*Marvel: A nice selection new in of everyone’s favourite green giant between #113 and #200; highlights include the first appearances of such foes as The Inheritor, The Harpy and The Wendigo, as well as the 200th Anniversary issue itself. Also included are the Warlock issues #177 & #178.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Substantial updates to three classic Boys’ titles. First up, the story paper Adventure between the years 1946 and 1960; secondly ‘modern’ eagle from 1982 through to a few of the monthly issues from 1993/94; finally Hornet from #2 (1963), right up until its final year in 1975. At around a couple of pounds per issue, these represent great reading value!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: We proudly welcome a complete run of the Fleetway Super Library Front Line series, all 26 issues from 1967 to 1968. Originally published fortnightly, these extra-long digests provided 100+ pages of (as far as we know) all-new adventures, not reprinted from the weekly comics. Like its companion titles in the Fleetway Super Library family (Fantastic/Stupendous and Secret Agent), Front Line alternated its stars, odd-numbered issues featuring “Maddock’s Marauders”, a rag-tag team of international soldiers, and even-numbered copies starring “Sgt. Ironside”, who, to absolutely no-one’s surprise, got the job done while disobeying military rules. Much of this new stock is in surprisingly high grade (given the propensity of the card covers to attract and hoard creases, as collectors know), with the majority being VG to FN, and a few even attaining the coveted VF, almost never given to items in this series.

*DC: Two early appearances of the Silver Age Atom, the Tiny Titan of the DC Universe! Taking his heroic name, but little else, from the Golden Age hero who was basically just a very tough short guy, the 1961 re-imagining of the Atom had young Ray Palmer discover a piece of white dwarf matter and fashion a suit which enabled him to compress his atoms, becoming the World’s Smallest Super-Hero! Scripter Gardner Fox took great delight in finding unusual ways in which the minuscule crusader could turn his short stature to advantage, and Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson kept artistic pace, with each page crammed with delightful and imaginative layouts. Now that the character (in inevitably altered form) is a regular on the Flash TV show, folks are starting to take a new interest in the Atom’s adventures. We offer Showcase #35, his second Silver Age appearance, in GD/VG (pence) at £50, and the first issue of his solo-series (with the first appearance of Jason Woodrue, later the Floronic Man) in GD- (pence) also at £50. We’re particularly fond of Woodrue’s optimistic declaration on issue #1’s cover; “…then nothing will stand in the way of my plant-conquest of Earth!” Well, apart from Superman, Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern…..

*Marvel: A Baker’s Dozen of premier issues from the mid-to-late 1970’s, with the #1’s of Astonishing Tales (co-starring Ka-Zar and Doctor Doom), Black Goliath, Godzilla, Howard the Duck (by the acclaimed Gerber/Brunner team), Dazzler, Ka-Zar, Machine Man (Kirby’s robotic everyman in his own series!), Marvel Chillers, Marvel Premiere (1st Warlock), Marvel Spotlight (Red Wolf, with a Neal Adams cover) Rom, Super-Villain Team-Up, and Jack Kirby’s 2001: A Space Odyssey!

*Younger Readers’ Comics: A round-up of various titles for Younger Readers, including Bobo Bunny (1972), Bonnie (1974), Donald & Mickey (1972 inc. #1), Goofy (#2), & Harold Hare’s Own Paper (1961).

*Annuals: 11 new annuals in the Boys’ Adventure sub-section, including Battle, Dan Dare, Hotspur, 2000 AD, Valiant, Victor, Warlord & War Picture Library.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A chunky update to Commando Picture Library, the premiere title of its genre, with dozens of pre and early decimal issues fresh into stock ranging from the 200’s to the 900’s, with the emphasis firmly on the earlier part of that range.

*DC: The Girl Of Steel took over Adventure Comics from the Legion of Super-Heroes with #381, and we’re pleased here to present an almost unbroken run of her adventures from #400-424, all cents copies, mostly mid-high grade. Supergirl was plagued by all the traditional worries of a young girl — love, friendships, fashion, dubious weddings, secret identities, aliens, monsters, super-villains etc etc, you know the drill… One highlight of this run is spotting the number of costume variations she went through, seemingly every issue, from hot pants to mini-skirts to kinky boots to swimsuits to cat-suits ad infinitum. Included are many extra-sized issues with classic reprints such as the Legion, Animal Man, Hawkman, Robotman and many more, plus a wonderful new Zatanna strip by Gray Morrow.

*DC: High adventure was de rigeur from DC in the Bronze Age, hence three titles that all launched in 1975 featuring primitive worlds and settings: Beowulf Dragon Slayer, Claw the Unconquered & Kong the Untamed. We have near complete runs of all three titles (including all #1 issues), all new to our listings in high grade cents copies. Sadly, this experiment fell victim to the DC implosion which saw the cancellation of many titles around this time, but they offered a thrilling albeit brief excursion away from super-heroes and the like.

*Marvel: A good update to our Silver/Bronze Age stocks of Captain America, from the second issue (#101) and the greatness of Lee & Kirby through many issues previously missing from our stock to #173 by Englehart and Sal Buscema, guest-starring the X-Men.

*Girls’ Comics: Girl’s Crystal started out as a story paper, with a style highly evocative of it’s time, such as the use of headings like Their Camping Holiday and Her Dilemma. The front cover and some internal pages carried illustrations, all of which suggest that women of the time only wore red. The characters were stylised, and intentionally youthful, but impossible to pin down to a particular age – mid-teens to late twenties. Stories were all Grand or Exciting (both if you were lucky), suitably patriotic during the war years, and, with the emphasis on cruises and adventures in exotic locations, offered post-war escapism. We’ve revamped our stock of Girls’ Crystal from its years as a story paper to bring the pricing structure into line with contemporary boys’ story papers, so that our stocks of these (1941-1948) are now approximately half the price at which we previously had them listed. For good measure we’ve added a complete year from 1952 also at the new prices. Bumper reading fun, with cover summaries such as ‘The Kiddies Were Looking Forward To The Mexican Fiesta — And Thanks To The Gay Outlaw All Their Hopes Were Realised’ (#583 1946). And in 1952 we get the Silent Three as well! Treat yourself to some ripping yarns, schoolgirl style!

*Marvel: Borrowing our heading from an Ant-Man special of a few years back, we’re delighted to present at this festive season both the first appearance of Ant-Man (Hank Pym) from Tales To Astonish #27 and of his partner the Wasp from Tales To Astonish #44. Two dynamic debuts for a favourite Marvel couple. Hank Pym, later to become Ant-Man (and Giant-Man, and Goliath, and Yellowjacket, and briefly the Wasp, but we don’t talk about that…), made his first appearance in Tales to Astonish #27 as “The Man In The Ant Hill!”, another of those ‘science gone awry’ stories so beloved of the early Marvel Bullpen. There was nothing in this story to distinguish Hank from myriad other white-coated geeks who had odd encounters at the hands of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but for some reason he sparked the public imagination and returned in TTA #35 as a fully-fledged super-hero, Ant-Man. We have a copy of Hank’s first appearance, Tales to Astonish #27, new in in FN+, a highly attractive copy with excellent cover colour and gloss. The front cover has minuscule chips from the bottom right corner and mid-lower cover edge. There is also a small (approx. 1cm square) piece out of the back cover’s lower edge, which alone prevents a substantially higher grade. (The front and back back covers are pictured below). Ant-Man soon discovered that loyal as his ants were, they lacked something in the companionship stakes – so in Tales to Astonish #44, he was joined by Janet Van Dyne, alias the Wasp, and one of comics’ greatest and most turbulent relationships was born. Our copy of TTA #44 is a gorgeous VF-, with stunning cover and gloss, and only one tiny imperfection – a staple puncture just above the logo. Hank & Jan always had the most believable romance of the Marvel Universe, and the pair have long been favourites here at 30th C., so we’re delighted to see the characters getting their due recognition. Both of these highly collectible items are cents copies, with no UK price or overstamp, and, with the second Ant-Man movie now having been retitled “Ant-Man and the Wasp”, both characters are coming into greater public prominence, so now is the time to buy. Tales To Astonish #27 FN+ is offered at £3,275; Tales To Astonish #44 VF- is £650.

*Marvel: After a well-received run in Marvel Premiere, the Sorceror Supreme, Doctor Strange, won back his own series, commencing with this #1 issue from 1974. His run in Marvel Premiere had been characterised by some of the most inventive and daring storytelling and artwork seen in comics at that time, and the quality continued in #1, written by Steve Englehart and featuring the superlative illustrations of Frank Brunner. This particular issue #1 is a serendipitous instance of the quality of the content matching the quality of the copy, as it’s a gorgeous NM- specimen cents copy at £150. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*DC: Two early appearances of DC’s sidekick super-team. In Brave & Bold #54, the ‘tryout’ title premiered a team-up of Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash, sans their adult mentors, against the sinister menace of Mister Twister. Sales spiked, and the team, christened the Teen Titans and with the welcome addition of Wonder Girl, won further auditions in B&B and Showcase, before graduating to their own series, and never looking back, remaining (with various line-ups) an integral part of the DC Universe to the present day. Our Brave & Bold #54 is an attractive VG+ (cents copy at £65), with only mid-spine weakness and to tiny chips out of lower cover corners precluding a grade of Fine or better; the Teen Titans #1 is a solid GD+ (cents copy at £30), with a narrow strip/chip off the bottom right cover being the only significant defect.

*Gold Key/Whitman: Three oddball titles from Gold Key this update: the Owl, a 1967 revival of a Golden Age character, was one of myriad attempts to cash in on the Batman TV series’ popularity, with the shapely Owl Girl standing in for Robin. Sadly, readers couldn’t give a hoot, and the series stalled with issue #2. Another trend-jumper was Tiger Girl, 1968’s mix of the superhero and superspy crazes, as circus aerialist Lily Taylor borrows the circus tiger (as you do) and nips out to battle the ranks of I.N.F.A.M.Y. on behalf of W.A.A.V. (want to decipher the initials? Buy the comic – there was only one issue!) Finally, a direct rival of the man from U.N.C.L.E. in the form of Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp! Based on a TV show which starred live-action chimpanzees, our simian hero and his glamorous cohort Mata Hairi defy the Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan, or C.H.U.M.P.! 1971’s Issue #1 new in.

*Archie: From the early 1960’s, in the Archie Adventure series, updates to their two most famous super-heroes, the Fly and the Jaguar. With accomplished art by John Rosenberger, both series had a look and feel very much like contemporary DC and were great entertainment. Later, after the cancellation of the Jaguar, Fly became Fly-Man, Archie Adventure became Mighty Comics Group and the look was shamelessly Marvel, with vastly inferior creators, which gave it an entertainment value of a very different kind! Both ‘looks’ new in, including a Jaguar #1 in GD/VG at £18.25.

*Marvel: A title new to our Marvel listings is the series based on the movie Logan’s Run (you remember the one, where everyone got killed off when they reached the age of 30?). We have the complete short-lived series #1-7, inc #6 which rather bizarrely sports a Thanos story in the back. It’s a good job they don’t apply that over-30 rule to comic shop proprietors (or many of our customers!)

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Eight new issues in of Thriller Picture Library from the 1950’s, between #53 & #126, featuring Robin Hood, Rob Roy and others.

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/British section:
*Mad & Other Parody
*Undergrounds
and in our British section:
*Magazines/Books About Vintage UK Comics
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: A one week event as Batmania returns to our listings! More than 50 new Silver/Bronze issues of the Caped Crusader’s own series new in, ranging from #142 through to #327, including many appearances by classic villains (Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face) and some that are, well, less classic (The Eraser, Death-Man, the Ten-Eyed Man, and Gaggy!). High points include #181, the first appearance of the lovely-but-lethal Poison Ivy, and #227’s “Demon of Gothos Mansion”, with a stunning Neal Adams cover (though stunning Adams covers were not in short supply around the early 1970’s, this tops the lot). Not content with that, we have most of the first nine issues of Batman Family, the oddball series which teamed Batgirl and Robin surprisingly effectively. Issues #6, #8 & #9 of Batman Family feature the earliest appearances of Duela Dent, the Joker’s Daughter.  Also, Brave & Bold featured Batman in tandem with other DC super-stars, and our new B & B stock offers several of the harder-to-find 100-page issues, as well as low-UK-distribution numbers #111, #129 and #130, which co-star the Joker. And finally, Detective Comics, the series which launched Batman’s career, is topped up with a dozen or so issues from the ‘Dark Knight’ early 1970’s, as well as the silver age classic “Negative Batman” from issue #284. Our copy of Batman #181 is VG-, sound with light wear, and while the centrefold poster is present, there are some light pencil lines around the Robin figure. This cents copy, with no UK price mark or overstamp, is offered at £60.

*Marvel UK: Evoking every American’s favourite clichés about the UK, it’s Captain Britain! The entire 39-issue run of the Defender of Albion’s weekly series is back in stock, with linguistic patterns and cultural misfires that anticipated the “Austin Powers”  movies by decades! By Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe (later augmented by Fred Kida and Pablo Marcos – it just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?), this series received reviews that could charitably have been described as ‘mixed’, but is significant for the character’s later prominence in the Marvel Universe under more gifted hands – Jamie Delano, Alan Davis, and Alan Moore, to name just three pivotal contributors. But here, for better or worse, is where it all started – so it’s ‘istorically significant, innit? Most unusually, issue #8 of the series has spiralled in price over the last few years, as it featured the first appearance of our hero’s sister Betsy Braddock, who would later turn Japanese and join the X-Men. As you do. Our VF copy is £40.

*Girls’ Comics: New in, the first issue of this short-lived weekly which got absorbed into Jinty in only a few months. Lindy is one of the less-commonly seen Fleetway girls’ weeklies, with not only a lower print run, but a high incidence of mutilated and incomplete second-hand copies, as it featured a number of pop photos which are frequently clipped or pulled out. Featuring ‘Pavement Patsy’, ‘The House of Fear’, ‘Sophie’s Secret Squeezy’ (our heroine has adventures when she inhales from a washing-up liquid bottle – nowadays, there’s rehab for that…), ‘Hard Days For Hilda’ and more, this debut issue is complete with centrefold of the Bay City Rollers – you have been warned – and has the original free gift, a heart-charm bracelet! In Fine, with a VF Free Gift, at £50.