*Marvel: In our Marvel #1 slot this week, an old favourite that remains a classic. Having made his mark on the SHIELD strip in Strange Tales, Jaunty Jim Steranko took the brakes off and went all-out when Nick Fury’s Pals n’ Gals got their own full-length series, with cinematic storytelling and psychedelic designs, particularly on the cover and splash pages, that utilised the full potential of the medium with an imagination seldom seen since the heyday of Eisner. Nick Fury #1, ‘Who Is Scorpio?’, is the definitive example, with the popular espionage tropes of the day cranked up to 11, and a striking cover image which still resonates in the fandom psyche half a century plus later. Our newest Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #1 is a lower graded copy, pence stamped, with quite a bit of edge wear, spine ticks and diagonal colour-breaking creases across the bottom right corner. But great value for such an iconic item.
PICTURED: NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD #1 VG- p £35

*Horror 1940-1959: From the Bute Collection this week, two early copies of one of Atlas’s premier horror titles, Journey Into Mystery #7 & #9 from 1953 in superior shape and with great covers by Bill Everett.
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY
#7 FN £600 (below) Pre-Code. Cover by Everett, art by Harry Anderson, Jack Abel and others. Clean, fresh and glossy cover with great colour. Only minor edge wear and corner blunting. Supple off-white pages and firm staples at spine and centrefold. Some chipping to the back cover edge prevents a higher grade. High resolution images are available on request. SOLD
#9 VG/FN £400 (left) Pre-code. Cover by Everett, art by Robinson, Forte and others. Clean, fresh and glossy cover with great colour. Some spine wear but only moderate, also at top edge with minor handling wear. Staples tight at centrefold and reasonably tight at spine; nice supple off-white pages. 

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: It was common practise in UK comics for decades to create intentionally short-run ‘Feeder’ titles, with the express purpose of providing ‘new blood’ to refresh longer-running titles. One such was Thunder, which launched in 1970. Thunder developed several popular features, including time-stopping musician ‘Phil the Fluter’ (don’t ask), WWII robot ‘The Steel Commando’, junior Doctor Doolittle ‘Fury’s Family’, crime-fighting whiz-kids ‘The Jet Skaters’, and lovable mad scientist ‘Black Max’. Star of the show, however, was ‘Adam Eterno’, cursed to wander the Earth forever until killed by a weapon of gold – unfortunately for our hero, whenever he looked like being able to end his interminable existence, Circumstances Intervened. Despite a strong line-up, Thunder folded after 22 issues, and all of the above strips leapt into Lion, with, appropriately, Adam Eterno dodging death again when Lion was absorbed by Valiant! A lowish grade #1 new in this week, plus 13 subsequent issues, including one duplicate (20/2/71), all in reasonable condition. See our catalogue for details.
PICTURED: THUNDER #1 GD £15

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: We’re delighted this week to add nine novels by the prolific Carter Brown, all new to our listings. Alan Geoffrey Yates was a British born Australian who wrote under that pseudonym between 1954 and 1984. He was extremely prolific in this and other genres, turning out over 300 novels in his career. His work was hard-boiled in the style of Raymond Chandler, without the plot complexity, but with an entertaining sense of humour and laconic noir feel. The novels were written in the first person in the guise of one of several detective protagonists he used, examples being Lt Al Wheeler, tough cop, Rick Holman, Hollywood trouble-shooter to the stars and Mavis Seidlitz, whose IQ was lower than her bust size (allegedly). (We have detailed which detective features in which novel in our listings). Originally published in Australia (but all set in America, because “his readers preferred it”), Brown became internationally famous when they were published in first the USA and then the UK. The earlier American Signets were cover-illustrated by Barye Phillips and the later ones by Robert McGinnis, two highly talented artists who captured the spirit of the books beautifully. Most scenes featured sexy women, but inside the sex was always suggested rather than explicit. Our new intake features several American versions, a couple of Australian and one British. All the regular detective protagonists are represented, and we’re particularly pleased that there are four Mavis Seidlitz novels this time. Some are shown here; full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: All by Carter Brown
THE LOVING AND THE DEAD Signet 1959 1st US PB GD £6 SOLD
MURDER PARIS FASHION Horwitz 1960 3rd Aus PB GD £7
NUDE – WITH A VIEW Four Square 1966 1at UK PB GD £4
TERROR COMES CREEPING Signet 1959 1st US PB VG/FN £9
TOMORROW IS MURDER Signet 1960 1st US PB VG £8
THE WAYWARD WAHINE Signet 1960 1st US PB GD/VG £6

We’d like to take this opportunity to remind you how ordering from us works.

All orders from our website are filled on a strict first come, first served basis, EXCEPT those placed in response to our Newsletter/What’s New Page updates. Our Newsletter is usually sent around 10 am on Saturday mornings, immediately followed by the What’s New Page and Catalogue being updated. In order to give you the chance to properly review and consider the week’s new stock, plus to be fair to overseas customers in different time zones, we allow a period up to 4 pm that day, when we will consider all orders placed. If you’re the only person ordering that item, you’ll get it. If multiple orders for the same item are received before 4 pm, we will draw lots and advise the potential buyers of the result as soon after 4 as is practical. All orders after 4 pm revert to the first come, first served basis.

We think this gives you the fairest chance of getting what you want, at the same time removing the pressure for you to order in a hurry and thus make mistakes or change your mind. The vast majority of items we sell don’t get multiple orders on Newsletter days, so most orders will be successful. But please remember that in nearly all cases, we will only have one copy of any given item and inevitably, when it’s one in high demand, you may be unlucky.

*DC: Three issues of Action Comics from 1959, each one with a distinctive minor key quality to it. #248 (pre-Supergirl), features the back-up story where famed explorer Congo Bill first transforms into Congorilla – the Amazing Man-Ape. #253 has the second ever Supergirl story, and #254 has both the first meeting of Bizarro and Superman and the 3rd Supergirl story. All pre-UK distribution and uncommon over here.
PICTURED: ACTION COMICS
#248 FA/GD £29 Glued spine. Wear, creases and tears with minor cover graffiti. Centrefold almost loose. 
#253 GD- £65 Spine roll with long piece white tape at spine inside cover. Back cover stains. Good staples and decent pages.
#254 FA/GD £50 Spine glued, coupon out (does not affect stories). Looks good, with reasonable staple. SOLD
 

*DC/Marvel: We’re starting two new features this week, spotlighting some recent finds. The first, which we’re calling ‘Tabloid Headlines’, will showcase many of the much loved Treasury Sized editions published by DC and Marvel in the 1970s/80s. In 1976, after some delicate negotiations, Marvel and DC decided to create a team-up between their two iconic characters which proved too big for a regular-sized comic – so the tabloid-sized format, as seen in Marvel’s Treasury Editions and DC’s Limited Collectors’ Editions, was co-opted for this event! Superman and Spider-Man (as well as guest-villains Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus) are note-perfect in this mega-sized saga. This triggered a series of cross-overs between the two companies, with DC and Marvel alternating on the publishing chores, and Marvel was at the production helm by 1981, when Marvel Treasury Edition #28 was released, with the follow-up Superman and Spider-Man team-up, this time co-featuring Wonder Woman and the Hulk and the villainy of Doctor Doom and the Parasite! We are delighted to have both these epic editions back in stock.
PICTURED:
SUPERMAN VS THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN FN/VF p £80 A nice undamaged pence-printed copy with square corners, solid spine and staples, lovely white to off-white pages. Just minor handling wear, a faint reading crease and a couple of small spine ticks which just break colour. 
MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #28: SUPERMAN & SPIDER-MAN VF- £65 SOLD Rich cover colour, square corners, tight binding, beautiful white to off-white pages. Just a small mark (which looks like a faint thumb mark) centre spine, which is barely visible.

*Marvel: If you’re looking for really nice copies of Amazing Spider-Man for your collection, then look no further than the Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection. All high grade; even the few that fall below VF (and most are above) are really good-looking copies – no duds here, and nearly all cents copies. Something a little special this week, as we feature six CGC graded copies of Amazing Spider-Man from 1977-79, each one a 9.6 (NM+), universal unrestored blue labels, perfect cases and either white or off-white to white pages. Full details of course are in our catalogue.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#165 £135
#183 £70
#186 £100
#188 £90 SOLD
#189 £80
#190 £85

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week, two early X-Men issues from Lee & Kirby, as the merry mutants come up against some new foes. Issue #8 features the debut of Unus the Untouchable, the invulnerable wrestler-cum-super-villain. In #11, we meet the Stranger for the first time, a being of cosmic power and blurred origins, who has appeared throughout the MU ever since. Magneto and his BEMs are involved in both issues.
PICTURED: X-MEN BOTH SOLD
#8 VG+ p £140 Pence stamped. Decent copy with unmarred white background. A small lower right corner crease does not break colour. Minor edge and spine wear and corner blunting, good staples, nice off-white to cream pages.
#11 VG+ £140 Solid copy with just minor edge and spine wear and corner blunting. A few short spine ticks break colour. Unmarred cover image, good staples, nice off-white to cream pages. 

*Marvel: We turn to the distaff side of the Marvel Arachnid universe this update with a chunky update to the first run of the Spider-Woman title, most issues between #3 and the final issue #50. Always a dark and moody title, Jessica Drew has her own unique corner of the Marvel Universe. Highlights include guest shots by Werewolf By Night (#32 with universal monsters photo cover, Spider-Man, X-Men, the first appearance of X-Force’s Siryn in #37 (newsstand edition)  and the distinctive photo cover on #50 which rounded out the series. Check out our catalogue for full details.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: Some seldom seen issues from Gold Key’s Horror/Mystery range of the 1960s/70s this week, including half a dozen issues of Boris Karloff Tales Of Mystery (I bet he wrote them all himself), three Ripley’s Believe It Or Not (‘true ghost stories’), and a couple of the TV tie-in Twilight Zone (a great TV series, BTW). All feature well-executed stories in the right vein with great painted covers. Please see the full listings in our catalogue.
PICTURED: BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #59 VF p £6.25

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: In the early 1950s, a small number of horror comics (around 40) were produced by a variety of UK publishers reprinting US pre-code horror stories in black and white. Just as in the USA, these became notorious and subject to censorship which led to their discontinuation. There’s a lot of information online about the banning of UK horror comics if you want to know more, and I particularly recommend a youtube video by Canadian Dave Dustin on the subject (see the Links page in our Extras section for more information). These UK horror comics have become both extremely rare and much sought after in recent years, and we’re delighted to have issues #1 & #2 of Eerie from Thorpe & Porter/Jenson from 1951/52, reprinting the Avon US originals. Plus, since these were double the size of an original Eerie, an issue of Avon’s Strange Worlds as well. Each issue is graded by CGC and encased in their sealed plastic case.
PICTURED: EERIE ALL SOLD
#1 CGC 5.0 VG/FN £600 Universal unrestored blue label, case perfect, off-white pages. Reprints US Eerie #1 plus Strange Worlds #2
#2 CGC 5.5 FN- £600 Universal unrestored blue label, case perfect, off-white pages. Reprints US Eerie #2 plus Strange Worlds #3
SPECIAL OFFER: We also have a copy of Eerie #3 (third and final in the series) which is not CGC. It is in poor shape (ragged, torn and heavily taped) and incomplete, with one of the Strange Worlds stories removed. We shall be offering this free to anyone who successfully orders and pays for #1 & #2 at the same time. If they don’t sell together, after a short time, we will offer this copy of #3 on its own at a fairly nominal value. 
ALSO PICTURED: EERIE #3 Poor and incomplete; only offered as a bundle, free with #1 & #2 at this time.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: 14 issues of the long-lived Boys’ weekly Tiger from 1966, from 17th September until the end of the year, an almost consecutive run with just a couple missing. Includes both the Christmas issue for 1966 and the New Year issue for 1967 (dated 31st December 1966).  Throughout its history, Tiger (original home to Roy of the Rovers) always had strong sporting associations and indeed in later decades, virtually became a comic of sport-related strips, but here in 1966, Roy, Skid Solo, Johnny Cougar and other sporting stars rubbed shoulders with war and adventure strips such as the Robot Builders, Nelson Lord TIGER Agent, the Black Archer, Typhoon Tracy, Saber King Of The Jungle and many more. A classic British comic at its best! Mostly £2-£3.50 each. As always, please see our catalogue for details.

*DC: Introduced as a last-minute afterthought in the Batman Animated TV Show, a curvaceous minion of the Joker brainstormed to do a task thought inappropriate for ‘Mr. J’ himself, Harley Quinn caught on like wildfire, and after several reappearances in the show, crossed over into the comic books with Batman Adventures #12 in 1993. Since then, of course, she’s transferred from the DC Comics Animated Universe to the main DCU, had her own series and several spin-offs, cracked the big time of movie success and is now regarded as one of the big-earning ‘pillars’ of the DCU, alongside Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Whilst high grade copies of this gem are not rare, this is one of the nicest we’ve ever seen. In virtually every respect, this is as nice as new (nicer even than some new comics you see on the racks). Flat, tight, glossy, vibrant, white pages, firm staples, sharp corners etc. There are just the tiniest signs of a couple of stress marks at the spine (no hint of a colour break), but you have to look really hard to see them. We debated long and hard on the grade to award this, and settled on a very conservative VF/NM. 
PICTURED: BATMAN ADVENTURES #12 VF/NM £450 SOLD

*DC: Six excellent issues of Strange Adventures, DC’s longest running science fiction series of the Golden, Silver & Bronze Ages. Consecutive between #142 & #147; three recurring features alternate in the spotlight each issue: Star Hawkins, Interplanetary Detective and his robot secretary Ilda, Space Museum, with tales of exhibits and Atomic Knights, post-apocalyptic adventures of Earth’s last armoured defenders. Take it from me, all wonderful stuff backed up by lovely little stories from DC’s best creators. All three features will be found in these mixed grade issues, plus the (slightly) recurring menace of the Faceless Creature. Issue #144 notably features the only Atomic Knights cover.
IN THIS UPDATE: STRANGE ADVENTURES ALL SOLD
#142 GD/VG p £12.25 Lower staple area restapled
#143 GD £7.50 Cover detached
#144 VG/FN p £26 (PICTURED) Atomic Knights cover
#145 GD/VG p £10
#146 GD p £6.75 Restapled
#147 VG- p £15.25

*Marvel:  From the Good Doctor Collection this week: Created in a cocoon by scientists in Fantastic Four, the supernaturally gifted being known only as ‘Him’ made a couple of cameo appearances in previous issues of Thor, but #165 featured the first full appearance of the character, and the earliest inkling of the extent of his powers. Eventually, re-named Warlock, ‘Him’ would become a mainstay of Marvel’s cosmic sagas in the 1970s and beyond, but here was the first full outing, in a two-part battle with Thor for the hand (and other parts) of the warrior-maiden Sif, Thor’s main squeeze.
PICTURED: THOR
#165 VG/FN p £120 Decent black background copy with vibrant colour and gloss. Tight, firm staples, supple white to off-white pages. Pence stamped. Minor edge wear with short colour breaking stress mark around upper staple. There is a faint vertical crease down the left side of the cover which just breaks colour for a couple of cms.
#166 VG+ £55 Great colour and gloss. Tight, firm staples, supple white to off-white pages. Some stress marks at spine; small arrival date in biro in mast-head box. There is a slight dingy patch to the right of the logo, which, from its regularity, looks as though a label has been removed, but it has no residue of that. 

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection, a consecutive run of Amazing Spider-Man from #94 to #100 in mixed grades. From battling the Beetle (#94). an adventure in Jolly Old London (#95), the infamous Green Goblin non-code approved drugs trilogy (#96-98), to a prison break-out (#99) and, of course, the 100th Anniversary issue, a busy time here for the wall-crawler.
IN THIS UPDATE: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#94 FN p £32
#95 FN/VF £70 (PICTURED)
#96 GD p £15.75
#97 GD p £23.25
#98 GD- £20.75
#99 GD/VG p £11.75
#100 FA £17.50 Heavily creased. SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: L B Cole was one of the most famous of Golden/Atomic Age cover artists. He drew in a variety of genres, and was artistic director at Star, illustrating 95% of the company’s covers; his lurid, feverish style, almost hallucinogenic, graced horror, science-fiction, jungle and romance alike. Star took over the venerable title Blue Bolt in 1949 (previously it had been a classic anthology title starring the titular character, with much work by Simon & Kirby, Everett etc, lasting throughout the war years and beyond). By the time we got to #117, Blue Bolt himself was (almost) long gone and the emphasis of the series had changed to horror, according to the zeitgeist of the time. Indeed, the title was rebranded as Ghostly Weird Stories from #120 onwards. In #117, the original lead story, cover featured, is The Thing In The Pit by the estimable Jay Disbrow. The remainder is reprints from as diverse sources as Fox’s Crimes By Women, Jo-Jo and Rocket Ship X, as well as an interesting reprint from an earlier issue starring Blue Bolt himself. But of course it’s the wonderful L B Cole cover for which these issues are prized, here with an Indian shaman summoning a monster from below to the horror of male and female witnesses, all in a swirl of vibrant and dazzling colours. A really nice copy, with great colour and a totally unmarked cover image. Staples are reasonably tight at spine and centrefold and the page quality is a remarkable off-white, the pages being strong and supple. Corners are reasonably sharp, and edge wear is at a minimum (mainly minor stress marks at the spine). This would grace a Pre-Code Horror collection. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: BLUE BOLT WEIRD TALES #117 VG/FN £750 SOLD

*Alan Class Reprints: For many years now, we’ve been scouring the personal archives of legendary publisher Alan Class and with his full co-operation, releasing for sale sets of the original printing plates that were used to print the covers of his comics from 1959-1989. We’re approaching the very end of these sets now, and this is the penultimate release. So, this final phase represents your last opportunity to add one or more of these unique pieces to your collection. Each set comprises the lead printing plates used in the original comic’s colour printing, a copy of the comic printed with these plates and a signed certificate of authenticity signed by Alan Class himself. These are packaged in a special protective presentation case. Several sets (as noted) have additional historical artefacts such as colour proofs, interior page plates, printers’ photostats etc. (Please be aware that these weigh a lot and postage will be expensive. Also note that due to the onerous paperwork required for customs declarations following Brexit, we can no longer post these Plate Sets outside the UK.) Two new sets this week as follows: BOTH SOLD
SINISTER TALES #101 £100 Comic VG; Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #68 & #69 (inc cover), Atlas war. Extra: Colour cover proof.
SUSPENSE #3 £80 Comic VG+; Reprints Atlas, inc I Krigstein, I Torres. (NB 2 of the 4 plates are very small) A very early Alan Class comic.

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: From 1961/62, a further selection of Fleetway’s long-running True Life Library between #303 & #321. Superficially in lovely condition with few marks and great cover colour and page quality, these are marred only by varying degrees of staple rust, from average to minimal in most cases. #321 features a photo cover, the only example I’ve ever seen in this title.
PICTURED: TRUE LIFE LIBRARY #321 VG £5

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror category with works by Anthony Burgess, Jonathan Burke and William Burkett. A Clockwork Orange by Burgess, here in its first UK paperback edition, was made into a controversial film by Stanley Kubrick, and lives up to the book’s cover blurb: ‘Sharp, horrific, uncompromising… with a sick humour all its own.’ A story of the not too distant future where marauding gangs are fought by brainwashing psychiatry. Unforgettable. Also, Burke and Burkett provide us with a couple of examples of good old-fashioned space opera.
PICTURED:
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by ANTHONY BURGESS Pan 1964 1st UK PB VG/FN £35
PURSUIT THROUGH TIME by JONATHAN BURKE Digit 1962 UK PB GD £4
SLEEPING PLANET by WILLIAM R BURKETT Panther 1968 1st UK PB VG £5

*DC: One of my all-time favourite comics, now elevated to a comic prized by many. While all early issues of Hawkman are superb, with high-flying sci-fi stories by Gardner Fox and luminous Murphy Anderson artwork (not that we’re prejudiced witnesses or anything…), the most sought-after in recent years is issue #4, featuring the debut of the Princess of Prestidigitation – Zatanna! Zee (as she’s familiarly known), a personal favourite here at 30th Century, is the daughter of DC’s Golden Age magician Zatara, and took her quest for her missing father through the pages of Green Lantern, Atom, Detective Comics and the Justice League of America in one of DC’s earliest ‘story arcs’, but this is where her illustrious career – which has branched out into both animated and live-action TV – began. (And yes, they did miss a bet by not having her featured on the cover – foolish mortals!). This is a lowish graded cents copy, with an unspoilt cover image. Decent staples, firmly attached, and reasonable off-white pages with minor page edge wear. Some corner blunting, with minimal colour-breaking creases to the bottom right edge. The spine is worn, but more or less complete. One or two small grubby logo marks and minor edge wear. Presents pretty well. From an original owner collection and new to the market.
PICTURED: HAWKMAN #4 GD £285

*DC: A large swathe of Brave & Bold between #87 and #197, with Batman teaming-up with just about everybody. Includes a Joker cover and story in #141, and poignant emotional tales of the Batman family in #182, #184 and #197, which are highly recommended. Full details as always in our catalogue.

*Marvel: If you’re looking for really nice copies of Amazing Spider-Man for your collection, then look no further than the Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection. All high grade; even the few that fall below VF (and most are above) are really good-looking copies – no duds here, and nearly all cents copies. Harry Osborn took up his father’s villainous identity as the Green Goblin in this two-parter in Amazing Spider-Man #136-167, with repercussions for all the denizens of the Spider-verse.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN BOTH SOLD
#136 VF- £95 Bright, colourful copy with unmarked cover, great staples and supple off-white pages. Lies flat but for a tiny very soft crease at base of spine which does not break colour, and a miniscule one at the bottom right corner which (just) does. 
#137 VF- £40 Sound copy with off-white pages and great staples. One or two soft small creases at spine which barely show and do not break colour. Tiny, tiny nick at base of spine. For those that are bothered, the Mark Jewelers insert is present.

*Marvel: A consecutive run of Captain America from #159-170, featuring, among many other things, the first appearance of Nightshade in #164 and the first Helmut Zemo in #168. Mostly nice graded pence printed copies.
PICTURED: CAPTAIN AMERICA #164 VF p £50 1st Nightshade SOLD