*Marvel: Three highly collectible first issues for Marvellous teams of the 1970’s this week: first up, Defenders #1 VF/NM £115 (with #2 FN/VF £20 for good measure), then a stunning NM £85 copy of Invaders #1, the greatest super-heroes of World War Two, and finally, X-Men #94, the first issue of the All-New, All-Different X-Men, a FN £150 copy of the first in the ongoing series, following on from Giant-Size X-Men #1, which would be the leading light of the Marvel Universe for decades to come. All cents copies, of course, and suitable to grace the collection of any Marvelite!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: An alliterative update for 3 titles in this popular category: Warlord from 1974/75 inc. issue #2, Warrior (1982) inc. the Marvelman Special, and Wizard (second series), with issues from the early 1970’s, including some from the first year of 1970.

*TV/Film Tie-Ins: The swingin’ sixties are the main focus for this week’s Books Update. We have 2 Avengers novels (including the first and only Cathy Gale one from 1963), and novelisations of the following films: Bonnie & Clyde, Heavens Above, Taras Bulba, That Touch Of Mink, The Wrong Box and Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines. Oh, and a couple of items from the 1970’s/80’s that go by the names of Star Trek and Star Wars — you may have heard of them. And finally, from 1979, Nosferatu The Vampyre (you may have heard of him too, but wish you hadn’t if he gives you the creeps as much as he does us!).

*Magazines/Books About Vintage UK Comics: The most recent four issues of Spaceship Away!, the lovingly-crafted fan tribute to the Eagle’s Dan Dare and his peers, are added to our stock; #’s 32-35, featuring, in addition to DD himself, Jet Morgan, Garth, Nick Hazard and a plethora of articles, illustrations and reminiscences.

We’ll be open as usual this Easter: Monday to Saturday 10:30 to 18:00. So, Good Friday and Easter Monday we’ll be open as normal, and closed as normal on Easter Sunday. What better way to spend the holiday than browsing our boxes and shelves and adding to your collection?

*TV & Film Related Comics: 1966’s Lady Penelope was launched in the wake of the successful TV Century 21, and was scooped up by girls (and more than a few furtive boys, because of the Thunderbirds tie-in) nationwide, becoming an instant hit. In addition to the adventures of the eponymous aristocrat, ‘British Agent’ for International Rescue, there were TV adaptations with a distaff twist: adventures of Bewitched, and Marina – Girl of the Sea (from Stingray), plus The Beverley Hillbillies, The Perils of Parker (Lady P’s larcenous manservant) and the Man From UNCLE (what’s he doing there?). Later additions to the line-up included the high-flying Angels from Captain Scarlet, the Girl From UNCLE, Daktari, the hugely popular Monkees, and, oh dear, Crossroads. Yes, that Crossroads. Lady P. is rarer even than her stablemates TV21 and Joe 90, so we’re particularly pleased to have fifty new issues added to our listings, in a broad variety of grades. Photos of #3, #9 & #22 below:

*Humour Comics: An oddity this week: the first issue of Giggle, a 1967 IPC/Fleetway launch which features a great many translated European reprints; perhaps they were testing the market to see if corners could be cut on original material? Features include “Hobby Hoss”, caped crusader “Captain Swoop”, detective parody “Herlock Sholmes”, and western adventurer “Buck Bingo”, but  no-one’s heart really seems to have been in it, and it got consumed by Buster in less than a year. Still, an achieveable short run, and a #1 in Good condition, with no significant defects, at £25.

*Marvel: They’re back! Before the Marvel Heroes, there were – Big Panty Monsters! These gargantuan behemoths who bestrode the world, conquering all before them, while rocking enormous reinforced-gusset underpants! New listings for  Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish, bring us the pulse-pounding premieres of Korilla! The Two-Headed Thing! Metallo! Colossus! Gorgilla! Thorr! And the one & only (well, until the other one came along) Hulk! These Lee & Kirby creature features are ranging from GD+ to FN/VF, tempting both the high-grade investor and the curious reader. Cover scans of some key issues reproduced below:

*Marvel: Coinciding with today’s Guardian article on female super-heroes, we present a septet of Mighty Marvel’s fabulous femmes debut issues from the 1970’s/80’s. Beware the Claws of the Cat! Delight in the disco diva Dazzler! This Female Fights Back – Ms. Marvel! She-Devil With A Sword – Red Sonja! She-Devil with a fur swimsuit – Shanna! Gamma ray cousin the Savage She-Hulk! And Spider-Woman – To Know Her Is To Fear Her! All high grade copies set to rise in price in years to come.

*Western: Okay, you rannies, time to saddle up once more and mosey on down to the old corral here at 30th Century to check out our latest round-up of wild west action, all from Atlas (Marvel) from the late 1940’s into the 1950’s. Gunslinging shenanigans with Apache Kid, Black Rider, Frontier Western, Gunhawk, Gunsmoke Western, Kid Colt, Kid From Texas, Outlaw Kid, Quick-Trigger Western, Western Gunfighters, Western Kid, Western Outlaws, Western Winners & Wild Western. Phew! Mine’s a sarsaparilla!

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:
*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980’s
*Teen Humour/Funny Girls
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Pulp Fiction: A mixture of UK and US editions of the classic Astounding Science Fiction series. The UK editions are from between 1956 and 1960 (with the last copy bearing the name change to Astounding Science Fact & Fiction) while the US editions are all earlier, ranging from 1944 to 1949.

*Marvel: A double dose of debuts for the Black Panther this week: firstly, the premier appearance of Wakanda’s favourite son in Fantastic Four #52, where he crosses paths with the first family of the Marvel Universe in what was a groundbreaking event – the first Afro-Carribean superhero ever. This copy is VG-, with the only significant defects being cover chipping at the upper left and lower right corners, and weakness around the upper staple. Offered at a bargainacious £50. Next up – they searched for it! They fought, and even killed for it! But you don’t have to do that, as you can *buy* Black Panther’s first solo issue from 1977, VF/NM £25, and discover the awful truth behind “King Solomon’s Frog!”

*DC: Normally, our ‘Quirky Corner’ features items that are off-the-wall or oddball, but this time, we talk about a series that’s truly unique: Sugar and  Spike! Created in 1956 by Sheldon Mayer after observing his own infant children babbling in what appeared to be a secret language, he came up with the idea of neighbouring kids – Sugar Plumm and Cecil ‘Spike’ Wilson – who were united in a world of incomprehensible grown-ups, and whose misunderstandings and misadventures carried through 98 issues of their own series. This run of additions goes from 1959’s #26 to the very final issue in 1971, and probably gives us the best selection of Sugar and Spike in the UK – given that the series was barely distributed here, few copies are in circulation on these shores. For something that’s heartwarming, funny and truly unique, they’re hard to beat.

*Gold Key/Whitman: New listings for two of Gold Key’s popular and long-running series, Doctor Solar – Man of the Atom – and Magnus Robot Fighter. Beginning with Doctor Solar’s 1962 debut issue, in which a young scientist becomes transformed by an atomic accident into a being of unearthly power. This debut and origin issue is FA/GD, but clean and intact, and very affordable at £10.75. A scattering of Magnus from #9 onwards enriches  our stock, as our hero rebels against mankind’s robot rulers, superbly illustrated by Manning (Russ, not Bernard).

*TV & Film Related Comics: From 1969, new stocks of Joe 90, a spin-off from the Gerry Anderson TV show which, after the successes of Stingray, Thunderbirds et al, never quite caught the public’s imagination. Nonetheless, in addition to Joe’s comic strip adventures, this series features Land of the Giants, Star Trek, and the Champions, all popular shows of the era, and, being an achievable short run, (lasting only 34 issues before amalgamating with its sibling TV 21) is highly sought after today. issues from #3 to #21 new in stock, averaging respectable mid-grades. A cover photo of #17 is appended for your elucidation.

*DC: Only one title in this week’s DC alphabetical update, but it’s one that’s very dear to our hearts here at 30th Century: Strange Adventures, the science-fiction series which in addition to many, many stand-alone stories by the likes of Gardner Fox, John Broome, Murphy Anderson, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane and Sid Greene, also featured a number of series which appeared intermittently, adding to its appeal. This new selection goes from 1960’s #120 to 1968’s #216, the final issue with new material. Monsters, aliens, puzzles, and gorillas abound! Featured series include the much-loved Atomic Knights, Star Hawkins and Space Museum, as well as, in later times, Animal Man (including his origin in #180), Immortal Man, the Enchantress and the acclaimed Deadman, created by Arnold Drake and illustrated by Neal Adams.

*Flash Gordon: Alex Raymond’s famous creation joins us in a myriad of formats: the Silver/Bronze Age American comic series from #1, published by King, through the Charlton and Gold Key years to #24, with several issues in a beautiful VF or better grade; the UK reprint comics of the 1950’s by Miller and World Distributors; and two ranges of latter-day hardback compilations of the original comic strips, from Checker (2005), and Kitchen Sink (commencing 1990) – the Kitchen Sink editions, handsome landscape full-colour hardcovers, are generally believed by those in the know to be the best available edition to date. Enjoy – after all, you’ve only got fourteen hours to save Earth!

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: A whole slew of Peter Cheyney thrillers have been added to the bookshelves. While his initials may be PC, his books are anything but, full of dames and broads, all of them hot, and causing trouble for various gangsters and spies. Many of these editions date from the 1950’s, and most are in the popular Fontana or Pan editions, as well as three Collins White Circle Thriller editions from the 1940’s/early 1950’s.

*DC: Just imagine… The mightiest heroes of our time (if our time was 1960) banding together as… the Justice League of America! We’re very proud to have the first issue (after a try-out run in the Brave & the Bold  #28-30) of the Justice League’s own book, in which the team faces off, for the first time, against the dastardly Despero! Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs continue the string of science-fiction odysseys which made the JLA one of the leading series of the era, and the backbone of the DC Universe. This is a Very Good Minus copy, with clean, flexible off-white pages, and an unimpeded cover scene with vibrant colour and only minor edge creasing. UK pence stamp, but not covering anything important.

*Miscellaneous 1960 Onwards: From 2005, one of the few series from this century listed in our catalogue is the cult hit Grimm Fairy Tales from Zenescope. The publisher hit on a winning formula combining dark versions of traditional fairy tales with stylishly sexy covers provided by the classy Al Rio (at least in the earliest issues). We have new in stock the first 15 issues in the series (all first printings), including a couple of variant covers, plus a handful of later issues and the first couple of issues of the Return To Wonderland spin-off series. Low print runs and high demand mean that this series doesn’t last long with us whenever we get them. Scans below of #1 (VF £35), #2 (NM £20) and #3 (NM £10).

*Marvel: We continue our countdown through Thor towards the very beginning, as we cover issues #91-100 of Journey Into Mystery, the series in which Asgard’s favourite scion got his start. This sequence saw the debuts of several of Thor’s enemies, including the Lava Man, Cobra, Radioactive Man and Mister Hyde, as well as the premiere of the “Tales of Asgard” back-up feature. These vintage gems include some of Lee & Kirby’s finest early work (ably backstopped by Don Heck and Joe Sinnott on the visuals), and are a uniformly high grade, Fine/VF being the lowest condition, and most issues being VF+ or VF/NM. Most of them are also Cents copies, unmarred by UK price stamps, so are doubly desirable to high-grade collectors.  We’ll be visiting the gleaming spires of Asgard again in the very near future, so keep watching the website!

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #91 FN/VF £150

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #92 VF+ £350

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #93 VF/NM £540

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #94 VF+ £315

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #95 VF £245

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #96 FN/VF £135

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #97 VF+ £390

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #98 VF+ £275

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #99 VF/NM £380

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #100 VF+ £265

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
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980’s: A new range in of these ever-popular reprint and new material titles from Marvel in the 1970’s. The following titles have been updated: Chamber Of Chills, Creatures On The Loose, Crypt Of Shadows, Adventure Into Fear, Frankenstein, Monster Of (#1 VF £31), Tomb Of Darkness, Tower Of Shadows, Vault Of Evil, Where Creatures Roam & Where Monsters Dwell.