*Humour Comics: Half a dozen issues of Dandy new in from 1953, including #624, that year’s Fireworks issue (it has a small hole in the cover, but this does not impinge on story enjoyment). Low grade copies but great value.
PICTURED: DANDY #624 FA £7.50 Fireworks issue SOLD
Category Archives: What’s New
British Update: Free Gift Farrago: Princess Tina 1969
*Girls’ Comics: Free Gift issues of Princess Tina seem vanishingly rare; I suspect the items of plastic jewellery on offer were extracted from their packets and proudly adorned necks, fingers and wrists. Not so here with this lovely issue from 1969. 8th March features a ‘wonderful imitation pearl ring’, pristine in its sealed plastic envelope; the price here reflects rarity.
PICTURED: PRINCESS TINA 8/3/69 FN WITH FREE GIFT NM £50 SOLD
British Update: Bunty Picture Story Library
*Girls’ Picture Libraries: Dozens of Bunty new in, all the way from #28 right up to #451, featuring a large range towards the end of this series’ run in the late 1990s. Inexpensive and fun reads.
PICTURED: BUNTY PICTURE STORY LIBRARY #48 VG £6
Books Update: 3 Science Fiction Hardcovers
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Three vintage science-fiction hardcover editions for your consideration this week. Firstly, one of the classic works by British author Edmund Cooper, The Tenth Planet, FN in FN DJ, 2nd UK HC from 1974. Secondly, the famous pulp epic The Radio Man (aka An Earth Man on Venus) by Ralph Milne Farley; although this edition purports to be a 1st from 1948, it clearly isn’t, although no data is available on its vintage, other than it’s post 1969; FN in FN DJ. Finally, an intriguing anthology edited by Martin Greenberg, The Robot And The Man, a 1st edition from 1954 (VG/FN no DJ), with stories by well-known authors with robot themes. Full details of course in our website catalogue.
PICTURED: THE RADIO MAN by Ralph Milne Farley; US HC, FN with FN DJ; later printing £10
Obituary: Steve Lightle 1959-2021
Comic book artist Steve Lightle, long associated with the Legion of Super-Heroes, passed away on the morning of 8th January 2021 of a Covid-related cardiac arrest. He was 61.
His death was reported on his Facebook account by his son, Matthew:
“This is Matthew Lightle, Steve Lightle’s son. This morning my father passed away from Cardiac Arrest. I wished to thank you all for your friendship to my father, and also to ask that if you are a Patreon follower, please cancel your account as we are just beginning to take care of his affairs.”
Born November 19th 1959 in Kansas, his first professional comics work was a story in Americomics’ Black Diamond #4. That same year, he illustrated the story ‘Ekko’ for DC’s New Talent Showcase, after which he briefly drew World’s Finest Comics before succeeding Keith Giffen as the illustrator on the Baxter format Legion of Super-Heroes; his idealised and heroic illustrative style providing a considerable contrast to the increasingly exaggerated and cartoonish Giffen art.
One ‘first’ during his tenure was that he and writer Paul Levitz co-created new Legionnaires Tellus and Quislet, the first members of the interplanetary team to have non-humanoid physiologies – prior to that, it had often been noted that for a team made up of the inhabitants of multiple worlds, the Legion was uniformly human in composition, with only a handful of variations in skin colour.
Leaving the LSH as interior artist after two years, he departed the book to relaunch the Doom Patrol series in 1987, though he continued to be the regular cover artist on LSH until 1988.
Despite his relatively short stay on the Legion, he always described it as his ‘dream assignment’, and revisited the group – then being published under the title The Legion – for a couple of issues in the early part of this century. He continued to draw many Legion-related pieces, either as commission works or for his own enjoyment, over the ensuing decades.
His artwork also appeared in numerous other series from DC and Marvel, including Flash, Outsiders, Marvel Comics Presents, Classic X-Men and Quasar.
As Legion of Super-Heroes fans ourselves, he will always have a place in our hearts.
American Update: Batmania: DC Debuts: 1st Silver Age Riddler in Batman #171
*DC: The Riddler made just two appearances in Detective Comics in 1948, before returning to plague the Dynamic Duo in the Silver Age in Batman #171 in 1965 and staying pretty much a constant thorn in Batman’s side ever since. Interest has now built to a frenzy since the announcement of the Riddler’s appearance in the upcoming Batman movie, so what better time to invest in this lovely copy of his Silver Age debut? A pence stamped copy, with vivid rich colour and brilliant gloss, and a superb Carmine Infantino cover illustration. Tight and flat with excellent staples, off white pages with just a hint of tan at the edges. Wear is at a minimum, with just some minor stress marks at spine, minor handling wear at right edge and tiny marks of discolouration to the right of the DC logo (and we do mean tiny). Personally, I don’t think Batman’s classic foes have ever looked better than on covers from this classic period.
PICTURED: BATMAN #171 FN p £450 SOLD
American Update: What’s Old: Challengers Of The Unknown #5 by Jack Kirby & Wally Wood
*DC: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. This week, a rare opportunity to acquire one of the Jack Kirby issues of Challengers of the Unknown. Jolly Jack drew the Challengers’ earliest adventures, including their four try-out issues in Showcase and the first eight issues of their own series. In this issue, #5, he was joined on inks by the wonderful Wally Wood for a truly dynamic package. An action-packed full-length tale of a super-powered villain, featuring the ‘honorary’ female Challenger June. This superior copy from 1958, pre UK distribution, is bright, tight and flat, with good cover colour, firmly attached staples and nice off white pages. Just minor edge wear brings the grade down, with narrow, barely colour-breaking creasing faintly at the top edge.
PICTURED: CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN #5 FN £105 SOLD
American Update: DC ‘D’ List: DC Comics Presents, Demon, Doom Patrol and more
*DC: A chunky update to our DC catalogue for titles beginning with the letter D, featuring DC Comics Presents (from #1), DC 100 Page Super-Spectacular (Batman, Flash and many more), DC Special (inc Super-Heroes Battle Super-Gorillas!), DC Special Series, DC Super-Stars (inc 1st Star Hunters), Jack Kirby’s Demon (inc 1st Klarion the Witch Boy in #7), and many classic issues of the Doom Patrol. Full details as always in our catalogue.
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: Inhumans in Fantastic Four #45
*Marvel: 1965’s Fantastic Four #45 saw the culmination of a long-running subplot – and the introduction of a whole new family of supporting super-stars. Since #36, the mysterious Madame Medusa had been a thorn in the side of the FF, and latterly, from #44, she had been pursued by the equally mysterious Gorgon. Now, the pair’s true origin, and their royal heritage, was revealed, as the monarchs of the Inhumans made their debut in these two issues. Black Bolt, Crystal, Triton, Karnak and Lockjaw rounded out the Royal Family tree, and became long-running allies of the Fantastic Four. This pence printed copy has excellent cover colour and gloss, nice tight staples and off-white pages; there are no cover markings. Edge wear and corner blunting are not too bad; there are thin white reading creases next to the spine and one colour-breaking crease across the bottom right corner (see scan), but a solid copy that holds together and presents well, with one of the FF’s most appealing cover scenes.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #45 VG+ p £125 SOLD
American Update: 3rd Ant-Man in Tales To Astonish #36
*Marvel: In Tales To Astonish #36 (1962), Hank (Ant-Man) Pym made his third appearance (second in costume) when he faced the menace of Comrade X, one of those dastardly commies so widespread as foes of the early Marvel heroes. Comrade X’s gimmick was that he wasn’t a ‘he’, unmasked by our hero at the story’s conclusion as ‘Madam X’. This is sadly a tired and worn pence printed copy, with edge wear and small tears, and small upper and lower spine splits. Nevertheless, it is not defaced and the pages are reasonably good.
PICTURED: TALES TO ASTONISH #36 GD p £65 SOLD
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: Debut Taskmaster in Avengers #195/196
*Marvel: The polymath skill-pilferer Taskmaster has proved one of the more popular characters from the later 20th Century Marvel Universe, achieving the status of reluctant anti-hero through nuanced and well-written stints in the series Avengers: The Initiative and Avengers Academy. Now announced as the villain in the forthcoming Black Widow film, Taskmaster’s star is rising, and we have his first appearances in stock: Avengers #195 (NM- p £25), in which he makes a suitably menacing last-page cameo having overcome both Hank Pym and Scott Lang, and #196, in which he makes his full nefarious debut.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #196 VF+ p £100
American Update: Spider-Mania: Luke Cage guests in Amazing #123
*Marvel: Luke Cage, Hero For Hire, had been around about a year when he came up against Spidey in issue #123 of the web-slinger’s title. Less commonly seen in the UK, this is a lovely cents copy (no pence copies distributed, of course), with virtually no wear apart from very minor corner blunting; tight, flat and glossy.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #123 VF £60
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: Debut of Havok in X-Men #58
*Marvel: Altough Alex Summers (brother of Scott) had been around since issue #54 of the X-Men, it wasn’t until #58 that he adopted both his costume and the name Havok and we saw his true mutant heritage. This issue is one of the run drawn by Neal Adams, and, inked by Tom Palmer, this sequence forms my favourite work by Adams. This is a nice flat copy with tight staples, good colour, residual gloss and white to off-white pages. Little signs of handling wear at spine and edges, but nothing breaks colour.
PICTURED: X-MEN #58 FN+ p £75 SOLD
American Update: Marvel Special Edition: Star Wars Treasuries #1 & #2
*Marvel: The Marvel Special Edition: Star Wars from 1977/78 reprint in Treasury size the first six issues of Marvel’s Star Wars regular comic, adapting the original Star Wars film. We have both new in, I have to say in very average condition, but very sought after.
PICTURED: MARVEL SPECIAL EDITION STAR WARS
#1 VG- £15 SOLD
#2 VG- £15 SOLD
American Update: Marvel ‘A’ List: Alpha Flight, Amazing Adventures, Avengers
*Marvel: A very large update to our catalogue for Marvel titles beginning with A: namely, John Byrne’s Alpha Flight, Amazing Adventures with Killraven and dozens of issues of Avengers between #100-300; many issues previously missing from our listings.
American Update: Two ‘Weird’ EC issues
*EC: Two classic EC science-fiction issues this week: firstly, Weird Fantasy #15 (3rd issue 1950 i.e. the first five issues continue the numbering from A Moon, A Girl, Romance, before starting to re-humber from #6). Classic stories by Feldstein, Kurtzmann, Kamen & Wood. Not a bad copy, with a severe but flattened vertical crease, slight tear to spine and wear at staples, but nice page quality. Secondly, Weird Science #8, with art by Feldstein, Roussos, Kamen & Wood; a low grade copy with much wear, small chips out of cover edges and three hole punches at spine. See why we think the EC science fiction stories are even better than their horror ones!
PICTURED:
WEIRD FANTASY #15 (#3) GD+ £90 SOLD
WEIRD SCIENCE #8 FA £40 SOLD
American Update: The Big Western Round-Up: Atlas issues
*Western: We’ve corralled a whole herd of Western comic adventures for your delectation over the coming weeks, starting this week with a small number of Atlas titles from the 1950s: Frontier Western, Kid Colt Outlaw, Outlaw Kid and Two Gun Western (2nd series). Full details as always in our catalogue and look out for much more from the Big Western Round-Up in the weeks ahead.
American Update: A Date With Patsy: Wendy Parker 1953
*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: As far as we know, no relation to Peter, Wendy Parker was another of those Atlas girls-about-town so prevalent in the 1950s for romantic and humorous escapades. Her series ran for just 8 issues form 1953-1954, and features in our regular event here due to the presence of a Patsy Walker story in each issue. We have 6 of the 8 issues fresh into stock, all listed in our catalogue.
PICTURED: WENDY PARKER #3 GD/VG £26
British Update: Betsy Braddock as Captain Britain
*Marvel UK: Well, Betsy Braddock, sister to Captain Britain, has become a bit of a thing in collecting circles. Probably it’s down to her joining the X-Men as Psylocke, before taking up the mantle of Captain Britain relatively recently. Her key early appearances are spiralling upwards in price all the time, as in these two examples from Captain Britain Monthly: #12 featuring her 1st cameo appearance in the role of Captain Britain, and #13 with her first full appearance in that guise.
PICTURED: CAPTAIN BRITAIN
#12 VF £35
#13 VG £40
British Update: Free Gift Farrago: 2000 AD #1 & #3
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: At the beginning of 1977, around the onset of punk music, a comic was launched that captured the zeitgeist of the times, more anarchic and anti-establishment than anything that had come before it in British comics, no more so than in the persona of Judge Dredd, the iconic anti-hero who has gone on to become legendary. Whilst not being particularly rare, the early issues of 2000 AD, particularly with Free Gifts present, continue to be in high demand. This update we’re featuring issues #1 & #3 with Free Gifts:
#1: Featuring the debuts of Mach-1, Invasion, Harlem’s Heroes, Flesh and the new Dan Dare. A clean and presentable GD/VG copy with good staples, moderate light creasing and light tanning of the pages, but no brittleness. The Space Spinner is present, virtually unmarred by the passing years, and is graded VF. The tape securing the gift, although no longer doing that job, remains on the cover.
#3: (2nd Judge Dredd) Good staples and decent page quality. The Free Gift, Red Alert Survival Wallet, although not the freshest example I’ve seen, is still excellent, never having been assembled and still on original card backing.
PICTURED: 2000 AD BOTH SOLD
#1 GD/VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £250
#3 VG WITH FREE GIFT FN £125
British Update: Valiant Picture Library
*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A small update to our stock of Valiant Picture Library, with half a dozen issues new in between #32 & #86.
British Update: Great news for Topper Boppers: 1956-1958
*Humour Comics: We’re delighted to add to our catalogue more than 25 issues of the tabloid-sized Topper from its early years 1956-1958. Included are Fireworks and Easter issues. Similar in content to its companion title Beezer, which followed it, Topper cover featured Mickey the Monkey, but famously included Beryl the Peril amongst its many humour strips, along with adventure strips (particularly on the rear page e.g. Captain Blood) and illustrated facts pages. Topper’s huge size, whilst giving it no doubt much impact in the newsagents, led to more fragility and must have meant that not as many copies survived as the more standard sized comics, so it’s always a treat when some in decent shape turn up.
PICTURED: TOPPER BOTH SOLD
196 GD/VG £8 FIREWORKS ISSUE
220 GD/VG £8 EASTER ISSUE
British Update: More Sally – ‘the comic for the adventurous girl!’
*Girls’ Comics: Sally, which ran from 1969 to 1971, is one of the most popular and elusive girls’ comics of the period. You can read all about the series and its famous stories in Will’s definitive lockdown article here. We’re particularly delighted to have new in this week a few dozen issues, many superior issues graded FN or VG/FN, with the emphasis on the first year of 1969. Whenever we get a run of Sally through our hands, we are usually swamped with a flood of orders as soon as they hit our catalogue, so you need to order as quickly as possible to maximise your chances of getting the issues you’re after.
PICTURED: 27/12/69 GD/VG £9 CHRISTMAS ISSUE SOLD
British Update: Judy Picture Story Library
*Girls’ Picture Libraries: A couple of dozen or so of Judy Picture Story Library fresh in, all the way from #12 to #375.
Books Update: 7 1950s Hank Janson crime thrillers from Moring with Heade-like covers
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: In the late 1950s, the publisher Alexander Moring took over the Hank Janson novels series, with their distinctive red and yellow striped livery. Unfortunately, they did not take with them the covers by Reginald Heade which had adorned earlier Jansons (with a couple of notable exceptions), but the Moring (unknown) cover artists attempted very much to portray covers in the style of Heade, to varying degrees of competence. Readers would have found the same hard-boied thrills as before, however. New in this week, we have seven of these volumes circa 1957: Bewitched, Cactus, Flight From Fear, Sweet Fury, Too Soon To Die, Torrid Temptress and Untamed. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED:
CACTUS 1ST UK PB GD/VG £8
FLIGHT FROM FEAR 1ST UK PB FN £10
UNTAMED 1ST UK PB VG/FN £10
American Update: Two distinctive issues of Brave & Bold by Kubert & Infantino
*DC: The Brave & The Bold evolved into DC’s second try-out title after Showcase, before mutating further into a team-up title and eventually a Batman team-up title. In #52, three of DC’s war heroes teamed up: Sgt Rock, Johnny Cloud and Jeb Stuart of the Haunted Tank all starred in a blistering adventure wonderfully illustrated by Joe Kubert, with a guest appearance by Mlle Marie to boot! This is a nice pence stamped copy with excellent colour and gloss, only minor edge wear, but a loose centrefold. In #67, Batman teamed up with the Flash and for those who can’t get enough of Carmine Infantino’s Flash (I’m one!), this is a nice bonus to the main Flash Silver Age series; a lovely high grade cents copy with excellent cover colour and gloss, firm, tight staples, white to off-white pages and only minor handling wear.
PICTURED: BRAVE & BOLD
#52 FN p £53 SOLD
#67 VF+ £54 SOLD
American Update: America Vs The Justice Society Complete Set
*DC: Roy Thomas’s love affair with Golden Age heroes continued in the 1985 mini America Vs The Justice Society, available now as a complete set of 4 (#1 FN, #2-4 VF). An epic tale of WW2 ramifications in a contemporary setting, with a huge and colourful cast of heroes and villains.
PICTURED: AMERICA VS THE JUSTICE SOCIETY #1 FN; COMPLETE SET #1-4 (AV. VF-) £20 SOLD
American Update: Batmania: A Darker Batman
*DC: A nice selection new in of Batman between #216 and #250. A significant period this for the Caped Crusader, containing many chapters of the original Ra’s al Ghul saga by O’Neil, Adams and others in a move towards the darker, more grim and gritty Batman who continues to this very day. Also included are a couple of Giant issues which reprint classics from an earlier time.
American Update: Spider-Mania/Mighty Marvel Firsts: Amazing #50 with debut of Kingpin and iconic cover
*Marvel: By the time of Spider-Man’s 50th issue, ‘new’ artist John Romita had made the series his own, and this milestone number was marked with the debut of a new villain, the Kingpin – so long associated with Daredevil, in the post-Miller years, that younger readers are unaware that he originated in Spider-Man’s Rogues’ Gallery! The cover of #50, with Peter temporarily abandoning his Spider-Man identity, has become etched in the minds of a generation, endlessly imitated and ‘homaged’, in comics and other media. Our latest copy, pence printed, is a low grade and has seen better days. The spine is very worn and there are chips out of the top right cover corner and bottom spine. The cover right edge has a 2.5 cm tear and there are many small colour breaking creases around the edges. Nevertheless, the staples are okay (bottom one a little loose) and the page quality is a decent off-white. The quality of the cover image shines through the defects.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #50 GD- p £150 SOLD
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: Debut of Phoenix in X-Men #101
*Marvel: The Claremont & Cockrum New X-Men was already a critical hit when #101 turned up, and in a dramatic turn of events, Jean Grey, former weak sister of the team, was elevated into a powerhouse when a cosmic ray storm seemed to transform her into the entity known as Phoenix – and a major, ultimately tragic, story arc for the X-Men began. The legend was somewhat tarnished in later years by Marvel’s back & forth position on whether Jean actually was the Phoenix, or whether the Phoenix force just manifested itself in her form (with a swingin’ new costume), but nevertheless, this remains a key and highly sought after issue. This is a mid-grade cents copy, with the cover image ever so slightly off centre so that there are very minor white ‘slants’ towards the top of the spine and the right top of the cover. Apart from that, there are a couple of colour-breaking creases across the bottom right of the cover, but only minimal wear, good colour and gloss, nice page quality and good, tight staples.
PICTURED: X-MEN #101 VG+ £145 SOLD
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: Warlock & Chums in Strange Tales
*Marvel: The being who eventually became Warlock was rebranded by writer/artist Jim Starlin in Strange Tales #178 and his adventures got ever more cosmic (and famous!) along with his supporting cast such as Magus (debut #178), Pip the Troll (debut #179) and Gamora (debut #180). All 3 issues now available!
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES
#178 FN/VF £50
#179 VF/NM £45
#180 VG/FN p £35
American Update: Marvel Treasury Editions
*Marvel: A new batch of the hugely popular over-sized Marvel Treasury Editions from the mid-1970s fresh into stock this week, with adventures of favourite Marvel characters reprinted in blown-up size, showing off the often dynamic art to its fullest potential. 8 new issues now available, starring the Fantastic Four, Thor, Conan, the Hulk (2 different), Dr. Strange, the Defenders and Spider-Man. Consult our catalogue for full grading and pricing information.
PICTURED: MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #6 FN £13.25 SOLD
American Update: High Grade Avengers #34, 1st Living Laser
*Marvel: Always a joy to have high grade Silver Age coming into stock. This week, a lovely VF+ cents copy of Avengers #34, featuring the 1st appearance of the Living Laser. A lovely glossy copy with white pages, firm, tight staples and sharp corners. Just a minimum of edge wear and a small stress mark at the top of the spine which does not break colour.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #34 VF+ £59
American Update: Spider-Mania: Spidey Marries Mary Jane
*Marvel: In the 21st Annual of Amazing Spider-Man in 1987, Spidey and Mary Jane tied the knot and Marvel celebrated with two different covers, one depicting Peter and MJ, backed by their supporting cast, and the other with Spidey in costume with MJ, backed by costumed heroes and villains. Both variants are fresh into stock, in gleaming Near Mint.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #21
SPIDEY COSTUME VARIANT NM £40
PETER PARKER VARIANT NM £35
American Update: Ms Marvel Complete: issues #1-23
*Marvel: The woman of the moment, Carol Danvers, the first Ms Marvel (and now Captain Marvel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) gets a turn in our What’s New spotlight this week, with all issues new in of her original 23 issue run. Several of these are in a choice of grades (high Near Mints down to cheap and cheerful Very Goods), so take your pick! Included are, of course, the first and final issues, the Mystique triptych in #16-18 and the 1st Death-Bird in #9.
American Update: Hey Kids! Brain-Sucking Symbiote! 2 Carnage one-shots
*Marvel: Carnage, the chirpy spawn of Venom, first appeared in his own title in two 1996 one-shots. First up was Mind Bomb (red foil cover), scripted by Warren Ellis, followed a few months later by It’s A Wonderful Life. Fans of the symbiotes will know what to expect…
PICTURED:
CARNAGE: MIND BOMB #1 NM £40
CARNAGE: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE #1 VF/NM £20
American Update: A Superior Pre-Code Horror Fest: Journey Into Fear
*Horror 1940-1959: Superior was a Canadian publisher active from 1945-1956 who mostly reprinted American comics from the same time period. They also published a number of original series that were distributed in the United States. Among these were three horror titles famous for their hallucinogenic covers and accomplished Fiction House style interior art. When you see a lot of these together, they have an almost hypnotic and uncomfortable effect. This week we feature the first three issues of Journey Into Fear, mix grade copies, with specific defects listed below.
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO FEAR ALL SOLD
#1 FA+ £130 Off staples; spine splits. Chips out front and back covers.
#2 GD+ £145 Off top staple
#3 GD £115 Off staples and tear across bottom right cover
American Update: A miscellany of Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics with Monsters!
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: A pot pourri of magazine format stuff this week: from Marvel, a couple of Bizarre Adventures, the Dazzler Graphic Novel, a couple of Super Specials adapting Conan and Indiana Jones movies and, from 1975, the Legion of Monsters one-shot — the first time this name was used, although the horror stars didn’t team-up, but all appeared; from Warren, the 13th Anniversary issue of Famous Monsters Of Filmland (100 pages) — not comics but chock full of horror movie stills and features; and from Adventure House Press, the obscure one-shot from 1968 by Gil Kane, His Name Is Savage, a hard boiled adventure with the title character looking remarkably like Lee Marvin on the cover.
PICTURED:
LEGION OF MOSNTERS #1 VG+ £18.25
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #13 GD/VG p £20
British Update: UK Western & Adventure Reprints
*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints Of US Material: Western and Adventure Thrills in this selection of 1950s UK reprints of US comics. Western wise we have Billy The Kid, Cisco Kid, Davy Crockett Western Tales by Jack Kirby, Gene Autrey & Champion, John Wayne and Zorro. Also, adventure with Movie Classics Captain Davy Jones and King Richard & the Crusaders. Star of this update though has to be #5 of Miller’s Black Knight Atlas reprint series with art by the superb Joe Maneely.
PICTURED: BLACK KNIGHT #5 VG/FN £25 SOLD
British Update: A Miscellany of Boys’ Comics
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Small updates to a variety of titles this week: Comet from 1956, Roy Of The Rovers from 1981, Sun from 1956 & 1958 and Valiant from 1972. See our catalogue for full details.
British Update: Air Ace Picture Library
*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Air Ace Picture Library is consistently one of our best selling titles, and we are therefore delighted to add a new batch to our catalogue between #151 and #403 in a mixture of grades, filling many gaps in our inventory. Consult our catalogue for full details.
British Update: Great news for Beezer Geezers: new stock of early issues from #2
*Humour Comics: We’re delighted to add to our catalogue around 18 issues of the tabloid-sized Beezer from its first three years 1956-1958. Included are issues #2-5. Many favourite and long-running strips were there from the beginning: cover star Ginger, Pop, Dick & Harry, Calamity Jane, the Banana Bunch and other humour shorts as well as adventure strips and illustrated facts pages. Beezer’s huge size, whilst giving it no doubt much impact in the newsagents, led to more fragility and must have meant that not as many copies survived as the more standard sized comics, so it’s always a treat when some in decent shape turn up.
PICTURED: BEEZER
#2 GD £40 SOLD
#3 GD/VG £35 SOLD
British Update: What’s Old: Long Hot Summer Holy Grail – Dandy-Beano Summer Special 1963
*Humour Comics: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. In 1963, D.C. Thomson of Dundee, publishers of the successful Dandy and Beano humour weeklies, put together an oversized ‘combo’ of the two titles for the lucrative Summer Holiday market. A huge success, this groundbreaking edition started a tradition of separate Summer Specials for each title the following year, and was widely emulated, becoming the industry’s standard practice for a plethora of series from Thomson and their competitors in the following decades. This is one of the rarest and most sought-after items ever through our hands, certainly on the UK side, and the first copy in any condition we have seen in our close to 25 years of trading. This copy has a triangular tear in the upper front cover staple area, wear at the centre spine where, owing to its size, it has been stored horizontally folded for a long period, a 1″ tear at lower mid back cover, and slight grubbiness lower mid-spine and mid-edge on the front cover. Offsetting that, however, is the clean, unmarred condition of the interiors, firm staples at centrefold, and, as previously noted, the extreme rarity of this item in any condition.
PICTURED: DANDY-BEANO SUMMER SPECIAL 1963 GD £475
British Update: Free Gift Farrago: Bunty 1973 X 2
*Girls’ Comics: Another brace of Free Gift issues from the UK’s longest running girls’ title this week. From 1973, #823 comes with ‘Doggie Brooch’, #824 with ‘Twin Trendy Bangles’. Both comics are VG, having suffered some creasing in storage with their gifts over the years, but with no other defects. Both gifts are VF, still sealed in their original envelopes.
PICTURED: BUNTY BOTH SOLD
#823 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £35
#824 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £35
British Update: Picture Romances from Fleetway
*Girls’ Picture Libraries: One last change for the title that started out as Picture Romance Library. By 1969, Picture Romances was being published by Fleetway, and at last had the issue numbers shown on the covers! This new selection is from 1969/1970, ranging from #554 to #605, and all in a universal VF grade apart from the final issue in this batch (FN). That’s all from this long running multi-publisher title for a while, but we do expect to have more later in 2021.
Future Trading by Mail Order only
As you probably know, our shop has been closed since the initial lockdown in March this year. Since then, we have been trading very successfully by mail order only, and thanks to the support of our many loyal (and many new) customers, this arrangement has vastly exceeded our expectations, and in fact sales have been higher than when the shop was open, with far fewer overheads.
We were intending to convert fully to mail order at some point in the future, since we’re all now around our mid-sixties, but the pandemic has brought this move forward. We have therefore taken the difficult decision that the shop will not be reopening to visitors and we will now be trading by mail order only. We know this will be a disappointment to many who enjoyed their trips to Putney and browsing through our stock. We too will miss the personal contact with you all. However, the extra time this move affords us is already allowing us to add a greater range of stock to our online catalogue than ever before with more images, as well as enabling us to keep the catalogue as up to date as it’s possible to get. We hope you will get to enjoy browsing online almost as much as browsing in our shop, confident that what you see in our catalogue is what we have in stock.
We remain very much open online for buying and selling vintage back issues, and look forward to dealing in vintage comics, books, annuals and picture libraries in the years ahead.
Rob, Will & Sandy
30th Century
Season’s Greetings from us all at 30th Century
We’d just like to take this opportunity of wishing everyone a safe Christmas and (we hope) a better New Year. Thanks to everyone who’s supported us through 2020, whether you’ve been adding to your collections or simply enjoying our lockdown articles and stock update write-ups. We’re very pleased to reflect that our transition to mail order only has gone very smoothly and successfully and we’ll be back in January with details of our latest acquisitions to tempt you; we hope to spread a little joy in these dark times. Please stay safe through the holidays and beyond.
American Update: Batmania: 2 Neal Adams Batmans
*DC: Fan favourite artist Neal Adams stars in this week’s visit to Batmania with two classic issues. First up, #237, a dark and moody Halloween special, backed up by a classic 1940s reprint in this 48 pager. A nice solid pence stamped copy with great cover colour and gloss, firmly attached staples and good, off-white pages. Just minor edge wear and a grubby (non fluid-related) back cover stain bring the grade down, but still very respectable. Secondly, #243, a martial arts chapter in the initial Ra’s al Ghul storyline. A lovely glossy pence stamped copy with excellent staples, off-white pages and a fresh appearance. There are some unobtrusive spine stresses and a tiny dink mid-cover, but this presents very well.
PICTURED: BATMAN
#237 FN- p £50 SOLD
#243 FN+ p £45
American Update: Camelot 3000 Complete Set – Arthurian Legend Reborn, by Barr and Bolland
*DC: From 1982, DC’s first maxi-series was Mike Barr’s retelling of the Arthurian legend in the far future, where King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table fulfil the ancient prophecy that they would return when England needed them most. In the year 3000, England, and Earth, is under alien attack, but our reincarnated heroes must face three challenges – the invaders, their ancient enemies Mordred and Morgan LeFay, and the, in some cases, confusing new forms they have been reborn into. Intelligent and deftly plotted, the sweeping saga is lushly illustrated by Brian Bolland, whose compositions radiate malice or heroism as the narrative demands. It took a long time to produce all twelve issues – launched in ’82, it finally concluded three years later – but given the quality of Bolland’s art, the protracted schedule was not only unsurprising, but totally worth it. All twelve issues of this controversial but highly acclaimed series are available as a set, almost all NM, with a couple just a tad off that grade.
PICTURED: CAMELOT 3000 #1 VF/NM; COMPLETE SET #1-12 AVERAGING NM £45 SOLD
DC: ‘C’ List: Captain Action, Challengers Of The Unknown, Champion Sports
*DC: A selection of DC titles beginning with the letter ‘C’: Captain Action by Shooter, Kane & Wood, a chunky selection of Challengers Of The Unknown between #21 and #55 and #1 of the Bronze Age Champion Sports.