reprintings – of Marvel stories occurred, and this selection offers us early tales of Ant-Man/Giant-Man and the Wasp from Tales to Astonish, the Human Torch and Doctor Strange from Strange Tales, Iron Man from Tales of Suspense, and Spider-Man and Daredevil from their own series! However, even the non-Marvel AC issues offer a splendidly cornucopia of miscellany, as any given issue is likely to feature stories of Captain Atom, the Fy and Fly-Girl, THUNDER Agents, the Jaguar, Pre-Hero Marvel thrillers by Kirby and Ditko, vintage 1950’s suspense…. or none of the above! This selection of Alan’s own file copies runs the gamut, grade-wise, from Poor to Fine/VF, and each comes with a signed certificate of authenticity from Alan Class himself. Selections from the ‘Marvellous Alan Class’ range depicted are #43 FN/VF £40. #64 FN/VF £35, #68 FN/VF £45 (with the original, uncorrected cover art not used on the American printing!), #69 FN/VF £40 and #112 FN £30. For details of grade and price on the rest, please see our online catalogue listing.

*Humour Comics: Dandy comics from 1973 to 1975 form our latest Humour update. Included are all three Christmas issues, some New Year, Easter and April Fool issues and even a very unusual promo flyer for the short-lived comic Buzz (from 1973).

*Girls’ Comics: Several dozen issues of Girl, the distaff version of Eagle, added to our listings for the years 1957-59. Cover featuring during this period Wendy and Jinx and then Susan of St. Brides. These additions are mostly low grade affordable copies.

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: In the final distaff episode of our CSD: Putney (Cowboys, Schoolgirls and Detectives) event, we turn our attention to Princess Picture Library. This digest-sized spin-off from Princess Magazine (as the weekly comic liked to style itself) featured the two most popular comic-strip stars from that title in alternating adventures. For the first 50-something issues, the spotlight was held by either Sue Day, of the ‘Happy Days’ family, or Sally of the Ballet, but eventually, other features appeared, as Alona, Tilly Tuffin, and Julie’s eccentric inventor Uncle Lionel jumped in to the mix. We have around 60 issues new in, mostly in attractive high grades (as is characteristic of the CSD collection), ranging from #2 through to the final issue, #120, after which the series merged with June & School Friend PL from 366. Enthusiasts should note that the copies graded at VF are among the nicest we’ve ever seen of any picture libraries, and certainly as nice as anyone could want for a prestigious high-grade collection. Illustrated are #2 VF £30, #5 VF £30, #100 VF £20, and #120 VF £30; for details of other issue grades and prices, check our online catalogue.

We’ve become conscious that many of you who keep a regular eye on our website and/or get our Newsletter may not always browse through our catalogue and indeed may miss a gem or two listed there which are not new in. As our catalogue is now huge, now and again, we’ll use this ‘What’s Old’ feature to highlight some outstanding items from our existing stock that even the most eagle-eyed panelologist may have not spotted. Kicking off this week with arguably the most in-demand comic of the 21st Century, Walking Dead #1. Our copy is a sparkling NM (9.4 equivalent) and priced at £1000. This represents a rare chance to grab an unslabbed investment grade copy, so act now before the, um, zombie apocalypse… SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD