*Archie: Archie’s Mad House started out in 1959 as a sort of rival to Mad, featuring the Archie gang of characters in comics strips, features etc all in a Mad vein. By the time it got to #17, the regular recurring gang had gone and the comedy horror and science fiction covers, which had started slightly earlier, became the norm, as the comic converted to regular sequential art with #18. Sabrina, of course, was just around the corner with the Witch later revealed to be her Aunt Hilda debuting in #19. We have a selection of these early issues from the late 1950s/early 1960s new in. Full details may be seen in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ARCHIE’S MAD HOUSE BOTH SOLD
#16 VG p £9
#19 VG/FN £10.25 1st Hilda the Witch

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: Another visit to Charlton’s extensive menu of 1970s thrills and chills, this time starring your horror host Dr Graves and his ‘Many Ghosts’. Just a casual glance through the six issues on offer here reveals art by Steve Ditko (lots), Tom Sutton, Pete Morisi, Joe Staton, Rudy Palais, Pat Boyette and more.
IN THIS UPDATE: THE MANY GHOSTS OF DR GRAVES ALL SOLD
#42 FN p £4
#43 VG £3.25
#45 FN p £4.75
#46 FN p £4
#48 FN p £4.75
#64 VG p £3.75

*Girls’ Comics: A distaff companion to 2000 AD, but focusing more on the supernatural than science-fiction themes, Misty is fondly remembered for the quality of its stories and artwork (using many of the 2000 AD creators), and its wide appeal – even at the time of its publication, the subject matter made it the “Girls’ comic” a lot of boys furtively read, and these days it’s keenly collected by men and women alike. We have most of the run new in, from the 3rd issue (18/2/78) right up to 18/8/79, with almost every issue in that sequence present. (The run finished 12/1/80 on 101 issues) All, of course, ably introduced by our ethereal hostess, who featured in frontispieces (and many covers) illustrated by the sublime Shirley Bellwood. It’s said that Shirley Bellwood modelled the Misty character on herself – we’ve used a photo of her here so you can make up your own mind on that one. This is an original owner collection, with most issues in excellent and attractive FN or VG/FN condition, just a few lower.
PICTURED: MISTY 3/2/79 FN £10

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Well, actually six novels and one short story collection new in this week, all featuring Christie’s most famous creation, Hercule Poirot. Outsold only by God and the Bard of Avon, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time and undisputed Queen Of Crime. We aim to always have a good selection in stock of vintage editions, so here you go:
PICTURED: ALL BY AGATHA CHRISTIE ALL SOLD
DEAD MAN’S FOLLY Pan 1966 3rd UK PB GD/VG £4
DEATH IN THE CLOUDS Pan 1964 1st UK PB GD £4
THE HOLLOW Pan 1952 3rd UK PB VG £5
THE MURDER ON THE LINKS Pan 1971 15th UK PB GD £4
PERIL AT END HOUSE Pan 1966 1st UK PB GD £4
POIROT INVESTIGATES Pan 1969 15th UK PB VG £4
THREE ACT TRAGEDY Pan 1964 1st UK PB GD/VG £5

*DC: As rare as hen’s teeth! In 30+ years of flogging comics, we’ve only ever had a couple of issues of the first series of Phantom Stranger through our hands before. In 1952, he appeared from nowhere, without explanation or origin to be DC’s mysterious omniscient and omnipotent being of mystery. Despite numerous theories in the DCU, no concrete information has ever been revealed about his true nature. Edited by Whitney Ellsworth, and created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, this series had the finest creators of the time working on it in a number of horror/supernatural stories. Here we get John Broome scripts with pencils by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson. Whilst perhaps not as Pre-Code horrifically as the fare of other less polished publishers, the Phantom Stranger made up for that in the quality of substance and style of his stories. This is a low grade copy: the cover image is almost unmarked, although there are a few small chips out along the bottom edge, The spine has been glued along its length, so it’s difficult to assess the amount of spine wear, although there is some, with some puckering towards the bottom. Due to the glue, the covers are firmly attached and the staples are tight at the centrefold. Very slight chipping to upper right edge of cover, but good colour and reasonable creamy pages.
PICTURED: PHANTOM STRANGER #3 £170 SOLD

*Marvel: This week, this much sought after two-part storyline in Amazing Spider-Man #39 & #40. I doubt that Marvel could have picked a more anticipated story than the Green Goblin showdown to herald the replacement of Steve Ditko with John Romita on art duties. This is where Spidey and the Goblin learn each other’s secret identities and battle to ultimate victory and defeat (we suspect you know who wins…).
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN BOTH SOLD
#39 VG+ p £160 Pence printed copy with beautiful colour cover, unspoilt and vivid. Minor edge wear along the top and some corner blunting, but otherwise the grade is only brought down by moderate tanning to the inside cover edges. A flat copy with tight staples and decent creamy page quality.
#40 VG+ p £100 Pence printed copy with strong, vivid colour cover. Very minor edge wear and corner blunting; tiny nick at centre top above logo. Moderate tanning to inside cover edges. A flat copy with tight staples and decent creamy page quality.

*Marvel: Four quality issues of the X-Men from the Good Doctor this week, both in terms of quality of the story and art and the solid mid-grade condition. #25 features El Tigre, who morphs into Kukulcan; #27 has the re-introduction of the Mimic, the mutant who comes up against the Super-Adaptoid in #29 (virtually an Avengers vs X-Men battle!); finally #30 brings back Merlin from an early Thor story, here rebranded as the Warlock in a tale guest-illustrated by Jack Sparling with a Jack Kirby cover.
PICTURED: X-MEN ALL SOLD
#25 VG/FN p £48
#27 VG/FN £49
#29 VG+ p £40
#30 VG+ p £48

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*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: 3 #1 issues from the House Of Ideas this week. Arrgh #1 from 1974 is a vampire satire, among other things. Chamber of Darkness #1 from 1969 led the way for Marvel’s horror revival of the 1970s, along with Tower of Shadows #1 from the same year, with a classic Steranko story. 
PICTURED: ALL SOLD
ARRGH #1 FN+ £10 Small creases on back cover.
CHAMBER OF DARKNESS #1 FN/VF £28 Slight ballast ink at top edge.
TOWER OF SHADOWS #1 GD- £17 Steranko art and story. Some wear and creasing. 

*Alan Class Reprints: From the personal archives of Alan Class, we’re delighted to present another selection of copies certificated by Alan himself. Half a dozen copies of the pre-decimal title Weird Planets, including #1. The file copies were used by Alan Class for reference and are sometimes in variable condition, but usually quite good. All Alan Class titles had an emphasis on horror and mystery science fiction and fantasy stories, but none more so than Weird Planets in its short 23 issue run. The work of Ditko and Kirby was also to the fore in this series. A reminder that you can view some detail of the contents in our Rough Guide to Alan Class Reprints. 
IN THIS UPDATE: WEIRD PLANETS
#1 GD £32.50 (PICTURED) 5 Ditko stories plus cover, 1 Kirby. Mysterious Traveller ‘Secret Mission’ & others. At some point, this has been the top of a tied bundle and the string marks can be seen.
#2 GD £13.50 6 Ditko stories plus cover, Charlton, pre-hero Marvel (1 Kirby). Mysterious Traveller ‘The Old Fool’s Secret & others. Tape residue inside cover.
#3 FN £17 2 Kirby stories plus cover, pre-hero Marvel (4 Ditko), Charlton.
#3 VG £14 2 Kirby stories plus cover, pre-hero Marvel (4 Ditko), Charlton.
#10 FA £5.25 Charlton, 3 Ditko stories plus cover, Atlas, 1 Krigstein, pre-hero Marvel. Loose back cover.
#12 VG £6 Charlton SF, Atlas, 1 Everett.

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Several books by the exotically named American L Sprague de Camp join our inventory this week. He was a prolific author, editor and collaborator, with a characteristic wry humour and a love of fantasy and sword and sorcery among his science fiction tropes. All aspects of this are included in the small selection of his works we have on offer, from his short stories in a hefty ‘best of’, his sci-fi in Lest Darkness Fall and Rogue Queen, a splendid fantasy anthology The Spell of Seven, with contributions from Moorcock, Howard, Smith, Leiber, Vance etc to two different editions of a Conan novel with Lin Carter.
PICTURED: ALL BY L SPRAGUE DE CAMP (CONAN OF THE ISLES WITH LIN CARTER)
THE BEST OF L SPRAGUE DE CAMP Del Rey 1978 1st US PB GD/VG £6
LEST DARKNESS FALL Pyramid 1963 1st US PB VG £5
ROGUE QUEEN Pinnacle 1954 1st UK PB FA £7
THE SPELL OF SEVEN (Editor) Pyramid 1965 1st US PB VG £7
CONAN OF TE ISLES Lancer 1969 1st US PB VG £3
CONAN OF THE ISLES Sphere 1974 1st UK PB VG £3

In case you missed it last week, just a reminder that our Mega Half Price British Comics Sale is now in full swing. Huge amounts of fabulous British comics can now be found marked down to half price or less in the following categories:
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics
*TV & Film Related Comics
*Humour Comics
*Girls’ Comics
While stocks last!

Either all of or selections from the following titles are now half price or less:
Action
Battle inc specials
Boys’ World
Comet
Crunch
Eagle
Express (inc TV Express)
Hornet
Hotspur
Lion inc Specials
Ranger
Roy Of The Rovers inc specials
Scorcher
Score ‘n Roar
Starlord
Sun
Super DC
Tiger
2000 AD inc specials
Valiant
Victor
Warlord
Wildcat
and more! Consult our catalogue for full details.

Either all of or selections from the following titles are now half price or less:
Beano inc specials
Beezer inc specials
Buster inc. specials
Cor
Cracker
Dandy inc specials
Knockout (both series)
Krazy
Monster Fun
Plug
Shiver & Shake
Sparky
Topper
Whizzer & Chips inc specials
Whoopee
and more! Consult our catalogue for full details.

*DC: From the Bute Collection this week, another gem of Golden Age Batmania. Beneath a seasonal cover by Jerry Robinson, three superb Dick Sprang illustrated stories await. The first features the villain the Cavalier, the second has the tale of Bruce Wayne’s descendant in the year 3000, and the final story features Batman & Robin adventures among the Indians on a lost mesa. In between there’s also an Alfred solo on a case of his own by Jerry Robinson. This is a reasonable copy. There’s a faint bookshop stamp on the moon in the cover background, some wear and tear along the spine and right edge; nothing too bad except the bottom right corner is significantly creased with a small chip out at bottom edge. Staples appear okay except the centrefold is loose and tape has been skilfully applied inside the spine. Pages are okay, with margins a little dingy here and there, as is the snow scene at the edges of the front cover. But not too bad for an 80 year old!
PICTURED: BATMAN #26 GD £200 SOLD

*DC: A big update to our Silver Age Superman stocks this week, between issues #150 and #182 plus Annuals #5, #7 & #8. A wonderful time for the Superman mythos, with all the expanding Superman family members to the fore. The Annuals are particularly evocative, with #7 being the Silver Anniversary issue, and #8 reprinting the very first story of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Full details as always in our catalogue. 

*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, the tale which (after a non-costumed cameo in Avengers #181) was Scott’s first full appearance. 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 three of his own movies plus appearances elsewhere in the MCU. Our latest copy of Marvel Premiere #47 is pence printed, bright, colourful and glossy, with tight, secure staples and white to off-white pages. Very minor spine ticks and some edge wear at the top do not break colour. A VERY faint crease (like part of a subscription crease) extends from the top edge centre down to the logo, but there’s only a slight suggestion of a colour break.
PICTURED: MARVEL PREMIERE #47 VG/FN p £50

*Marvel: We’ve got all our ducks in a row here at 30th C., with a substantial restock of Howard the Duck, the cult satirical series created by Steve Gerber. Gerber took endless potshots at the wider world of the 1970s with his tale of a misanthrophic anthropomorph trapped in, as later taglines averred, ‘A World He Never Made’ (which is a damn silly tagline, if you stop to think – I mean, who do you know who has made a world lately? But I digress). Be that as it may; this cult series, illustrated at first by Frank Brunner, then (mostly) by Gene Colan, became a short-lived sensation, fizzling out only when Gerber, in his own words, decided that the political and social scene was beyond further satire, and lesser writers simply couldn’t make the Duck fly. We have every issue in of the first series from #1-31 plus the first annual (missing only #32 & #33, published years later); full details as ever in our online catalogue. Includes the first cameo and 1st full appearance of the band Kiss in #12 & #13.
PICTURED: HOWARD THE DUCK #1 FN/VF p £50 Pence printed, minor handling wear.

*Marvel: The artistic reins passed from one magnificent stylist to another within these six issues, as Dave Cockrum was succeeded by Paul Smith. Starjammers, the Imperial Guard, the Brood, Binary and much more!
IN THIS UPDATE: X-MEN ALL SOLD
#156 VF £6.75
#157 FN £5
#162 VG £5
#163 FN/VF £6.25
#164 VF+ £9
#165 FN/VF £7

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: In the 1960s, enterprising publisher Jim Warren, inspired by the success of classic monster movies on TV, decided to satiate the American public’s growing taste for terror by launching a line of horror comics. But there was that pesky censorship body, the Comics Code Authority. What to do? Why, launch them as magazines, aimed at an adult audience and not subject to the Comics Code! Beginning with Creepy, followed shortly by Eerie, Warren assembled some of the finest talents in the field, many of them alumni of the classic EC Comics line: Frank Frazetta, Johnny Craig, Reed Crandall, John Severin, Wally Wood – and some ‘new guys’ named Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, Richard Corben, Bernie Wrightson and Gene Colan! For the first few years – apart from an inexplicable weakness for Tony Tallarico – Warren’s publications offered the finest artwork comics had to offer, and paved the way for the eventual liberalisation of the Comics Code and the success of titles such as House of Mystery and House Of Secrets. We are chuffed to present dozens of issues of both Creepy and Eerie new in, filling many gaps in our stock. Three of the choicest examples are shown below. For full details of all issues with prices and grades, go to our catalogue listing.
PICTURED:
CREEPY #32 FN/VF £22 Frazetta cover
EERIE #17 FN £53 Low Distribution
EERIE #23 FN £140 Classic Frazetta cover

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A huge update to our Super-Detective Library stocks this week, with more than 75 issues added, many filling gaps. As this title developed, many more recurring detective characters in a variety of settings came on board in addition to those featured in the earlier issues. Joining the Saint and Lesley Shane, new regulars included Inspector Chafik, the Toff, Paul Darrow, Vic Terry, Blackshirt, Dirk Rogers, Temple Fortune, Rip Kirby, Buck Ryan & John Steel. A great standard of story and art in these done-in-one mysteries. Full details in our catalogue.
PICTURED: SUPER-DETECTIVE PICTURE LIBRARY
#59 GD/VG £11 The Saint’s Sunken Gold SOLD
#128 GD/VG £8.50 Rip Kirby: Fatal Target
141 GD/VG £8.50 Blackshirt And The Jewels Of Death

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: This week’s release of Love Story Picture Library, the longest running romance picture library from Fleetway, comprises over 60 issues from 1970-72, between #821 & #940. The series always maintained a high standard and the very accomplished art reflected the fashions and mood of the times. These new additions are mostly in excellent condition, with little wear or creasing, nearly all FN to VF. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: LOVE STORY PICTURE LIBRARY
#816 FN/VF £6
#925 FN £5 SOLD

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Crime Spies and Sleaze category as we reach Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason (immortalised on TV by Raymond Burr). We have four classic Perry Mason mysteries plus (new in) a tale from Gardener’s DA series.
PICTURED: ALL BY ERLE STANLEY GARDNER ALL SOLD
THE CASE OF THE BURIED CLOCK Penguin 1961 2nd UK PB VG £3.50
THE CASE OF THE GLAMOROUS GHOST Pan 1963 UK PB FN £4
THE CASE OF THE LONG-LEGGED MODELS Pan 1966 UK PB VG £3.50
THE CASE OF THE MOTH-EATEN MINK Great Pan 1962 UK PB VG £3.50
THE DA BREAKS A SEAL Penguin 1964 1st UK PB GD/VG £5

*Children’s Books: Two volumes from Arthur Ransome’s beloved Swallows and Amazons series new in this week, both in lovely hardcover editions with dustjackets protected by removable archival film. The twelve books are set mainly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads and involve children’s adventures in the great outdoors, particularly sailing, with an interwar setting. Charmingly told, with a real sense of chidhood wonder. 
PICTURED: BY ARTHUR RANSOME
GREAT NORTHERN? Jonathan Cape 1950 6th UK HC FN £10 With DJ (GD, tanned)
PETER DUCK Jonathan Cape 1948 21st UK HC VG £9 With DJ (FN, later)

*Books About Books: From 2000/2002, five postcard books, each collecting classic pulp era paperback covers as collections of postcards (23 or 31 per volume). These can be detached and used, but surely you’d want to keep them as they are to treasure and enjoy time and again. The covers and blurbs tell you what awaits within! All in beautiful ‘as new’ condition.
PICTURED: ALL SOLD
HELLCAT AMAZONS Prion 2000 £10 Tough girls and warped women
SHE TRIED TO BE GOOD Prion 2002 £10 Sirens and vamps
TEEN-REBEL DOPE FIENDS Prion 2000 £10 Drugs, mayhem and juvenile delinquents
THRILL-MAD PUSSYCATS Prion 2000 £10 High-voltage temptresses
TOO LATE TO RESIST Prion 2002 £10 Steamy clinches

We’re closing down for the holidays after posting out on 13th December, although we’ll still be answering your emails.

So, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us here at 30th Century, including our Fab Feline Four. Oh, and from the minions, of course!

We’ll be back here on 30th December with what will probably be our biggest Newsletter ever. Stay tuned!