*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Among the most obscure mainstream Marvels are their magazine line, which ran, with a couple of exceptions each way, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, and are generally harder to find than their smaller four-colour brethren. We’re delighted to have topped up several significant titles this time. Deadly Hands of Kung Fu is recharged from #3, with several later issues in desirable FN/VF or VF grades; the non-UK-distributed Doc Savage #1, plus a smattering of later issues; Epic Illustrated, Marvel’s attempt at a Heavy-Metal style adult magazine, from its second issue upwards; Howard the Duck’s black & white series; Tomb of Dracula magazine # 1; the oddball film-spoof mag Monsters to Laugh With/Monsters Unlimited, from 1964 and 1965 and small updates to Monsters Unleashed and Rampaging Hulk. Two ‘showcase’ titles also feature significant items – Marvel Preview #2 and #3, with early appearances by the Punisher and Blade, respectively and Marvel Comics Super Special, with new issues featuring James Bond, Conan the Barbarian, and Kiss. The Kiss issue (#5) is a very attractive VF, with the pull-out poster *not* pulled out, and is offered at £55. Not quite magazines, but in this section because of their mag-sized dimensions, are the softcover (and occasional hardcover) Marvel Graphic Novel series. Approximately 15 issues new to our listings, including Conan the Reaver, Elektra Lives Again (1st printing), Sensational She-Hulk, Wolverine & Nick Fury – the Scorpio Connection, the debut of the New Mutants, and many more.

*Marvel UK: We bring you a rarity from 1984, four issues of Spider-Man Comics Weekly, issues #607-610, in which an unusual experiment was tried in the normally all-reprint series. A new four-part canonical Spider-Man story was created for these issues by Mike Collins and Mark Farmer, and has never been reprinted anywhere else – one of the Wall-Crawler’s scarcest adventures, and set in jolly old London town to boot! All FN at £6 each.

*Marvel: From 1979, Marvel Premiere #47, with the first in-costume appearance of Scott Lang, the second holder of the title of Ant-Man. There have been several Ant-Men, but Scott is the current version, and the star of both the recent film and the current popular comics series, so his earlier appearances are increasingly popular and expensive. This cents copy is in Fine+ at £50, and might grade higher except for a peculiar aspect of one interior word having been crossed out, for unknown reasons, on page 23. What’s the word, you ask? Hey, buy the book!

*Girls’ Comics: For this week’s Free Gift Farrago, a pair of rarities: two issues of the romance comic weekly, Valentine, from 1959 and 1962 respectively, with their original free gifts. The October 31st, 1959 issue, in Fair, comes with the ‘Thrilling Iron-On Transfers’ of Cliff and Elvis! (swoon…) while the 22nd September 1962 issue, in VG/FN grade, offers us a ‘Specially painted colour portrait’ of Richard Chamberlain! (actually a rather nicely-done paint-effect print). The transfers are in Good condition, and the print is Fine. Valentines, as regular readers of our updates well know, are not common in any grade from this period, and issues retaining the free gifts are virtually unheard of, so we don’t expect these to stay in stock long.

*EC: Among the series EC’s own creators were most proud of were their war titles, which took a very different and more thoughtful look at the business of human conflict than was the gung-ho industry standard of the 1950’s. Two-Fisted Tales, originally under the supervision of Harvey Kurtzman, brought thought-provoking stories of war’s effect on soldiers and civilians alike, illustrated by the same top-echelon artists as the rest of the EC line: Wood, Orlando, Crandall, Davis, and of course Kurtzman himself. With issue #36, the title became ‘The New’ Two-Fisted Tales, broadening its scope into a more generalised adventure field, and John Severin became a more frequent contributor, but the quality remained high. We have a striking selection of the title (every issue except the first) new in in a variety of grades ranging from the reading copy to the collectible investment. Beginning with issue #19 (the second issue of the series), VG at £95, and running through to the final issue, #41. A selection of cover images are shown below; more are shown in our catalogue, along with a full list of grades and prices.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980’s: Although we suspect a certain muck monster at DC might have a word or two to say about this comic’s tag-line, there’s no denying the enduring appeal of Marvel’s Man-Thing. A stalwart of Marvel’s Bronze Age from the pen of Steve Gerber, Man-Thing went through two series during this period and a handful of Giant-Size issues (Giant-Size Man-Thing remains one of our favouritely-named titles!). This update we have the first 22 issue series complete, all cents copies, averaging a splendid VF grade, plus a couple of the Giant-Size issues and the first three issues of the second series for good measure. Get down and get dirty in the swamp with this heap of adventurous horror!

*Marvel: Marvel’s long-running series of Infinity this-and-that started in 1991 with Infinity Gauntlet #1 at the superstar creator hands of Jim Starlin & George Perez. The original series of cosmic adventures spawned a whole host of sequels which continue to this day. Our new-in #1 copy is pence-priced, a sparkling VF/NM grade at £25.

*Marvel UK: We continue our series of Captain Britain updates with three very special Fee Gift issues. In addition to the debut and origin of Brian Braddock and his costumed alter ego by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, 1976’s first two issues of Captain Britain, in the grand tradition of British weekly comics, featured giveaways – a Captain Britain mask with issue #1, and a Captain Britain Boomerang (pardon?) with #2. When it became clear the title needed reformatting in 1977, Gary Friedrich took over the new Captain Britain stories with #24, while the art, at least for a short time, was provided by the classic John Buscema/Tom Palmer duo – and lovely stuff it is, too! The relaunch issue, #24 also offered a free gift, a Captain Britain glider, which we believe to be significantly scarcer than the #1 and #2 free gifts. All three ‘gifted’ numbers – # 1, #2, and #24 – back in stock, highly collectible VF copies with the free gifts in NM, never assembled or used. #1 £35, #2 £30, #24 £40.

*Girls’ Comics: From 1971, the first year of its publication, fifteen new listings for Tammy, from the very first issue (in Fair, but it would grade better but for the fact that someone ‘speccified’ the cover girl!), through to June of that year. Tammy’s grittier stories, focussing more on working-class heroines who were cruelly treated, included “No Tears For Molly”, “My Father – My Enemy!”, and “Slaves of War Orphan Farm”, so it was actually a relief when, less than two months after its launch, Tammmy devoured its sibling Sally, and from the fallen weekly, “Cat Girl”, “Sara’s Kingdom”, and “Maisie’s Magic Eye” came aboard, to bring a little surcease from the suffering! The first ‘combo’ issue is also present in this update.

*IW/Super: More from the most unusual publishing company of the late 1950’s – I.W/Super, who bought out a bunch of disused printing plates from (mainly) defunct publishers and started reprinting the contents with a fine disregard for previous ownership! Distributed usually three to a pack in drugstores or toyshops as ‘novelties’ (thereby circumventing the Comics Code), the introduced a new generation of readers to a completely random selection of Golden Age material; what was on the cover did not necessarily have any relation to the interior content! Titles newly restocked include Blazing Sixguns, Eerie, Eerie Tales, Fantastic Adventures, Jungle Comics, Realistic Romances and Space Adventures.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A substantial update to our stocks of the superior war title Battle, concentrating on the early years of the title between 1975 & 1977, but with a few later additions as well. The #1 in this selection is only a Fair copy at £5, but other highlights include the first issue after the merger with Valiant from 1976 and the first issue after the merger with Action in 1977. Once again, we feature very many issues previously missing from our listings.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Some real vintage adventure from the publisher Avon this update, with nice condition copies of the one-shots Escape From Devil’s Island (1952) and King Solomon’s Mines (1951), plus the only 2 issues of Sea Hound (pirate and sea-going adventure) from 1945. Scarce stuff, and not many (if any) copies of these will be seen in the UK. Check our catalogue for grades and prices.

*Magazines/Books About Vintage UK Comics: At last a decent update to this category in which sadly there is a dearth of available material. Star of the show is the limited edition Don Lawrence Collected, a handsome large format hardcover illustrated checklist and complete guide to the works of this comics master. One of only 250 copies, this high quality volume runs to 58 pages, with a nice print illustrated cover (see picture) and is in both English & Dutch; NM at £60. Also included are A5 booklets on Garth and Space Ace, the softcover book The Man Who Drew Tomorrow (the story of how Frank Hampson created Dan Dare) and Penny Comics of the Thirties, four bound facsimile editions of comics from that decade. Full details in our catalogue.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980’s: Another selection of DC and Marvel Horror from the 1970’s. From DC: House Of Secrets (inc high grade pence copy of #94 VF/NM £52 with a stunning painted Bernie Wrightson cver (pictured)) and Unexpected; from Marvel: Crypt Of Shadows, Supernatural Thrillers (#5 with 1st Living Mummy), Tomb Of Darkness, Tomb Of Dracula (from #2), Tower Of Shadows, Uncanny Tales, Vault Of Evil, Werewolf By Night, Where Creatures Roam & Where Monsters Dwell.

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: A substantial update to the four most popular titles in this category from the 1970’s and 1980’s: Bunty (between #249 & #300), Debbie (between #72 & #121), Judy (between #248 & #300) and Mandy (between #72 & #121). These ‘done-in-one’ digest sized picture libraries remain phenomenally popular and represent complete story reads at bargain prices.

*Annuals: A new range of Girls’ Annuals in stock from the 1970’s and 1980’s, including examples of the following titles: Blue Jeans, Bunty, Debbie, Jackie, Judy, June, Mandy & Misty.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Continuing our massive Valiant update, we hit the full year of 1966, which featured two important series debuts. In the issue of the 25th June, highwayman adventurer ‘Jack O’Justice’ was replaced by his own great-great-great grandson, ‘Jack Justice’, with Diana Dauntless standing in for Jack’s ‘girl comrade’ Moll Moonlight, as the pair investigated modern-day mysteries in a series clearly intended to evoke the Avengers TV series. Even more significantly, the 8th October – not the 29th, as some references would have you believe – brought us the first episode of ‘House of Dolmann’, wherein an eccentric genius created an army of super-powered puppets with whom he ‘conversed’ via ventriloquism while using their abilities to fight crime. The defining line between ‘hero’ and ‘nutjob’ was always a wee bit more tenuous on this side of the Atlantic! Questions about his mental stability notwithstanding, ‘House of Dolmann’ was a huge hit with the readers and ran almost without a break until 1974. This year also featured Valiant’s relaunch as a 44-page weekly, as opposed to the previous 40, and for eight issues from the 30th April it also featured pull-out supplements which built into the ‘Valiant Book of Football’. These are often missing in second-hand copies, but present in all our new additions.

*DC: Of all the titles one could have confidently predicted avoiding a sudden price hike, Shazam!, the 1970’s revival of the original Captain Marvel, would have topped most lists. With respectable but low-impact stories by craftsmen such as co-creator C.C.Beck, Elliott Maggin, Bob Oksner, E.Nelson Bridwell and Kurt Schaffenberger, it seemed fated to drop few pebbles in the speculator’s pond … and then there was not a pebble, but a Rock. Mr. ‘The Rock’, a professional grappler turned thespian, was signed to ‘be’ Black Adam, nemesis of the Captain, in a future cinematic blockbuster, and even before pre-production, issue #28, in which Black Adam makes his first post-Golden Age appearance, started to spiral in price. We have a very nice Fine cents copy available with only a couple of minor defects: a small ballpoint ’35c’ written above the printed price, and a tiny amount of wear on the lower 3mm of the spine. With good page quality and excellent cover colour and gloss, it’s offered at £50. And if that seems ridiculous to you for a comic from the mid-1970’s, well, we don’t disagree – but just look at what people are asking for it on eBay!

*Marvel: A high grade cents copy run of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, complete from #125-165, including the debut of Patsy Walker, Hellcat in #144 VF/NM at £35. A great period for the Avengers this, recovering from the doldrums of the Bob Brown years post issue #100, with much art by George Perez and memorable storylines from Steve Englehart, among a bunch of other good creators. Looking through these to grade them, I was reminded of how much I enjoyed them first time round!

*Marvel UK: A nice update to the 1st series of Captain Britain, the Marvel UK original series, between issues #3 and #25. As time goes by, this series gets more and more popular, and we’ll have lots more Cap through our hands in the weeks to come.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: By 1970, the long-running weekly Tiger was extensively spotlighting sports stories, with the eternal Roy of the Rovers cover-swapping with racing driver Skid Solo and redskin wrestler Johnny Cougar. A chunky update to our stocks for the year 1970, all additions previously missing from our listings.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Our huge Valiant trek continues as we reach 1965, with nearly every issue for that year represented, including New Year, Easter, Fireworks (pictured) and Christmas issues. The only significant debut that year is Jason Hyde. Mostly in decent GD/VG condition. Another big chunk of Boys’ Adventure weighing down our shelves (but probably not for long), with much more to come.