*Marvel: 1965’s Fantastic Four #45 saw the culmination of a long-running subplot – and the introduction of a whole new family of supporting super-stars. Since #36, the mysterious Madame Medusa had been a thorn in the side of the FF, and latterly, from #44, she had been pursued by the equally mysterious Gorgon. Now, the pair’s true origin, and their royal heritage, was revealed, as the monarchs of the Inhumans made their debut in these two issues. Black Bolt, Crystal, Triton, Karnak and Lockjaw rounded out the Royal Family tree, and became long-running allies of the Fantastic Four. This copy has several light cover creases precluding a higher grade than VG/FN, but is still a highly attractive copy of a key issue.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #45 VG/FN p £140

*Marvel: Although Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts had premiered some issues earlier, it was Strange Tales #115 which explained how dissolute and egotistical surgeon Stephen Strange had sought help from mystical sources and been drawn on to the path of heroism following a life-altering accident. This, however, was a secret well-kept by Marvel, who were still plugging the Human Torch as a solo star at this point, and as such gave his match-up with Spidey foe the Sandman all the cover space, without even mentioning the Doctor was In! Nevertheless, this is the first telling of Strange’s origin, as greatly expanded upon in the widely-acclaimed cinematic blockbuster. This copy is GD; Initially it looks much nicer, with good cover colour and minimal edge wear, but closer examination reveals three small ‘punctures’ which penetrate the entire body of the book, albeit having minimal impact on the story pages. Despite that, this is a copy with considerable eye appeal.
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #115 p GD £65

More from the Square Mile Collection next week!

*DC: The groundbreaking run of Green Lantern, in which he and Green Arrow set out to confront the failing American Dream, resonates with audiences even today, as, sadly, corruption, pollution, overpopulation and the other issues raised seem even more topical now. The Comics Code Authority had long prohibited even the mention of drug use, but that being one of the matters the editors wanted to address, creators Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams took advantage of a then-recent liberalisation of the Code to have a shocking story in which Speedy, Green Arrow’s former sidekick, was revealed to be a heroin user. The controversial cover was banned in many parts of the USA, and the story, though naïve, was a sincere attempt to address the issue in comics for only the second time since the 1950s.
GREEN LANTERN #85 VF £100

*DC: Following the re-introduction of the Justice Society of America in the early 1960s, a few sporadic attempts were made to give some individual JSA members tryouts. Sadly, none of them were successful in the long term, but all of them were lovely comics. Closest to our hearts here at 30th C. is the pair of Brave & Bold issues co-starring Starman and the Black Canary, two JSAers who never even met back in the Golden Age, but whose styles and skill sets meshed beautifully in these adventures featuring Golden Age villains the Mist, Sportsmaster and the Huntress, and co-starring (in the second issue) fellow JSA’er Wildcat. By Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, these are among the finest comics of their era, and shamefully disregarded by the general collecting community. These copies are both VF- , attractive bright copies with sharp corners, firm staples, lustrous cover colour and excellent interiors.
PICTURED: BRAVE & BOLD
#61 VF- £50
#62 VF- £40

*Marvel: There were few more significant debuts, in the latter days of the 20th Century, than everyone’s favourite brain-eating symbiote Venom, who graduated from being a genetically modified costume in a jar to the Alpha Dog of Spidey’s Rogue’s Gallery! We have a quartet of collectibles in the Black Costume/Venom saga, beginning with Amazing Spider-Man #252, which, like many Secret Wars ‘epilogue’ issues, featured a major ‘twist’ only explained retroactively. In Spidey’s case, it was a dramatic black & white costume with a deadly secret. This was the debut of the new costume in real time, but it wasn’t the only debut – simultaneously, the black costume also appeared in Marvel Team-Up #141, released the same month, and often overlooked by collectors. The first appearance in internal continuity, however, was in the ‘flashback’ Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #8, in which the origin of the costume was disclosed. And rounding out this venomous variety pack, we have Amazing Spider-Man #300, the first full appearance of Venom as readers (and moviegoers, with the second Venom flick being imminent) know him today.
PICTURED:
MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS #8 VF/NM p £70
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #252 VF+ p £60
MARVEL TEAM-UP #141 VF/NM £45
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #300 FN p £150

*Marvel: Roy Thomas and Barry Smith’s comic book recreation of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian was a breakout hit for Marvel in the early 1970s, but yet another fantasy comics star made her debut in Conan #23 (Feb 1973), when Conan encountered Red Sonja, a female brigand and adventurer who was every bit his equal – even though Marvel missed a step by not cover-featuring her! Sonja rapidly caught the public’s imagination and spun off into her own series (regrettably with a skimpier and more impractical outfit than her earlier look), and more than forty years later – being a licensed character not linked to a specific publisher – continues her comic-book career to this very day. This copy has only tiny spine ‘ticks’ and miniscule upper corner wear to distract from its gleaming vibrant colour.
PICTURED: CONAN #23 FN/VF £60

*Marvel: Following his debut in 1991’s New Mutants #98, Deadpool won his own mini-series in 1993. ‘The Circle Chase’ was written by ‘Pool’s co-creator Fabian Nicieza, and drawn by Joe Madureira, pitting the eponymous assassin against a battalion of mercenaries in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, with Weapon X waiting in the wings. Although the full character of Deadpool as the movie audiences know him hadn’t yet evolved, this was the major breakthrough in Deadpool’s relentless rise to multimedia super-stardom. These are pence copies, averaging NM, sold as a four-issue set only.
PICTURED: DEADPOOL CIRCLE CHASE #1; SET #1-4 AV. NM £40

*Marvel: Not every issue, but an impressive run of Strange Tales this week, commencing with #135 (1st SHIELD) and ending with #168 (final SHIELD, before Nick Fury and Dr Strange parted company into their own titles). Both strips in Strange Tales from this period offered different fare to Marvel’s traditional super-heroes, with the debut of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD (Marvel’s answer to the James Bond/spy craze of the 1960s, initially by Jack Kirby, and later written and drawn by the sublime Jim Steranko) and the ongoing adventures of Dr Strange, Master Of The Mystic Arts (with art by Ditko, Severin, Everett and Adkins). This off-beat pairing is fondly remembered today as an outstanding period in this title’s long history. Full grading and pricing details as always in our catalogue.

*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
#5 VF/NM £70
#14 NM £97

*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
#527 VG WITH FREE GIFT VG £20
#528 VG WITH FREE GIFT VG £20

*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

JUNE HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1969? GD

JUNE HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1968? FN/VF

JUNE HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1970 FN/VF

JUNE HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1971 FN/VF

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.

*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

*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

*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!

*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

*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

*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

*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

*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.

*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

*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

*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

*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