*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: We continue our mammoth update to Battle, the famous weekly title with the years 1979 and 1980; now almost every issue for those years in stock. The first issue of 1979 is #200 (GD/VG £15), with the first of the acclaimed Charley’s War strip written by Pat Mills and drawn by Joe Colquhoun, unarguably (we think) the finest story of World War I ever created. Also included is the 5th Anniversary issue in 1980. Nice copies throughout here, mainly FN and VG. Look out for the conclusion of our Battle marathon next week!

*DC: In 1964, the sales of Detective Comics starring Batman had slumped to such a low ebb that serious consideration was being given to ousting Bats and having the Flash take over the lead slot in the title. Before such a drastic move, however, the editorship of detective was switched to Julius Schwartz, and a New Look was introduced – the first of many, many DC ‘reboots’, but probably the most successful! Back-up feature Martian Manhunter was shunted over to House of Mystery and replaced with the Flash’s crime-solving buddy, the Elongated Man, while scripter John Broome and illustrators Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella brought a slick, sophisticated and modern look to the Batman series, utterly devoid of aliens, robots, gorillas, and all the other tropes that had characterised the previous run. This series of Detective opens with #327, the first ‘New Look’ issue, and continues through to #358, just before the debut of a certain Dominoed Daredoll. Along the way, we take in such highlights as the death of Alfred, the first appearance of the sinister Outsider, a pair of guest appearances by the enchanting Zatanna (one, admittedly, in heavy disguise), the premier of Blockbuster, and the first appearance of the Cluemaster. Oh, and they did slip in one or two gorillas, for old times’ sake – but taken much, much more seriously!

*Marvel: From the 1970’s, the unexpected debut of a later cult character. Jack Kirby’s adaptation, then thematic continuation, of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey raised many baffled critical eyebrows at the time of its release, but in issue 8, the series finally acquired what it had lacked – a central character for the readers to empathise with – in the shape of Mister Machine, a robot with a soul who fought to find his purpose in existing. The 2001 title expired shortly thereafter, but Kirby, then Ditko, continued our hero’s adventures in his own series – renamed Machine Man, the title under which he’s more generally known. Since then Machine Man has gone on to lengthy service in such series as Marvel Zombies, Avengers, and Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., but this is where his career began. This is a cents copy (no pence copies of this non-distributed issue exist) in VF- condition. Generally in excellent shape, but an original machining/guillotining error at the printing press has resulted in very faint irregularities to the upper right cover edge, without which it would have been an easy NM. Nevertheless, an affordable copy of a character debut, offered at £25. SORRY, THIS HAS 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 file in our American section:
*DC
and in our British section:
*TV & Film Related Comics
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*DC: A quartet of beauties that are among the closest to our collective hearts here at 30th Century – in Justice League of America #21 & #22, the groundbreaking “Crisis On Earth-One” and “Crisis On Earth-Two”, the heroes of the Justice League met their parallel-world counterparts, the Justice Society of America, for the first time, and an annual tradition was formed. Superbly created by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs, the multiple heroes and villains of these stories were expertly juggled, with everyone getting their moment to shine. Reader response was such that in issues #29 and #30, we were brought the two-part, “Crisis On Earth-Three”, and “The Most Dangerous Earth of All!” respectively, which introduced the Justice League’s evil counterparts, the Crime Syndicate of America, from yet another parallel world. After a period in limbo, the CSA were revived in later decades, and have become major antagonists in subsequent DC Universes, spotlit in Grant Morrisson and Frank Quitely’s acclaimed “Earth-2” graphic novel, and the ‘big bad’ in the New 52’s “Forever Evil” mega-event. The Justice Society went from strength to strength, and have starred in several ongoing series since. These are the issues that kicked it all off, and they’re available in affordable mid-high grades, all cents copies – #21 is  VG £55, #22 VG/FN £55, #29 FN+ £65, and #30 FN+ £50. All four illustrated below. SORRY, THESE HAVE NOW SOLD

*Marvel: Continuing our update on the oversized editions, we’re also pleased to present the second team-up of Superman and Spider-Man – this time helmed by the House of Ideas, and presented under the official title of Marvel Treasury Edition # 28! Orchestrated by Jim Shooter and John Buscema, this features the villainy of Doctor Doom and the Parasite, and guest-stars the Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman; this FN/VF copy is available at £40. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*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 1970’s, 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. 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. It all began here, folks: Conan #23 VF+ offered at £40.

*Marvel: One of the most sought-after series of Marvel’s Silver Age is the Silver Surfer, a short achievable run (18 issues only) of a cult character presented by Stan Lee and John Buscema (all but the final issue) at what is generally regarded as the height of their creative abilities. We are pleased to have three CGC Blue Label (unrestored) issues – the final three, in fact – in very affordable mid-grades. Issue #16 is 3.5 VG-, #17 is 4.0 VG, and #18 (the issue illustrated by Jack Kirby, where the Surfer clashes with the Uncanny Inhumans) is 5.0 VG/FN. All three are offered at £25 each, an ideal entry level for those wishing to dip their toes in the water of third-party graded comics.

This coming holiday period, we shall be open as normal Monday-Saturday 10:30 to 18:00, with the following exceptions:
Christmas Eve Saturday 24th December: Open 10:30 to 16:00
Christmas Day Sunday 25th December: Closed
Boxing Day Monday 26th December: Closed
New Year’s Eve Saturday 31st December: Open 10:30 to 16:00
New Year’s Day Sunday 1st January: Closed
Bank Holiday Monday 2nd January: Closed

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: The New Year 1961 issue of the classic Boys’ comic Eagle cajoled you to ‘start 1961 with a Dan Dare story’, so in this huge update for Volumes 11 & 12 of said publication, we invite you to end 2016 with one. And there’s plenty to choose from: 1960 continued Trip To Trouble, ran all of Project Nimbus, then Mission Of The Earthmen which rounded out the year. 1961 commenced with The Solid-Space Mystery, continued with Platinum Planet and began the Earth-Stealers. Of course, although Dan Dare is the iconic British spaceman of the Atomic Age, there are plenty more excellent strips and features to enjoy in Eagle, and we are delighted to have these volumes, previously underrepresented in our stock, now fully charged and virtually complete in a choice of grades and prices.

*Marvel: From 1972, a complete (4-issue) run of the Cat (“Beware…The Claws of the Cat”, as it was also known), one of Marvel’s short-lived attempts at a female-led comics line, together with Night Nurse and Shanna the She-Devil. Written by Linda Fite, the story of Greer Grant Nelson’s physical and intellectual empowerment, as she changes from supressed housewife to super-heroine, is very much of its time, but notable for the prominent creators who contributed to its short run. Marie Severin, Jim Mooney, Paty Greer, Jim Starlin and Alan Weiss. Of particular note is Wally Wood’s superb embellishment of issue #1, making it the standout issue. Sadly, despite some intelligent writing and good intentions, the Cat failed to find an audience, and was swiftly cancelled, but she evolved into two more successful heroines: Greer herself became Tigra the Were-Woman, while Patsy Walker took up the discarded costume and became the happy-go-lucky Hellcat!

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: From Marvel’s 1970’s experiment with the black & white magazine-sized comic format (with a smattering of later additions in full colour), we restock Bizarre Adventures, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Doc Savage, Epic Illustrated, Haunt of Horror, Kull & the Barbarians, the Legion of Monsters one-shot, Marvel Graphic Novel (including Dr. Strange & Dr. Doom by Mike Mignola), Marvel Preview (with an early appearance by the not-yet-legendary Starlord), Monsters Unleashed, Rampaging Hulk (from # 1), and Savage Sword of Conan, by Crom! Many early works by people who later became much more famous lurk within the pages of these experimental editions. Overall, around 35 new items in this popular section.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: For this week’s visit to our Crime, Schoolgirls & Detectives Picture Library event, we’re saddling up with dozens of issues of the less common Western Picture Library published by Pearson’s, and commencing in 1958. We don’t see these too often, and this is by far the biggest haul we’ve ever had of them in one go. Starting with #1 (FN £20, pictured left below), we run through to #78 (with gaps). Starring such Western stalwarts as Mustang Gray, the Texas Kid, Arizona Jim, Peacemaker Ryan, Clint McCoy and many more, this selection, like most of our CSD incoming, is mostly in exemplary condition, with many FN and even VF copies, without a hint of the usual rusty staples. For the first time, we’re now featuring full issue number and story title information for this series in our website listing. More from CSD: Putney very soon!

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 American section:
*Horror 1940-1959
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Marvel: Continuing our outstanding upgrade of classic Avengers issues in high grades with no UK price stamp or overprint, we come to a range between #52 and #62, which featured the first appearance of the Grim Reaper, an epic clash (only the second ever!) between the Avengers and the X-Men, the first cameo and then full appearances of the Avengers’ robotic nemesis Ultron as he gathered the new Masters of Evil, a tragic and traumatic trip to Captain America’s past, the first appearances of Hank Pym’s schizoid alter-ego Yellowjacket, and YJ’s wedding to the wonderful Wasp, and the first appearance of the Black Panther’s foe, the murderous Man-Ape! Roy Thomas and John Buscema have never produced a finer strand of work than their team-up on the Avengers at this time, and even decades later, these stories are a joy to re-read – especially in such shiny copies! But don’t take our word for the condition – check out the selected pictures below!

*Marvel: A surprising breakout character from the 1990’s was Gambit, the Cajun adventurer who aided Storm when she was running around de-aged to a powerless child (as you do), and quickly became a mainstay of the team, mainly due to his Doomed Romance with the untouchable Rogue. Uncanny X-Men #266 presented the first full appearance of Gambit, and we have a very affordable GD/VG pence copy of this highly-sought issue new in at £25.

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 American section:
*Marvel
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*TV & Film Related Comics: As a parallel exercise to our refurbishment of our Marvel UK stock, we’re also taking advantage of a massive influx of Marvel UK’s Star Wars Weekly to upgrade our inventory of this title in TV & Film-Related comics. So popular that new material was prepared for the weekly schedule, then, in many cases, repurposed for the US edition, this marks the first appearance of several stories. We have just short of 100 new issues added in to our listings, from issue #2 on upwards, in a variety of grades to suit all budgets.

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: A quartet of Marvel’s Graphic Novels, experiments into a new format for the House of Ideas in the early 1980’s – done-in-one comic stories in squarebound magazine-sized format and full colour, starring their top-of-the-line characters and creators. New Mutants (#4 in the series) introduced Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Cannonball and the whole ‘X-men in training’ concept, by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod; X-Men – God Loves, Man Kills (#5) was a powerful anti-prejudice allegory by Claremont and Brent Anderson; Daredevil – Love and War (#24) was a stand-alone epic by the acclaimed team of Miller and Sienkiewicz: and David Michelinie and Bob Hall’s Emperor Doom (#27)asked the question; “What do the Avengers Do After Dr. Doom Wins?” The New Mutants, X-Men and Daredevil volumes have all gone into multiple printings, but these new additions are the first printings of each. Grades and prices shown in our catalogue, where we classify these in our Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics section due to their size.

*DC: This instalment of our ongoing Batmania Max marathon covers Detective Comics #251 to #260, during the wackier phase of the Caped Crusader’s career, when he frequently wandered into interplanetary adventures akin to those of his chum Superman. In among “The Olympics of Space”, “The Alien Batman”, “Prisoner of the Giant Robots”, and the like, though, there were two debuts of villains who were to loom larger in the Gotham Guardian’s life – the Calendar Man and the Terrible Trio (animal-themed villains the Vulture, the Fox, and…what was the third one again? The Meerkat? The Tapir? The Tree Sloth? I’m sure it’ll come back to me…) Check our catalogue for full details. More from Batmania Max soon!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Battle Picture Weekly (to give it its full official title), the 1975 brainchild of Pat Mills, brought a new edge of darkness to the traditional gung-ho UK war comic, with anti-heroes, sympathetic villains, and somewhat more realistically portrayed violence then had previously been known in the genre. We are pleased to announce the first installment of a massive upgrade of our Battle stock, commencing with the second issue (still with free gift poster), and pausing at the end of 1977. This period includes the debuts of several series that were to make a major impact on the comics-reading public; Major Eazy, Johnny Red, El Mestizo, Joe Two-Beans, and Darkie’s Mob, and also takes in the weekly’s absorption of the venerable stablemate Valiant (although the first Valiant merger issue is not present). Over 200 new issues new to our listing – and if you’re wondering how that’s possible for a weekly over a three-year span, it should be noted that many issues have been restocked by more than one copy, sometimes in differing grades. More to come from our Big Battle Blockbuster in future updates!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Another selection from our Cowboys, Schoolgirls & Detectives Picture Library extravaganza. This week, we have a ‘detective’ with a difference – Radar, the Man From The Unknown! Launching in 1962, these English-language reprints of an Italian (we think) series featured a Strange Visitor From Another Planet, Radar, who exhibits mighty powers (flight, a ‘danger sense’, enhanced strength and the ability to turn into really oddly-drawn animals, among others). Taking the alias ‘Rock’, he lives a civilian life on Earth accompanied by his lovely girlfriend Brenda, who somehow fails to notice that Rock and Radar are one and the same despite the fact that they have identical features and even wear the same sweater! (Maybe she just thought Rock was a fanboy…)  Radar’s, er, radar-sense enabled him not only to sense danger to himself, but also if anyone in the world needed his aid, so his adventures spanned a wide variety of locales. Radar is an oddity; it’s like a vague memory in the minds of a generation of Brits of a certain age, many of whom remember seeing one or two issues in their childhood, but without much recollection of details. This is the first significant selection of Radar we’ve ever had in – previously only one or two isolated issues in our nearly quarter-century of trading, so they’re *not* common –  and while not complete, it does run from the first issue through to the last, 1964’s #26, in which Radar is summoned away from Earth and back to his home planet. Of note are the striking and lovely painted covers on many issues – folks expecting the same high standard of interior artwork should, well, brace themselves for disillusionment. Oddly, from about the middle of the run, Radar’s costumed persona and super-feats were replaced on the cover by beautifully-executed but generic illustrations which could come from any number of spy/detective series, but he carried merrily on with his trademarked super-stunts within. Rare in any grade, and this collection is in astonishingly good nick, with only a few bringing down the VF average.

*Marvel: A massive top-up for the ever-Invincible iron Man, with in excess of 100 copies added between the numbers #2 to#80. And if your maths is accurate, you may be puzzled by those figures, but there are a large number of duplicated issues, sometimes in widely disparate grades, ranging from the highly affordable to the highly investable! Highlights of these newest additions include the first appearances of key characters such as the Controller, Firebrand, Spymaster, Madame Masque, Midas, the Black Lama, and Moondragon – under her somewhat less dignified initial nom de guerre of Madam McEvil! Also features the “War of the Super-Villains” in the #70’s, which was one of the first major ‘gladiatorial’ events of the Marvel Universe.

*Marvel: Strange Tales #110, already the showcase title for the Fantastic Four’s junior member, the Human Torch, presented an inconspicuous mystery back-up strip starring a supernatural champion named Doctor Strange. Essentially a retread of Marvel’s previous Dr. Droom character, where this Doctor had the advantage was in Steve Ditko’s powerful and gripping artwork, quite unlike anything else in the field, which catapulted the good Doctor from an interesting novelty into the Marvel Universe’s Master of the Mystic Arts. His lengthy career has culminated in the recent Benedict Cumberbatch film becoming the most successful Marvel movie to date – and it all started right here! This pence-printed copy is GD+, a sound issue with moderate spine wear, Marvel chipping at the right cover edge, and a faint Book Centre Stamp in the lower-mid cover. A previous owner’s name has also been stamped in one interior panel, but it’s only the Matt Fox fantasy filler, so never mind, eh? The Doctor Strange story – the reason for buying the issue, unless you’re really keen on Paste-Pot Pete’s invincible bucket – is clean, vivid and unimpaired. This copy is offered at £550. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD

*Marvel: Iron Man’s first stunning solo issue from 1968 is new in this week, continuing from where his strip in Tales of Suspense left off, with Gene Colan’s hyperkinetic art driving the drama onward! This is an outstanding cents copy, with vivid deep cover colour excellent gloss, and only very minor edge & corner creasing preventing a still higher grade; offered at £225. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD