*DC: Joker covers and stories are always the most popular Batman issues, and with Batman #286, you get two Jokers for the price of one in this fairground-set tale penned by the great Denny O’Neill. We don’t want to spoil the story for you, but Joker fans will, we suspect, be well pleased with this issue. A lovely high grade pence stamped copy with just minor wear at the top edge.
PICTURED: BATMAN #286 VF p £45

*DC: Action Comics that is — the biggest update we’ve ever made to this seminal DC title, with over 100 issues added between #279 and #499, right through the Silver & Bronze Ages, all featuring Superman, of course, and starting out co-featuring Supergirl, then on to a whole cast of back-up features before ending as an entirely Superman title. This update adds a whole load of issues previously missing from our catalogue, plus alternative grades for many issues already in stock. Of particular note are many very high grade issues between #400 and #450.  
PICTURED: ACTION COMICS #400 VF/NM £38

*Marvel: In the early 1970s, with the supernatural craze at its height, Marvel sought ever-more ingenious ways to produce horror/mystery series which got around the then-Draconian censorship of the Comics Code Authority. One such was Ghost Rider, a retooling of a former Western hero as a stunt-riding Satanic minion (obviously!). After a short but successful run in Marvel Spotlight, Ghost Rider, who notwithstanding his devilish empowerment usually acted heroically, moved to his own series under the aegis of Gary Friedrich, Tom Sutton and Syd Shores, achieving a very respectable 80+ run, and not even two truly execrable movies starring Nicolas Cage have managed to dent his ongoing popularity! This is a decent mid-grade pence printed copy of the first issue, with good cover gloss, nice pages and firmly attached staples. Edge wear is minimal, but there is a felt-tip pen mark covering up the original 6p price, above which a small felt-tip pence price is written; this can be seen on the scan, which you can enlarge by clicking on it. (A higher grade cents copy is also available and listed in our catalogue)
PICTURED: GHOST RIDER #1 VG+ p £110

*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! A nice, glossy tight copy with just some spine stress marks keeping the grade down.
PICTURED: X-MEN #107 FN+ £60

*Marvel: New in, issues of Tales To Astonish between #53 & #67, straddling the period when the Hulk series recommenced. As well as a couple of issues with Giant-Man & the Wasp stories, we also have a few issues where the Hulk started sharing the title, including #60, where you can see ‘the Big Change’ as Ol’ Greenskin started his run.
PICTURED: TALES TO ASTONISH #60 VG+ p £45

*Harvey: We begin a mini-event this week of the interesting experiment in 3D comics which came out in the 1950s. Personally, I never found these blurry specimens that effective or exciting, but there is very definitely a collector base out there for them. We kick off with three examples from Harvey: Adventures in 3D #2 (war, western and adventure stories) – no glasses with this one; True 3D #1 (more of the same) with two pairs of glasses and #2 (yet more) with glasses. Squint-O-Vision fans, step up!
PICTURED:
ADVENTURES IN 3D #2 GD+ £12
TRUE 3D #1 FN/VF £20
TRUE 3D #2 VG £10

*War: Over the coming weeks, we’ll be doing a major overhaul to our War Comics category, adding material from several publishers. We start this week with a relatively small update to our Atlas War titles, inc. the following: Battle, Battle Front, Combat Casey, Combat Kelly & Man. Full details in our catalogue. More war to follow!

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: A real mixed bag here this week as we present selections from the following titles: Adventures Into The Unknown (Arnold/Strato/Thorpe & Porter), Fantastic Tales (Thorpe & Porter), Justice Traps the Guilty (Arnold/Thorpe & Porter), The Man From UNCLE (Rosnock, Australia), Out Of This World (Strato/Top Sellers), Planet Comics (ME UK), Planet Stories (Atlas UK), The Saint (Thorpe & Porter), Voodoo (Miller), Western Classic (World Distributors). Horror, Crime, Adventure, Science Fiction & Western in this most diverse of categories.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Dozens of issues of War Picture Library new in from #6 (1958) through to #640 from 1971, including many issues previously missing from our listings. War PL, along with Air Ace & Battle, was one of the Big Three of Fleetway’s war-themed Picture Library series.  

*Girls’ Comics: Judy, home to Wee Slavey, Nannette of the North, Bobby Dazzler and a host of others, launched in 1960 following the success of its slightly older sister Bunty, and the pair dominated the UK comics scene for several years. We’re lucky to have two consecutive issues from 1971 bearing their original Free Gifts: #574 has the rather splendid ‘Judy Kitty Purse’, still sealed in its original envelope; #575 has the ‘Lucky Kitty Mascot’ brooch, or at least we assume that’s what’s inside the original sealed envelope. The defects in the comics are caused by the stress on the paper of having the sometimes bulky gifts inside for decades, so they are only due to pressure, not tears or staining.
PICTURED: JUDY
#574 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £40 SOLD
#575 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £40 SOLD

Since we’re now trading by mail order only, it gives us the chance to maintain our catalogue even more accurately. All items sold since lockdown are now being deleted within a few days of sale. We are also working through our entire catalogue to delete those items that sold pre-lockdown since files were last updated. This means that as we finish updating a file, you can rely on the catalogue for that category being (and staying) as close to 100% accurate as it is possible to get, with virtually everything available, apart from items sold in the last few days (and just a tiny amount of human error). We have now completed this exercise for the following category from our British section:
*Humour Comics
All categories down to this point in our Catalogue Index have now been Super-Housekept! We will continue to post here as we make progress.

*DC: One of the most sought-after comics of the early 1970s is Batman #234, the first post-Golden Age appearance of Two-Face. Crusading District Attorney Harvey Kent (later Dent) was horribly disfigured by an acid attack and became the bi-polar bad guy strongly reminiscent of (and inspired by, according to Bob Kane) Jekyll & Hyde. After a handful of appearances from 1942 through to the early 1950s, Two-Face was retired in favour of more Comics Code friendly, less horrific villains, but his triumphant comeback was in this issue, where writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams reinvented him as a more chilling nemesis than ever. In subsequent decades, Two-Face has become a major player in Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery, in multiple media. This key issue, with stunning Adams cover and interior artwork, is a nice higher grade pence stamped copy, tight, flat and glossy, with just minor edge and corner wear; good staples and nice page quality. 
PICTURED: BATMAN #234 FN/VF p £160 SOLD

*DC: A triumvirate of the Man Of Steel this week from 1956. First up, Action Comics #220 featuring ‘The Interplanetary Olympics’, and back-ups of Congo Bill and Tommy Tomorrow (a chip and strip off lower cover edge on this one). Then Superman #107 (cover featuring ‘Rip Van Superman’) and #109 (‘The Super-Puppet With X-Ray Eyes’), these two being the earliest issues of Superman we currently have in stock. Featuring the competent art of Al Plastino and the rather more stylish art of Wayne Boring, all three are in very affordable grades; check out our catalogue for details.

*Marvel: Fantastic Four issues #49 & #50 feature the first cover appearances of the Silver Surfer and the second and third parts of the Galactus trilogy which began in #48 (also now in stock). Regarded by many as the highpoint of the Marvel Age of Comics. #49 is a pence printed copy with some spine roll, corner blunting and edge wear, some grubbiness just at page edges, but a clean and unspoilt cover image, decent staples and presenting reasonably well. #50 is also pence printed, an attractive copy, tight and flat, with good staples and mostly nice pages (a couple of minor interior creases); some spine and edge wear and minor corner blunting, but clean and bright. 
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR
#49 GD/VG p £220 SOLD
#50 FN p £220 SOLD

*Marvel: By the time the Blob appeared for his second outing in the nascent X-Men title, Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil You-Know-Who’s (as the cover dubbed them), were becoming ever-present, this issue trying to recruit the Blob to their cause. Lots of lovely moments in this Lee/Kirby classic. This is a solid mid-grade pence printed copy, with minor edge wear, a very tiny upper spine split (just a couple of cm), a small crease across bottom right cover corner, good tight staples, an unspoilt cover image and nice page quality.
PICTURED: X-MEN #7 VG p £100 SOLD

*Marvel: A chunky update to our Thor stocks, starting with Journey Into Mystery (listed under ‘J’ in our catalogue). #109 sees Thor up against Magneto and the Brotherhood of you-know-whos; #124 sees the coming of Hercules into the series, and Annual #1, which just preceded #124 has the 1st appearance of Hercules. Plenty of key issues follow when the series changed its name to Thor, including the debut of Ego, the Living Planet in #132, the first major appearance of Hela in #150, the Him (later Warlock) two-parter in #165/166 and the origin of Galactus in #168/169. Lots to enjoy for Thunder God fans!

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Is it a pulp? Is it a comic? Well, actually it’s both! In 1950, Avon experimented with a 32 page colour comic insert inside a traditional science fiction pulp magazine (so popular at the time). So here, in Out Of This World Adventures #2, you get what appears to be a pulp mag, with a gorgeously typical painted cover, and interior illustrated text stories by the likes of A. Bertram Chandler and others, plus 32 pages of colour comics, led by Wally Wood’s wonderful Flying Saucers and other horror/comedy shorts. The uniqueness of this item in publication history is assured due to there being only two issues produced in this format. A decent copy, with the squarebound spine almost intact but for a small split and the top and a tape repair at the bottom (about 6 cm). The beautiful cover image is unmarred.
PICTURED: OUT OF THIS WORLD ADVENTURES #2 GD/VG £75 SOLD

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: This is a real oddity. From Hastings Associates 1959, a one-off magazine called Eerie Tales (not to be confused with any other publication bearing the name ‘Eerie’ in its title). In moody black and white, it features text-heavy picture strips, but the format and the monochrome enhances the superb art by the likes of Williamson, Torres, Tuska, Powell and Morrow. There must be a reason why it never got to #2, but I’m afraid the crystal is cloudy on that one. A decent copy with some spine ticks and minor creasing; we’ve never seen a copy before, and doubt we ever will again. 
PICTURED: EERIE TALES #1 VG+ £45 SOLD

*Marvel UK: Following his popular revival in other Marvel UK anthologies, and rave reviews for the daring and innovative Alan Moore/Alan Davis storylines, the ‘new’ Captain Britain was given his second solo series in 1985, and although Moore had jumped ship, the quality of the scripts continued for the monthly magazine, with Jamie Delano’s scripts and Alan Davis’ artwork presenting an enticing saga of multiversal conflict. The Crazy Gang, Gatecrasher’s TechNet, Slaymaster and Mastermind all returned. This also featured Parkhouse & Lloyd’s 1930s-era vigilante ‘Night Raven’, and occasional new stories spotlighting other characters from the expanded Captain Britain mythos. We have a near complete run of this keenly-collected series (missing #12 & #13), averaging FN/VF, so if you haven’t sampled it before, here’s your chance! This was the final series for the Captain for a couple of years until he reappeared in Marvel US Excalibur title.
PICTURED: CAPTAIN BRITAIN #1 FN £12

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: There’s no doubt that the long-lived Victor is most famous as the premiere War Boys’ weekly comic, but you’re just as likely to find other subjects within its pages, such as sporting stories, high adventure in the jungle or with pirates etc. This week we have 25 issues new in from 1966, a year previously poorly represented in our inventory.
PICTURED: VICTOR #282 FN £3 SOLD

*Girls’ Comics: Small updates to many of our best-selling girls’ titles this week, including Bunty (1958 #3, 1968-1970), Judy (1972, 1974), June (1972), Mandy (1969), Romeo (1972), Sally (1970) and Twinkle (1969). Just a handful.

*DC: One of my all-time favourite comics, now elevated to a comic prized by many due to the strong rumours of a Zatanna movie. While all early issues of Hawkman are superb, with high-flying sci-fi stories by Gardner Fox and luminous Murphy Anderson artwork (not that we’re prejudiced witnesses or anything…), the most sought-after in recent years is issue #4, featuring the debut of the Princess of Prestidigitation – Zatanna! Zee (as she’s familiarly known), a personal favourite here at 30th Century, is the daughter of DC’s Golden Age magician Zatara, and took her quest for her missing father through the pages of Green Lantern, Atom, Detective Comics and the Justice League of America in one of DC’s earliest ‘story arcs’, but this is where her illustrious career – which has branched out into both animated and live-action TV – began. (And yes, they did miss a bet by not having her featured on the cover – foolish mortals!). This copy is lowish grade, with a loose centrefold with slightly ragged centrefold page edges as a result. There is a small 1 cm split at top of spine, corner blunting and edge wear that isn’t too bad. The pence stamped cover is clean and unmarked, with  a colour-breaking crease across the bottom right corner. This comic really wants to be in your collection!
PICTURED: HAWKMAN #4 FA/GD p £90 SOLD

*DC: We conclude this round of Silver Age DC updates with selections from the following titles: Superman (between #149 & #197, a classic period, with lots of Curt Swan art, plus the uncommon Annual #1 in low grade), Tales Of The Unexpected with Space Ranger, Teen Titans (a low grade #1 issue), Wonder Woman and World’s Finest (inc 1st Miss Arrowette in #113 and a classic Joker cover on #177). As always, full details in our catalogue. 

*Marvel: From July 1970, we have not one but two copies of Amazing Spider-Man #86, in which the Black Widow, having previously worn a cute-but-retro fishnets & cape outfit, remade her image into the sleek, leather-clad redhead that we know her as today. Taking on Spidey in a story by noted feminist (ahem ahem) Stan Lee, she delivers immortal lines such as “Don’t think I’m helpless just because I’m soft and cuddly.” Ah, they don’t write them like that any more; aren’t we lucky? We have this first appearance of the Widow as today’s movie-goers would recognise her in highly attractive FN+ and FN- grades, both pence printed. Not much to choose between them; the FN- has some minor creasing at spine where the comic has been read and slightly more corner blunting, the FN+ slightly less wear.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#86 FN+ p £75
#86 FN- p £60

*Marvel: Following his exploits in WW2, Nick Fury resurfaced in the 1960s in Strange Tales as secret agent, head of SHIELD, Marvel’s entry into the spy craze of the time. At the hands of Jim Steranko, renaissance man and consummate comics creator, the strip really tapped into the spirit of this 1960s spy phenomenon, rivalling Bond, UNCLE et al. By the time that Strange Tales ended and Nick got his own series in 1968, Steranko was coming to the end of his time on the series, but he contributed four wonderful stories and art jobs and seven iconic covers before he was through. The series lasted just a further eight issues (and three reprints) without him. We have almost all the series new in from #1, including all the Steranko work. One wonders just what he might have achieved had he decided to continue. For full details of our stock, see our catalogue listing. 
PICTURED: NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD #1 GD- p £25 SOLD