*Marvel: Strange Tales is a venerable Golden Age/Silver Age Marvel title that went through many changes of focus in its lifetime. This update, we concentrate on the swinging 60’s and the sensational 70’s. First up, we have issues from the Human Torch and Dr. Strange (by Ditko) period. We then move on to a very fondly remembered period when the good doctor shared the title with Nicky Fury, Agent Of Shield, and in particular the work of Jim Steranko, whose debut on that strip is featured in this update. We close out with the short run of issues from #178-181 featuring Jim Starlin’s Warlock, including the key issue #180 (FN/VF p £35), with the first appearance of that doyenne of the Guardians Of The Galaxy Gamorra.

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: A very small update to a few favourite titles in this increasingly popular category: Bunty, Judy and June & School Friend.

*TV & Film Related Comics: A varied selection this week, inc. many Holiday Specials: Basil Brush Specials x3, a few Film Funs from 1948, 1951 & 1960, Popeye Holiday Special 1969, Radio Fun from 1948, a She-Ra Princess Of Power Special from the 1980’s, a rare issue of Solo (#4), a 1983 Stingray Special, a Fine copy of Target #1 from 1978, Thunderbirds Specials from 1971, 1983 & 1984, TV Comic Special from 1972 and, last but not least, TV Land from 1960/61 with Gerry Anderson’s Twizzle.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A massive update to our stocks of Lion, one of the most very popular of all the Boys’ weeklies we sell. We go right through in this update from the first year (1952) and issue #7 until the final year (1973). Along the way there are new issues in for the following years: 1953, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966 (lots), 1967, 1968 (many), 1969 (lots) & 1972. We also have two Holiday Specials for 1978 & 1980 (pictured). Keen attention will be paid to this update, so quick ordering is advised!

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: From Skywald, the cheerfully opportunist black & white mag publishers of the early 1970’s, a selection of their exploitative titles; an attempt to revive the crime genre with Crime Machine #1, loaded with pre-code reprints (including some Kubert) behind a misleading new cover; new copies in of their main horror titles, Nightmare (#7 VF) and Psycho (#3 FN), featuring a bizarre but fascinating selection of artists and writers who – being either at the beginning or end of their careers – were willing to work for cheap; and a personal favourite here at 30th Century, Hell-Rider, a cycling super-hero with peripatetic super-strength who travelled across the USA trying to find himself – but instead finding drug-smuggling ganglords and libidinous werewolves. As you do. Co-featured in Hell-Rider were his chums the Wild Bunch (a do-gooder motorcycle gang) and the Butterfly, a super-heroic soul sister in a costume that, in 1971, was shockingly skimpy. Hell-Rider didn’t last beyond the second issue, but scripter ‘Groovy’ Gary Friedrich made good use of the experience on Marvel’s suspiciously-similar Ghost Rider, less than a year later. Coincidence? Hmmm… Both issues of Hell-Rider new in, in affordable mid-grades – buy them and see Rich Buckler’s art back when he was making an effort! (No, seriously: it’s really rather nice…)

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 American section:
*Horror 1940-1959 
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: A nice selection of DC Giant issues new in, with a variety of page counts between 68 and 100. The following series are featured: Adventure, DC 100 Page Super-Spectacular (Superman & Superboy), DC Special (Wild Frontier), Lois Lane, Shazam, Superboy, Super DC Giant (Western, Brave & Bold), Superman Family & World’s Finest. Great value reading!

*Marvel: We conclude our current wave of Spider-Mania this week! Two landmark issues anchor this Spider-Man update: #121, the death of Gwen Stacy issue, is new in in not one but two grades: a VG+ at £75 (below left), with only minor wear and one discolouration in the lower right cover corner; a second copy, graded GD/VG at £50 (below centre), is flawed only by a hard subscription crease down the middle of the cover image. They are accompanied by a copy of the Punisher’s debut, issue #129, in GD/VG at £150. In high demand now with the rumours of a Punisher media slot, this copy is superficially nicer than the stated grade, but has at some time had some moisture exposure, leading to shallow wrinkling. There is also some wear at the upper left cover corner. All of these are achievable opportunities to obtain key Spider-man issues at reasonably affordable levels. Not content with that, we also have a scattering of other issues from #68 to #375 in a variety of grades, plus Annual #5 (“The Secret of Peter Parker’s Parents!”), for a comprehensive restock of one of our most popular series. Have no fear, Spider-philes: the webslinging one will return to our listings faster than you can say J. Jonah Jameson (20 times with a mouth full of webbing…)

*Younger Readers’ Comics: Free Gift Farrago: Baby Baby Bunting! Piggles Postman! Cock Robin & Jenny Wren! Pixie Bumpkin! Banana Bunny! It’s the All-New Expectorated X-Men! Oh no, wait, that’s a different update. These are the denizens of our latest batch of early Free Gift issues for the pre-school set. First up, Dickory Dock (1980) #1, with the Glove Puppet untouched by human hand; Donald & Mickey #3, from 1972, with a pristine wall poster of Mr. Mouse, Esq.; Robin #1 from 1985, with a free Wimpole Village picture book starring the sinister Major Stickwielder; and a double dose of two-fisted action from 1972’s Hey Diddle Diddle, with #1 offering a large fold-out poster & accompanying stickers in NM condition; and #2, with the stickers in… less than mint condition, as they’ve gotten a bit, er, stuck to the interior page. Still, bargainacious! See the fury! Feel the power! Nutty Noodle, Duke of the Duck Pond, and Fuddy, Duddy, and the Disco Kid – Unleashed! Pictured below: Dickory Dock #1 and Hey Diddle Diddle #1 with their respective Free Gifts!

*Mad & Other Parody: Following the success of Mad’s transfer from colour comic to black & white magazine, Atlas, ever keen on bandwagon-jumping, decided to launch their own imitation, and thus Snafu was born. In fairness, with Heath, Everett, Maneely and Severin among the contributors, it’s a superior Mad clone, with high standards throughout, but for some reason it didn’t ‘catch’ despite two attempts. We have the first issue (and indeed the only issue) of the first series new in, from November 1955, in Fine+ at £35. One of the earliest known sightings of the elusive Irving Forbush can be yours!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: The more perspicacious of you may have realised that our heading means we have new in stock the first three issues of Eagle Volume 1 from 1950. Unfortunately in low grades: #1 FA £60, #2 FA+ £30, #3 FA/GD £35, but an opportunity to acquire at very affordable prices the earliest issues of arguably the most famous British Boys’ Adventure comic of them all with the debut of the iconic British space pilot/adventurer Dan Dare, who remains a household name to this day (if your household has comic collectors!)

*Power Comics: ‘The Brand New Comic for the New Breed of Comic Fans’ proclaimed Pow! #1 across its masthead. In 1967, Odhams Press hit upon its highly successful formula of Marvel reprints combined with original British humour and adventure strips. Nowhere was this more notable than in Pow!, which featured Spider-Man reprints virtually from the beginning. We have a copy of #1, GD/VG at £45, structurally sound with some edge browning. The Free Gift of Spider-Matic pistol has, sadly, long since departed.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: One of the tougher short run series from the 1960’s to complete is Fleetway’s Hurricane. It lasted 63 issues from 29th February 1964 to 8th May 1965, when it was merged in with Tiger. We have a substantial number of issues new in, covering most of 1964, including the 2nd and 3rd issues and also the final issue from 1965 (pictured), mostly in decent VG grade (a few better, a few worse). Famous strips include Typhoon Tracy, Skid Solo and Sword For Hire.

*Humour Comics: But wait, hasn’t it just been Christmas? Is this some form of late, late celebration? Well, sort of, as we commemorate the festive season with a flurry of Humour Christmas issues from all the above titles, mostly from the 1970’s and 1980’s, but with the highlight being a very rare 1964 Christmas Beano in VG/FN at £31.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Both series of Dez Skinn’s seminal Warrior magazine restocked this week. The first series from 1975 featured ‘heroic tales of sword and sorcery’ and was mainly reprint of classic strips from Eagle and elsewhere, including work by Burns (Wrath of the Gods, Kelpie – Boy Wizard), Lawrence (Erik the Viking, Olac the Gladiator), Bellamy (Heros the Spartan) and others, with a smattering of new material. Black and white and cheaply reproduced, this series does not turn up too regularly. A more familiar beast is its descendant from 1982, the slick glossy publication most famous for Alan Moore’s Marvelman revival and V For Vendetta, but with many other features from the cream of British creators at the time; lots new in, including scarcer later issues.

With a plethora of comic-related films (both live action and animated) and television series this year, Dr Evilla decided to celebrate them by reminding everyone where the characters started out. Her latest window showcases a range of blockbusters: Deadpool, Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice (snappy – eh?), Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, Suicide Squad, Doctor Strange, Sinister Six, The Killing Joke, Batman: Bad Blood, and Tarzan. From television there are (Green) Arrow, Daredevil, The Flash and, lurching ever onwards, the Walking Dead.

*Marvel: Born of a copyright-saving act of desperation (much like her stablemate Spider-Woman), She-Hulk’s debut issue in 1980 could have been an inauspicious debut, but A-list creators (Stan Lee, returning to the writing field, and John Buscema) gave the adventures of size-changing lady lawyer Jennifer Walters a certain credibility, and she went from strength to strength to become one of the leading lights of the House of Ideas. See how it all began with a gorgeous #1 of Savage She-Hulk, in the rarely-awarded grade of Near Mint/Mint, at £60.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A Free Gift Farrago Update! Following sell-out success of our recent haul of this popular title, we’re delighted to present virtually a full run of Scream, the 1984-launched horror weekly which featured “The Dracula Files”, “Monster!”, “Tales From The Grave” and “The 13th Floor” as regular series, and enjoyed a brief flurry of notoriety before vanishing with its fifteenth issue, without even so much as a ‘Great News, Chums!’ to warn readers. “Thirteenth Floor” continued, in much tamer form, into the second series of Eagle, but the series lived on for five years in the form of glossy Holiday Specials. Issues #1-6, #8-15 and a complete run of the Holiday Specials for the years 1985-1989 are new in to our listings, with the first two issues sporting their original free gifts of Dracula Fangs and a Spooky Spider, respectively, both pictured here alongside the rare 1989 Holiday Special (sub-titled ‘Spine-Chillers’).

*DC: Although, a decade later, Alan Moore became for most readers the definitive writer on DC’s muck monster, back in 1972, the first series of Swamp Thing launched at the hands of Berni Wrightson, who is undoubtedly the definitive artist for the character. We are now able to offer a FN/VF copy of #1 at £50, cents with no pence overstamp. Full gloss cover, tight and flat, with excellent page quality. Only very minor spine wear and a tiny bit more wear along the top edge prevent this beauty grading higher and you can see the superb cover right alongside here! SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Humour Comics: A chunky update to our Humour titles from the 1970’s, with substantial amounts of Cor and Cracker, and small updates to Knockout, Krazy, Shiver & Shake and Whizzer & Chips. We also have 3 out of the 4 issues of the Ally Sloper revival from 1976 by Alan Class and Denis Gifford.

*Marvel: Some noteworthy Conans new in: #16 with an unverified Roy Thomas signature on the splash page, #23 (1st Red Sonja), and the less often seen in the UK Annual #1 and several of the Conan Giant-Size issues. By Crom! (or possibly Buy, Crom!)

*Marvel: A handful of issues in for Tales Of Suspense from the mid 1960’s when it was a ‘shared’ book between Iron Man & Captain America; with Colan & Kirby at the artistic reins, a quality title from start to finish. Issues between #76 & #98 new in this update.

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.

*Dell: A small update to this fondly-remembered publisher, characteristic of the wide range of material they purveyed. We have not terribly good super-heroes Nukla and the Fab Four (ersatz Fantastic Four — all 4 issues now in stock!), Movie Classic Tales Of Terror from 1962, adapting Edgar Allan Poe films and Jack Davis’s satirical Yak Yak from 1961.

*Humour Comics: For fans of Tom Merry and Billy Bunter, we present a small update to our stocks of Gems and Magnets story papers from the 1930’s.