*DC: DC’s Limited Collectors’ Edition tabloids of the 1970s, most of which were non-distributed in the UK, are highly sought-after now, their extra dimensions not lending themselves to long-term storage, and being more prone to damage than the average comic book. Among the most sought-after are the several issues featuring Batman, of which we have four new to our lists: C-25, with a selection of the Darknight Detective’s stellar artists from all eras, including Robinson, Infantino and Adams; C-37, an ‘All-Villain Special’ featuring vintage tales of the Joker, Catwoman, Two-Face, the Penguin and the Scarecrow; C-44, a spectacular collection of baffling mystery cases and C-59, with an original Adams cover fronting ‘Batman’s Strangest Cases’, including contributions from Giordano, Novick, Wrightson and that Adams boy again.
PICTURED: LIMITED COLLECTORS’ EDITION
C-25 FN- £25
C-37 VF- £40
C-44 FN+ £30
C-59 VF- £35

*DC: Even though we’re famous for crumbly old comics, we do sometimes admit a deserving modern item to the catalogue, and 2002’s Y The Last Man #1 is such an exception. After a devastating event which eliminates all men – and all male mammals – from planet Earth, society must restructure itself with an all-female paradigm. But not quite all-female. Two males survive: Yorick Brown and his pet monkey Ampersand. Some factions of the surviving women want to rescue Yorick, some to study him, some to exploit him, some to eradicate him; but with literally all the women in the world seeking him, Yorick wants only one woman: his girlfriend, who was across the globe when the cataclysm hit. Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi series was a huge hit for DC/Vertigo, winning shedloads of awards, and media adaptation rumours persist. This copy of #1 is a superior FN.
PICTURED: Y THE LAST MAN #1 FN £60

*DC: Continuing our massive sweep through DC, this week we reach titles beginning with the letters ‘C’ to ‘E’, thus topping up our stock for Camelot 3000 (all 12 issues now available singly as well as collectively), Challengers of the Unknown, Champion Sports, Creeper, DC Comics Presents (#27, 1st Mongul), DC 100 Page Super-Spectacular, DC Special Series, DC Super-Stars (inc #17, Huntress origin), Detective Comics (inc #387, 30th Anniversary issue & #470,1st Silver St Cloud and modern Hugo Strange), and 80 Page Giant.

*Marvel: Amazing Spider-Man #252, like many Secret Wars ‘epilogue’ issues, featured a major ‘twist’ only explained retroactively. In Spidey’s case, it was a dramatic black & white costume which would eventually be revealed as an alien symbiote, which in turn would evolve into to Venom, who eclipsed most longer-established villains to become Spidey’s crucial nemesis for ensuing decades, and eventually the star of his own hit film franchise – without Spidey! Although the first appearance of the symbiote in internal continuity was Secret Wars #8, its debut in real time was this very issue. This is from the CGC Signature Series, signed on the cover by Stan Lee on 29th March 2007, then graded by CGC as 9.4 NM.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #252 SIGNED BY STAN LEE CGC 9.4 £400

*Marvel: A breakout hit of the early 21st Century, issue #3 of the short-lived series of NYX – short for ‘New York X-Men’ if you’re wondering – featured the first appearance of Wolverine’s ‘cloned daughter’ (it’s comic books, don’t worry about it), a brainwashed psychotic assassin who moonlighted as an underage hooker. And they say the age of heroes is dead. Be that as it may, the character’s popularity mushroomed as she was featured in Avengers Academy, Avengers Arena and New X-Men, and she briefly assumed the title of Wolverine herself during one of her putative cloned dad’s temporary demises. Interest was piqued further by a version of the character making her cinematic debut in the ‘Logan’ movie, causing this low-print run modern comic to acquire what seems to a casual eye a disproportionate ‘heat’. Her first and second appearances, NYX #3 & #4, are now once again available.
PCTURED: NYX #3 (2003) VF- £150

*Marvel: Let’s be honest, on the face of it, the She-Hulk sounded like a really lame idea when we first heard of her — what was to follow? Hulk-Hound, the Hulkmobile, Planet Hulk? But intermittently chartreuse lawyer Jen Walters has gone on to become one of the most enduring and endearing characters in the Marvel Universe, with creators such as John Byrne and Dan Slott providing charm, wit and (mostly) intelligent humour in her own series and during tenures with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. There wasn’t too much trace of that in Jen’s first series, the Savage She-Hulk, when it saw the light of day back in 1980 and she was as angry as her cousin (though didn’t burst out of quite as much of her clothing, thanks to the exigencies of the Comics Code Authority) but Savage She-Hulk #1 – by the legendary creators Stan Lee and John Buscema – is where Jen’s illustrious career got its start. Non-distributed in the UK, so there are no pence copies, this is also accompanied by the savage second issue for your collecting convenience.
PICTURED: SHE-HULK (1980) #1 VF £65

*Marvel: A collection of low to mid-grade Special issues of Marvel’s Mightiest Heroes this week, commencing with Annual #2, a superb parallel worlds saga, and including other early Annuals plus two significant debut issues: Annual #7, the epic conclusion of Jim Starlin’s Thanos/Warlock Cosmic Odyssey, and Annual #10, with Spider-Woman, the X-Men, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and the first appearance of Rogue! We then move on to the Giant-Size Avengers quarterly of the 1970s kicking off with its first issue: the All-Winners Squad returns! (well, bits of it) and continuing the Kang/Rama-Tut/Celestial Madonna saga. While a bit tired and worn, these lovelies can still provide hours of reading pleasure; for grades and prices on these soiled doves, kindly consult our captivating Catalogue pages.

*Marvel: A substantial Silver/Bronze Age Sweep through the hallowed halls of Asgard, commencing with issue #127 of Thor’s series and closing with #301. This range includes both the special anniversary issues #200 and #300, and a range from the #290’s featuring an extensive cross-over with the Eternals, suddenly the ‘hot new property’ of the 21st century! As a bonus, there’s a couple of Annuals, including a low-grade very first (technically Journey Into Mystery Annual #1) introducing Marvel’s Hercules! Join Thor and all his wacky chums – Loki, Hela, Odin, Sif, the Absorbing Man, the Destroyer – for celestial shenanigans galore!

*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
#14 FA/GD £115
#15 GD/VG £215
#16 FA £125
#17 GD- £125

*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

*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
1970 VF £70

*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.

*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
1972 VF £25
1974 FN/VF £22.50

*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

*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

*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

*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

*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.

*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

*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

*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

*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

*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

*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

*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