*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Curiously, for a series which started in the late 1950s, it’s remarkable that it wasn’t until 1971 that the home of Roy of the Rovers, Johnny Cougar, Skid Solo and Martin’s Marvellous Mini (a car, not a skirt, lest you be puzzled) got its own extra-large summer edition, but in 1971, just as the weekly transitioned from a general adventure weekly to an all-sports comic, the first Tiger Holiday Special emerged, with its sporting superstars firmly to the fore. We have three high-grade early Tiger Holiday Specials in excellent grades, beginning with that first from 1971, VF £40, and joined by 1972 FN/VF £27.50 and 1975 (a Roy/Skid/Johnny/Martin crossover epic – and you thought ‘Secret Wars’ and ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’ did it first…) in VF £30. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

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:
*Romance
*Teen Humour/Funny Girls
and in our Books Section:
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: One of DC’s more popular titles of the 1970s happened by purest accident: a one-off team-up of Batgirl and Robin – sans Batman – originally intended for an issue of First Issue Special was repurposed as a lead for Batman Family, a reprint title, and proved so popular that further instalments of Babs N’ Dick were commissioned for an ongoing series, leading to one of the most-loved romances in the comics world. Batgirl & Robin remained the lead, picking up other discarded characters along the way as their supporting cast, until the title became an extra-length, all-new ‘Dollar Comic’, with top-notch creators including Michael Golden, Don Newton and Marshall Rogers. We have a new selection of Batman Family from #1 to #19 in stock, including several duplicate issues to give discerning punters greater choice.

*Marvel: From 1968, a gamma-infused milestone, with the first issue of the Hulk’s own series, eccentrically numbered #102, as he assumed the numbering of Tales to Astonish, the split-book which had been his home for several years. This was Brucie’s big break, his comeback vehicle after his early-60s 6-issue flop, and the start of the long-running series most associated with him. Mirthful Marie Severin illustrated not only a recap of Bruce Banner’s irradiated origin, but also a new story thread with Jade-Jaws frolicking with some of Thor’s Asgardian chums, including the Warriors Three! (Bonus points for the appearance of guest-villainess the Enchantress (obviously)). This copy is clean, tight at staples, good cover colour and gloss, light ‘blunting’ at corners, but no significant creasing, tiny amount of wear at middle edge of cover. This debut issue of Bruce Banner’s solo show is a cents copy, no UK price overprint, FN+ £85. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*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; issue #165 is an attractive FN+, pence, with minimal corner and edge wear but an unmarred black cover background and vibrant colour. 166, the conclusion, is just a step behind at FN, but a cents copy with no pence pricing. #165 FN+ p £120, #166 FN £40. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Marvel: When the Ant-Man name was unclaimed in the late 1970s a brainier-than-average sneak-thief, Scott Lang, stole Hank Pym’s old apparatus and became the second bearer of that title! But it’s okay – he did bad things for good reasons, specifically to find a cure for his dying daughter, as was revealed in Marvel Premiere #47 and #48, the two-part tale which (after a cameo in Avengers #181) was Scott’s first full-length adventure. John Byrne and David Michelinie created this different take on the hero, and since then, Scott has had his ups and downs – been in jail a few times, been dead a few more, been a love-slave of the Purple Man – but he’s fought his way back to respectability, and has achieved cinematic stardom in two recent movie hits, plus a scheduled reappearance in ‘Avengers: Endgame’. This double-dip debut for our loveable scientist scofflaw consists of a VF- p #47 at £50, and the conclusion in #48 VF+ p will run you a mere £20.25. SORRY, #47 NOW SOLD

*Marvel: A tempting selection of Tales of Suspense, by this time home to Iron Man and (slightly later) Captain America, issue numbers ranging from #54 to #75. Highlights include the first Silver Age Red Skull in #65 (VG+ p £41), and #75 (GD p £15), a very affordable double debut of Batroc the Leaper and the as-yet-unnamed Sharon Carter, a.k.a. Agent 13. Details on the others, as always, in our online inventory. SORRY, PICTURED ITEMS NOW SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: Launched in 1956 and cancelled the following year after only eight issues (possibly due to confusion with Atlas’ then still-running Mystic anthology), Mystical Tales nevertheless crammed a lot of talent into its short run, with imaginative covers mostly by Bill Everett, and interior works by Berg, Crandall, Williamson, Torres, Krigstein and Orlando, a veritable buffet of top artists. We have the entire eight issue series in stock; depicted are #1 GD £52 and #5 FN+ £115.

*Western: Launched in 1954 and running through to 1957, the Outlaw Kid was Lance Temple, an Old West lawyer and Civil War veteran living with his blinded father on a ranch. Having promised his father he would never take up a gun, Lane’s overdeveloped social conscience nevertheless prompted him to sneak out and fight crime behind a mask. As you do. Although Joe Maneely drew most of the series’ covers, Doug Wildey, later an acclaimed animation and graphic artist, provided the dramatic interior artwork, backed up by anthology western stories or guest-appearances by the Syd Shores-illustrated Black Rider. We have most of the 19 issue series in stock, missing only #10 (though a damaged #4 is a bonus enclosed with #5). Illustrated are #13 VF- £41, #15 FN/VF £36 and the double-covered #18 FN/VF £40, but as with many of our Atlas series, grades and prices vary, as may be confirmed in our online listings.

*Magazines/Books About Vintage US Comics: More additions to our stock of the ever-burgeoning field of comics history, criticism and analysis. From 1974, the first slender volume of The Art of Neal Adams, with many lesser-known sketches and illos by the cult artist. From 1976, Nostalgia Press’ ‘Little Nemo 1905-1906’, celebrating the early run of the acclaimed newspaper strip. 1977 brings us Maurice Horn’s exhaustive ‘Comics of the American West’, sadly lacking its dustjacket. Roger Sabin’s massive tome, ‘Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art’ graces us with its first paperback edition from 2001 and finally, on a lighter note, Fantagraphics’ ‘The Comics Go To Hell’ presents a gallery of the graphic medium’s representation of the darker side of the afterlife.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Originally published fortnightly from 1967 to 1968, these extra-long digests provided 100+ pages of (as far as we know) all-new adventures, not reprinted from the weekly comics. Like its companion titles in the Fleetway Super Library family (Fantastic/Stupendous and Secret Agent), Front Line alternated its stars, odd-numbered issues featuring ‘Maddock’s Marauders’, a rag-tag team of international soldiers, and even-numbered copies starring ‘Sgt. Ironside’, who, to absolutely no-one’s surprise, got the job done while disobeying military rules. We have many, though by no means all, of the 26-issue series beginning with issue #3 and ending with issue #24. Like our recent additions in the Fleetway Super Library Secret Agent Series, this selection is in surprisingly high grade (given the propensity of the card covers to attract and hoard creases), with the majority being VF. Illustrated are #3 VF £15 and #4 VF £12.

*Humour Comics: The broadsheet-sized Topper proved a smash hit with young readers from the get-go in 1953, and we’re delighted to have two early issues back in stock; #9 (VG £30, Easter issue), and #10 (VG £20). Home of Mickey the Monkey, Beryl the Peril, The Fighting Frasers, Foxy, Nancy, Fritzi Ritz and, in these early issues, Dudley Watkin’s superbly-illustrated adaptation of ‘Treasure Island’.

On offer in our Clearance Corner slot this week is a job lot of Playhour, the comic for younger readers with the star power of Magic Roundabout and Sooty! We have 68 issues available running from 1960-1975 plus the 1969 Holiday Special. Previously on sale at £140, we’re clearing these out for a bargain £20 the lot! Grades range mainly from GD to FN. UK postage (if required) would be an extra £8. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*DC: After #123 (‘Flash of Two Worlds’, as if you need telling), and the premier issue (#105), probably the most in-demand issue of the Silver Age Flash is #139, which featured the first appearance of Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, Barry Allen’s super-swift nemesis from the far-flung future, whose appearances in the popular Flash television series have caused his early appearances to zoom (sorry) upwards in value. We are delighted to welcome the Reverse-Flash back into our inventory – though we anticipate not for long. Clean and sound, with moderate spine, edge and corner wear, but unimpaired cover scene, slight fading at top and right cover edges, but firm staples at cover and centrefold, this copy is GD p £75.

*DC: Holy Priceless Collection Of Vintage Tat! A massive update to our stock of the Gotham City Guardians, with issues ranging from #157 through to #190, taking in along the way visits from Mirror Man, Bat-Mite, Vicki Vale, the second Silver Age Penguin appearance, the second ever appearance of Poison Ivy, the egregious Eraser, a whole wad of 80-Page Giant issues – and can we ever forget the Joker’s sidekick, Gaggy? (Well, perhaps if we try very hard…) This selection also encompasses Annuals #6 and #7. Illustrated is #186 (FN-p £20.50), but a multitude of grades and prices await you in our Bat-Catalogue…

*Marvel: The 1972-launched Marvel Team-Up paired Spidey (and occasionally the Human Torch) with a different one of Marvel’s best and boldest each issue, providing readers with a chance to be exposed to new and unfamiliar characters – and, by happy coincidence, enable Marvel to retain copyright on heroes who didn’t currently have their own series! MTU #1 – never distributed in the UK – teams Spider-Man with the Human Torch against the sinister Sandman, with an (after-the-fact retcon) cameo debut by Misty Knight. This first issue of a popular and long-running series is a CGC Blue Label – no restoration – graded 9.2, an equivalent of NM-, and is on sale for £200. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*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, small spine ‘ticks’ and one faint diagonal crease at right cover corner, bisecting the Wasp (sorry, Jan). A cents copy with no UK pence price or overstamp, on sale at £90. Issue #58 is an attractive FN p, clean and unimpaired cover scene, at £50. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Marvel: Yes! It’s true! After several copies of this issue have passed through our hands, we’ve finally run out of ‘Allo, Allo’ themed openings! But while this issue is a frequent visitor to our shelves, it never languishes for long. In August 1990’s X-Men #266, while temporarily de-aged to childhood (don’t you hate it when that happens?), Storm met a charismatic thief named Gambit, who aided her in escaping from the Shadow King. Unlike many one-off guest-stars, however, Gambit caught on with the reading public, and stuck around to become a mainstay of the team – fortunately ditching his original costume of pervy knickers, stripey tights and flasher-mac in favour of a more conservative ensemble! The recently-wed ‘Mr.Rogue’ (oops, sorry, spoilers…) has been a hugely popular X-Man ever since, and his full debut is always a hot choice with buyers. This extremely attractive NM pence copy is on sale at £100. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: In 1976, the House Of Ideas came up with Nova, designed originally to be an ‘everyman’ character like Peter Parker/Spider-Man, but quickly developing into a cosmic ‘soldier’ more akin to Green Lantern. Luckily, DC’s lawyers didn’t notice the parallels. Although the original run lasted a mere 25 issues, Nova has returned many times to the Marvel Universe, especially involved in the protracted cosmic crossovers of which Marvel is so fond. The Nova Corps having been namechecked in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, it can only be a matter of time before the man himself makes an on-screen appearance, so grab these while you can! New issues in stock between #2 and the final #25 of the original series, averaging FN/VF.

*Horror 1940-1959: Although you may not be able to tell from our recent swathe of updates, other people besides Atlas did venture (often quite successfully) into the horror field in the 1950s, and we’re happy to turn a grisly spotlight on some of those publishers this week. From Fawcett, home of the cheery sunshiny Captain Marvel and Family, comes Beware Terror Tales and This Magazine Is Haunted, two horror anthologies hosted respectively by the Mummy and Doctor Death, which presented a considerable contrast to the Shazam Squad; one Beware and three new Haunteds grace our listings this week. Meanwhile over at Harvey, Lee Elias, Howard Nostrand and Bob Powell turned out finely-crafted shockers in Witches’ Tales, two additional issues of which join our ranks. Lastly for this update, comes Ace’s Challenge of the Unknown, a 1950 one-off (numbered #6) which fell in the transition between Love Experiences and Web of Mystery. A sort of ‘pilot’ for Web of Mystery, this issue features ‘Villa of the Vampire’, ‘High Priestess of the Snake People’, and other such wholesome romps. Illustrated are Beware Terror Tales #2 VG+ £82 and This Magazine Is Haunted #11 GD+ £47. Details of the others can be found in our online listings.

*Western: Sadly lost among the dusty trail of the 1950s Western boom was this four-issue run of Six-Gun Western, an anthology with the same quality contributors as the rest of the line – Crandall, Williamson, Woodbridge, Maneely, Orlando, Powell, Pakula, Romita and Shores (that’s a lot of talent for a short run!) – but which just got lost in the stampede of others flooding the newsstands of the late 1950s. All four of the title are now in stock: Issue #1 is VG £33, issue #2 is FN £36 (Well, of course ‘His Guns Hang Low’, if he’s got six guns – he needs a stronger belt!). SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Magazines/Books About Vintage US Comics: In 2000, From The Tomb was launched, a fanzine expressing love for all things horrific in the comics field, and it grew into a semi-pro ‘zine with full-colour interiors by the time of its 28th issue in 2009 – the final number to date, though FTT has returned from the grave, in the best horror tradition, more than once, so don’t count it out! Covering a plethora of subjects, from EC to Matt Fox, Basil Wolverton to the ‘Skywald Horror-Mood’ and beyond, we are pleased to have a virtually complete run of this cult ‘zine back in stock, lacking only issue #3 from the set.

*Collected Editions: A pair of collected editions spotlighting yesterday’s super-stars: the 1975 Daily Mirror Book of Garth collects Frank Bellamy’s spectacular work on the eternal warrior who lived many lifetimes – inexplicably pairing up with implausibly shapely ladies in every one of them, a feature Bellamy emphasised with gusto! This copy has minor staining on the front cover and moderate wear, but the interior images are unharmed: FA/GD £10. And 1982’s Best of Eagle, edited by Marcus Morris, presents Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, by Frank Hampson, as well as other Eagle stars, in a full-colour hardcover, VF at £10.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Originally published fortnightly, these extra-long digests provided 100+ pages of (as far as we know) all-new adventures, not reprinted from the weekly comics. Like its companion titles in the Fleetway Super Library family (Fantastic/Stupendous and Front Line, Secret Agent alternated its stars. One issue would feature Johnny Nero, debonair cosmopolitan who travelled the world thwarting wrongdoers with the aid of his amanuensis Jenny Bird, a resourceful maiden who once skied a bad guy to death (No, really). Alternate issues presented Barracuda, a code-named tough guy possessed of superhuman strength whose main vendetta was against the agents of WAM (War Against Mankind). His assistant was the rather less appealing (though YMMV, as the young folks say) man-brute Frollo, who must have been a bugger to keep under wraps on stealth missions. Much of this new stock is in surprisingly high grade considering its vintage (given the propensity of the card covers to attract and hoard creases, as collectors know), with the majority averaging VF. Most issues are available from #1 to #26, including some duplicates, but we expect strong demand for these. Illustrated are #1 VF £25 and #2 VF/NM also £25.

Way back in the 30th Century, four friends gathered together in their clubhouse to take a solemn oath, to use their powers only for good and to take the world of comics back to a place it had never been before and set up a comic shop with a retro futuristic outlook. Thus in 1994 was born 30th Century Comics, and in the course of the ensuing 25 years, through trials, tribulations, fires, hardships and joys a legend was forged. Although one of the friends fell along the way, the remaining trio like to think he would be proud of the enterprise we have become, the sort of shop we’d all like to shop in. Join us as we celebrate 25 years of 30th Century Comics with stylish new blinds and a banner adorning our window, and dedicate our celebration to Peter, who is doubtless looking down from Shanghalla with a smile.