*Marvel: We reach the end of our ‘Assembling the Avengers’ special event with Annuals/Specials and Giant-Size  issues. Specials #1 & #2 (Annuals) and Giant-Size #1-4 all feature new material and some momentous storylines for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Lots of the Mandarin, Kang, Rama-Tut, Dormammu and, in GS #4. the double wedding of the Vision & the Scarlet Witch and of Mantis and the Swordsman. That’s all for the Avengers for the time being — we hope you’ve enjoyed our ‘assembling’ and have added a few nice issues to your collection!

*DC: Silver Age DC was about more than just super-heroes, with a diverse range of adventure stories produced in a milieu of settings. This update we have Blackhawk, Brave & Bold with Cave Carson Inside Earth, House Of Secrets, Sea Devils by Russ Heath (inc. #2 and their 3rd appearance in Showcase #29) and Strange Adventures.

*Western: A small update of Marvel western titles, featuring two #1 issues. Ghost Rider #1 (1967), Kid Colt, Rawhide Kid, Red Wolf (#1) & Western Gunfighters. Back in 1967, the Ghost Rider was named Carter Slade and rode a horse called Banshee — not a motorcycle or flaming skull in sight!

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980’s: Six mostly high grade horror #1 issues from mighty Marvel in the 1970’s: Arrgh, Chamber Of Chills, Chamber Of Darkness, Man-Thing (1st series, with 2nd app. of Howard The Duck), Uncanny Tales & Weird Wonder Tales. SORRY, THESE HAVE ALL NOW SOLD

*Girls’ Comics: From the years 1981 and 1982, we’ve added several dozen issues of Girl (2nd series) and Bunty. Bunty is the classic Girls’ title with the Four Marys and scarcely needs much introduction here. The 2nd series of Girl bears little resemblance to the first and is characterised by grinning pre-pubescent young misses on the covers, many of whom feature more than once and, we strongly suspect, must have been related to editors — they certainly don’t look like models (and if you’re reading this and had your photo on a cover of Girl in 1981/82, we apologise and are sure that you must be the exception who is photogenic!)

*Humour Comics: A late entry into Fleetway IPC’s Humour Comics stable was Wow, which lasted just about a year from June 1982 to June 1983. We have most of the 1982 issues fresh into stock. A series most infamous now, perhaps, since it was ‘presented’ by Rolf Harris, and featured his Magic Brush. Make of that what you will.

*TV / Film Tie-Ins: This update has three childrens’ television programmes, including the very first Dr Who adventure on paper, the Tomorrow People and Thunderbirds. We also have 1990 and (a first for us) a book based on a radio series, ‘The Hitch-hikers Guide To The Galaxy’.

*Marvel: Well, for weeks now, we’ve been counting down through a significant run of high-grade Thor and Journey Into Mystery acquisitions, and after passing through a myriad of lesser milestones, here it is – Journey into Mystery #83, in this VF grade the most valuable comic ever to pass through our hands. The very first appearance of Thor, God of Thunder, transformed by an ancient magic from a puny human into a being of amazing power – power which he quickly turns on the Stone Men of Saturn, who pick possibly the worst time ever to invade Earth. This is a beautiful cents copy, no UK overprint or price stamp. Vivid cover colour and gloss, flexible cream interior pages, no interior markings of any kind but for one previous owner’s name being written neatly across the splash page margin. The only cover defect is a very faint long crease (approx. 13 cm) running across the upper right diagonal, barely perceptible on close inspection. The debut issue of one of Marvel’s most popular and iconic characters, graded at VF and offered for £8700. Thumbnails are here of front and back covers; click on them for larger scans. High resolution scans are available on request. NB This comic is not stored on our premises; viewing is strictly by appointment only and a minimum of 24 hours’ notice is required.

*Humour Comics: A very unusual addition this update. Any World War II era issue of Dandy (November 25th 1944) in Fine condition would be uncommon enough, given its age and the exigencies of wartime paper rationing, but this issue features the debut of one of the Dandy’s most enduring features. It’s the first appearance of Black Bob, the Border Collie who outlasted Lassie, continuing his career well into the 1990’s, and still in popular consciousness today, as witness by Viz magazine’s spoofs of “Black Bag, The Faithful Border Bin Liner”. In addition to Black Bob’s 2-page prose debut (he didn’t evolve into a comic strip until later), this issue features regulars “Korky the Cat”, “Desperate Dan”, “Freddy the Fearless Fly”, the politically-incorrect “Inky-Poo”, and Superman – er, sorry, “The Amazing Mr. X”, who bears no resemblance at all to the famous Siegel & Shuster creation, plus many more. All this in a packed twelve pages (There was a war on, you know…), with beautiful off-white interiors, vivid unfaded cover colours and only very minimal spine and edge wear. FN at £100.

*Marvel: A lovely FN+ pence copy of Fantastic Four #25 at £160, the first part of the classic Hulk Vs Thing encounter. Brilliant cover colour (rich deep purple background) and gloss and nice page quality. Only very minor wear at top edge, a minor crease to the back cover and the fact that the front cover is slightly offset so that the staples are on the back cover and a couple of millimetres of the cover image are consequently ‘wrapped’ to the back stop a considerably higher grade on this beauty. Trust us, this one would be a joy to have in your collection!

*Childrens’ Books: An exclusively equine addition to Childrens’ Books, with stories in paperback from Joseph E. Chipperfield (featuring wild horses), Diana and Josephine Pullein-Thompson and Ruby Ferguson (featuring less wild horses), and a first edition hardcover, Jo-Jo, by Ella Anderson.

*Horror 1940-1959: Our ‘Carry On, Pre-Code Horror Fest’ Atlas special swings into high gear with an impressive selection of Uncanny Tales; an appropriate 13 issues new into stock, from #2 upwards, including 8 of the first 10 issues. Grades range from PR to VG, making them very affordable for those that want to read the superior brand of Pre-Code Horror purveyed by Atlas in the early 1950’s.

We are delighted to announce that the legendary publisher Alan Class will be signing copies of comics and collectors’ plate sets from his personal archives at our shop on Sunday 7th June 2015, and talking about his decades as a comics publisher. We will be opening especially on that Sunday just for this momentous event. Further details will appear here on a regular basis as we finalise plans, and we will shortly be launching a large selection of Plate Sets for sale in addition to those we already have listed. Watch this space!

*DC: From 1960, a consecutive run of the DC sci-fi/mystery title My Greatest Adventure, issues #41-50. All low grade and very affordable for a non-expensive, fun read.

*Marvel: Occasionally, we will make mention here of incoming stock which is not in the parameters of our catalogue. Such a series is the second run of What If, the Marvel ‘imaginary’ stories. Although you won’t find them listed on our website, a virtually complete run now graces the Marvel boxes in our basement.

*Girls’ Comics: From 1960, the second-ever issue of one of the Grand Old Ladies of British Girls’ Comics: Judy! DC Thomson’s companion paper to Bunty, this issue brught us early adventures of “Sandra of the Secret Ballet”, “Janie B. Quick”, “Nanette of the North”, “Runaway Princess”, and, for a bit of literary gloss, “David Copperfield”. This copy is an attractive VG- at £90, with minimal corner and edge wear at the front, slightly more wear at the back, but still sound, clean and unmarred, with flexible off-white pages. Most importantly, it comes with its original free gift – 3 glossy photo-cards of “Lovely Young Dancers” of 1960, plus a ‘dainty plastic wallet’ to keep them in! Judy ran until the 1990’s, and early issues in this decent a grade are vanishingly rare, let alone with the free gift.

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: More than thirty new entries in World Distributors’ Western Classics series, one-off reprint cowboy tales, primarily of Dell’s western series, in the same four-colour process as the American originals. This set them apart from the average UK or Australian reprint, which usually were black & white and occasionally boasted one extra colour.  We’ve also addressed a previous inconsistency in our catalogue, where some of these were listed under the feature title, and some were under Western Classics; all our stock of this series is now consolidated under the Western Classics heading. Rotating feature stars include Cheyenne, Gunsmoke, Maverick, Wagon Train, Buffalo Bill Jr., Rex Allen, and Broken Arrow, among many others.

*Marvel: Roll up! Roll up! Since folks can’t get enough of the ever-amazing Spider-Man – here he is again! Approximately 50 new issues in, in the range from #50 to #166,  in grades ranging from the dizzying heights of Good down to… well, ‘buggered’ might be an appropriate descriptor, but they’re all complete and very affordable! Highlights include the aforementioned #50 (iconic cover), #100 (ditto), #101 (1st Morbius), and #86 (the first new-look Black Widow, when she ditched the fishnets and went all Modesty Blaise). Along the way, Spidey fights most of his classic foes – Kraven, Doc Ock, Chameleon, Electro, Kingpin, Lizard, and the gregarious Green Goblin), as well as several of his fellow heroes (Iceman, the Human Torch, Prowler and the Hulk), in a tapestry of web-wiggling adventure! Last time we had a batch of Spidey in this cheap, they flew out again right away, so move fast!

*Marvel: This update showcases one of Daredevil’s most ‘popular’ foes, the first and second appearances of Bullseye, in Daredevil #131 VF/NM p £80 and #132 VF p £21.

*Humour Comics: A substantial update to our Humour Comics category, with lots of Buster from 1975-1979, 1982, 1985 & 1990, a solitary Chips from 1951, a cornucopia of Cor from 1970-1974, Cracker from 1975 & 1976, a couple of Dandys from 1965/66, a raft of Classics From The Comics, the 21st Century DC Thomson vintage reprint title, and a rare Swan Comicolour from 1946 (#2 VG £12).

*DC: A handful of mostly nice mid-grade copies of World’s Finest between #89 and #101; with evocative covers and good eye appeal, the world’s finest team of Superman & Batman (backed-up by Tomahawk and Green Arrow, the latter sometimes by Kirby) make an attractive proposition in this update.

*TV & Film Related Comics: Yet another huge batch of Look-In new to our listings. This time we feature the years 1983/84 and nearly every issue from 1987-1989.

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 section:
*War
*Western
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics
and from the following in our British section:
*Marvel UK
*Power Comics 
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Marvel: A departure from our usual remit is Incredible Hulk #340, by the popular team of Peter David and Todd McFarlane; Peter David was still early in his acclaimed run on Hulk, and McFarlane was early in his career, full stop, so this Hulk/Wolverine clash, with an iconic Wolverine cover, is hugely sought-after as a pivotal issue by readers of a certain generation. VF at £20.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: From 1964, the first three issues of Hurricane, a short-lived, but well remembered,  series (63 issues total) which launched the careers of Sword For Hire, HMS Outcast, Two Fists Against the World, and, most importantly, brawling adventurer Typhoon Tracy and racing driver Skid Solo. Hurricane’s slightly larger than usual format gave a feeling of expansiveness to the title, and allowed the artwork room to breathe, but was unpopular with retailers. Despite being advertised as “A companion paper to Valiant”, it eventually merged into Tiger, where Messrs. Tracy and Solo enjoyed much longer careers than in their parent paper. The #1 is an attractive VG at £50, with only light wear to the upper and lower corners precluding a higher grade. The #’s 2 and 3 are even better, in a remarkable state of reservation for items of this vintage, with no visible edge wear, clean white pages, and only very minor discolouration at the staple areas, both FN at £30 each.