*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.    

Please note that due to refurbishment work the shop will not be open until 1 pm on Wednesday 6th February (only). We apologise for any inconvenience caused. All other days remain as normal.

*DC: In 1992/93, DC produced the much-publicised ‘Death of Superman’ story arc that made international headlines; us old and jaded cognoscenti of the comic world knew better than to think DC would kill off one of their major iconic characters, but the general public were fooled just the same. When issue #75 of Superman came out, you had to queue round the block outside comic shops to get your hands on a copy as Superman fell victim to the power of Doomsday. Here’s your chance to relive the entire saga, preludes, spin-offs and so on all in this 12 issue set, all VF+ to NM grades, comprising (in sequence) Superman the Man of Steel #17, Superman #73 (2nd print), Adventures of Superman #496 (2nd print) , Action Comics #683 (2nd print), Superman the Man Of Steel #18 (2nd print), Superman #74, Adventures of Superman #497, Action Comic #684, Justice League of America #69, Superman the Man Of Steel #19 and finally Superman #75 (sealed collectors’ edition with all the extras (pictured), and, because we’re too good to you, the newsstand edition as well (2nd print), so you can read the conclusion without opening the sealed copy. SORRY, THIS SET HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: A wonderful acquisition in our Slab Happy event this week! The debut of ‘Earth’s Mightiest Super-Heroes!’ – as they were straplined on their very first issue – is one of the most sought-after Marvel keys, as Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp – inspired, doubtless, by the recent success of DC’s Justice League of America – came together to battle the threat of Loki in this Lee/Kirby extravaganza. This copy of Avengers #1 is a cents copy, no pence price or overstamp, and has been graded by the American CGC company as a 4.0 purple label indicating a Restored grade – an Apparent VG equivalent, but with a note that the bottom edge of the cover has been trimmed. As you can see from the picture, however, this does not impact on the cover image at all, and honestly, if you didn’t know what to look for, then in the words of a wise man, ‘You can’t see the join, Ern.’ The Avengers, of course, are the commercial juggernauts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the comics have generated thousands of issues and multitudinous spin-off series, all of which began from this ground-breaking premier issue. On sale at £1,350.

*Marvel: From Journey into Mystery #103, when the Asgardian landscape was still ‘settling down’ in the relatively new Thor strip, two figures debuted who were to make a lasting impact in the life of the God of Thunder: The Executioner, a menacing figure whose might almost equalled that of the God of Thunder himself; and the Enchantress, mightiest of sorceresses, who was to become Thor’s most beloved enemy, occasionally doing good deeds because of her unrequited feelings for Thor – but never for long! Two of the most powerful characters in the Marvel mythos, the diabolical duo have bestrode the four-colour cosmos for decades, and this is where their infamous careers began! A FA/GD pence copy, with moderate spine wear and a lower spine split, marked creasing at edges and corners, but the central cover image is unimpaired. On sale at £60. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: With issue #25 of Captain Marvel, Jim Starlin took over the series and kicked up what had been a failing series to a stratospheric level – beyond the stratosphere, in fact, as Starlin threw in all the elements he’d recently introduced in Iron Man #55 – Thanos, Mentor, Eros and the other denizens of Titan – to create a star-spanning cosmic saga with major consequences for the Marvel Universe in general. The contrast was marked, and readers responded, setting a precedent for cosmic crossover sagas which, for better or worse, have been with us ever since. Starlin’s run on Captain Marvel lasted from #25 to #34, and we have all but two of them new in (lacking only #32 and #34) including early appearances by Thanos, who became a major villain not only in the comics, but on the big screen. Depicted is #28 FN p £30; others, including some non-distributed issues scarce in the UK, may be found in our online listings. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Marvel: Given her peculiar origins, Dazzler’s longevity as a comics heroine has been remarkable. Conceived as a disco tie-in by Casablanca Records in the late 1970s, Marvel was to create a singing super-heroine and Casablanca was to recruit a live singer to ‘be’ Dazzler. Originally intended to resemble Grace Jones, the design was considerably altered to resemble then-hot actress Bo Derek. When the record company withdrew, leaving Marvel with an ‘orphaned’ character, she was introduced as a fully-fledged mutant in X-Men #130. Alison Blaire, with the ability to transmute sound into light, has been an unlikely mainstay of the Marvel Universe ever since, and we have a copy of her premiere appearance in X-Men #130, a near-flawless cents copy, NM at £75.

*Marvel: A small update to this favourite title from 1968: issues #2, #4, #5 & #7 of Nick Fury, Agent Of SHIELD, all with art by the incomparable Jim Steranko. Covers on all four, interiors on #2 & #5. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: Launched in 1950, taking over from the failed series Teen, Journey into Unknown Worlds initially delivered sci-fi shockers to the paranoid populace that thrilled to ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ and other Cold War cinematic thrillers. Aliens and robots, however, rapidly gave way to ghosts, vampires and monsters, as JIUW became a fully-fledged horror title – at least until the advent of the Comics Code Authority! Our recent influx of Journey Into Unknown Worlds is so huge that, as previously noted, we’ve had to break it into two chunks, and this is the Pre-Code section, where Everett, Maneely, Sale, Sekowsky and other stellar artists brought shocks and shudders to the comics-reading populace. Illustrated are #8 (VG £120), #9 (GD £84), #25 (VG £73), #29 (VG+ £82), and #30 (GD/VG £55), but as with many of our long-running Atlas series, issues are in a wide variety of grades, and many ‘readers’ can be found in our online listings.

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: In 1970, after the Warren horror comic magazines, Creepy and Eerie, had been successful for half a decade, the bandwagon jumpers were circling, and one of them was Skywald Publishing. Throwing together a bunch of Pre-Code reprints – artistically amended for added gore – and the occasional new story, they launched Nightmare, followed the next year by its companion Psycho. Successful enough to switch to all-new material, stories initially read like ersatz Warren tales, illustrated either by newcomers to the field – Jeff and Bruce Jones, Doug Wildey, Ralph Reese – or by folks whose professional careers were, by then, largely behind them (Syd Shores, Bill Everett). However, within a very few issues, writer/editor Al Hewetson’s – let’s call it ‘unique’ – writing style came to the fore, and the paranoid and often largely incoherent ‘Horror-Mood’, as he referred to it, became the norm. With a new, largely South American stable of artists, he created a miasmatic air of formless menace that challenged Marvel and Warren enough that they, according to Hewetson himself, colluded to deny Skywald distribution. We are delighted to have more of this oddball footnote in comics history in stock, with new listings for Nightmare from #6 to #21 (and its short-lived British reprint incarnation) and Psycho from #2 to #22. Illustrated are Nightmare #6 FN £13.75 and Psycho #2 VG/FN £11.50, with plenty more listed in our online catalogue!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: An attractive run of the earlier Victor Summer Specials, from the second Special in 1968 to 1976. Victor, home of ‘The Tough of the Track’, ‘Morgyn the Mighty’, ‘Braddock VC’ and many more, is fondly remembered by a generation of readers, and these tabloid-sized editions of the comic, predominantly new material created for the holiday market, were frequently lost or discarded on the way home, so fewer of them survive than their weekly siblings. In addition, this selection is in absolutely superb condition, almost no wear, no creasing, writing, yellowing, tears or staining, vivid and unfaded, showing no sign of the horizontal folds often inflicted on these oversized editions by careless newsagents. Highly sought-after items, these are absolutely the best copies we’ve seen in our quarter-century of trading, and we’re confident you’ll feel the same. 1968 is VF £80, 1970 VF £80, 1971 VF £50, 1972 FN/VF £45, 1973 FN/VF £45, 1974 FN/VF £45, 1975 VF £50 and 1976 VF £50. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Launched in 1959 in response to Fleetway’s War and Battle Picture Library series, second-string publisher Micron’s entry in the war stakes, Combat, had amazing tenacity, running more than 1,200 issues through to 1985, but has been all but forgotten by comics historians – not so by its devoted fans, however, who had cleaned out our stock of all but two issues! Fortunately for said fans, we’ve acquired 140 new copies of Combat PL, ranging from #34 to #513. For the first 256 issues, it shamelessly imitated the livery of its brethren, War and Battle, but with #257 it adopted a lurid new look, with garish and sleazy-looking cover illustrations, rendered with a great deal more energy than skill, reminiscent of the more frenzied low-budget war movie posters. Come and get some, if you think you’re hard enough!

*Clearance Corner: Our second and final clearance of Crisis features in Clearance Corner this week. A star of the late 1980s British comics boom and their attempt to produce intelligent, mature and politically and socially aware comics. Starting out with Third World War by Pat Mills & Carlos Ezquerra and New Statesmen by John Smith and Jim Baikie, it later featured The New Adventures of Hitler and other strips by Grant Morrison, Troubled Souls by Garth Ennis and John McCrea (Ennis’s start in comics) and many other noteable strips by British and European creators. The run lasted 63 issues from 1988-1991. This selection comprises 30 issues between #1 & #39, including 3 issues with free gifts (#15, #16 & #17). All on offer for just £20. UK postage if required will be a further £4.

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 British section:
*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: Having quite startlingly revitalised the moribund Jimmy Olsen title with #133, writer/artist Jack Kirby took it up a notch by introducing Darkseid, the fiendish ruler of the hell-world Apokolips, in the very next issue. It was only a fleeting cameo – Darkseid’s image flashes up on a monitor screen while Facetiming with Morgan Edge – but it’s nevertheless the first appearance of the villainous fulcrum of the entire Fourth World Saga, and as such is in high demand. Our new copy of Jimmy #134 is a gleaming VF+ copy, small pence price stamp, with only very light corner wear which does not impair the striking Neal Adams cover image. Tight staples, and off-white flexible interior pages. This highly desirable copy of a zooming-up key debut is on sale at VF+ p £300.

*DC: In this week’s visit to Batmania, we feature Detective Comics from 1950 to 1980 – three decades of Caped Crusading! While Batman’s eponymous series remains popular, his ‘home’ was in Detective Comics, where he made his debut back in 1939, and has starred ever since. We have a range of twenty copies added to our selection, from 1950’s #166 (pictured, GD/VG £100) through to 1980’s #487, with the first appearance of Steve Ditko’s The Odd Man! (Actually, come to think of it, maybe the only appearance of the Odd Man!). Eras touched upon here are the family-friendly Caped Crusader of the 1950s, the early gloamings of the Dark Knight in the early 1970s, (the classic Neal Adams illustrated #395), several of the Englehart/Rogers ‘reboot’ issues with Dr. Phosphorous and Clayface III, and the ‘Dollar Comic’ issues incorporating the Batman Family – several of these giants have beautiful work by Golden, Rogers, Starlin and more! Batman & Robin, plus at various times Pow-Wow-Smith, the Martian Manhunter, Man-Bat, Roy Raymond and more – await the pleasure of your company! SORRY, #166 NOW SOLD

*Marvel: In 1964, the adventures of Iron Man were enlivened by the appearance of the lovely but lethal Natasha Romanoff, code-named the Black Widow, one of the Kremlin’s deadliest operatives. Originally an appealing but unoriginal femme fatale in civvies, inspired by Caniff’s Dragon Lady and other Mata Hari wannabes, Natasha proved surprisingly adaptable, allying herself first with the second Crimson Dynamo (also premiering in this issue) and later Hawkeye, and trading her cocktail dress and veil for the first of many costumed ‘looks’ as she switchbacked from villainess to heroine, culminating, of course, in her on-screen embodiment by Scarlett Johansson in the Avengers and other Marvel movies. This issue is where ‘Tasha’s career kicked off, and while superficially sound, there is considerable spine wear, with a long lower spine split. Nevertheless, the cover scene is unimpeded apart from a very faint long diagonal crease, and the interiors are very presentable. Overall, we have graded this at FA+, making this pence copy a relatively affordable key debut issue at £80. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: Marvel’s First Family, having returned to the Marvel Universe after a long absence, are rapidly gaining in popularity, and we’re chuffed to have thirty issues of Fantastic Four added to our stock, including a number of landmarks. We open with #25, the first definitive Hulk/Thing clash; #28 features a battle between the FF and the proper X-Men; the debut of Diablo in #30; the premiere of Madam Medusa and the Frightful Four in #36; the first Gorgon in #44; Ronan the Accuser in #65; the first Him – the man who would become Warlock – in #67 (VG+ p £45, pictured); the first Agatha Harkness in #94 and two Annual events – Annual #2, with the full origin of Doctor Doom revealed for the first time and Annual #3, with the star-studded wedding of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl, co-featuring virtually everyone who’d appeared in the Marvel Universe to that date! SORRY, FF #67 PLUS ANNUIALS #2 & #3 NOW SOLD

*Marvel: You seem to like our catalogue expansions — increasing the range of classic titles into our catalogue and our ground floor boxes. This time it’s the turn of the Avengers, now extended up to #300 (1989). If, like us, you’re bemused and bewildered by the sheer number of Avengers titles these days, and the constant relaunches, so you can’t tell which series is which, return with us to the days of good, old-fashioned storytelling and proper continuity, when the quality of story and art afforded a good read, as in these classic tales — most issues cheaper than a new comic! Pictured: our favourite cover from this time: #223 (Taskmaster app) VF/NM £15. SORRY, AVENGERS #223 NOW SOLD

*Marvel: A rarity this update: 1992’s one-off, Spider-Man Special Edition: The Trial of Venom. This was an extremely limited issue which could only be obtained, at the time, by making a $5 charitable donation to UNICEF. By Peter David and Jim Craig, the one-shot co-stars Daredevil (hence the legal framework for the plot), and comes with a poster bound in. Although the print run is uncertain, very few copies are now in circulation, and this one comes with the still-firmly-secured poster. NM at £35. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: By 1964, the Marvel Age had already been well established, and fans were clamouring for the stories they had missed. Marvel promptly obliged by launching, in 1964/65, Marvel Collectors’ item Classics (with Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and Ant-Man) and Marvel Tales (with the X-Men, Avengers, Hulk and Doctor Strange), reprinting the earliest adventures of their heroes. The line-ups shifted and settled over time, but these ‘King-Size’ compilations helped many a Marvelite catch up with the ‘Story So Far’. Now old enough to be collectors’ items in the their own right, we have Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #1-4 and Marvel Tales #2-5, plus issues #2-4 of Fantasy Masterpieces, which started as a ‘Big Panty Monster’ reprint title, but expanded to giant size with #3 and reprinted Golden Age Marvel stories for the first time ever.

*Horror 1940-1959: Launched in 1950, taking over from the failed series Teen, Journey into Unknown Worlds delivered sci-fi shockers to the paranoid populace that thrilled to ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ and other Cold War cinematic thrillers. Aliens, robots, giant critters and strange transformations were the order of the day, delivered with inventiveness and élan. Our incoming stock of Journey Into Unknown Worlds is so big, we’ve had to break it into two chunks. This week, we present the post-Code issues, commencing with #36 and continuing until the final issue, 1957’s #59. Kubert, Torres, Krigstein, Williamson, Davis, Crandall, Orlando, Morrow and Powell are among the contributing artists. Pictured: #38 VG+ £55, #42 VG+ £55, #46 VG+ £51, #51 FN £78 and #53 VG+ £51. Other copies in a range of grades may be found in our online listings… and keep your eyes peeled for the Pre-Code listing for this series, coming real soon now!

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Following on from last week’s massive Creepy update, we’re delighted to present a similar sized chunk of Creepy’s companion title Eerie. Similarly a black and white horror magazine from the 1960s-1980s, Eerie featured the same roster of fabulous artists as its equally famous sibling. From #2 (1st regular issue, #1 being a barely circulated ashcan), to over #100, dozens of new issues, including several previously missing from our listing. Pictured is #25 (Steranko cover) FN £13.75.