*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: Following the relaxation of the Comics Code Authority in the late 1960s, the formerly tepid DC mystery line revitalised its image with superior chiller tales illustrated by the premier artists of the day. Leading the charge were House of Mystery and House of Secrets, whose rival horror-hosts, brothers Cain and Abel, brought a dash of the old EC flavour to the tales, and following shortly thereafter was the launch of a brand-new series, the Witching Hour, in which a trio of sinister sisters span terrifying tales. From the late 60s to the early 70s, these were genuinely gripping twist-ending stories, and often featured stunning covers by A-listers Adams, Wrightson and Kaluta, with interior art by all of the above plus Toth, Cardy, Morrow and a galaxy of star artists. This new selection includes House of Mystery from #201 to #254 (including the hard-to-find Dollar Comics issues), a single House of Secrets – but with an (unverified) Berni Wrightson signature on the splash page – and a truly stunning selection of Witching Hour issues in superlative grades, from #3 to #14, among the finest DC mystery issues.
PICTURED: WITCHING HOUR
#3 VF/NM £70 SOLD
#5 VF/NM £70 SOLD
#14 NM £97SOLD
Category Archives: What’s New
American Update: Batmania: Batman 3-D #1 from 1966
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: At the height of the Batman TV show’s popularity, DC exploited the Caped Crusader’s media presence wherever possible, and this magazine-sized 3-D comic – a reissue of a 1950s title (with a new cover by Infantino & Anderson) was a charming novelty, featuring classic Batman tales pitting the Dynamic Duo against the Penguin and giant robots, with an incongruous Tommy Tomorrow story thrown into the mix. This copy is a highly attractive VG, with bright clean covers, would grade higher but for moderate wear to spine. As a Brucie Bonus, though, it also has the original 3-D glasses – ‘Batman’s Own’, so the cover avers – in FN condition.
PICTURED: 3D BATMAN (WITH GLASSES) VG £40 SOLD
British Update: Free Gift Farrago: Hornets with added sting
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Launched in 1963 in the wake of the success of Victor, Hornet followed its elder brother’s formula of sport, war and adventure stories, with a lot of ‘true life’ tales of heroism, and had a respectable run up until early 1976, when it merged with its stablemate Hotspur. Popular strips include ageless athlete ‘Wilson’; sporting polymath ‘Bouncing Bernard Briggs’; and ‘The Swamp Rat’, a muscular tattooed gentleman who ran around the jungle in a pair of cut-off shorts terrorising the invading Japanese with his mongoose. As you would. This week, we have three consecutive issues of Hornet from 1973, each with its ‘All-Star Banner’ ( tall n’skinny poster, basically) featuring sports players and other media stars of the era. All are VG with Free Gift VG, the gift/posters displaying only very minor edge wear from long-term storage, but never having been pinned up.
PICTURED: HORNET
#526 VG WITH FREE GIFT VG £20 SOLD
#527 VG WITH FREE GIFT VG £20 SOLD
#528 VG WITH FREE GIFT VG £20 SOLD
British Update: Free Gift Farrago – Cor!! Free Gift issues including #3
*Humour Comics: Launched in 1970, Cor!! brought a more irreverent attitude to the traditional humour weekly, with popular strips ‘Ivor Lott and Tony Broke’, ‘Fuss Pott’, ‘Jasper the Grasper’, and cover-star ‘Gus the Gorilla’, whose weekly thwarting of some jobsworth or busybody was invariably greeted by the slogan, ‘You can’t make a monkey out of Gus!’, thereby appeasing both the biologically and politically correct. (Gorillas ain’t monkeys, kids; look it up). This week, we bring you the third issue of Cor!!, dated 20th June 1970, in FN, with its free ‘Super Mystery Gift’ also in FN. (What is it? Well, if we told you, that’d spoil the mystery!). In addition, we offer the issue from 13th October 1973, complete with pull-out ‘Pocket Cor-Mic’, and the ‘Jumping Skeleton’ gift, comic and gift both FN.
PICTURED: COR
20/6/70 (#3) FN WITH FREE GIFT FN £40 SOLD
13/10/73 FN WITH FREE GIFT FN £30 SOLD
British Update: Long Hot Summer – June & School Friend Holiday Specials, including Rare Early Issues
*Girls’ Comics: It’s not often that we are at a loss to definitively identify dates for our stock, but this time we have to own up: Bessie Bunter and her pals have stumped the panel! We have four June and School Friend Holiday Specials new to our lists this week, but the earlier two have neither external date nor interior copyright dates, and the information on the internet and elsewhere is both scanty and contradictory. We believe the one pictured with Bessie and chum in a boat is 1968, and that the cover with Bessie on an inflatable is 1969, but we regret we cannot be certain. If you have any definite information, of course, please let us know. The other two are more easily identified, but equally rare in these nice grades. The putative 1969 is only Good, owing to upper spine wear, but the other three are a remarkable FN/VF grade, not commonly found in these extra-sized issues from the late Sixties and early Seventies. ***FURTHER UPDATE*** We’re indebted to one of our wonderful customers for confirming that the Special we’re calling 1968 is correctly dated, and that the one we’re calling 1969 is probably 1967 — now corrected below and in our catalogue.
JUNE & SCHOOL FRIEND HOLIDAY SPECIAL
1967 GD £60
1968 FN/VF £100
1970 FN/VF £100
1971 FN/VF £80
Clearance Corner: A Barrel Load of Buntys for only £20!
*Clearance Corner: From the later years of the doyenne of girls’ weekly comics, a selection of 40 issues of Bunty dating between 1994 and 1996, numbers ranging from 1901 to 2024. Condition averages Fine. Home of the ‘Four Marys’, Nikki-alumna ‘The Comp’, photo-strip ‘Luv, Lisa’, and many other picture strip stories – not counting our eponymous heroine, whose half-page adventures also adorn the inside – plus hobbies, craft pages, and swoonsome pop & TV pin-ups of years gone by, including Take That, East 17, Joey Lawrence, David Charvet, and loads more, some well remembered today, some… not so much! This panoply of pastel-pink nostalgia can be yours for a mere £20, plus UK postage of £8 if required.
Housekeeping Update
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:
*Marvel A – C
and in our American/British section:
*Mad & Other Parody
*Undergrounds
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
Books Update: James Hadley Chase Thrillers With Pollack Covers
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: John Pollack is a name frequently seen on 1940s/1950s British gangster pulp fiction digests, although most of these are particularly hard to come by these days; he was a local artist (like the more (in)famous Reginald Heade) and lived in Clapham, South West London. Pollack’s women were gorgeous and glamorous and his men were chiselled tough guys. James Hadley Chase was a prolific and accomplished writer who made his name in that medium, but carried on into later decades with more ‘mainstream’ crime. This update we have a selection of books from the 1950s which feature their work together. Four paperbacks (Hit And Run, Not Safe To Be Free, Safer Dead and You Find Him – I’ll Fix Him) and one hardcover (You’ve Got It Coming), beautifully published by Robert Hale in matching editions.
PICTURED:
NOT SAFE TO BE FREE VG £8
YOU’VE GOT IT COMING VG (HC WITH VG DJ) £15
American Update: Fabulous Facsimile Editions, Dollar Comics and True Believers with the debuts of Batgirl, Harley Quinn, Wolverine and many more
*Modern Reprints: In addition to their facsimiles, both DC and Marvel are also producing economy editions of classic issues, DC as ‘Dollar Comics’ and Marvel as ‘True believers’. While the facsimile editions, as noted earlier, are cover-to-cover reproductions of the original comics with minimal legally-necessary changes, the ‘Dollar Comics’ and ‘True Believers’ just reproduce the story and the cover, without any of the original text or advertising matter, giving people a very affordable look at significant stories. In the ‘full facsimiles’, DC brings us this week Detective #359, a cover-to-cover re-issue of the debut of Batgirl, while from DC’s Dollar Comics line, we have the superlative Brave & Bold #197, one of the classic Batman/Catwoman tales written by the criminally underestimated Alan Brennert; Batman Adventures #12, with the first comic book appearance of breakout superstar Harley Quinn and Tales of the New Teen Titans, with the conclusion of the epic ‘Judas Contract’ saga. Marvel brings us a full-on facsimile of Hulk #180, the first, albeit cameo, appearance of Wolverine. And from Marvel’s ‘True Believers’ line, we have Bullseye, with the debut of Daredevil’s favourite psycho from DD #131; Bushman, reprinting the first solo issue of Moon Knight from 1980; Mandarin, with Tales of Suspense #50’s debut of Iron Man’s nemesis; Masters of Evil, re-presenting Avengers #6; and – the big one – Green Goblin, re-presenting the premiere appearance of Spider-Man’s favourite foe, from Amazing Spider-Man #14! Pocket-money classics for your perusal!
PICTURED:
DETECTIVE COMICS #359 NEW/MINT £4
HULK #180 NEW/MINT £4
BATMAN ADVENTURES #12 NEW/MINT £1
CRIMINALLY INSANE GREEN GOBLIN (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #14) NEW/MINT £1
Books Update: Science Fiction For All Tastes
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Here’s a large SF update, with editions ranging from the 1960s to (unusually) 2010. The 2010 book is John Wyndham’s Plan For Chaos, written contemperaneously with The Day Of The Triffids, but published much later. From the 1960s we have The Sword Of Rhiannon (Leigh Bracket), The Immortals (James Gunn), She (H Rider Haggard), The Green Planet (J Hunter Holly), Colossus (D F Jones), It Was The Day Of The Robot (Frank Belknap Long), Tomorrow Sometimes Comes (F G Rayer), Our Man In Space/Ultimatum In 2050 A. D. (Bruce W Ronald/Jack Sharkey) and Future For Sale (Richard Saxon). From the 1970s we have Tomorrow And Tomorrow (Hunt Collins), Floating Worlds (Cecelia Holland), Master Of The Dark Gate (John Jakes), The Mind Trap (Dan Morgan), Mindswap (Robert Sheckley) and To Die In Italbar (Roger Zelazny). Finally there’s one 1980s book, The Proud Robot by Henry Kuttner (suggested to be the ‘role model’ for Marvin the Paranoid Android) and one from the 1990s, Strength Of Stones by Greg Bear. Notable amongst these are The Sword Of Rhiannon, an early imitator/homager of Burroughs’ Mars stories, Floating Worlds, a truly enormous volume in the style of Dune, Master Of The Dark Gate featuring a Steranko cover and the Ace Double, Our Man In Space/Ultimatum In 2050 A. D., with cover art by Veligursky and by Schoenherr.
PICTURED:
THE SWORD OF RHIANNON (LEIGH BRACKET) GD £5
MASTER OF THE DARK GATE (JOHN JAKES) VG £5
COLOSSUS (D F JONES) VG £10
OUR MAN IN SPACE/ULTIMATUM IN 2050 A. D. (BRUCE W RONALD/JACK SHARKEY) GD £4
THE SQUARE MILE COLLECTION
This is an early Silver Age Collection from an original owner notable for the freshness and vibrancy of the cover colours and page quality; even those with minor reading and handling wear are vastly superior to the majority of comics that have been in circulation since the 1960s. The average grade is well above Fine, with many much nicer.
We’ll be adding selections from this collection for sale here each week across the range of titles represented. These will be over a range of prices each week to suit most budgets, so that all interested collectors have an opportunity to purchase something from this special collection. Each comic will come branded with a special label and certificate of authenticity verifying it as part of the Square Mile Collection. Here’s this week’s:
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts! Black Widow Debut in Tales of Suspense #52
*Marvel: In 1964, the adventures of Iron Man were enlivened by the appearance of the lovely but lethal Natasha Romanoff, code-named the Black Widow, one of the Kremlin’s deadliest operatives. Originally an appealing but unoriginal femme fatale in civvies, inspired by Caniff’s Dragon Lady and other Mata Hari wannabes, Natasha proved surprisingly adaptable, allying herself first with the second Crimson Dynamo (also premiering in this issue) and later Hawkeye, and trading her cocktail dress and veil for the first of many costumed ‘looks’ as she switchbacked from villainess to heroine, culminating, of course, in her live-action embodiment by Scarlett Johansson in the Avengers and other Marvel movies – and soon to star in a big-screen feature of her very own! This issue is where ‘Tasha’s career kicked off, and is graded FN; light to moderate edge wear commensurate with age, but unfaded deep purple cover colour and a remarkable degree of gloss, with tight staples and sharp corners. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: TALES OF SUSPENSE #52 FN p £750
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts – First SHIELD in Strange Tales #135
*Marvel: Although the ‘modern’ Nick Fury had appeared in Fantastic Four as a CIA Agent, giving readers of Sgt. Fury their first clue that he’d survived World War II (and ‘spoiling’ the rest of the series for them…) the height of the spy craze in 1965 meant that when Nick took over the second slot in Strange Tales, he had his very own acronymic agency in SHIELD, which made its debut in Nick’s second starring series. ‘Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD’ brought the character firmly into the Swingin’ Sixties, with fantastic gadgets, high-stakes melodrama, megalomaniacal villains, and lovely lethal ladies who switched from kissing to killing at the drop of a plot twist. Contrasted with the stunning Lee & Ditko Doctor Strange, this spies & sorcery mishmash delighted the readership. This copy of SHIELD’s first appearance is a lovely FN+, with minimal wear, deep colour and gloss, and firm staples.
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #135 FN+ p £115 SOLD
American Update: Journey Into Mystery #92, featuring the larcenous Loki!
*Marvel: Dated May 1963, this early issue of the Mighty Thor’s adventures co-featured his brother Loki in the literally-entitled ‘The Day Loki Stole Thor’s Magic Hammer’, wherein the God of Mischief does exactly what it says on the tin – and since at this time Thor’s powers were magically linked to Mjolnir, all sorts of inconvenience ensued for our hero in this Lee/Berns/Sinnott classic, backed up by the Lee/Ditko chiller ‘I Used To Be…Human’ and Lieber & Reinman’s ‘The Man Who Hated Monstro!’. This is a superior VG, with light foxing on the back cover, and the very uppermost front cover edge, but not impinging on the cover image.
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #92 VG p £65 SOLD
American Update: Justice League of America #21 – the Very First Justice League/Justice Society Crossover
*DC: Following the triumphant return of the Justice Society in Flash #137, it was inevitable that the Golden Age super-stars should meet their Silver Age counterparts, and in 1963’s Justice League of America #21, the two teams were united for the first time in what would become a decades-spanning annual tradition! This copy of the groundbreaking meeting is VG/FN, minimal fine breaks in the deep purple cover colour at edge, but randomly-placed staples on the lettercolumn – presumably a previous owner was testing their stapler – preclude a higher grade for this very attractive issue.
PICTURED: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #21 VG/FN p £80
More from the Square Mile Collection next week!
American Update: Slab Happy! Action Comics #46 (1942) with Superman, Vigilante, Mr. America, Zatara
*DC: Action Comics #46, dated March 1942, featured an unusually high proportion of masked villains for the period. Superman battled the Domino (referring to the mask, not the game piece), Vigilante was challenged by the Rainbow Man, Mr. America faced off against the Queen Bee, and Zatara, Master of Magic, tackled the biggest villain of the era – Adolf Hitler! Co-starring the Three Aces and Congo Bill, in his pre-gorilla days, this anthology features the work of, among others, Fred Ray, Mort Weisinger, Jerry Siegel and Mort Meskin. This slice of Golden Age goodness is CGC blue label (no restoration) 4.0, a VG equivalent.
PICTURED: ACTION COMICS #46 CGC 4.0 £425
American Update: Batmania: Batman #251, classic Neal Adams Joker
*DC: While it’s not strictly accurate to say that this game-changing issue was solely responsible for the transition to the ‘Dark Knight’ iteration of Batman – he had been becoming more serious in the preceding few years – this definitely distilled all the elements which would become the template for the Batman as we know him. By Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, this tense murder mystery draws the reader in from the stunning cover, and keeps the tension mounted high as the Joker, stripped of the lingering miasma of the TV series, transformed from a buffoon into once again a top-ranking menace. One of the best comics of the 1970s, by almost everyone’s assessment – even folks who think both the Joker and the Batman are horrendously overrated (writer raises hand) think this one’s a cracker! This is a VG+ copy, with light to moderate edge wear, and a 2″ tear on the lower back cover, but the story pages completely unharmed.
PICTURED: BATMAN #251 VG+ p £150 SOLD
American Update: The ‘Death’ of Superman! Superman (second series) #75 Collectors’ Edition
*DC: In 1993, the wider world was rocked by the demise of Superman, who perished at the hands of the man-monster named Doomsday. Cynical fans, of course, knew better, fully expecting the Man of Steel’s eventual return, but the media brouhaha was considerable, driving civilians into comics shops in unprecedented numbers. We have the Deluxe Collectors’ Edition of Superman #75 back in stock, and still sealed in the original bag with all the free gift paraphernalia – trading card, poster, stamps, Daily Planet Obituary & black mourning armband – 1st printing.
PICTURED: SUPERMAN #75 COLLECTORS’ EDITION NM £30 SOLD
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts/Spider-Mania: Amazing Spider-Man #15 – First Kraven the Hunter
*Marvel: Another early Lee/Ditko classic Spidey new in, with the debut of Kraven the Hunter. Sergei Kravinoff, scion of exiled Russian nobility and the self-determined ‘Greatest Hunter in the World’, set out to entrap Spider-Man to, basically, big up his own reputation, and that slender premise has been parlayed into a surprisingly long career culminating in several major stories, most notoriously 1987’s ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt’. Originally just a highly trained and skilled human, Kraven has been retconned as having enhanced strength and longevity to make him more of a match for the super-set, and his moral ambiguity has led to him crossing the line between hero and villain many times – most recently, for example, he was a heroic member of Squirrel Girl’s supporting cast! Rumours of a Kraven media adaptation persist, so interest in this issue has spiked of late. This copy of Kraven’s debut is a lovely FN+, with deep unbroken background colour, tight pages and corners, and off-white, flexible interior pages. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #15 FN+ p £800
American Update: The Power of Prince Namor! Sub-Mariner #1 (1968)
*Marvel: One of our favourite Marvel anti-heroes here at 30th Century is the Sub-Mariner, aka Prince Namor the First, Monarch of Atlantis, whose heroism is outstripped only by his arrogance and the whole ‘The King and I’ vibe he has going on with the ladies! Following the dissolution of the distribution embargo in ’68, Namor, who had been rooming with the Hulk in Tales to Astonish, got his own solo series once more, and the grandeur and pageantry of his undersea adventures were aptly depicted by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, who also threw in a few hitherto unrevealed titbits about Namor’s origin. With the recent smash success of the Aquaman movie, can a media crossover starring the original aquatic avenger be far behind? Buy now and avoid the rush! This VG copy is in generally very nice shape, but does have a faint book centre stamp across Namor’s torso.
PICTURED: SUB-MARINER #1 VG p £75 SOLD
American Update: Captain Marvel #18 – the ’empowerment’ of Carol Danvers
*Marvel: Well, here’s a peculiarity; in Captain Marvel’s first solo series, Carol Danvers, despite being a top-notch security chief (the captions told us) played the damsel-in-distress role uncomfortably often, and this issue, a confrontation between Mar-Vell and his nemesis Yon-Rogg – was no exception. However, in Carol’s later solo series as Ms. Marvel, the events of this issue were retconned as the ‘trigger’ for Carol’s gaining her own super-powers – nothing of which is actually mentioned in here! That retcon, coupled of course with Carol’s own increased visibility since she stepped up as Captain Marvel on page and screen, has given this well-executed but unexceptional issue a surprising value lift. This is a bright and shiny FN/VF copy of this ‘stealth origin’.
PICTURED: CAPTAIN MARVEL #18 FN/VF p £55
American Update: Avengers Assemble! Five mid-grade debuts and keys from the World’s Mightiest Heroes
*Marvel: A captivating quintet of keys and debuts from the pages of Marvel’s Avengers, beginning with #43, premiering the Red Guardian – the Black Widow’s not-quite-dead super-hubby, soon to be an antagonist in Tasha’s solo flick. Issue #48 saw the debut of Dane Whitman (who’d made a non-costumed cameo the previous issue) as the super-heroic version of the Black Knight, soon to be the star of his own media adaptation with ‘Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington in the lead. Issues #54 and #55 present the first cameo and full appearances, respectively, of Ultron, the murderous robotic ‘offspring’ of Hank Pym who has threatened the Avengers countless times on the printed pages and the silver screen; and issue #62 brings us M’Baku, the Man-Ape, a softer and somewhat cuddlier version of whom appeared in the Black Panther and Avengers movies. Full details on all, of course, in our online catalogue.
PICTURED: AVENGERS
#43 GD/VG p £45
#48 GD+ p £50 SOLD
American Update: Six Of The Best – Marvel Premiere Issues from the Sizzling Seventies
*Marvel: Once again, a half dozen first issues, this time from the 1970s, as the Marvel Universe expanded. In Howard the Duck #1, the spin-out star of Man-Thing got his own series, by Gerber and Brunner. Marvel Spotlight #1 brought us Red Wolf & Lobo (not that Lobo!), previously seen in the Avengers, by Gardner Fox and Syd Shores. Roy Thomas’ lifelong love affair with all things Golden Age paid off, as he got to reunite the 1940s iterations of Captain America, the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch in a series of ‘untold tales’ set in World War II, commencing with the double-thick ‘pilot’ Giant-Size Invaders #1. Kull the Conqueror was 1971’s attempt to recreate the success of Conan, illustrated by the sensational Severin Siblings, John and Marie. Marvel Two-In-One was 1974’s answer to Marvel Team-Up, with Bashful Ben Grimm, the Fantastic Four’s Thing, as host, co-starring the Man-Thing in this debut issue. And finally, the short-lived, but well-executed, Hanna-Barbera TV line gave us the ‘Modern Stone Age Family’, the fabulous Flintstones! Full details, of course, in our catalogue listings.
PICTURED:
GIANT-SIZE INVADERS #1 FN+ £20 SOLD
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #1 VF/NM £47
American Update: Spider-Mania Bonus: Lots of Amazing issues between #51 & #99
*Marvel: A further Spidey update this week as we add lots of issues in the above range, nearly all previously missing from our listings. Highlights include the Doc Ock four-parter in #53-56, the first Mary Jane cover (#59), the classic Mysterio two-parter in #66-67, the debut of the Prowler in #78, Black Widow’s new look in #86 and the non-code approved Goblin drugs issue (#96). As always, full grading and pricing information in our catalogue.
American Update: Marvel’s First Family, the Fantastic Four
*Marvel: Some nice graded copies in this week of the Fantastic Four between issue #53 (2nd Black Panther, 1st Klaw) and #133. Other highlights include a classic Silver Surfer storyline in #72 & #75, and the less common #80 with Toomazooma, the Living Totem. Full details as always in our catalogue.
American Update: Atomic Sci-Fi – Strange Worlds From Avon
*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Avon’s Strange Worlds is one of the most famous ‘spacebuckling’ series; while Avon was a comparatively minor comics publisher, the title presented work by top talents, including Wally Wood, Joe Kubert, Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, Joe Orlando, Everett Raymond Kinstler and Gene Fawcette, among a plethora of others. Together, they created fast-paced tales of space-themed derring-do with occasional sidesteps into fantasy such as ‘Crom the Barbarian’ (comics’ first attempt at a Conan-esque hero) and ‘Dara of the Vikings’. These copies of a classic pulpy adventure series are mid-grade, averaging GD.
PICTURED: STRANGE WORLDS
#1 GD/VG £200
#2 FA £65 SOLD
#7 FA/GD £50
#8 GD- £75 SOLD
#9 GD+ £125 SOLD
American Update: A Date With Patsy: Teen Comics 1947 to 1950
*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: Despite the series ‘pilot’ All-Teen Comics, having taken over the numbering of All-Winners with #20 (and All-Winners having continued with #21) Teen Comics (dropping the ‘All’) came back later the same year commencing with #21, starring Patsy Walker (but of course) alongside regular co-stars Cindy Smith and Georgie, and with occasional guest-features such as Margie, Tessie the Typist and Harvey Kurtzman’s ‘Hey Look!’. We have nine of the 15 published issues in stock, from #23 to the final issue, #35. Full details in our catalogue.
PICTURED: TEEN
#25 VG £32
#34 FN £47
American/British Update: The Spirit Is Willing…
*Spirit: A whole load of Spirit material from various publishers new to this popular category this week. From DC, the Millenium Edition; from Harvey, their two giant-sized issues from the 1960s; from IW/Super, one of their authorised 1960s reprints and from Kitchen Sink, lots of issues of their long-running 1980s reprint series between #1 and #70. Will Eisner’s most famous creation at his best!
American/British Update: Going Underground! A Torrent of Revolution, Filth & Anarchy from the UK and the US
*Undergrounds: A sweep through the underground brings us a plethora of new listings and restocks of old favourites, including Bananas Are Not the Only Fruit, Cartoon History of the Universe, Complete Crumb Comics, Drawn & Quarterly, Gay Comix/Comics, Glamazonia the Uncanny Super-Tranny, Inner City Pagan, Los Tejanos, Maybe…Maybe Not and its sequel, Maybe…Maybe Not Again, Phobia Phobia, Rand Holmes: The Artist Himself, Raw, Rapid Reflexes, R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book, Robert Crumb’s Yum Yum Book, and Tijuana Bibles. Star creators include David Shenton, Robert Crumb, Ralf Konig, Hunt Emerson, Trina, Jaxon, Tim Barela, Lee Marrs, Howard Cruse, and Larry Gonick.
PICTURED:
RAW #5 FN £25 SOLD
R CRUMB’S YUM YUM BOOK HC VG £30 SOLD
TIJUANA BIBLES SC NM £15 SOLD
British Update: Whole Lot of Love! Vintage Reprint Romance From Several Publishers
*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: During the US comic-starved wasteland of the 1950s, many enterprising British publishers licensed reprints of the US material, and one of the more popular genres was romance, with literally hundreds of titles issued by dozens of publishers. We’ve featured several series in the last year, but this week, we wrap it all up for love (at least for now) with new additions, around thirty in all. Titles restocked include series from Miller (Confidential Stories, Life Story, Love Affair, Lovers, Romantic Secrets, Romantic Story and Sweethearts) World Distributors (Romantic Story, Sweetheart Diary, Sweethearts, and Thrilling Romances (Yes, Miller also used two of those same titles, it’s not an error), Strato (First Love, Young Brides, Young Love and Young Romance) and Glasgow’s Cartoon Art Productions (Romance and True Love Confessions). In grades ranging from Fair to Fine, this selection includes one Simon & Kirby issue of Young Romance (pictured), plus multiple fine artists such as Brewster, Schaffenberger, Saaf, Pike and more.
PICTURED:
TRUE LOVE CONFESSIONS #1 FN £20
YOUNG ROMANCE #31 VG £16
British Update: Free Gift Farrago! Jag #1 & #3 (1968) with Free Gifts
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In 1968, Fleetway/IPC launched Jag, the third (after Lion and Tiger) of their ‘big cat’ anthologies – and this was the biggest, measuring 12″ by 14″. This awkward size, somewhere between TV 21 and Beezer, meant that it was usually displayed folded even when brand new in newsagents. Despite its imposing size, much of Jag’s content was surprisingly by-the-numbers, and it wasn’t until mid-year that it acquired a ‘star’ feature – ‘Football Family Robinson’ – ably illustrated by Joe Colquhoun, which went on to a much longer life in Tiger. Football strips are of course plentiful, but FFR had the familial angle to engage the readership, and the formidable presence of manager Ma Robinson, a classic battleaxe in the Peggy Mount/Giles tradition, gave the strip its comedy impetus. Jag, owing to its unusual dimensions, hasn’t generally been stored carefully or survived the years well, so we’re delighted to have decent copies of issues #1 & #3 in stock, each with their respective Free Gift; Issue #1 is VG/FN complete with the ‘Bobby Moore Book of the FA Cup’ in VG/FN, #3 is FN, with ‘Soccer ’68 All the Club Colours’ poster guide (part 2) in VG/FN; both the comics and the free gifts bear marks of having been folded in the past, owing to the storage/display difficulties mentioned earlier, but are otherwise clean and bright.
PICTURED: JAG
#1 4/5/68 VG/FN WITH FREE GIFT VG/FN £70 SOLD
#3 18/5/68 FN WITH FREE GIFT VG/FN £60 SOLD
British Update: Long Hot Summer – Battle Picture Library Holiday Specials from 1964 (1st) to 1975
*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: One of the classic ‘Big Three’ Fleetway/IPC Picture Libraries, together with Air Ace and War, Battle PL launched in 1961 and ran for more than a thousand issues. By 1964, its popularity won it a Holiday Special – but unlike the Summer/Holiday Specials for the weekly comics, Picture Library Holiday Specials went extra-thick, maintaining their digest-sized dimensions but adding extra pages, totalling more than 220 pages of holiday reading to keep the boys (and the Dads) happy during rainy summer holidays! We have eight Battle Picture Library Holiday Specials back in stock, beginning with the very first from 1964 and ending with 1975. The 1964 edition has one diagonal cover crease, but is otherwise immaculate, and all our new additions are graded FN.
PICTURED: BATTLE PICTURE LIBRARY HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1964 FN £25 SOLD
British Update: Candy – Obscure Junior Gerry Anderson Title from 1967-1969
*TV & Film Related Comics: Of the many comics adaptations of Gerry Anderson’s TV oeuvre, one of the more obscure is Candy, a Younger Readers’ series which focused on a show which never actually happened. Legend has it that Anderson tried to sell a juvenile series, ‘Candy and Andy’, for which extensive prop and costume work was done, and when no TV producers took it up, used the prepared material instead as the basis for the third ‘Century 21’ comic, after TV 21 and Lady Penelope. (Full disclosure: other sources do refute the legend, but the legend’s more fun, so we’re sticking with it!) Today the photo-covers say less ‘wholesome family fun’ and more ‘serial killer’s trophy room’, but let’s put that down to changing times. The comic lasted 150+ issues, enhanced by the media presence of co-stars Topo Gigio, Tingha and Tucker, and Winnie the Pooh. The unusual landscape format makes these rarer than most Anderson-related memorabilia, though the series reverted to a standard portrait format about halfway through its run, shortly thereafter mercifully ditching the creepy photo-covers for line-drawn work. We have thirty new issues of Candy in stock, ranging from #12 to #127.
PICTURED: CANDY #49 (CHRISTMAS ISSUE) FN £16
British Update: Free Gift Farrago! Tammy early issues, including #1
*Girls’ Comics: Tammy launched in 1971 as a more street-level, relatable series – still with elements of the fantastic, of course, but a more working-class ‘vibe’. Tammy also took the long-suffering heroines’ trope beloved of other girls’ weeklies (yes, we’re looking at you, Mandy) and turned it up to 11, with the plucky protagonists being beaten, starved, enslaved or ostracised on a regular basis. We have two issues from the first year of this long-running and well-remembered title, both with original free gifts. Issue #1 is a sound and presentable VG, with the Free Gift bracelet and ring set still in original envelope. From a little later in 1971, 23rd October is also VG and brings us two ‘lucky coloured bangles’, again in their original packaging.
PICTURED: TAMMY
#1 6/2/71 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £60 SOLD
23/10/71 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £35 SOLD
British Update: School Friend Picture Library – Unbroken Run of First 38 in stock
*Girls’ Picture Libraries: Launched in 1962, School Friend Picture Library originally alternated, like its companion Princess PL, between two features – in this case, teen model Tracy Jones and plucky equestrienne Penny of Pine Ridge. By issue #13, they started introducing other featured characters into the mix – ‘My Friend Sara’ from the weekly, the Sparrows of Angel Street, French Resistance fighter Linette and others. Our latest influx of School Friend Picture Libraries means that we now have an unbroken run of the series’ first 38 issues, so if you’re in a completist frame of mind, now is the time to strike!
PICTURED: SCHOOL FRIEND PICTURE LIBRARY
#1 GD/VG £20
#19 FN £10
Books Update: Minidoka – Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Early Work
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Before the blockbusters A Princess of Mars and Tarzan of the Apes, Minidoka 937th Earl Of One Mile Series M was an early story by Burroughs. At the time of its release by Dark Horse in 1998 it was his earliest-surviving unpublished story. Minidoka (as it’s known to its friends) presages what was to come, involving as it does two opposed magical kingdoms, and even flying monkeys. The book comes with a statement ‘meant to be read aloud’, with a cover painting by J. Allen St. John and sumptuous interior illustrations by Michael W Kaluta.
PICTURED:
MINIDOKA 937th EARL OF ONE MILE SERIES M VG/FN £15
Books Update: From Keith Laumer
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re delighted to add more than ten of Keith Laumer’s works to our shelves, including perhaps his best known classic, A Plague Of Demons. A highly respected author, he was versatile enough to write 3 Avengers novels in the 1960s in addition to his SF output. Laumer’s Science Fiction often used his experiences in the diplomatic service, particularly in his Retief series, of which we have Retief And The Warlords. Another recurring theme was alternative universes, explored in The Time Bender, The World Shuffler and Worlds Of The Imperium. Time travel and immortality come up in A Trace Of Memory, Time Trap and Odyssey (an omnibus which combines parts of Galactic Odyssey, Dinosaur Beach, Once There Was A Giant, Greylorn and Alien Minds). Finally The Monitors and Earthblood, which was written with G B Rosel, involve alien races.
PICTURED:
A PLAGUE OF DEMONS VG/FN £6 SOLD
THE TIME BENDER GD £4
WORLDS OF THE IMPERIUM GD £3
Books Update: Star Wars In Triplicate
*TV/Film Tie-Ins: Presenting three variations on the Star Wars novelisation – the first, original, Star Wars film that is, not the revised running order first in canonical sequence that has confused the majority of people so. We have a 1st edition 1st printing, a 1st edition but subsequent printing (identified by a yellow splash on the cover) and a younger readers’ abridged edition. All 3 have a movie cover and colour movie stills in the centre. Buy them or the midichlorians will get upset!
PICTURED: STAR WARS (1ST EDITION, SUBSEQUENT PRINTING) SPHERE 1977 GD £5
Housekeeping Update
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:
*DC S – Z
*Marvel T – Z
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
THE SQUARE MILE COLLECTION
This is an early Silver Age Collection from an original owner notable for the freshness and vibrancy of the cover colours and page quality; even those with minor reading and handling wear are vastly superior to the majority of comics that have been in circulation since the 1960s. The average grade is well above Fine, with many much nicer.
We’ll be adding selections from this collection for sale here each week across the range of titles represented. These will be over a range of prices each week to suit most budgets, so that all interested collectors have an opportunity to purchase something from this special collection. Each comic will come branded with a special label and certificate of authenticity verifying it as part of the Square Mile Collection. Here’s this week’s:
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: The debut of the wonderful Wasp in Tales To Astonish #44
*Marvel: A long-standing favourite of us 30th Century folks, we are delighted to have Tales to Astonish #44, the debut and origin of Janet Van Dyne, the wonderful Wasp, back in stock. Created in order to give Ant-Man someone to talk to on his adventures (other than the ants), Jan perked up the series no end. Founding member of the Avengers, wealthy socialite Jan was a breath of fresh air in the comics world, and her relationship with Hank (Ant-Man/Giant-Man) Pym was well portrayed as mature and caring, with a nice line in witty badinage, contrasting considerably with the rest of the romantically overwrought Marvel Universe. This copy of Jan’s debut is VG, a clean solid copy with considerable eye appeal, but a faint vertical fold slightly impinging upon the cover image. Firm at staples, with bright attractive interior pages.
PICTURED: TALES TO ASTONISH #44 VG p £400
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: Fantastic Four #11, with the debuts of the Impossible Man and Willie Lumpkin
*Marvel: Unusually, Fantastic Four #11 featured two stories rather than a book-lengther. In ‘A Visit With The Fantastic Four’, a change-of-pace ‘day in the life’ story, we hear more about how the FF are seen by the regular citizens of the Marvel Universe at large, courtesy of their fan mail – brought to them by mailman Willie Lumpkin, later portrayed on the big screen by Smilin’ Stan Lee himself! The second story was the premiere of the perplexing person from Poppup, as the Impossible Man, shape-shifting mischief-maker from outer space, plagued Marvel’s First Family for the first of what were to be many, many occasions. This is one of the more off-beat and charming issues of the FF’s early run, demonstrating that Stan & Jack were as at home with warmth and whimsy as they were with cosmic drama. A FN copy, it has light creasing around the spine area, and vestigial ‘Marvel Chipping’ at cover’s right edge, but is a firm, clean copy with deep cover colour.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #11 FN p £275
American Update: Batmania: Batman #131, with the Second Batman and Robin Team
*DC: Over in Superman’s titles, the ‘Imaginary Stories’ – tales in which some aspect of the known mythos was tweaked speculatively, enabling readers to see what might happen if the iconic characters were ever allowed to break away from their status quo – had become hugely popular, so the editors of Batman decided to try something similar. A series of near-future tales penned by Bruce Wayne’s butler, imagining a retired Batman, married to the former Batwoman, allowing a grown-up Robin to take over as Batman II! While not achieving the success of the ‘Imaginary Stories’, these chapters of Alfred’s fan-fiction proved popular enough to return several times, and this issue marks the debut of the series, backed up by two ‘real’, not-at-all-imaginary, Batman tales: ‘The Dog That Betrayed Batman’, and ‘The Case of the Deadly Gems’. This is a VG copy, light to moderate spine wear and a small upper cover tear.
PICTURED: BATMAN #131 VG p £65
American Update: X-Men #51, a Jim Steranko Classic
*Marvel: Following on from the epic #50, in which Lorna Dane assumed her full mutant powers as the Mistress of Magnetism (and Magneto’s putative daughter), scripter Arnold Drake and artist Jim Steranko continued their daring and cinematic Magneto/X-Men clash in this issue, with the last minute reveal of a new villain with a secret – Erik the Red! This is a lovely VF+ copy, bright and tight, though there are a few interior ink streaks which are original print flaws, not related to the physical condition of the book. Nonetheless, a very desirable copy with considerable eye appeal.
PICTURED: X-MEN #51 VF+ p £75
American Update: Journey Into Mystery #80
*Marvel: Another example of one of the classic Pre-Hero Marvel tales of imagination, with two Lee/Kirby thrillers, the cover-featured ‘Won’t You Step Into My Parlor?’ and ‘Propaganda!’, plus the Don Heck illustrated ‘I Spent The Night In A Haunted House!’, and a Lee/Ditko twist-ending tale, ‘For The Birds!’. This is a stunning FN+ copy, with very sharp corners, minimal spine & edge wear, bright vibrant cover colours and a remarkable amount of gloss for its vintage.
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #80 FN+ p £100
More from the Square Mile Collection next week!
American Update: Crisis On Infinite Earths – Complete 12 issue set, with deaths of Supergirl, Flash and scores more
*DC: In 1985, for the company’s 50th Anniversary, DC released Crisis on Infinite Earths, a 12-part series in which all the multiple parallel Earths of the DCU, long established ever since ‘Flash of Two Worlds’, faced annihilation, in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting alternate realities, and result in a more comprehensible DC Universe. Marv Wolfman and George Perez delivered a truly epic story, sending shockwaves through fandom as veteran characters perished, mostly permanently. (Well, until reality rebooted again, but in fairness that was decades later…) For all its flawed legacy (it was unevenly followed up by other creators, resulting in a ‘streamlined’ DCU that was actually more confusing, and it set the precedent for sprawling cosmic crossovers to become a tedious annual occurrence), COIE was an epochal event in the evolution of comics. Marvel’s Secret Wars may have done it first – but Crisis did it with style, expertise and a genuine air of consequence. This 12 issue set averages VF- condition, all but #2 pence copies. This is being sold only as a complete set of 12.
PICTURED: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 VF-; COMPLETE SET #1-12 AV. VF- £100
American Update: DC Debuts: Return of the Big Red Cheese: Shazam! #1
*DC: For many years largely overlooked by collectors, the 1973 Shazam! series – DC’s reboot of the original Captain Marvel, who was put out of business by a protracted lawsuit from DC in the ’50s – is now riding high because of the smash-hit (and hugely fun) film starring Zachary Levi as Billy Batson’s supernaturally-powered alter ego. In 1973 C.C. Beck, co-creator of Fawcett Comics’ Captain Marvel, teamed up with contemporary writers to produce new stories of ‘The Big Red Cheese’. Beck was followed by other distinguished artists such as Kurt Schaffenberger and Bob Oksner, creating lighter, friendlier but imaginative adventures, from which, in large part, the sensibility of the film has been derived.
PICTURED: SHAZAM #1 VF £50 SOLD
American Update: DC Silver/Bronze Sweep – ‘T’ to ‘W’ titles
*DC: We conclude our current run through the DC Silver & Bronze Ages with titles beginning with ‘T’ to ‘W’, featuring Teen Titans (inc #25 1st Lilith, #48 with Joker’s Daughter and many more), New Teen Titans (lots of early Perez issues), Timewarp (science fiction anthology series inc #1), Warlord (#2), several issues of Watchmen, some nice Silver Age Wonder Woman and World’s Finest.
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: The Ghost Rider: Johnny Blaze’s debut in Marvel Spotlight #5
*Marvel: Ghost Rider had been the title of a short-lived Western series of the 1960s, and in 1972, writer Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog reinterpreted the cowboy trope with the nearest modern equivalent – a motorbike rider! In the wake of ‘Easy Rider’ and adding in lashings of the then-popular Satanic possession movies, they came up with Johnny Blaze, stunt-rider turned emissary of Satan, having sacrificed his soul to save his loved ones. But this being a Code Approved Marvel comic, Johnny’s battle of wills with his demonic master usually led to his actions coming down on the side of good, despite Old Nick’s best efforts. Ghost Rider went on to 80+ issues of his original series after a successful run in Marvel Spotlight, and despite two truly execrable Nicolas Cage movies, remains a mainstay of the Marvel Universe today. This copy of Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider’s very first appearance in tryout title Marvel Spotlight #5 is an apparent FN+; the ‘Apparent’ modifier is because there have been three tiny colour touches at the spine, but the black background is otherwise unmarred, and this copy has firm staples, sharp corners and excellent interior page quality.
PICTURED: MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #5 App FN+ £250 SOLD
American Update: Slab Happy/Spider-Mania: Amazing Spider-Man #40 with conclusion of Romita debut: classic Spidey/Goblin Clash
*Marvel: When Steve Ditko set aside his artistic duties on the Amazing Spider-Man, he left big shoes to fill, but John Romita – previously best known as a romance artist for Marvel’s Distinguished Competition – stepped up and did an admirable job in his first two-parter, an epic battle between Spider-Man and one of his greatest villains, the Green Goblin! This concluding half of Romita’s debut, Spidey #40, is a CGC Blue Label (no restoration) 8.0, a VF equivalent.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #40 CGC 8.0 £280 SOLD