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:
*DC
and from our British section:
*Girls’ Picture Libraries
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Marvel: It’s seldom that an issue from the late Seventies makes this much impact, but 1977’s Avengers Annual #7, acclaimed at the time for being a cut above the norm in terms of quality, has only grown in stature as Jim Starlin’s cosmic creations have gained in popularity. Thanos, Captain Marvel and Warlock almost edge the Avengers out of their own Annual, reducing them to guest-stars in a chapter of the first (and best) Thanos Saga, which redefined what was possible in comics at the time. This copy is a beautiful NM- at £75. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: We’re proud to have a complete run of the Doctor Strange revival in Marvel Premiere, from #3’s re-introduction of the Master of the Mystic Arts – presented rather splendidly by Stan Lee and Barry Smith – through to #14, the conclusion of Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner’s epic and controversial Sise-Neg storyline, after which the good Doctor regained his own series. Other people who worked on this short but beautifully-crafted run include noted artists P. Craig Russell and Jim Starlin – but being old Silver Age DC fans ourselves, we’re more enthused by the fact that this strip also marked one of the last writing gigs of the late, great Gardner Fox!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: This week, our Free Gift Farrago event concentrates on some issues of classic Boys’ Adventure & War titles, complete of course with Free Gifts, as follows: Lion 30/10/65 VG with Football Team Name-Tabs £12, Tiger 8/5/82 FN with Alfa Romeo Badge £8, Victor 674 FN with Year Of Football Booklet £10, Victor 1023 PR (cover detached) with Smith & Wesson .38 Gun £5 & Warlord 178 VG with Britain’s Fighting Forces Booklet £5.

*Marvel: A small update to several Silver Age Marvel titles inc. Avengers, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Tales To Astonish & Thor. Perhaps the most significant issue in this update is Tales To Astonish #93, which covers features the Hulk vs. the Silver Surfer, in the Surfer’s first non-FF full crossover.

*Horror 1940-1959: More from our Pre-code Horror Fest as we unleash a further 8 issues: two each of Stanmore’s Mister Mystery (#5 & #15), Story’s Mysterious Adventures (#5 & #13), Ajax-Farrell’s Strange Fantasy (#5 & #13) and Post Code issues of Atlas’s Mystery Tales (#44 & #53). We have a few weeks left in our fest yet, so keep an uninjured eye out!

*TV & Film Related Comics: 10 new issues in of Joe 90 from 1969 from #8 through to the last issue #34. Like Joe’s companion title Lady Penelope, these are much rarer than TV Century 21, so will be keenly sought after!

*DC: A decent amount of lowish grade Superman issues from the early 1960’s between #134 and #162, plus Annual #3, a period rich in Superman lore and in the opinion of those of us at 3oth Century, the best period for the Man Of Steel. Superman’s family of characters really expanded in this era to include appearances by Superboy and Super-Baby, flashbacks to Krypton, the dastardly deeds of Lex Luthor, the classic ‘Superman Under A Green Sun’ in #155, sundry Legion appearances inc. the classic ‘Last Days Of Superman’ in #156, the debuts of Nightwing & Flamebird in the Bottle City Of Kandor, lots of Supergirl, the story of the Kents’ death, and the imaginary Superman-Red/Superman-Blue in #162. Plus a handful of issues from the 1970’s.

*Girls’ Comics: Small updates to many Girls’ titles, including some less common ones: Debbie (1973 & 1977), Girl (1952 & 1954), Jackie (1975 & 1978), Judy (1960 and 1st Birthday issue 1961, pictured), Princess (1983/84), Sandie (1972), School Friend (1954), Tina (1967) and Tracy (1979-1981, inc. #1 GD £20 pictured).

*Marvel: Our Spider-Mania event concludes with a nice selection from the 1970’s primarily from the run between #’s 125-150, though with a few earlier stragglers – beginning with #97, the Non-Code Approved Drug story featuring the Green Goblin! Other highlights include the debuts of the Grizzly, the Cyclone, the scintillating Spider-Mobile, and the first full appearance of Clone Gwen Stacy (look, you had to be there…), but ‘top of the shop’ have to be the first and second appearances of everybody’s favourite gun-happy killer, the Punisher, in issues #129 and #135 respectively! This is from the period when distribution went south in the UK, so hardly any of these issues appeared in any quantity, and these are primarily high-grade, averaging FN or better, with many VF. The Amazing Spider-Man #129 is VG+ at £200, #135 VF+ at £50.

*Marvel: This update, the debuts and/or first issues of a captivating quartet of Marvel’s fabulous fighting femmes fatales! The Cat (Greer Nelson, later to become Tigra) in #1 of her-short-lived 1972 title (FN/VF £15), magnificently illustrated by the team of Marie Severin and Wally Wood; Fantastic Four #36 (FA £25), which saw the first appearance of the evil FF, the Frightful Four, but most importantly brought us the magnificent Madame Medusa; Marvel Spotlight #32 (FN+ £25), which saw the premiere and origin of Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman; and last but far from least, the first solo issue of Red Sonja (#1 NM p £30), She-Devil With A Sword, who had made such an impact in Conan that fans clamoured for her own series!

*Girls’ Comics: An early issue of one of D.C. Thomson’s more successful latter-day girl’s titles: Tracy #3, from 1979, featuring all the well-loved themes such as blindness (“Dark Days For Jo”), cruelty to relatives (“Hard-Hearted Hannah”), malevolent supernatural powers (“The Hateful Hands of Heather Smith”), and enforced servitude (“Slave to the Beauty Queen!”). All good fun stuff for the young’uns, not forgetting our budgie-obsessed titular heroine. The top attraction for this issue, however, is that it comes with the original Free Gift – a Lucky Ladybird Brooch – still in its pouch attached to page 3 of the comic. A photo of the gift in situ may be seen here, alongside the cover reproduction. VG at £25.

*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: We swing over to Quirky Corner for a real fab gear experience! In the halcyon days of the 60’s, multiple publishers vied for space on the newsstands, and not just with super-heroes, but with other genres too. While Archie and his chums had a headlock on the field, every publisher tried to do “an Archie”, but frequently with a distaff twist, so it was an everygal, rather than an everyman, who was their central character. Among the competitors: Charlton’s My Little Margie, based on a popular TV show of the 1950’s; Tippy Teen, drawn by Archie-alumnus Samm Schwartz, which was published by Tower, the same company that published Wally Wood’s superlative THUNDER Agents (and outsold and outlasted it – there ain’t no justice!); and Harvey’s Bunny. Bunny… was a bit peculiar, even by the standards of the genre. Although her adventures were squeaky-clean, she herself was curvier than average, and her name clearly intended to evoke the Playboy Bunny girls who were at their apex in the 1960’s. She hung around with roman-a-clef rock groups – the Beagles, the Marmalade Mirage – and featured such oddball back-up strips as ‘Captain Flower’, ‘Sooper Hippie’, and the strangest superhero of all, ‘Fruitman’. We have two new issues of Bunny in stock, both Fruitman-enriched, as well as a couple of Tippy Teens, a My Little Margie with a charming ‘Space Witch’ cover, and – saving the best and rarest  for last – Harvey Pop Comics, in which Bunny, the Soular System, the Marmalade Mirage and the gang – but no Fruitman, alas – invite you to plug Bunny’s electric comic in for a Rock Happening! As they aver on the interior pages, Bunny’s the zooviest!

*DC: A pair of later tabloid editions, coming at a time when DC had all but abandoned the format, but riding on the success of the Christopher Reeve Superman films: All-New Collectors’ Edition C-62, featuring Superman; the Movie, and DC Special Series #25, starring Superman II. Although in the numbering sequence of comics series, there two don’t actually feature any comics content, but instead exploit the tabloid format for lavish illustrations of the articles about the films, and pin-ups of their respective stars.

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: A dash of early Warren mags this time – before they were even known by that name, pre-Creepy – with their very first title, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and its companion title Spacemen! These had no comics content, focussing primarily on articles concerning vintage genre movies, which were in many cases playing widely on TV for the first time in the US. Replete with page-filling stills, they also threw an occasional sop to a more modern audience by featuring films or shows coming out at the time, such as the then-new Outer Limits. We have issues 2 and 4 of Spacemen new in from 1961 and 1962, a selection of the US edition of Famous Monsters of Filmland from 1962 to 1965, and, most significantly, the first UK edition from 1958 (pictured GD- £25), which, as far as we can tell, was released contemporarily with its US sibling.

*Girls’ Comics: A significant amount of Jinty new in between June 1977 and February 1979. Always a popular choice of many of our regular customers, another chance to fill those elusive gaps in your collection!

*Humour Comics: A big update to our stocks of Knockout, 2nd series, which ran from 1971 to 1973. Many issues added previously missing from our listings; included are the Fireworks and Christmas issues from 1972; many copies in Fine condition.

*DC: Updates to many titles in our DC Silver/Bronze Age stock, including Aquaman, Atom, Detective Comics, Green Lantern (inc. 1st Guy Gardner in #59), Hawkman, Justice League Of America (inc #100 & the 100 page #110), Strange Adventures, Superboy (Giant #129), Superman (inc. #233 – ‘Kryptonite No More’), Teen Titans, Wonder Woman (inc. the less common #115) & World’s Finest.

*Annuals: Small updates to two sub-sections of this category: in Humour, the Beezer and Buster annuals for 1971, plus in TV/Film Related: the wacky Impossibles 1968, TV Comic 1970 & TV21 1971.

*Western: Several issues from the big two, DC & Marvel from the 1950’s to the 1970’s, including from DC: All-Star Western (1970’s series), Tomahawk (from #27 and inc. the 1st Miss Liberty in #81) & Weird Western Tales, and from Marvel: Kid Colt from #106 (inc. the Kirby Big Panty Monster cover #107 and the rare Giant-Size #1) plus Two-Gun Kid, a run of low grade issues from #60 upwards.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A massive update to our stocks of Valiant, one of the best and our most popular Boy’s titles, right from 1963 (the title started in late 1962) through to the last issue in 1976. Joys along the way include the first Valiant & Smash (with 1st Swots & Blots and Janus Stark) and 1st Valiant & TV21 (with 1st Star Trek in title). A whole heap of adventure from the 1960’s and 1970’s and a chance to fill your gaps!

*Marvel: Not the soon-to-be-released All-New, All-Different X-Men, you understand; that’s different. No, this is the original 1975 ‘reboot’, in Giant-Size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94, in which Len Wein, Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum bestowed a multinational twist to the established Marvel Mutant franchise, and kicked off a sales blockbuster that thrives and multiplies today. Giant-Size X-Men #1 featured the first ever appearances of Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Thunderbird, and the second full appearance of Wolverine, as they teamed up with Cyclops and with established X-Men allies Banshee and Sunfire in forming a new team to investigate the disappearance of the originals! In issue #94 the story continued, replacing the reprints which had dominated the title since #66, with the departure of all the originals barring Cyclops, leaving the neophyte heroes up against the menace of Count Nefaria. Neither of these were ever distributed in Britain, so their scarcity gains an extra layer here, and copies are vigorously sought-after. Our Giant-Size #1 is VF- at £400; X-Men #94 is a stunning VF at £275.

*Marvel: Our Spider-Mania event really moves into high gear this week as we release several dozen issues ranging from the first full Mary Jane Watson appearance in #42 up to the anniversary issue #100. Along the way, we encounter the first appearances of such luminaries from Spidey’s Rogues’ Gallery as Silvermane, the Prowler, the Kangaroo & the Schemer, guest appearances by Ka-Zar, the Human Torch, Quicksilver, Medusa and the Black Widow and Spidey fighting in Merrie Ol’ London in #95 (cor blimey!). This new selection is characterised by all being cents copies and the vast majority being high grade, averaging VF with many VF+ and even VF/NM issues in evidence, just a few of which are shown here: #59 VF+ £95, #70 VF+ £69, #75 VF/NM £80, #77 VF+ £58, #82 VF/NM £77. Next week, the cavorting conclusion to our Spider-Mania event!