*War: New listings for our combat-crazed chums, kicking off with the 1st issue of Combat Kelly and His Deadly Dozen, Marvel’s attempt to clone their long-running Sgt. Fury series; and ably backed up by new entries for DC’s Our Army At War, Sgt. Rock, and Unknown Soldier!

*DC: In the closing days of 1988, DC responded to the universal derision of Jason Todd, the second Robin, by launching a special storyline in which the reader would get to vote on whether Jason carried on as Robin, or whether he died horribly at the hands of the Joker. A special Toll-Free Number was set up, and by a large margin, readers voted to dispense with the services of the Robin known colloquially as “Jason Toad”. “Death In The Family” was a double-Jim production – Jim Starlin scripted, Jim Aparo illustrated, and all four Batman issues, #426-429, featured classy covers by Mike Mignola. We have all four back in stock and in Near Mint condition, so if you missed it before, here’s another chance to see one of the most controversial and biggest-selling story arcs of the late 20th Century!

*Marvel: The first instalment of our autumn Spider-Man event is right here! We’re kicking off with the earliest issue in this batch (#3) and the latest run (#151-190 + Annuals and Giant-Size). Our Spidey #3, featuring the debut of Doctor Octopus, is a GD cents copy at £225, with some chipping and wear but an unmarked cover image; a more full description can be found in our catalogue listing. A consecutive run from #151-190 is also new in, almost all in very high grade with plenty of VF+, VF/NM, NM- and even NM copies. Highlights from this period include battles with Doc Ock and the Green Goblin, encounters with the Punisher, Peter Parker’s graduation, and the debut of such dastardly foes as Mirage, Will O’The Wisp and the Rocket Racer (perhaps not the most fearsome of Spidey’s Rogues’ Gallery). We also have a range of annuals new to our listings and Giant-Size #4 with the Punisher. Lots more Spidey coming up in the weeks ahead, so keep your webs on the alert!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A small update to our stocks of Eagle, the classic Boys’ weekly with Dan Dare, for the following volumes: 9, 12, 14-18.

*DC: Spotlight on two complete series from DC this time with classic art. First up, all five issues of Captain Action (the toy franchise hero) from the Silver Age with art by Wally Wood & Gil Kane. Then, all four issues of the sword and sorcery hero Stalker from the Bronze Age, with art by Steve Ditko and Wally Wood. A chance to grab some inexpensive work by major comic artists!

*Girls’ Comics: More from Mandy, with lots from 1970 and 1971, filling many previous gaps with nice condition copies, then a handful from 1971, 1974, 1979 & 1980, finishing with a large chunk from 1981, mostly issues not previously listed.

*Girls’ Comics: A further update to our stocks of Bunty, the most venerable Girls’ title of all, this time from the years 1969 and 1970, filling many gaps in our lists.

*Marvel: Interest in Fantastic Four #36 and #45 has rocketed in the last year or two, so much so that prices have eclipsed even the first appearance of the Silver Surfer in #48. #36 features the debut of the Frightful Four, including the first appearance of Madam Medusa, the first Inhuman to be unveiled in the Marvel Universe. #45 reveals the whole group, including Black Bolt, Karnak, Gorgon, Triton, Crystal and Lockjaw. Both our new copies are only graded as Good; #36 has a diagonal cover crease, edge wear and a two-fingernail size piece out of the lower right cover (£40); #45 has a worn spine and cover edge creases (£75); both are cents copies. Low grades, but affordable prices mean that these key issues won’t be with us very long.

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: We have a very diverse lot for you in this week’s magazine update, featuring a galaxy of artistic stars. We kick off with the early Punisher appearance in Marvel Super Action #1, then Adventure & Fantasy Illustrated, both from NMP featuring Sienkiewicz, Sutton, Heck, Boyette, Russell, Ditko & Sekowsky. Argosy V3#2 from 1990 sports a Steranko cover and includes the Kirby pencil only story ‘Street Code’. Basically Strange (1982 from JC Prods.) has a Corben cover, with Toth, Wood, Thorne and Jones inside, while the Comic Crusader Storybook from 1977 has work by Steranko, Adams, Byrne & Ditko. We also have Jim Starlin’s graphic novel for Eclipse: ‘The Price’, and Howard Chaykin’s adaptation of Michael Moorcock’s ‘The Swords Of Heaven, The Flowers Of Hell’. Both Copies of Thrilling Adventure Stories from Atlas Seaboard are included in high grade, with Heath, Thorne, Toth, Severin, Simonson and more, and we round off with JCP Features Thunder Agents from 1981, featuring new Thunder Agents stories and reprints by Adams and Kirby. Something there for everyone!

*Marvel: A superior product of the Kung Fu craze of the 1970’s, in the hands of John Byrne, Iron Fist was a quality comic, transcending its genre and giving the world a new Marvel hero with a legacy that still lasts today. We have new in issues #1-13, mostly in high grade (VF or better) and all cents copies. Martial arts mayhem mixed with solid story-telling and Byrne’s exquisite art.

*Girls’ Comics: Our range of the combo title Mandy & Judy is greatly expanded with dozens of issues added from 1991 (the first year) up to 1995.

*Girls’ Comics: A nice range of Bunty new in from 1968, in VG to FN condition, including the Christmas issue for that year.

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:
*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics
and from our British section:
*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Humour Comics: The early years of Sparky have been missing from our listings for too long, so we’re delighted to welcome a few dozen into the fold, primarily from the first year of publication (1965) up to 1970, but with a handful from 1971-73 also. This includes the period when Barney Bulldog took over cover feature from our eponymous hero. Includes Christmas, April Fool and Easter issues.

Inspired by the news that Archie and Friends will achieve 75 years in the comic business in December, Dr Evilla decided to get in an early celebration. Apart from the well-known main characters, Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead (with their alter egos Pureheart the Powerful, SuperTeen, Miss Vanity and Captain Hero), this window also feature other favourites such as Sabrina, Josie (and her Pussycats), L’il Jinx, Little Archie and Cosmo the Martian. Archie’s enduring popularity can be seen by the success of the recent reinventions of his life in Riverdale and his surprising encounters with some unusual foes: sharks and extreme weather, Predator and zombies. All together now… Honey de de de de de de, Oh Sugar Sugar ..

*Marvel: In the year 3007, the countries of the world are brought together in the United Lands of Earth, spreading the Terran empire throughout the known galaxy – when interplanetary harmony is disrupted by the arrival of the voracious Badoon, who overcome Earth and her dominions, leaving only a few scattered freedom fighters to battle on – the Guardians of the Galaxy! Such was the premise of the original story created by Arnold Drake (writer of the Doom Patrol, another popular band of outcasts) and Gene Colan in issue #18 of Marvel Super-Heroes, January 1969. A powerful and moving story, it lay dormant for some years, until revived by Steve Gerber in the Seventies, whereupon the Guardians became a regular, if infrequent, part of the Marvel Universe, before the recent movie (featuring, it must be said, an entirely different cast) catapulted the title into public consciousness. This copy is an attractive Fine+, pence stamped, at £125, with only minimal edge & corner wear, but unbroken cover colour and gloss despite a soft crease across the bottom right corner, and excellent interior page quality. Harder to find in any condition, and sure to become scarcer yet as Guardians of the Galaxy II heads toward your local multiplex!

*DC: It’s a funny business this comic business. As you know, being a vintage comics specialist, we rarely feature modern comics here, let alone one that’s just been published this week, but we have a point to make. Scooby-Doo Team-Up #12, released on Wednesday 23rd September, was already changing hands on that date on eBay for between £20 and £25. We assume it must have been under-ordered, that enough subscribers and retailers didn’t spot that the issue guest-starred the Gotham Girls, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Catwoman & Batgirl. Consequently, there must be more demand than there are copies to go round, hence the inflated eBay price. So, what’s a retailer to do? If we put it on sale at our regular price (£2.25), speculators will attempt to buy up all our copies and sell them on eBay for £20-£25. So, having made sure our regulars got it at the regular price, we’re putting a copy on sale at £15 in the hope that it will be bought by someone who actually wants to read it rather than speculate on it. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

*TV & Film Related Comics: New additions to our listings of Film Fun (1959-1962), and Radio Fun (1958-1959) featuring a mixture of licensed characters and original creations; prominent series include detective (and occasional costumed hero) the Falcon, Superman, Donald Duck, Scoop Donovan, Terry-Thomas, Goofy, and Jack O’Justice! The new influx ranges from Good to Fine, and sees these venerable titles struggling to adapt to a new decade, resulting in some interesting experimentation.

*Magazines/Books About Vintage US Comics: As we meander along to Quirky Corner this time, we discover two of the rarest artefacts ever to pass through our hands: From the earliest days of US comics fandom, Heroes’ Hangout # 1 and 2, from 1963 and 1964, respectively! Issue #1 (FN £75) is an old-school duplicated ‘zine  (the kind you had to type out on stencils which printed in a funny purple hue), from November 1963. It’s  the limited run first printing (Number 17 of 100), and has as an additional bonus an eight-page mini-comic (centre picture below – also, confusingly, named Heroes’ Hangout #1) which we infer was a bonus insert with the first issue. Issue #2 (VG £30), from February or March 1964 (depending whether you believe the cover or the editorial page) graduated to black stencils; it’s missing its final two pages, but they were only adverts. Vanishingly few artefacts remain from the early years, so here’s an opportunity to grab a slice of fandom history, edited by Rudi Franke, and featuring very early works by Bill DuBay, Roger Brand, Ray Miller, John McGeehan, and others!

*Marvel: Two classy issues from the early years of Marvel Comics, of course; what did you think we meant? We open with X-Men #14 in VG/FN, a tight attractive copy with deep unfaded cover colour (particularly tricky on red backgrounds), featuring the debut of everyone’s favourite cuddly giant mutant hunting killer ‘bots, the Sentinels. This is a Cents copy, with no UK price mark or overstamp, at £52. We follow that up with Tales To Astonish #57 in Fine+ at £90, featuring the first appearance of no-one, but nevertheless sought after because it has a cross-over by Spider-Man (at a time when such things weren’t commonplace), making it, between him, Ant/Giant-Man and the Wasp, a three-way clash of genus arthropda! (Look it up, we can’t do everything for you…)

*Marvel: Although often touted on his own front cover as  ‘Marvel’s First Black Super-Hero’, Luke Cage, later Power Man, was the second such, after the Black Panther. But whereas T’Challa was a sophisticated, urbane monarch of a highly technological society, Luke Cage was All-American, and All-Cliché. Inner city ghetto? Swear words amended to pass the Mother-Freakin’ Comics Code? Check. Check. Unjust jail time? Check. Fat white corrupt prison guard with a vendetta? Check. Said guard-with-a-grudge sabotaging an experiment so that it unexpectedly gives Luke super-powers? Oops. Liberated from prison, our hero ‘goes underground, by setting himself up as a highly visible ‘Hero For Hire’, decked out in an attention-getting outfit of leather pants, bracelets, tiara, chain belt and fetching yellow chiffon blouse. (Look, it was the 1970’s…) The diverse creators on this title – Graham, Mantlo, Tuska, Robbins, Colletta, Giella and more – keep the creative standards remarkably…consistent. And then there’s Luke’s Rogues Gallery! Big Ben! Lion-Fang! Cockroach! Stiletto! Mr Fish! Black Mariah! Can we ever forget them? Well, maybe if we try very hard… We have most of the first 40 issues new in stock from #2 up, in a variety of conditions to suit all budgets, many of the earlier issues completely non-distributed in the UK at the time of their release. Luke Cage is truly an experience… unlike anything else in comics. Really.

*Humour Comics: A small number of the leading two titles of British Humour, Beano & Dandy, but featuring our earliest issues in stock of both. Beano includes #29 from 1939, FA/GD, but with four missing pages replaced by photocopies (£25), plus other complete issues from 1942 & 1945. Dandy includes #81 from 1939 (GD £45), plus other issues from 1944, 1949 & 1950.

*Mad & Other Parody: A small update to our US and UK Mad stock, plus an early issue of Sick from 1961.

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: A pot pourri of stuff in this update, including Annie Oakley, Daredevil, Giant Comic with Turok, King Of The Royal Mounted, Mandrake, Red Comet & Red Ryder, from Miller, World Distributors & Atlas as well as a variety of obscurities from Down Under: Batman, Giant Jimmy Olsen Album, Mighty Comics (with DC reprints) & Scary Tales #1 (1970’s Charlton reprints).