*Marvel: Fans rave about the Giant-Size issues of the first run of the Silver Surfer from 1968 and a lot of attention is paid in particular to #1 & #4. For our money, John Buscema’s wonderful art has never looked more sumptuous than in #3, the debut of Mephisto, Marvel’s devil-like netherworld overlord. We have a nice FN+ pence copy new in at £50, with a solid spine, good cover gloss and excellent page quality, only minor edge wear and a fine reading crease to the right of the spine precluding a higher grade. Eminently collectable!

*Humour Comics: One of the curious things about the run of Cracker just added is that earlier issues offer readers £2 for each joke published, but later dropped the figure to £1. Another curious thing is how they thought they could get away with the jokes on the front pages (sample: How do you get rid of a boomerang? Throw it up a one-way street!). We’ve added issues from #60 through to #87, the final issue. All in grades of GD or VG.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A huge update to our stocks of the venerable and long-lived Boy’s weekly, Hotspur, with first series issues from 1946-1958 and second series (‘New’ Hotspur) from 1962-1974. Well over 100 issues new in, many with lovely evocative covers such as the example shown here.

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 file in our British section:
*Girls’ Picture Libraries
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Power Comics: The first Holiday Special for Smash after it became an IPC/Fleetway weekly, this 96-page edition is less commonplace than its contemporaries, offering a stellar line-up with new adventures of ‘The Swots and the Blots’, ‘His Sporting Lordship’, ‘Grimly Feendish’, ‘Cursitor Doom’ and ‘Janus Stark’. This Fair/Good copy, whose only major drawback is page misalignment caused by loose staples, plus small tears at top and bottom spine, is offered at £20.

*Marvel: Yet another collection of premiere issues from Marvel’s Bronze Age era! This time, a captivating quintet, consistimg of: Micronauts (superlative Mike Golden artwork), Nova, Rom Space Knight (a near-flawless NM/M at £65, pictured), the spin-off Spider-Man title, Peter Parker Spider-Man, and last but far from least, Bruce Banner’s cousin, the Emerald Empress herself, the Savage She-Hulk! Full details in our catalogue.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In excess of 50 new copies of the popular IPC weekly, Tiger, added to our lists this update. Always possessing a heavier than usual dose of sporting strips, with the venerable “Roy of the Rovers”, wrestling ace “Johnny Cougar” and boy racer “Skid Solo”, this was the period Tiger transitioned from a general adventure weekly to a sports specialist, as new strips came in including Scorcher-import “Billy’s Boots”, “Martin’s Marvelous Mini” (the car, not the skirt), and, most controversial of all, “Tallon of the Track”, the mysterious masked biker whose secret turned out to be – gasp – ovaries! Averaging VG/FN grade, this offers an opportunity to fill those elusive gaps in your collection.

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: More for Marvel’s Magazines, with three popular titles. Howard the Duck got his second solo series in magazine form, with top-notch artists including Gene Colan, Mike Golden and Marshall Rogers: issues #1, #3-5, #7-9 new in this update. Savage Sword of Conan featured Cimmeria’s favourite son in bloodier adventures than the Comics Code would permit, and we have a nice consecutive run (#61-69) in high grades added to our rapidly-diminishing stock. And Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, Marvel’s ‘comic pulp’ experiment adapting famous SF authors with occasional new material, is refreshed with issues #4-6. All three of these series remain in high demand, so grab them while the grabbing’s good!

*DC: Another nice Flash update this week, from #119 to #122, bracketed at the far end by the premier appearance of the Top, one of the more popular members of the Flash’s Rogue’s Gallery, and at the nearer end by the first appearance of Sue Dearborn Dibny, spouse of the ever-exasperating Elongated Man! Before his long career as a backup in detective Comics, Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man, was a supporting character in the Flash, and with this issue he took the very rare step, at that time, of becoming a married superhero, with Sue as his partner in light-hearted adventures for many happy decades. The Trickster and a Kid Flash team-up also adorn this update, for a cross-section of the Flash’s Crooks n’ Chums. For the most part nice copies, all cents, with the star turn being #121 in a sparkling VF at £140. See our catalogue listings for full details.

*DC: The latest run in our Batmania Max event features Detective Comics from the early 200’s – issues from the range #216 to #238 – in which the theme seems to be ‘doubles and twins’, as the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder are plagued by a series of alternate versions of themselves, in “The Batman of Tomorrow!”,”The Mystery of the Second Batman and Robin Team”, “The Batman Machine”, “Batman Junior!”, “The Outlaw Who Played Batman!”, “The First Batman!”, “The Search For A New Robin!”, and many variations on the Dynamic Duo’s encountering doppelgangers. In a variety of conditions from the affordable mid-grade upwards, this cross-section of the Gotham Guardians’ adventures is backed-up by Captain Compass, Roy Raymond, and, in later issues, the Martian Manhunter for additional adventure. See our catalogue listings for full details.

*Marvel: Several issues of the classic 1970’s Iron Fist series fresh into stock, mostly in high grade, between #2 & #12. Now the star of his own TV series, this character has never been more popular. Kung Fu action in the mighty Marvel manner!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: It’s time to saddle up and ride the range once again with our latest influx of Amalgamated Press/Fleetway Cowboy Comics/Picture Library alongside Tim Holt, Kit Carson, Buck Jones, the Kansas Kid & Davy Crockett. This batch of a couple of dozen starts as early as #12, and finishes with #445, but are mostly within the #100-300 range. Collectors should note that they are mostly low grade reading copies, Poors, Fairs and a few Goods, but they’ll do to plug a gap until a better copy comes along (and these don’t come along too often!)

Dr Evilla’s inspiration for this window came from listening to Bowie’s classic ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’, with its mention of Homo sapiens outgrowing its use. Pondering what the next level of evolution might be, she came up with this window, describing it as depicting her best guess for the future. We’ll leave it to our discerning customers to decide  whether she’s right……

*Girls’ Comics: In 1976, D.C.Thomson launched Spellbound, a new girls’ weekly with a supernatural/science-fiction twist, as every serial had elements of the unearthly. Lead feature, of course, was the interplanetary squad of adventuresses, “The Supercats”, who used their amazing powers to right intergalactic wrongs, while wearing skintight outfits and striking cheesecake poses, courtesy of artists the Romero Studios. But whether dealing with suddenly shrunken suburban families (“Dangerous Days for the Tiny Taylors”), Midwich Cuckoo-like intruders at a boarding school (“The Strange Ones”), spooky retail adventures (“The Shop at Shudder Corner”), or horror that was purely psychological (“Poison penny”), the Spellbound team pulled out all the stops and generated genuinely memorable stories – so much so that they inspired rivals IPC/Fleetway to launch their imitator, Misty! We have new stock in between issues 17 and 33 of Spellbound, and a couple of later editions, 18 additions in total.

*DC: From 1976, the ground-breaking cross-company crossover as the two greatest solo stars of DC and Marvel met for the first time in Superman Vs. the Amazing Spider-Man! This tabloid-size event united the creative teams of the two companies, and set a precedent for a number of subsequent, very lucrative, collaborations between the opposing bullpens! This cents copy is FN+ at £35, and we anticipate it will sell just as rapidly as every other one we’ve ever had in stock, so don’t dither – order today!

*Classics Illustrated: We continue our ongoing reclassification of our Classics Illustrated stock, adding more identification information to the myriad of various editions of the British versions of this famous series, this time from #31-50. Along the way, we’ve added some new incoming stock, including Lorna Doone (#32), The Man In The Iron Mask (#36), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (#43) & The Bottle Imp (#45). Pictured is #37 (The Pioneers), new British cover edition.

*Undergrounds: From 1982 onwards, the multi-talented Hernandez Brothers (Jaime, Gilbert and Mario) revolutionised indie/undergroung comics with Love & Rockets, telling tales of a diverse cast of gripping characters – Maggie & Hopey in “Locas”, the denizens of Palomar in “Heartbreak Soup”, Errata Stigmata and myriad others. The multiple-award-winning series continues today, in its third iteration, and there have been numerous spin-offs focussing on particular characters. We are pleased to have issues #2-50, virtually a complete run of the original series, averaging VF and all first printings, new to our stock, as well as a respectable run from the second series (#6-20), and several of the tie-in series: Luba, Luba’s Comics and Stories, Maggie and Hopey Color Fun, New Tales of Old Palomar and Penny Century. Those of you familiar with the Hernandez’ skills have a chance to fill in those elusive gaps in your collection, and if you haven’t discovered them yet, then there’s never been a better time to get started!

*DC: We don’t normally make a song & dance about ‘modern’ comics (the ones usually consigned to our downstairs department), but this is one case in which we’ll happily make an exception. As part of our massive Flash update, we have issues from 1977’s #251 all the way through to 1985’s #350, the final issue of Barry Allen’s first series, and a farewell (at least until the effects of Crisis On Infinite Earth were nullified) to the Silver Age Flash! Along the way, highlights include the death of Iris Allen in #275, the debuts of several latter-day members of the Flash’s Rogue’s Gallery (Rainbow Raider #286; Colonel Computron #304; and Big Sir #338), George Perez’s artistic debut at DC #289, and the two-part epic demise of professor Zoom in issues #323 and #324! Many of these later issues were illustrated by the Flash’s original artist, Carmine Infantino, and, while not at his peak, they still show outstanding craftsmanship. This run is characterised by outstanding grades, averaging VF or better. You won’t find these in our catalogue, but downstairs in our shop. Enquiries welcomed.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A small update to our stock of classic Eagle from the 1950’s and 1960’s, with new copies from Volumes 6, 7, 19 & 20.

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 file in our British section:
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Marvel: A substantial sweep through the first 100 issues of the World’s Mightiest Heroes, commencing with #2 (debut of the ever-phunky Space Phantom) and progressing to #96, incorporating many issues previously missing from our listings. Approximately 50 copies new in, highlights including the debuts of the Swordsman, the Sons of the Serpent, the Squadrons Supreme AND Sinister, Arkon, the Invaders (though to be fair, they didn’t call themselves that then…), Red Wolf & Lobo, and Nighthawk, plus two issues poorly distributed in the UK; #25, in which Cap’s Kookie Quartet go up against Doctor Doom, and issue #58, in which, one issue after his debut, the origin of the Vision was told for the first time. In a wide range of grades and prices to match, there’s something to suit the taste and budget of every Avengers fan! Highlights pictured below (left to right) are: #2 VG p £135, #3 VG £120, #7 VG+ p £55, #21 VF+ p £65 & #24 VF+ £62.

*Classics Illustrated: A second instalment of our overhaul of this popular category, this time giving full identification information for our stock of UK versions between number #17-30. Included are copies of #17 (the Deerslayer) with new British cover image (pictured); we’ve also added some newly arrived issues such as #24 (A Journey To The Centre Of The Earth).

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Following extensive sales on the famous Action from 1976 onwards, we’re pleased to have sourced some additional copies between #1 (14/2/76) and the last issue of the ‘first run’ (16/10/76), before the comic was infamously banned and went on hiatus for a couple of months. See what all the fuss was about with Hookjaw, Hellman and all their chums. #1 VG/FN £32.50; most other issues a nice Fine; see catalogue for full details.

*Magazines & Books About Vintage US Comics: Lest often seen, and with quite low distribution, we are pleased to present eight issues of DC’s self-published ‘house’ fanzine of the 1970s from #3 to #10, all in VF or better condition. Each issue focuses on a particular character or creator; #3: Julius Schwartz, #4: Batman, #5: Sheldon Mayer, #6: Joe Orlando, #7: Superman, #8: Carmine Infantino, #9: Legion Of Super-Heroes, #10: DC behind the scenes production team. A fascinating insight into DC in the mid 1970’s.