*Marvel: After a little artistic floundering in his early issues, the Sightless Swashbuckler lucked out when the superlative Wally Wood took over illustrating his adventures. This is probably the finest Wood issue, marked not only by the premiere of the red Daredevil costume, (replacing his original outfit, which actually looked like it was designed by a blind man…) but also by a genuinely gripping battle in which Daredevil, overpowered by the vastly superior might of the Sub-Mariner, shows such courage and determination that even Namor’s scaly heart is moved to compassion. This is a nice CGC example of this classic issue.
PICTURED: DAREDEVIL #7 CGC 6.5 FN+ £260 SOLD

*Marvel: From 1971, the debut of Werewolf By Night in Marvel Spotlight #2. Created by Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway and Mike Ploog, the story of a young man named Jack Russell (no, really) who contracted a lycanthropic curse hit a high note with the readership and spun off into his own series after three try-out issues in Marvel Spotlight.  This extra-thick #2 is the Werewolf’s first appearance and as a bonus, issued during Marvel’s fleeting flirtation with a 25c standard price, has a gorgeous Venus back-up reprint strip drawn by the incomparable Bill Everett. Squarebound issues are notoriously problematic, but the spine here is pretty solid with just a small nick at the bottom. Good cover colour and some gloss, with a slight vertical crease across the logo (non colour-breaking). Ever so slightly mis-cut. A decent mid-grade copy.
PICTURED: MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #2 VG+ £115 SOLD

*Marvel: In 1972, Marvel came up with the brainwave of the team-up title (that DC had been doing in Brave & Bold for many years by then); ostensibly this was starring Spidey or the Human Torch with the guest star of the month, but it soon transformed to just Spidey with Johnny Storm making fewer and fewer appearances. We have an almost complete run of the non-UK distributed issues fresh in (#1-23, excluding #8 and #18), mostly in remarkable grades with many NM copies among them.
PICTURED: MARVEL TEAM-UP #1 VG £25

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: The return of our Atomic Sci-Fi feature, where we spotlight those wonderfully retro futures inspired by the sci-fi of pulp magazines. This week we feature Avon’s Out Of This World one-shot from 1950. There were two printings of this in 1950; this, cover-dated June, is the first and sports one of those fabulous girl-abducted-by-robot covers so characteristic of the time, illustrated by Gene Fawcette. Within, there are two sci-fi stories gloriously depicted by the incomparable Joe Kubert plus a third fantasy tale of Crom the Barbarian by Gardner Fox and John Guinta. No true Atomic Sci-Fi collection is complete without one! This copy presents well; small spine split at bottom (just a few mm), and a couple of minor creases in the bottom right corner and along the spine, and some edge wear. The cover image is unspoilt apart from the letters ‘JE’ in felt-tip pen below the story titles (just over 1 cm high). A small back cover crease but nice colour and tight staples.
PICTURED: OUT OF THIS WORLD #1 VG- £270 

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Following the success of 1969’s Whizzer & Chips launch, the USP of ‘two comics in one!’ with an inbuilt rivalry proved so popular that publishers IPC/Fleetway went back to the well with Score ‘n’ Roar, two football comics in one – neither of which had existed previously as an independent entity. The rivalry aspect was provided by brothers, ‘Jack of United’ and ‘Jimmy of City’, who played for opposing teams – and in rival halves of the comic! Other strips included young prodigy goalie ‘Peter the Cat’, supernatural striker ‘Phantom of the Forest’ and obligatory comedy team of ne’er-do-wells, ‘The Mudlarks’. Score ‘n’ Roar #1 is a very attractive VF, with the original Free Gift – Football League Tables 1970-1971 – VF/NM, not punched out or assembled. #2 is more of a VG, with a looseness at the staples, but a VF Free Gift, more teams for your league tables, unpunched.
PICTURED: SCORE ‘N’ ROAR
#1 VF WITH FREE GIFT VF/NM £90 SOLD
#2 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £40 SOLD

*Girls’ Comics: A glossy big sister to Romeo aimed at a slightly trendier demographic, Jackie helped delight and inform (or brainwash, depending on your viewpoint) a generation of teenage girls and young women, with pop features and pin-ups, fashion and makeup tips, the ever-popular Problem Page, and scores of often beautifully illustrated romance comics stories. Free Gift issues of Jackie are uncommon, as the gifts were usually eagerly ripped away and consulted or applied in the hopes of snagging the Dream Boy, but these three are from a Newsagent’s uncirculated stock, and remain ‘gifted’. All are from 1970. #321 is VG/FN, with VF Gift (Super Styling Comb) still in its original sealed envelope. #355 is VG, with VF Gift (Eye Make-Up), still in original sealed envelope. #356 is VG/FN, with VF Gift (Zodiac Ring) still in original sealed envelope.
PICTURED: JACKIE:
#321 VG/FN WITH FREE GIFT VF £30 SOLD
#355 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £30 SOLD
#356 VG/FN WITH FREE GIFT VF £30 SOLD

This is an early Silver Age Collection from an original owner notable for the freshness and vibrancy of the cover colours and page quality; even those with minor reading and handling wear are vastly superior to the majority of comics that have been in circulation since the 1960s. The average grade is well above Fine, with many much nicer.

We’ll be adding selections from this collection for sale here each week across the range of titles represented. These will be over a range of prices each week to suit most budgets, so that all interested collectors have an opportunity to purchase something from this special collection. Each comic will come branded with a special label and certificate of authenticity verifying it as part of the Square Mile Collection. Here’s this week’s (we’re nearing the end of this special collection now, and the DC comic below is the last Square Mile from that publisher):

*Marvel: In issue #9 of his own series, Iron Man faces off against the Hulk (or does he? You’ll have to read it to find out) as arranged by the Mandarin. George Tuska’s art, as inked here by EC alumnus Jonny Craig, has seldom looked better. This is a lovely Square Mile specimen, tight, flat, sharp, glossy and reflective, with just the tiniest nick to the right edge preventing an even high grade. White pages and firm staples.
PICTURED: IRON MAN #9 VF p £80

*DC: A near complete consecutive run of the main Batman title from #301-350 (with just a handful missing). Lots of Batman’s friends and foes represented in these issues, including the Black Spider, Mr. Freeze, Blockbuster, the Gentleman Ghost, Dr. Phosphorus, Batgirl, the Calendar Man, Two-Face, Robin, Riddler, Firebug, Joker, Captain Boomerang, lots and lots of Catwoman, Ra’s al Ghul and his daughter Talia, Poison Ivy, Man Bat and many more. Mostly in nice grades, averaging VF. Full details as always in our catalogue. 

*Marvel: Franklin Richards, son of Mr Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, made his debut in Fantastic Four Annual #6, by way of being born in that issue, which is fairly unusual for a character debut. The issue itself is typical Jack Kirby grandeur in the Negative Zone (also featuring the debut of Annihilus) with big panels, overblown action and devices and masterful inking by Joe Sinnott. Right at the end we see mother with child for the first time in an historic moment for the Marvel Universe. Franklin has gone on to star in many comics and events of the MU ever since and remains a frequently appearing character. This pence stamped copy is flat, tight and glossy, with just minor faint marks and barely noticeable creasing at lower edge and very, very minor wear at the base of the squarebound spine. There is a tiny 0.5 cm nick at the top centre of the back cover. All in all, a lovely copy of this increasingly significant issue. 
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #6 FN/VF p £240 SOLD

*Marvel: In Amazing Spider-Man #42, the astronaut offspring of J. Jonah Jameson gained super-powers and posed a threat to Spider-Man… but let’s be honest, who really cares? Because the Big Deal this time was the revelation, finally, of Mary Jane Watson, the mysterious lady who’d been hovering in the odd panel, her face always obscured, for several previous issues! When Stan Lee and John Romita finally showed us the ‘Full MJ’, it proved to be well worth the wait, with one of the most famous intro. lines in the history of comics! The first full appearance of the woman who would eventually become Mrs. Spidey is a low grade GD+ with unobtrusive book shop stamps. Edge wear, corner creases and inside cover tanning are all apparent, but the cover image and colour are okay and the comic holds together well with decent staples. Buy it and you too can hit the jackpot!
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #42 GD+ £40 SOLD

*Marvel: Shulkie is a great favourite of ours here at 30th Century. In her first series, the Savage She-Hulk from 1980, we were presented with competent if somewhat standard Marvel fare of the time, where Jen was little more than a female equivalent of her illustrious cousin and a lot of fans asked: ‘What’s next? Hulk Hound?’ But in the hands of John Byrne, she was revitalised into a character of both warmth and comedy, first in the pages of Fantastic Four and then in her second ongoing series, the Sensational She-Hulk in 1989. Byrne messed with convention, breaking the 4th wall and having fun with many of Marvel’s lamest villains, but all with great charm. Although he sadly left after just a few issues, he later returned for a longer run. The title just wasn’t the same without him, and folded after 60 issues, over twice the length of the Savage run. She-Hulk has gone from strength to strength since then, remaining a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe to this day. Many issues of both series fresh into stock; see our catalogue for details.

*Horror 1940-1959: Famous artist L B Cole ran Star Comics from 1949-1955, producing a variety of titles in various genres, horror, jungle, romance, crime etc. Usually a mixture of reprints from earlier periods of then defunct publishers such as Fox, most (if not all) featured covers by Cole himself. Cole was particularly known for his bold covers, featuring what he referred to as ‘poster colors’ – the use of primary colours often over black backgrounds. New stories within were often illustrated by the talented Jay Disbrow, seemingly Star’s most frequent interior artist. One of Star’s later titles appears in our regular Pre-Code Horror Fest feature this week: Spook, issues #24-30 (missing #25), all but one of the horror run of that title. Mummies, ghouls, phantoms etc abound. Conditions are low, but fortunately prices are too (relatively); the L B Cole hallucinogenic covers are all illustrated here and there are more details of the specific defects with each issue in our catalogue listing.
PICTURED: SPOOK ALL SOLD
#24 FA £100
#26 PR £50
#27 FA £90
#28 FA+ £100
#29 FA+ £100
#30 FA+ £100

*Memorabilia & Esoterica: A curiosity from the 1970s when Power Records produced a number of Book & Record sets of famous comic series. This one is Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, still unopened in original (worn) shrinkwrap. Filthy apes get in everywhere!
PICTURED: BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES BOOK & RECORD SET FN+ £20 SOLD

*Collected Editions: Brand new, Volume 1 of the collected Trigan Empire from Rebellion. The classic strip from Ranger & Look & Learn, written by Mike Butterworth and gloriously painted in full colour by the sublime Don Lawrence. A science-fiction mythos of a mighty empire, war against aggressive kingdoms, alien invaders and featuring incredible technologies. A generation grew up on this wonderful adventure and Rebellion’s new collection is the first affordable version of this masterpiece for decades.
PICTURED: THE TRIGAN EMPIRE VOL 1 SC NEW/MINT £20

*TV & Film Related Comics: TV Comic is a highly collectible series featuring TV favourites, including in particular Dr Who and the Avengers. Not the most frequently appearing series, the Holiday Specials are even less so and turn up quite rarely. So we’re pleased to feature half a dozen examples in this update, from 1970-1976 (excluding 1975), mostly in nice grade. Dr Who and the Avengers appear in 1970, the Avengers in 1972, Dr Who in 1974 and 1976.
PICTURED: TV COMIC HOLIDAY SPECIAL
1970 VG £40 Dr Who, Avengers; moisture rippling SOLD
1971 VF £40 SOLD
1972 FN £35 Avengers SOLD
1974 FN £30 Dr Who SOLD
1976 VG/FN £27.50 Dr Who SOLD

*Clearance Corner: This is our ‘bargain basement’ section where we clear stock of titles we’re no longer carrying to make space. This week, we have fours issues in the Rupert Adventure series, which ran for 50 issues from 1948-1963. The later issues, which these all are, are all harder to find, presumably due to lower print runs. All were pictorial cardwrap booklets, mostly featuring two Rupert stories with differing puzzles. On offer here: #30, #35, #41 (illustrated) & #43, all in nice condition ranging from VG/FN – FN/VF. These normally sell for £20-£40 each. Yours for just £25 for all four, with free UK (only) postage. 

Unfortunately, despite the Government’s announcement that non-essential shops can open on 15th June, we shall be remaining closed to visitors. Social distancing would be very difficult to maintain in our shop, and as we are designed for browsing, it would be impossible to prevent large quantities of our stock being touched, which would mean we’d be unable to trade safely. So we shall remain Covid-free and continuing our mail order service. We’re delighted to see so many people placing orders and are currently working hard to keep up with demand!

*DC: Black Manta is a ruthless undersea mercenary and has become established as the archenemy of Aquaman. He featured in the Aquaman movie and in his debut in Aquaman #35 in 1967, he vied with Aquaman’s other main foe, his half-brother Ocean Master, to destroy the Sea King. Our new copy of Aquaman #35 is VG-, pence stamped, a little tired with edge wear at all edges, a little more pronounced along the top, but otherwise okay.
PICTURED: AQUAMAN #35 VG- p £95 SOLD

*Marvel: In the fourth issue of Marvel’s Avengers series, the already formidable team of Iron Man, Giant-Man, Thor and the Wasp was augmented by one of the legendary heroes from the past. Captain America returned to action after years in Post-WWII suspended animation, and rapidly became the acknowledged heart and soul of the Avengers, who have never flourished for long without him! This GD- pence copy has an unimpaired cover scene with good colour. The spine is worn, but intact; although there is a looseness at the staples, they are still reasonably well attached, particularly at the centrefold. Minor foxing inside covers, but a copy that presents pretty well for its grade.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #4 GD- p £300

*Marvel: Regular readers will know that our Slab Happy event features third-party graded comics encased in plastic slabs by one of the American companies that do such things. This week’s example is NYX #3. A breakout hit of the early 21st Century, issue #3 of the short-lived series of NYX – short for ‘New York X-Men’ if you’re wondering – featured the first appearance of Wolverine’s ‘cloned daughter’ (it’s comic books, don’t worry about it), a brainwashed psychotic assassin who moonlighted as an underage hooker. And they say the age of heroes is dead. Be that as it may, the character’s popularity mushroomed as she was featured in Avengers Academy, Avengers Arena and New X-Men, and she briefly assumed the title of Wolverine herself during one of her putative cloned dad’s temporary demises. Interest was piqued further by a version of the character making her cinematic debut in the ‘Logan’ movie, causing this low-print run modern comic to acquire what seems to a casual eye a disproportionate ‘heat’. Our slabbed example is 9.6 (NM+).
PICTURED: NYX #3 CGC 9.6 £380

*Marvel: Moon Knight is a rising star of the Marvel Universe in the 21st Century, so we’re delighted to welcome a chunky run of most of his first ongoing series from 1980 new into stock. The multiple secret identity super-hero often considered an ersatz Batman has been around now since 1975, With Adamsesque art by the moody Bill Sienkiewicz on most issues and some stunning covers, this has very much become a fan favourite series in recent years, and a TV series has recently been announced. Issue #1 is pictured; see our catalogue for details of all issues new in. 
PICTURED: MOON KNIGHT #1 FN- p £20

*Tarzan/E R Burroughs: An international update for less commonly seen issues of Korak, Son of Tarzan. Starting with the American Gold Key series, we have 11 issues including #1 in a variety of grades. Also, 9 issues from the British Top Sellers series from #2 upwards, all in okay to fairly nice shape. 
PICTURED: KORAK #1 (GOLD KEY) GD- £7

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Three vintage Hotspur issues this week from 1967/68, all complete with their original Free Gifts. From 1967, #412 complete with Free Gift ‘The Hotspur Glider’; the comic is nice with some tanning at edges, the gift is still in its sealed and unopened envelope. From 1968, #468 complete with Free Gift ‘The Hotspur Skimmer’; the comic is nice with minor foxing, the gift is still in its sealed and unopened envelope. Also from 1968, #469 complete with Free Gift ‘The Tootle Flute’; the comic has minor grubbiness, the gift is still mounted on its original card.
PICTURED: HOTSPUR:
#412 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £35 SOLD
#468 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £35 SOLD
#469 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £35 SOLD

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: A selection of a few issues each of 1960s romance themed picture libraries fresh in, including the following titles: Confessions, Honeymoon Library, Hospital Nurse Picture Library, Red Rose Romances, Romantic Adventure Library, True Life Library & Young Lovers Picture Story Library (inc #1). Nearly all are in remarkable condition for their vintage, with many VF or FN, just a few brought lower by the all too common threat of rusty staples. From a variety of publishers, many of these feature beautiful and accomplished art. 
PICTURED:
HOSPITAL NURSE LIBRARY #7 VF £10
RED ROSE ROMANCES #17 VF £15
YOUNG LOVERS PICTURE STORY LIBRARY #1 FN £20