*Horror 1940-1959: Youthful was a publisher specialising in non-superhero series, one of which began as clean-cut space hero Captain Science, which transmuted into Sci-Fi horror hybrid Fantastic, morphing again into full-on horror with Beware, and finally settling down into Chilling Tales, keeping the same numbering throughout. The reasons for these metamorphoses was twofold: publishers saved money on mail-order subscription licences by changing the name of a series, rather than relaunching and coughing up for a new licence, and the popular belief at the time was that newsvendors wouldn’t stock anything with #1 on the cover, as they’d reason no-one had heard of it, so there’d be no demand for a first issue of an untested series! Be that as it may, this series entered its most notorious phase as Chilling Tales, in which the horror motif hit its stride with lurid and notorious stories. Demand for Chilling Tales is incandescent, even in low-to-mid grades, so we’re lucky to have a complete run of beauties for your perusal, beginning with the first (appropriately numbered #13) and concluding with the final issue #17. Issue #13 is FA/GD, generally decent shape but a small patch of moisture/mould centre logo, which has also slightly ‘blotted’ the splash page. Light but long diagonal creases do not detract from the cover image. Issue #14 is FA/GD, with an upper spine split but otherwise presenting decently. #15 is GD/VG and #16 FA, cover slightly off-centre due to printing mis-cut, light interior staining lower margin throughout, but not affecting story images. Lastly, #17 is GD-, with a lower spine split at cover.
PICTURED: CHILLING TALES
#13 FA/GD £115 SOLD
#14 FA/GD £115 SOLD
#15 GD/VG £215 SOLD
#16 FA £125 SOLD
#17 GD- £125 SOLD
Category Archives: What’s New
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: Ill Met By Moon Knight – MK’s Debut in Werewolf By Night #32 FN+
*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: One of the most startling success stories in the back issue world is the ever-spiralling popularity of Moon Knight’s premier appearance. The series Werewolf By Night had been toddling along, chronicling the adventures of young lycanthrope Jack Russell (no, really), when the boat was suddenly rocked in WBN #32 by a vigilante whose only goal seemed to be the annihilation of our hero – and his silver armour and weapons seemed likely to achieve it! The man who would later be revealed as Marc Spector had a deeper back story, of course, and in his multitudinous appearances since, has developed a complex background oscillating between ‘Marvel’s Batman’ and ‘Multiple Personality psychotic possessed by Egyptian Gods’. Be that as it may, he remains hugely popular, and a near-future Moon Knight TV series having been recently confirmed, demand for his debut is intensifying. This copy of Werewolf By Night #32 is a cents copy, no pence price or overstamp, FN+, with only very light spine ‘ticks’ and cover corner blunting. High resolution images arre available on request.
PICTURED: WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #32 FN+ £600 SOLD
American Update: Eerie, Nightmare, Famous Monsters and other horror mags galore!
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: A long overdue refresh of our horror magazines brings us a dash of Eerie from Warren and a nod to Nightmare from Skywald, but the main focus is on the early Warren hit, Famous Monsters of Filmland – which featured no comics content, but a plethora of articles and photos from the vintage horror films, which were just ‘trending’ on US TV in the late 50’s/early 60’s – and its numerous imitators. We have a couple more Famous Monsters itself added to our listings, plus the 1965 Yearbook, plus FMOF-wannabes Castle of Frankenstein (from early fandom pioneer Larry Ivie, publisher of Monsters and Heroes), Fantastic Monsters of the Films from Black Shield and a trio of efforts from Charlton; Horror Monsters (including the one-off fumetti Horror Monsters Presents Black Zoo), Mad Monsters, and Werewolves and Vampires.
PICTURED: FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND 1965 YEARBOOK VG+ p £25 SOLD
British Update: Festival of Britain: Mighty World of Marvel Monthly (1983 onwards)
*Marvel UK: Following the cancellation of the Daredevils with issue #11, Alan Moore and Alan Davis’ acclaimed reinvention of Captain Britain moved into the second (monthly) series of Mighty World of Marvel from #7, accompanying, among others, reprints of Claremont and Miller’s Wolverine and Cloak & Dagger, plus new text stories of the vigilante Night Raven. Although this series, with the introduction of Meggan and the final clash with the Fury, is regarded as Moore’s finest work on the strip, it was also his last, as he left following a dispute with Marvel about unpaid invoices, and from #14 the strip fell into different writers’ hands, including Steve Craddock, Mike Collins and artist Alan Davis, before the strip’s moving into Captain Britain Monthly after #16. We have a complete run of the Captain Britain issues of Mighty World of Marvel monthly (#7 to #16) back in stock.
PICTURED: MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL #12 FN/VF £6
British Update: Immaculate Annuals – Beano 1966 to 1970
*Annuals: Continuing our treasure trove of high grade British comic Annuals, we turn our attention now to the ‘Big Daddy’ of the field. The Beano launched in 1938, and is still going strong today, having taken over the title of Britain’s longest-running weekly since its elder sibling, Dandy, ceased publishing in 2012. These ‘Beano Book’ Annual compilations feature original material, not reprints from the weeklies, starring the Bash Street Kids, Little Plum, Lord Snooty, Dennis the Menace, the Three Bears, Billy Whizz, Minnie the Minx, General Jumbo, the Iron Fish and a plethora of other characters beloved by generations of readers. From the same pedigree source as our previous ‘Immaculate’ selections, these are from a newsagent’s inventory, never circulated or read, no prices clipped, no gift dedications, ‘This Book Belongs To’ inscriptions or other interior markings, solid spines, tight corners and bright, vibrant colours. A few have minor edge wear from long-term storage, or occasionally light breaks in the laminate, but all have exceptional eye appeal, and some could almost pass for new! This unbroken run from 1966 to 1970 is a truly beautiful selection of Annuals from an iconic British series.
PICTURED: BEANO ANNUAL
1966 VF £70
1967 VF £70
1968 FN £50
1969 VF £70 SOLD
1970 VF £70
British Update: Score ‘n’ Roar – Fleetway’s Other Soccer Weekly
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Following the success of 1969’s Whizzer & Chips launch, the USP of ‘two comics in one!’ with an inbuilt rivalry proved so popular that publishers IPC/Fleetway went back to the well with Score ‘n’ Roar, two football comics in one – neither of which had existed previously as an independent entity. The rivalry aspect was provided by brothers, ‘Jack of United’ and ‘Jimmy of City’, who played for opposing teams – and in rival halves of the comic! Other strips included young prodigy goalie ‘Peter the Cat’, supernatural striker ‘Phantom of the Forest’ and obligatory comedy team of ne’er-do-wells, ‘The Mudlarks’, and things ran comfortably along until the following year, when Scorcher took a decisive lead in the battle of Fleetway footie rags, and S’n’R (by then just ‘Score’, the conceit of two comics in one having been abandoned) ended with the traditional ‘Great News, Readers!’ We have twenty new issues of Score ‘n’ Roar in stock, from October 1970 to June 1971.
British Update: Air Ace Touches Down! Most of the #500’s, including Final Issue and Holiday Specials
*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Launched in 1960, Air Ace taxied onto the runway for the last time in November 1970, after a very respectable run of 545 issues, before being incorporated into its stablemate War Picture Library. This final leg of our mammoth Air Ace flight includes all but a handful of the numbers from #500 to #545, including the final issue (though it gave no interior clues that it was the last – not even the traditional ‘Great News, Readers!’, and an assortment of the Holiday Specials from 1969 to 1975. This selection is from the same source as our ‘Immaculate Annuals’, listed elsewhere, a newsagent’s unsold inventory, never circulated or read previously, and most clocking in at an astonishing VF grade.
British Update: Free Gift Farrago! Look-In 1971/72 inc. #2 with Free Gifts
*TV & Film Related Comics: Look-In, the ‘Junior TV Times’ entertained a generation of readers with its features and photos on popular TV series of the era, plus comic strip adaptations of the hottest series. What’s little known is that, virtually right up until publication, the mag was originally going to be called ‘Magpie’, and the content even in the second issue from 1971 reflects that, not just in the heavy presence throughout of Magpie presenters Susan Stranks and co., but in the Free Gift, which is a part of a cardboard diorama of the Magpie TV studio (the first part having been presented with the premiere issue)! Comics content issue includes ‘Please Sir!’, ‘The Freewheelers’, ‘Crowther In Trouble’ and ‘Wreckers at Dead Eye’, which will be greeted by nostalgia or bafflement depending on the age of the reader, but the comics highlight is a rather lovely ‘Timeslip’ strip by Angus Allan and Mike Noble. We also have an issue from the second year, 1972 (#16 – Look-In started its numbering again every year, a practise which has confused and infuriated generations of collectors), with a Free Gift ‘Apollo Mission’ badge, in cardboard. Hopefully, NASA itself managed something a bit more durable…
PICTURED: LOOK-IN
1971 #2 VG GIFT VF £50
1972 #16 FN GIFT VF £20
British Update: Long Hot Summer: Whizzer and Chips Holiday Specials from the first 1970
*Humour Comics: Among the last of the great and long-running humour launches, Whizzer & Chips began in 1969 with the inexplicable but oddly effective concept of having two rival ‘comics’ in the same magazine, and locked in a deadly rivalry. Whether you were a ‘Whiz-Kid’ or a ‘Chip-Ite’ caused many a playground scuffle back in the day! This friendly rivalry was expanded into extra-length Holiday Specials, and we have the very first, from 1970, in an attractive FN/VF, plus two more, from 1972 and 1974, in VF and FN/VF respectively. ‘Sid’s Snake’, ‘Shiner’, ‘Wear ‘Em Out Wilf’, ‘Odd Ball’, ‘The Toughs and the Toffs’, ‘Fuss Pot’, ‘Sweet Tooth’ and many more are waiting for you to join them for holiday-themed high jinks!
PICTURED: WHIZZER & CHIPS HOLIDAY SPECIAL
1970 FN/VF £40 SOLD
1972 VF £25
1974 FN/VF £22.50
British Update: O Romeo, Romeo… 100+ issues of the D.C. Thomson romance weekly from 1959 to 1974
*Girls’ Comics: The most successful of the plethora of romance weeklies which launched in the 1950s, Romeo successfully adapted with the changing times, moving from nice girls in pearls to babes in beehives and bouffants, to mini-skirted maidens and belles in bell-bottoms as the decades rolled on, but always with the underlying ‘catch and match’ theme front and centre – no spinsters, feminists or committed career women allowed! Often beautifully illustrated by top talents, these are not commonplace – we speculate that the older girls and young women who they were aimed at didn’t tend to hoard things, discarding old copies after reading – and so we’re very pleased to have acquired this stash of just over 100 issues, commencing in January 1959 and running through until August 1974, one month before the series finally succumbed to changing times and was absorbed into Diana.
PICTURED: ROMEO 24/2/1968 FN £8
British Update: Confessions! Lurid and Dramatic Romantic Thrillers from 1959 on
*Girls’ Picture Libraries: Confessions Library, which rebranded itself as Romantic Confessions, was one of the more dramatic in the love picture library range, as it focused not only on emotional drama, but also actual drama, with infidelity, crime, terminal diseases, threat of physical harm and many other soap-opera tropes befalling our embattled heroines in beautifully-illustrated stories like “I Was An Unwedded Wife!”, “No Right To My Wedding Ring!”, “I Vowed Vengeance!”, “A Noose For My Neck!” and “I Knew Too Much!”. We have around 50 issues newly listed, commencing with issue #1 – “Men Could Not Resist Me!” (complaining or boasting, pet?) and continuing till #68. Most of these new additions are in generally very good shape, but long-term exposure to atmospheric moisture has caused the staples in many to ‘go’, resulting in spine and margin damage from rust. Therefore, we’re grading most of them as GD, even though structurally many are nicer. Nevertheless, there are a reasonable amount of VG and several legit FN in our latest batch.
PICTURED: CONFESSIONS/ROMANTIC CONFESSIONS LIBRARY
#1 GD £30
#22 GD £6
#57 FN £12
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 file in our American section:
*Marvel T – Z
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.
American Update: Tomb of Dracula #10 (Debut of Blade, Vampire Slayer) Facsimile Edition
*Modern Reprints: The latest in the line of facsimile editions from Marvel is the first appearance of the star of the first successful Marvel movie franchise (no, Howard the Duck doesn’t count!) Tomb of Dracula #10 saw the premier appearance of Blade, Vampire Slayer, and with the rumours of Blade’s imminent return to the screen, prices on this already-hot issue have been climbing even higher. Now’s your chance to own a copy of this Wolfman/Colan classic for a fraction of the price! Apart from legally necessary pricing changes to the front cover and indicia, this is an exact reproduction of the 1972 original, complete with letters pages and ads – though you’re probably too late to apply to sell ‘Grit’, sorry! This brand-new item is on sale at £4.
PICTURED: TOMB OF DRACULA #10 FACSIMILE £4
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 M – S
and in our British section:
*Girls’ Picture Libraries
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.
American Update: DC Debuts – First Appearances of Kid Flash and the Weather Wizard in Flash #110
*DC: Flash #110, cover-dated December 1959, saw a double debut in two separate stories; firstly of the Weather Wizard, the meteorological menace who would become a recurring and enduring member of the Flash’s Rogues’ Gallery, and secondly of Wally West, who as Kid Flash would become a founding member of the Teen Titans and eventually take over the mantle of the Scarlet Speedster himself! This early issue of the Silver Age Flash (which relaunched with #104, following the numbering of the Golden Age Flash Comics) is a FA/GD p copy, with light cover markings, rusty staples, and moderate spine wear from moisture exposure, but none of the above impinging on the cover image. The splash page of the second story is torn, but complete.
PICTURED: FLASH #110 FA/GD p £175
American Update: DC Debuts – First Teen Titans (as named team) and first Wonder Girl
*DC: Issue #54 of Brave & Bold teamed up three junior partners of DC’s major super-heroes – Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin – as a kind of junior Justice League. This proved to be such a hit that issue #60 of the same title ‘got the band back together’, with the addition of Wonder Girl, this time with their own name, the Teen Titans! Often overlooked is the fact that B & B #60 is actually a double debut: not only the premier of the Teen Titans title, but the first appearance of Donna Troy as Wonder Girl – previous WG tales had just been stories of Wonder Woman’s younger adventures, a la Superboy, but this was the first WG as an independent entity. Donna and Robin both being mainstays of the Netflix ‘Titans’ series, interest in the ‘classic’ Titans line-up is once again gathering momentum. This copy is a very lovely FN/VF, with the black cover background largely unmarred, only a few light spine ‘ticks’. Firm staples at cover and centrefold, with good interior page quality.
PICTURED: BRAVE AND THE BOLD #60 FN/VF p £275
American Update: Batmania: Watching the Detectives/DC Debuts – Premiere of second Clayface in #298
*DC: Detective Comics #298 saw Batman & Robin face, for the first time, the menace of the sinister shape-shifter, Clayface! This was the second villain to use the moniker, and the two were not connected, the Golden Age version being a demented actor and this new iteration, in true sci-fi style, managing his malevolent metamorphoses courtesy of a radioactive meteor. As you do. Unlike the first Clayface, this one stuck around for decades and became a major player in Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery. This character debut is GD- p, off the top staple and with light diagonal creasing across the cover scene.
PICTURED: DETECTIVE COMICS #298 GD- p £60 SOLD
American Update: Catalogue Expansion – World of Krypton, DC’s (and Comics’) First Mini-Series
*DC: Spinning out of a popular back-up feature in the Superman titles, a three-part World of Krypton saga was supposed to appear in numbers 104 to 106 of Showcase, originally intended to coincide with the release of the Superman movie. When Showcase fell foul of the infamous ‘DC Implosion’, the prepared pages were held in storage for a couple of years, until 1979, when DC decided to release them as a stand-alone mini-series, the first such by DC or any other publisher. Until then, series that were at least intended to be ongoing, even if they didn’t ‘ongo’ very far, had been the industry norm, but this was the first series released, at the dawn of the Direct Market, with an intentionally fixed span. Written by Paul Kupperberg, it explores the last few years of Krypton’s existence, the events immediately prior to the planet’s destruction, illustrated by Howard Chaykin and Murphy Anderson. This complete 3 issue series is averaging NM-, cents copies with no UK stamp or overprint.
PICTURED: WORLD OF KRYPTON #1 NM- (SET OF 3: £25)
American Update: DC Silver/Bronze Sweep – ‘B’ titles
*DC: Continuing our alphabetical top-up for DC titles, this week beginning with ‘B’: Batman, of course, opening with #151, Batman Adventures, Batman Family, Batman ’66 (and Archie Meets Batman ’66), Batman: the Killing Joke (US prints, first and fifth editions), and a substantial selection of Brave & Bold, with Batman team-ups galore, but the occasional change of pace non-Batman issue, such as the superlative Fox and Anderson-created #61 & #62, co-featuring Starman and the Black Canary, among the finest comics ever made in our not-noticeably-humble opinion. Full details as always in our catalogue.
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts! The Mandarin – Iron Man’s Arch-Foe Debuts in Tales Of Suspense #50 VF+
*Marvel: Perhaps the greatest of Iron Man’s many enemies is the Mandarin, a master of science, martial arts, and controller of an international network of operatives, whose ruthlessness is outmatched only by his ingenuity. And he’s got the bling, too! Famously, each of Mandy’s digits carries a ring (“More than Zsa Zsa Gabor”, as Ben Grimm once remarked) with its own unique powers, at their master’s deadly disposal. This is a superlative copy of the Mandarin’s first appearance, VF+ with vivid colour, excellent gloss and only the most minimal spine ticks. A pence copy, labelled rather than the usual stamp or overprint. The definitive Iron Man arch-foe (albeit a bit non-PC nowadays, which is why you’re unlikely to see a ‘straight’ version of him on screen any time soon). High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: TALES OF SUSPENSE #50 VF+ p £750
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: Hulk #180 – 1st Wolverine Appearance FN/VF
*Marvel: Among the most sought-after comics of the 1970s, Hulk #180 featured the first appearance of Wolverine, the Canadian super-hero who, outstripping everyone’s expectations, became the most popular Marvel character since the dawn of the Marvel Age. Created by Len Wein and Herb Trimpe (from a John Romita design), Wolvy was revived by Wein when he put together the New X-Men who debuted in Giant-Size X-Men #1, and since then, Wolverine became the star of the X-Men, and a media darling in his own right. Having said that, it wasn’t a lengthy first appearance – in the final panel of #180, Wolverine popped up to make dire threats to both Jade-Jaws and guest monster the winsome Wendigo – but it’s still the first on-panel appearance of the decade’s mega-hot star. Never distributed in the UK, this gap in your Hulk history can be filled with a FN/VF copy, tight & bright with minimal edge and corner wear, flexible off-white interiors, and, most crucially, the Marvel Value stamp firmly in place! A cents copy (no pence variants on this puppy!)
PICTURED: HULK #180 FN/VF £420
American Update: Spider-Mania/Mighty Marvel Firsts: Amazing Spider-Man #50, with Kingpin debut and iconic cover scene
*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 of the fact 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. This copy of Spider-Man #50 is a sound and clean, attractive FN+ pence copy with the classic cover scene unmarred. It would grade higher but for the presence of a previous owner’s name and a date on the upper back cover margin – neat and unobtrusive writing.
PICTURED: SPIDER-MAN #50 FN+ p £375 SOLD
American Update: Slab Happy! Days of Future Past – Classic X-Men Storyline in #141 & #142- CGC Signature Series
*Marvel: From 1981, and the days when alternate future storylines were not nearly as cliched as they’ve since become, one of the most compelling of them all: the ‘Days Of Future Past’ two-parter from X-Men #141/142 by Claremont & Byrne. This was virtually Byrne’s swan song on the title. Featuring an aged X-Men line-up against the Sentinels (and the first appearance of Rachel Summers, who became Excalibur’s Phoenix, (later Marvel Girl II)), this really is the story where, as the cover gleefully proclaims, ‘Everybody Dies!’. Already a sought-after two-parter, but its popularity (and value!) skyrocketed after the release of the X-Men film, ‘Days of Future Past’, which adapted the narrative to the big screen (though, it must be said, Wolverine was very unconvincing in the role of Kitty Pryde…). Both issues here are CGC Cents copies, from their signature series, autographed by writer Chris Claremont on 24th February 2007, then slabbed. Issue #141 is CGC 9.4 NM, #142 is 9.6 (NM+)
PICTURED: X-MEN
#141 9.4 £160
#142 9.6 £125
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: First Full Appearance Him (later Warlock) in Thor #165 & #166 Two-Parter
*Marvel: Created in a cocoon by scientists in Fantastic Four, the supernaturally gifted being known only as ‘Him’ made a couple of cameo appearances in previous issues of Thor, but #165 featured the first full appearance of the character, and the earliest inkling of the extent of his powers. Eventually, re-named Warlock, ‘Him’ would become a mainstay of Marvel’s cosmic sagas in the 1970s and beyond, but here was the first full outing, in a two-part battle with Thor for the hand (and other parts) of the warrior-maiden Sif, Thor’s main squeeze. This two-parter is newly available; #165 is GD/VG with approx. 1/2″ upper spine split. #166 is VG/FN. Both are cents copies with no UK price stamp or overprint.
PICTURED: THOR
#165 GD/VG £75
#166 VG/FN £55
American Update: King Solomon’s Frog! Jack Kirby’s Bombastic Black Panther #1
*Marvel: The Black Panther’s series in Jungle Action, which attracted a lot of acclaim at the time, was known for being verbose, introspective, reflective and philosophical. When the character’s co-creator, Jack Kirby, took over as writer and artist on T’Challa’s follow-up solo series, the results were… a considerable contrast. Shouting! Explosions! Aliens! Time-Travel! Implausibly-muscled ladies with black lipstick! Cosmic critters! All were here, and all playing at full volume all the time, in the crazed kinetic frenzy that Kirby was renowned for. Since the major movie hit (with a sequel just confirmed), the King of Wakanda’s star is ever-ascendant, and this issue especially always sells very briskly because of its – frankly – high loopiness quotient. This copy of Black Panther #1 is a pence copy, in FN/VF, a tiny bit of irregularity at the top cover edge, but glossy cover with vivid, unfaded red background.
PICTURED: BLACK PANTHER #1 FN/VF p £40
American Update: Marvel Premiere #28 – The Legion of Monsters
*Marvel: After a one-off black & white magazine in 1975, Legion of Monsters, used up a rag-bag of separate inventory stories starring Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, Manphibian and other horror heroes, someone at Marvel decided that the title was nifty enough to merit a further outing, and therefore the bizarre and otherwise inexplicable Marvel Premiere #28 came about. Unlike the Legion of Monsters one-shot, which featured unrelated stories, Marvel Premiere #28 brought Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Werewolf By Night and Morbius the Living Vampire together as an actual team, albeit one even more mis-matched than the Champions! From the team of Bill Mantlo and Frank Robbins, it’s… everything you might expect! For decades discarded in bargain boxes everywhere, this issue has acquired white-hot collector’s status in the last decade.
PICTURED: MARVEL PREMIERE #28 VF p £55 SOLD
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 was 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 a GD p copy, with slight ‘Marvel chipping’ at the cover’s edge.
PICTURED: SUB-MARINER #1 GD p £35 SOLD
American Update: Punisher #1 – First Issue of Ongoing Series From 1987
*Marvel: Following his successful mini-series, it wasn’t going to be long before Frank Castle, vengeful ex-family man and assassin-for-hire, got his own ongoing title, and in 1987 Marvel duly obliged, kicking off Fearless Frank’s longest-running series to date, in which he travelled around the world exterminating, erm, assassins and other criminals (yeah, but they were worse criminals than he was, all right?), while occasionally teaming up with super-heroes who logically should have been queuing up to arrest him. Be that as it may, here’s the first ish!
PICTURED: PUNISHER (1987) #1 VF p £20
American Update: Fantastic and Beware – A Two-Faced Pre-Code Horror Fest Update
*Horror 1940-1959: Regular readers may remember our recent update on Captain Science, the dashing outer space hero published by Youthful? Well, his star faltered with issue #7, and with issue #8, the Captain (and ludicrously-millinered space private eye Brant Craig) found themselves surrounded by horror tales as the magazine re-branded itself as Fantastic. With #9, the line-up had switched to all horror, and with #10, the series reinvented itself a third time as Beware, with full-on tales of the macabre. We have Fantastic #8 & #9, and Beware #10-12 newly in for your delight. Fantastic #8, sadly, is missing the centre pages, affecting two stories (though Captain Science and ‘A Dinosaur In Grandpa’s Barn’ are both complete, so what more do you want?), and therefore is given away as a ‘Brucie Bonus’ with #9, which is GD- (cover edge tears). Beware #10 is PR, but #11 and #12 make up for the deficit. Issue #11 is a sound and bright VG/FN, #12 VG, both of them with vivid cover colour, excellent interior page quality, and stories as lurid and hysterical as you could wish for. There was one more transformation yet in store for the series…
PICTURED:
FANTASTIC #9 (WITH BONUS #8) GD- £60 SOLD
BEWARE #11 VG/FN £350 SOLD
BEWARE #12 VG £250 SOLD
American Update: Marvel Horror/Mystery, including First Morbius Solo, Blade Crossover, 1st Living Mummy, Debut of Litlith and More
*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: From the late 60s to the late 70s, Marvel had a thriving line of horror/mystery series, both anthologies (with new and reprint material) and series-led once the liberalisation of the Comics Code in the early 70s allowed classic monsters such as vampires to be presented as, at least, anti-heroes. We have new stocks to Chamber of Chills (from #2), Chamber of Darkness (from #3), Fear (starring the Man-Thing and Morbius the Living Vampire – the latter with the first and final issues of his solo series, plus a crossover by film star Blade, Vampire Slayer, in a wide variety of grades!), Frankenstein Monster/Monster of Frankenstein (from #6), Giant-Size Chillers #1 (first series from 1974, starring Dracula and introducing the Daughter of Darkness, Lilith!), and Supernatural Chillers (from #5, featuring the premiere of the Living Mummy!). Exact details of grades and prices to be found in our online catalogue.
American Update: A Date With Patsy… (and Jeanie and Margie and Nellie and – Oscar?)
*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: As previously mentioned, the unstoppable Patsy Walker, in addition to headlining four major series and several short-run titles of her own, popped up all over the place as a guest feature in other issues of Timely/Atlas’ bustling teen humour/funny girls line. Our Patsy-centric update this week looks at some of those other titles, beginning with Jeanie (from #18), Margie (from #38, including a cross-over with Patsy and the other Hedy, actress Hedy DeVine, in #46), Mitzi’s Boy Friend (what, he didn’t even get his name on the cover?) from #3, Nellie the Nurse from #12, and a solitary Oscar (#4) all from the late 1940s.
PICTURED: NELLIE THE NURSE #14 VG £48
American Update: Mighty Marvel Magazines! Monsters, Aliens, Vampires, Kung-Fu – and Savage Sword of Conan #1
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Always keenly-pursued (and keenly perused, come to that), Marvel’s magazine-sized comics have been extensively restocked this update, with new entries for Bizarre Adventures, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Marvel Preview – starring Blade Vampire Slayer, Moon Knight, Star-Lord and Sherlock Holmes, among others – Rampaging Hulk, Vampire Tales, and Savage Sword of Conan – Marvel’s longest-running magazine, clocking in at 235 issues ending in 1995; we have his very first edition from 1974, plus a scattering of others! A Marvelous medley of plus-size pandemonium!
PICTURED:
MARVEL PREVIEW #1 VF+ £25
MARVEL PREVIEW #21 VF £35
SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #1 FN+ £35 SOLD
American/British Update: Undergound and Indies Restocked – Wally Wood’s Witzend, Crumb’s Home Grown and Motor City, More Oddities and Rarities
*Undergrounds: A long-overdue update to this popular section, with low-print run counter-culture classics galore! Robert Crumb, leader of the underground pack, brings us Home Grown, Motor City, and R. Crumb’s Comics and Stories, while Wally Wood and his pals provide two latter issues of cult magazine Witzend, featuring the artistic skills of Toth, Zeck, Frazetta and Ditko, as well as Wally himself. Richard Corben’s Neverwhere is a handsome full-colour paperback showing off all the boingy dangly bits Corben’s famous for, while Frank Thorne’s Ghita of Alizarr answers the question; “What if Red Sonja wore even less clothing?”. There are a couple of retrospective/informative entries that might go in our ‘Mags/Books About Section’, but are here because of their specialist subject matter – Best of the Rip of Press, Illustrated Checklist to Underground Comix, and Mal Burn’s 1977 Comix Index, covering the then-burgeoning UK scene. More modern fare is the Kitchen Sink iteration of Death Rattle, including the special reprint of Xenozoic Tales’ debut, and Star*Reach Classics, featuring P. Craig Russell’s Parsifal, while vintage obscurities include the UK-published newspaper tabloid Cyclops, Gung Ho and Om Home Made Comix (Dutch-published but English-language collections), Pure Joy, and Teen-Age Horizons of Shangrila. From the feminist front come more Wimmen’s Comix, Pandora’s Box, and Mary Wings’ Come Out Comix, and never let us forget our furry friends – Dorman’s Doggie and Fat Freddy’s Cat!
PICTURED:
MOTOR CITY COMICS #2 FN (3rd Print) £20
HOME GROWN FUNNIES VG (1st Print) £20
British Update: Festival of Britain! Daredevils – Moore & Davis’ Captain Britain, Night Raven and more
*Marvel UK: In the early 1980s, Marvel UK was broadening its readership and acquiring a reputation for high standards of creativity, largely revolving about the works of Alan Moore, who, in conjunction with Alan Davis, had taken the recently revived Captain Britain character away from a series of clichés and into new imaginative heights. In 1983, Captain Britain was the headliner for the Daredevils monthly, with extra-length Moore & Davis Captain B. episodes, plus new Night Raven text stories, reprints of Frank Miller’s acclaimed Daredevil series, and many other articles and features, frequently also written by Moore. We have all 11 issues of the Daredevils series back in stock, averaging FN, each one of which, in addition to the obvious creative appeal, has a full-colour centrefold pull-out, usually by Davis.
PICTURED: DAREDEVILS #1 FN £15 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 selection of Hornet issues with free gifts hails from the years 1971 and 1973. Issue #419 is in GD, with the Free Gift Hi-Flyer Boomerang in VG -; the Boomerang itself is immaculate, but at some point the paper surrounding it (check the illo., you’ll see what I mean) has become slightly marked. The following issue, #420, contains a booklet, ‘How to be a Super Boy’ – curiously, being rocketed from the doomed planet Krypton is not one of the options explored! Comic is FN, with Free Gift VF. And finally, from 1973, #529 offers 2 Super Model Fighting Planes of World War II. The comic is good, the Free Gift still sealed in slightly grubby envelope, so VG.
PICTURED: HORNET
#419 GD GIFT VG £20 SOLD
#420 FN GIFT VF £20 SOLD
#529 GD GIFT VG £20 SOLD
British Update: Air Ace – Virtually complete throughout the 400’s
*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Continuing our systematic restock of Air Ace, we have now reached the 400’s, with yet more tales of daring pilots in combat. This is virtually a complete run, lacking only a handful of the range from #400 to #499, but the condition is exemplary. From one single source, a newsagent’s unsold inventory, these are copies which have never been circulated, and are in a remarkable state of preservation, averaging VF, an unusual grade for British comics of this vintage. Our massive Air Ace stock-up will touch down in the very near future – keep watching for the final (for now) update!
British Update: Long Hot Summer – The First Four Look-In Holiday Specials/Summer Extras
*TV & Film Related Comics: The ‘Junior TV Times’, having launched in 1971, was a sufficient hit to commence its own series of Holiday Specials the following year (retitled Summer Extras from 1974 on). We have the first four in stock, commencing with 1972, with the star power of ‘Catweazle’, ‘Please Sir’ and ‘On the Buses’; 1973 offers a David Cassidy comic strip – apparently drawn by somebody who’d never seen pictures of David Cassidy, which is a bit weird – in the 1970s how could you avoid him? 1974 has an extra-length ‘Timeslip’ story, and Gary Glitter exhorting the readers to ‘Remember Me This Way’ (We’ll just leave that right there, shall we?) And rounding it out, 1975 has, unusually, no comics content, but a plethora of pop pin-ups and TV publicity puff pieces.
PICTURED:
LOOK-IN HOLIDAY SPECIAL
1972 FA £20
1973 FN £20
LOOK-IN SUMMER EXTRA
1974 VF £25
1975 FN/VF £22.50
British Update: A Date With Judy! 150 issues newly listed, from 1967 to 1976
*Girls’ Comics: The long-running companion to Bunty, Judy launched in 1960 and lasted in excess of thirty years. Home of proto-feminist ‘Bobby Dazzler’, peripatetic nurse ‘Fay Farrell’, exploited Victorian waif ‘Wee Slavey’ and many more well-remembered strips, we have restocked our Judy inventory with just over 150 issues, ranging from 1967, when sci-fi series ‘Marina and the Blue Mountain’ and secret agent ‘The Girl From D.O.R.S.E.T’ ruled the covers, to 1976, when the front of the mag was devoted to some truly hideous and unrecognizable portraits of pop stars, drawn by someone who had clearly never seen the people in question – or possibly never even seen another human being!
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 file in our American section:
*Marvel D – L
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.
Books Update: Bobbies On The Bookshelf
*TV/Film Tie-Ins: This update significantly increases the law and order quotient on the book shelves. First up is Columbo #2, The Dean’s Death, then the eponymous Dixon Of Dock Green (tracing Dixon from constable to station-sergeant over seven stories). Policewoman #1, The Rape, features Angie Dickinson on the cover and is based on a TV script. The final book is The Expert, featuring forensic pathologist Dr John Hardy ‘helping the police with their enquiries’. All four books have TV covers, and Dixon Of Dock Green also includes two black and white stills.
American Update: Batmania! Batman #136 ‘Challenge of the Joker!’ from 1960
*DC: 10c Batman issues are becoming increasingly scarce on the market, and to have one in attractive grade with a cover appearance by Batman’s greatest foe is a rare treat. #136 features the Joker (and his Sky Sled!) plus ‘The Case of the Crazy Crimes’ and ‘The Town That Hated Batman’, in a beautiful VG+: crisp interior pages, sharp corners and edges, bright glossy covers, firm staples and only a small glued lower spine split precluding a significantly higher grade – on casual examination, it looks like an easy FN+ or better. A cents copy, no pence stamp or overprint.
PICTURED: BATMAN #136 VG+ £95 SOLD
American Update: DC Debuts: Son of a Preacher Man: Preacher #1 from Vertigo back in stock
*DC: Another more ‘modern’ addition to our listings is Preacher #1 from DC’s Vertigo imprint. A mere 23 years ago, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon brought us the tale of the eponymous Preacher, Jesse Custer, who travels across America on a mission to track down God with the assistance of his gorgeous hitwoman girlfriend and his best friend, an Irish vampire. As you do. Sexist, racist, violent, twisted, homophobic, misogynist and thoroughly, thoroughly blasphemous, Preacher was also intelligent, viciously insightful, and outrageously funny. Lasting 66 issues and a handful of Specials, Preacher broke boundaries and won both acclaim and controversy in abundance. Recently made into a TV show which has attracted a cult following, readers should be advised that the TV series is restrained and discreet compared to the original comic! No, really.
PICTURED: PREACHER #1 FN p £45
American Update: DC Debuts: 1st Silver Age Catwoman in Lois Lane #70
*DC: In 1966, with Batmania sweeping America, the Batman TV show was in full swing and it seemed you couldn’t pick up a DC comic without Batman being involved. Even here, in Lois Lane #70, the Caped Crusader and Robin make an appearance, but the show is stolen by one of his most famous foes, Catwoman, making her first entrance into the Silver Age of Comics. For good measure there’s also the Penguin and plenty of Superman too (natch!) in this book-length tale of villainy, crime, magic and impersonation. All beautifully rendered at the hands of Kurt Schaffenberger, who knew how to tell a story! An attractive GD/VG p copy, off lower staple and minor spine roll, but generally very presentable.
PICTURED: LOIS LANE #70 GD/VG p £60 SOLD
American Update: DC Debuts: Legends – Complete Series with debuts of Amanda Waller, Modern Suicide Squad and the ‘New’ Justice League
*DC: DC’s 1987 company-wide crossover Legends introduced a fistful of new concepts they were generating post- Crisis On Infinite Earths. Issue #1 saw the first appearance of the formidable Amanda Waller, and the final issue #6 saw the introduction of the ‘new’ Justice League, as manifested in their own series by Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire. The later breakout issue of this series, however, was #3, which brought in the most successful version to date of the Suicide Squad, under the direction of the aforementioned Ms. Waller. While the name ‘Suicide Squad’ had been used twice in the DCU before – once for a team of non-superpowered adventurers in Brave & Bold, and once for a series of stories in the war titles, this was the one which caught on. Unwillingly reformed super-villains, the team took on insanely hazardous missions with the dangling promise of freedom if they earned enough ‘time’ off their sentences – or the alternative of a swift and brutal death at the hands of their governmental captors if they crossed the line. A massive hit, this Suicide Squad spun off into several acclaimed series, and of course, a flawed-but successful major film release in 2016. This entire 6 issue set of Legends is NM pence copies.
PICTURED: LEGENDS #3 (COMPLETE SET OF 6 NM £50) SOLD
American Update: DC Silver/Bronze sweep – ‘A’ titles
*DC: Large additions to our stock for many DC titles beginning with ‘A’: Action Comics, from early 1960s with Supergirl, through to the Legion of Super-Heroes & beyond); Adventure Comics (inc #346, 1st Karate Kid etc, #353 death of Ferro Lad and other LSH, Supergirl stories, Spectre series commencing with #431, giant Dollar Comics and beyond), All Star Comics (inc final issue), Aquaman & Atom. Full details as always in our catalogue.
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: Debut of Thanos (and several others!) in Iron Man #55 VF
*Marvel: They don’t come much hotter these days than Iron Man #55, wherein the cosmic arch-villain Thanos, nemesis of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, made his first appearance, the brainchild of fan favourite writer/artist Jim Starlin. Thanos has of course gone on to plague Marvel’s heroes in comics and movies ever since, but here is where it all started. This landmark issue also features the debuts of Drax the Destroyer, Mentor, Eros (later Starfox of the Avengers) and Kronos. With Avengers: Endgame, in which Thanos is the Big Bad, having broken box-office records in cinemas worldwide, the character’s debut is only going to become more sought after. This copy is VF, bright and tight with firm staples at cover and centrefold, sharp corners and vivid cover colour with no discernible creasing or blemish. A pence priced copy. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: IRON MAN #55 VF p £550
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts: Avengers #57 (1st Vision) and #58 (origin Vision)
*Marvel: A significant latecomer to Marvel in the Silver Age was the enigmatic synthezoid, the Vision, who premiered in Avengers #57 as a pawn of the evil Ultron. Rapidly being discovered to be in Ultron’s thrall, the Vision was offered membership the next issue, in one of the most rapid reforms ever, and became a mainstay of the Avengers and the MU in general, particularly through his convoluted relationship with the Scarlet Witch. Based on a Simon & Kirby character from the 1940s, author Roy Thomas’ love affair with all things Golden Age stood him in good stead, as the Vision captured the hearts and minds of readers worldwide… though the exquisite art by John Buscema didn’t hurt! Those of us old enough to be around at the time have indelible memories of the impact Vizh made, as something genuinely out of the ordinary in super-heroics, and these two issues, his debut and induction into the Avengers, represent the work of Thomas and Buscema at their peak. With the increasing prominence of the Vision in Marvel’s cinematic universe, demand for his earlier appearances has spiked – and if you’re going to have two, these are the two to get! Issue #57 is a sound, bright VG+ p, small spine ‘ticks’ but unimpaired cover scene. The #58 is a sound and clean GD/VG p, with some minor age-related discolouration and wear at right cover edge, but again, unimpaired cover image.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #57 VG+ p £125 SOLD
American Update: Spider-Mania/Mighty Marvel Firsts: Amazing Spider-Man #298-300 – the Venom Trilogy
*Marvel: There are few more significant debuts in the latter days of the 20th Century than that of cuddly brain-sucking symbiote Venom, who graduated from being a genetically modified costume in a jar to the fully-fledged Emperor of Spidey’s Rogue’s Gallery! ‘The Venom Trilogy’, is Amazing Spider-Man #298-300, leading up to the first full appearance of Venom. Having debuted in Secret Wars #8 as a semi-sentient blob which configured itself into Spider-Man’s new costume, the ‘symbiote’ became a regular feature in Spidey’s own series before being revealed as a malevolent alien parasite which disclosed its true agenda in these very issues! #298 is the first brief appearance of Eddie Brock (the man who would become Venom) and the beginning of Todd MacFarlane’s run as artist; #299 features the first cameo of Venom himself and the big one, #300 (light to moderate spine ‘ticks’) is the first ‘Full Venom’.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#298 NM- p £55
#299 VF/NM p £40
#300 FN+ p £150
American Update: Amazing Adult Fantasy – Twist-Ending Shockers From Lee & Ditko
*Marvel: During the lean years of the mid 1950s to early 1960s, the company that would become Marvel ran a moderately successful sci-fi/suspense line built around two tropes: one, the famous ‘Big Panty Monsters’ by Lee & Kirby lauded in many previous updates, and the other, quieter, but even more chilling, twist-ending tales reminiscent of (and often ripped off by) TV shows such as ‘The Outer Limits’ and ‘The Twilight Zone’. The latter proved so popular that the fledgling Marvel devoted an entire series just to them, Amazing Adult Fantasy, taking over the numbering of Amazing Adventures from #7 and rebranding as ‘The Magazine That Respects Your Intelligence!’. Lovely though they were, it didn’t catch the mass market’s eye, and the series finished with #14 (with #15, of course, it became simply ‘Amazing Fantasy’ and featured an upstart hero called Spider-Man). These low-circulation, high-quality issues are now greatly in demand, and we have two of them newly listed, both pence printed copies. #7 with scribble on the inside front cover ad, and #14, featuring a Professor X/Marvel mutant prototype, with slight chipping at right cover edge.
PICTURED: AMAZING ADULT FANTASY
#7 VG- p £75
#14 VG p £110
American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts – The Imperial Guard, and the first full Starjammers appearance in X-Men #107
*Marvel: Two science-fiction based super-teams long associated with the X-Men are the Imperial Guard and the Starjammers, and both, oddly, were the result of artist Dave Cockrum’s impatience. Cockrum had illustrated a critically acclaimed and successful run of DC’s Legion of Super-heroes, but following altercations with editor Murray Boltinoff, Cockrum quit the Legion and DC to co-create the ‘New’ X-Men. By way of cocking a snook at DC, Dave came up with a suspiciously similar team of alien super-heroes, the Imperial Guard, each one of which was a (just barely) non-litigious clone of a Legionnaire. Similarly, the Starjammers had been created by Cockrum for a solo tryout in Marvel Premiere or Marvel Spotlight, but on being told those books’ schedules were filled years in advance, Cockrum offered the band of space pirates to X-Men scripter Chris Claremont, who bolted on a retconned relationship to an X-Man and threw them into the mix. This issue saw the first full appearance of both teams (the Starjammers having done the ‘enigmatic cameo’ bit since #104), taking the cast list – never forgetting our mutant heroes – to around 50, for a full-on free-for-all! This copy of X-Men #107 is an outstanding NM, cents (no UK copies exists, as the issue was not distributed here).
PICTURED: X-MEN #107 NM £275