*Marvel: In Quirky Corner, we conclude our Ape week event in the same franchise we began it with one of the biggest oddities of all. In 1974, Marvel launched a series of co-productions with a record company to issue ‘Book and Record Sets’, in which reprints of Marvel comics (sometimes re-edited to eliminate aspects of continued stories) were shrinkwrapped with a badly-acted 45 RPM record so that, as the blurb has it: “The action COMES ALIVE as you read!”. These were such a modest success that the franchise even extended into new material of some non-Marvel properties, but what concerns us here is #PR-21, “Battle For The Planet Of The Apes”, which we have in not quite pristine condition: although the original shrinkwrap has never been opened, leaving it untouched by human (or simian) hands, there is some corner wear to the plastic and some light pressure marks on the spine from long-term storage. Nevertheless, a genuine rarity and a significant peculiarity in comics history. This FN+ copy can be yours for £20.

*DC: “Who Are They? What Are They?” – so ran the teaser ads in DC Comics in the late 60’s, and the question was answered in Showcase #77, when E. Nelson Bridwell and Bob Oksner brought us Angel & the Ape, the heartwarming tale of a shapely model and a comic book artist who also happened to be a gorilla. But of course. Together, the pair moonlighted as private investigators, in a series of wacky adventures that mixed the spy & crime craze with sit-com hijinks to create a truly different comic. After their Showcase debut, the pair won their own series, and we have both Showcase #77 and Angel & the Ape #1 back in in Fine grade. If you haven’t tried the series before, now’s the time to jump on board for a delightful and distinctive series. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: For Ape Week, we turn to the Lord Of The Jungle himself, including this week’s Free Gift Farrago! With the worldwide popularity of Tarzan, the ERB estate was, in the mid-197O’s, in the happy position of commissioning hundreds of pages of artwork and stories that initially saw print only in the European market – despite having been generated by American creators. UK publishers Byblos saw an opportunity to exploit this material by presenting it in English for the first time, and in 1977 launched Tarzan Weekly – followed, in fairly short order, by Tarzan Monthly. Details are sketchy, but evidently the Byblos experiment was over by 1980, as in 1981 another publisher, Atlantic, launched yet another UK-based Tarzan Monthly, exploiting still more the same inventory. There are some impressive names among the creators credited in these issues; Dan Spiegle, Marv Wolfman, Will Meugniot, Russ Manning, Pat Boyette, Mike Ploog, Rick Hoberg, Mark Evanier, and Dave Stevens. We have five of the first six issues of Tarzan Weekly, the first three of Byblos’ Tarzan Monthly, the 1980 Tarzan Winter Special, and an issue of the Atlantic Tarzan monthly new in. Tarzan Weekly #1 comes with the original free gift, a Jungle Sick-Bag – I’m sorry, Tarzan Survival Kit Bag – for your protection when wandering the wilds of the Dark Continent! Pictures of both the comic and free gift shown here. Please note: while you’ll find almost all of our Tarzan inventory in our Tarzan/ERB section, these larger format British comics are listed in our Boys’ Adventure & War section for easier storage.

*Romance: With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, it’s time to show your romantic side and treat your loved one to a slice of love, 30th Century vintage-style, with our new-in selection of classic Romance comics from a variety of publishers from the 1940’s-1970’s. Swoon to: Cindy Smith from Timely, Falling In Love, Girls’ Love Stories, Girls’ Romances and Young Love from DC, I Love You, Just Married & Sweetheart Diary from Charlton.

*Marvel: A chunky update for our Avengers stocks, including many highlights and first appearance issues. We start at #12 and run up to #196 (1st Taskmaster). On the way, we encounter #21 (1st Power Man), #52 (1st Grim Reaper), #55 (1st Ultron VF/NM £100), #58 (Vision origin), #60 (Yellowjacket/Wasp wedding), #75 (1st Arkon), #78 (1st Lethal Legion), a gorgeous NM- copy of #81 (£55), #82 (1st Squadron Supreme), the in-demand #100, #181 (1st Scott Lang VF p £25), Annual #7 (Jim Starlin’s cosmic saga with Warlock & Thanos), and Annual #10 (1st Rogue – 2 copies, nicest being a lovely VF/NM at £50). Many other issues also new in, nearly all cents copies. Full details shown in our catalogue listings. If you have a gap in your Avengers collection, there’s a good chance there’s something for you here!

*Annuals: A long overdue update to the very popular Girls’ sub-section of our Annuals category, all from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Favourite titles include Bunty, Diana (inc. the 1974 annual with the Fab Four – Supercats prototype), June, Mandy, Princess & Schoolgirls’. Additionally, as a Poptastic extra, we have the David Essex Annual from 1976.

30th Century Goes Ape! In conjunction with our complete set of Marvel UK Planet Of The Apes in this week, we’re delighted to present a new article by our own Will Morgan on the Apeslayer series in the ‘Where there’s A Will’ section on our Extras page. You can read it here.

*DC: Amazingly, given their lengthy careers, 1967’s Superman #199 was the first time Superman and the Flash had ever raced competitively, and writer Jim Shooter and artist Curt Swan drew every ounce of drama out of the situation, throwing tricks, traps and dilemmas as the Man of Steel and the Crimson Comet battle their way to the finish line, with the ostensibly benign agenda, needless to say, being subverted for fiendish purposes. An historic issue, and great fun into the bargain! A VG cents copy at £50. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: From 1976, the first two issues of D.C.Thomson’s Bullet, the action weekly which debuted the same week as rival IPC’s eponymous Action, and rather got overshadowed by the notorious opposition. Starring a moustachioed medallion man who had a mysterious connection to the star of Warlord, Fireball fought crime and did daring deeds all over the world, frequently – and unusually, for this time in Boys’ weeklies – squaring off with the glamourous villainess, the Cat. Other stars of the Bullet line-up were giant robot “The Smasher”, avenging-gangland-victims’ saga “Vic’s Vengeance”, desert exile “Survivour”, and the inevitable football strip “Twisty”. Unusually, Bullet gave 4-6 page segments to all its serials (with Fireball himself getting a luxurious 8 or 9!), as opposed to the 2-4 pages that were the industry standard. #1 and #2 are both Fine, with VF free gifts; #1 (£60) brings us a ‘Secret Sign Ring’, with an untouched sheet of stick-on symbols, and #2 (£40) provides a guide to Survival – the Fireball Way!, plus plastic storage wallet.

*Marvel: We have the entire Infinity Trinity from the fertile mind of Jim Starlin, newly in in high grades! It all kicked off in 1991, with the Infinity Gauntlet, in which the galaxy’s most powerful piece of bling was seized by Thanos in order to impress his lady-friend, Mistress Death, by wiping out half the universe. Recovering from that little mishap, 1992’s Infinity War saw Warlock’s evil counterpart, the Magus, generating doppelgangers of the Marvel heroes who each fought their counterparts in crossovers – oh, so many crossovers – in every corner of the Marvel Universe. Fortunately, the crossovers, though boosting Marvel’s coffers at the time, proved inessential to the understanding of the series. In 1993, we were presented with the Infinity Crusade, in which Warlock’s feminine side – no, really – manifested herself as a separate entity and started luring various of Marvel’s more faith-based characters over to the dark side by playing to their spirituality, in what could be interpreted as a parody of American fundamentalism, if you think Starlin’s that clever. The Infinity concept lay fallow for a few years thereafter, but interest has been keenly piqued with the heavy-duty ‘trailing’ of Thanos and the Infinity Gems as the forthcoming ‘big bads’ in the Marvel cinematic and TV universes so jump on now before the prices spiral ever higher!

*Marvel: Substantial additions to our Silver/Bronze Age X-Men stocks between issues #10 & #100. From Kirby to Roth, from Heck to Smith, from Adams to Cockrum, the X-Men went through many artistic changes in their chequered history, and you can celebrate their highs and lows right here with us. After a classic beginning at the hands of Lee & Kirby, with the intro for the team, Magneto and the Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants, the Juggernaut, the Sentinels, the re-introduction of Ka-Zar etc, a very nice period by Roy Thomas and Werner Roth sustained the title for a number of years before it floundered a little in the late 1960’s with little sense of direction. Help came in the form of Neal Adams, who resuscitated the title from #56 onwards with his dynamic style; alas, that wasn’t enough to save the comic, which was condemned to reprint status with issue #67. However, like all good comic characters, the X-Men refused to die and with Giant-Sized X-Men #1 and #94 of the ongoing series, a new X-Men team was born, adding Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and others to form the nucleus of the team we know today as comics’ most successful group franchise. Dozens of issues new in, all cents copies, including (pictured below) #94 VF+ £450, #95 VF+ £125, #96 VF+ £70, #99 VF+ £65, #100 VF £50.

*Humour Comics: A new selection of ever-popular Summer/Holiday Specials in from the 1970’s for these favourite titles: Buster (1971), Cor (1972, 1975 & 1976) and Whizzer & Chips (1972). Packed full of reading pleasure to keep the kids quiet on holiday!

*Charlton: A long overdue update to this most esoteric of publishers, with material from the 1950’s to the 1980’s: Steve Ditko’s Blue Beetle (and from 1985 both issues of his Static series in Charlton Action), John Byrne’s Doomsday + 1, Hercules, sci-fi extravaganza with Outer Space, Space Adventures (inc Captain Atom) and Space War, pop kitsch with the Partridge Family, and mystery with Strange Suspense Stories & Unusual Tales.

*Marvel: Following the demise of the X-Men title, Hank McCoy, aka the Beast, featured in the second series of Amazing Adventures between issues #11 and #17. Issue #11 (FN/VF £60) is the first furry mutated Beast and tells how he got that way; issue #17 (VF/NM £60) retells his origin. We have all seven issues fresh into stock in a variety of grades, all cents copies.

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 Books Section:
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Humour Comics: The Free Gift Farrago is back! Monster Fun #1, from 1975, the highly-collectible magazine of macabre mirth, is here in a very attractive Fine copy with the original Free Gift – Spooky Plate-Wobbler – mint, still in its original unopened polybag. Priced at £100, these issues with unused Free Gifts are becoming increasingly rare and sought after. This issue also features the debuts of X-Ray Specs, Draculass, Kid Kong and Martha’s Monster Makeup, and many other features which remain popular to this day! An achievable short run (60-odd issues before it was absorbed into Buster), Monster Fun is seldom found in high grade, because of the propensity of people to pull out the “Badtime Bedtime Book” pull-outs, but that’s also present and correct here for uninterrupted reading enjoyment!

*DC: In 1973, it was DC’s turn to have a go at the classic pulp hero the Shadow, whose exploits have passed through many publishers over the decades. This 12 issue series was moody and atmospheric, enhanced greatly by the art of Mike Kaluta on several issues inc #1. Every issue fresh into stock in high grade cents copies.

*Younger Readers’ Comics: A further update to this endearing category, including many titles new to our listings: Jack & Jill (1956-1963), Magic (1978), Mickey Mouse (1947), Pippin (1966 & 1970), Playhour (1960-1968), Robin (1961), Teddy Bear (1963-1969 inc #1 & #2), and Twinkle (1969/70).