*Marvel: A quite wacky example of our collecting hobby this week. This is a copy of Journey Into Mystery #83, the first appearance of Thor, graded by CGC at 0.5 (Poor), and designated a Universal, unrestored blue label. The person who sold this to us described it as a ‘washing machine variant’ in that it looked as if it had been through one, presumably in a pocket. Take a good look at the images here; at least the image of Thor on the front cover is recognisable, even if some other bits are (how shall I put it?) less than fresh. But if you think the front cover is bad, take a look at the back! I’d like to have seen the CGC grading notes for this one! Nevertheless, there are some plus points — the issue is complete, a cents copy, and has, according to CGC, off-white pages (yeah, I know) — and it’s a copy of the first Thor at a price you won’t have to take out a mortgage for. (You’ll note that I’m not dwelling here on the virtues or importance of this issue in Marvel’s history — if you’re reading this, I’m sure you already know all that!). Dr. Evilla, who has been watching too many UK soap powder commercials, wants to extend the washing machine analogy by saying that if it’s ‘Perf with Surf’ and ‘Gold with Bold’, this is very definitely ‘Grim with JIM!’ 
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #83 CGC 0.5 PR £1200 SOLD

*Marvel: 1968 was the year of Marvel’s big expansion, when the deal with DC for distribution came to an end and they were thus allowed to publish as many titles as they could manage. They started off by launching all the characters from their ‘split’ titles into their own series, such as Doctor Strange and Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, and brand new titles such as Captain Marvel. Along the way, the one-shot Iron Man & Sub-Mariner was a by-product of this process. All four of these debut issues feature in this update in low to mid grades.
PICTURED:
CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 GD+ p £30 Edge wear, small colour-breaking creases, back cover tear. SOLD
DR STRANGE #169 GD/VG p £45 Edge wear, small colour-breaking creases. SOLD
IRON MAN & SUB-MARINER #1 GD+ p £40 Edge wear, colour-breaking creases, long cover crease. SOLD
NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD #1 VG+ p £35 Decent; edge wear, small colour-breaking creases.

*Marvel: Our alphabetical journey through the Marvel Universe continues this week as we reach the latters ‘N’ to ‘P’, so new listings for Not Brand Echh, Nova, Power Man and Punisher, with many issues previously missing from our catalogue, so check it out.

*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: Having devoted most of our updates in this category to Patsy Walker over the last year or so, we’re now turning our attention to Marvel’s other (and some would say even more famous) funny girl star Millie the Model, with a large number of issues fresh in across Millie’s range of titles: Mad About Millie (from #1), Millie the Model (with an early #7 issue) and Modeling with Millie. These cover the decades from the 1940s to the 1970s, the span of Millie’s comic book career, and display the changing times, with comics as social history. We particularly enjoyed the 1960s Carnaby Street shopping spree and the Groovy Gears pop combo. Lots of other titles in this update as well, from DC’s A Date with Judy, (Leave It To) Binky, A Date with Debbi and (Swing With) Scooter, to Marvel’s Chili, Atlas’s Kathy (the Teen-Age Tornado), Patsy & Hedy (they just had to get a word in!), and Tower’s Tippy Teen. We’re showing a sample of Millie’s titles below – enjoy!
PICTURED:
MAD ABOUT MILLIE #1 GD+ £10.50 SOLD
MILLIE THE MODEL #7 FA/GD £34 SOLD
MILLIE THE MODEL ANNUAL (QUEEN SIZE SPECIAL) #5 GD £6.75 SOLD
MODELING WITH MILLIE #50 VG £8.25

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. This week, from 1954, the first and third issues of Swift, the often-overlooked junior sibling of the acclaimed Eagle weekly. You can read all about Swift in our guest writer article here. Swift Vol 1 #1 from 1954 has minor spine wear but generally is an extremely attractive copy; #3 is even nicer.
PICTURED: SWIFT
VOL 1 #1 GD/VG £75
VOL 1 #3 FN £25

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Post-war faux American gangster novels (often termed pulps due to their paper quality) written and published in the UK have become something of a collector thing over the last decade or so. Written mostly by house names and featuring sleazy dame covers, the most famous of these are by the Hank Janson/Reginald Heade combo, but there are plenty of other fish in the sea too, for all the rarity of editions that have survived the decades. This update features four of them by two different authors, and the titles and covers really do say it all. (Note that one author is Bart Banarto on one volume, Bart Barnato on another — they couldn’t keep the house names straight!).
PICTURED:
BIGTIME PAYOFF by BART BANARTO 1st UK PB 1950s Edwin Self GD/VG £40 (spine worn)
DAMES PLAY DUMB by BART BARNATO 1st UK PB 1950s Edwin Self GD/VG £40 (staple rust) SOLD
KILLER BAIT by DUKE LINTON 1st UK PB 1953 Scion VG £50 (Roger Davis cover art)
SINNER by DUKE LINTON 1st UK PB 1953 Scion FA £25 (cover creased and worn) SOLD

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: We’re lucky enough to have obtained further stocks of Pearson’s Picture Romance Library from the 1950s, this time featuring a batch up to #35. The earliest issues aren’t numbered (the earliest numbered issue we’ve seen is #10) or dated and two of our new batch are in the unnumbered range, so must be between #1 and #9. Advert context in these would suggest they must be among the very earliest, perhaps even #1 and #2, but we’ve never had them before and the internet doesn’t know. We’ve pictured them here for information. Consult our catalogue for full information on all issues.
PICTURED: PICTURE ROMANCE LIBRARY
THE FORBIDDEN CHILD VG £12
HER FOURTH WEDDING RING VG £12

Just a reminder that as previously notified, we are now exclusively a mail order business, and our shop will NOT be re-opening to visitors when non-essential shops are allowed to open (currently scheduled for 12th April). We’re sorry to disappoint, but we can promise you an ever-increasing range of vintage comics and books to browse online, and we’re working on increasing the number of images in our catalogue too. We know many of you will miss visiting us, but we hope you will enjoy virtual shopping.

*DC: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. One of the more oddball entries in the DC annals, Showcase #43 began as a projected issue of Classics Illustrated. The story was ultimately rejected by the Classics publishers as ‘too adult’, and its only first printing appeared in the insanely rare UK Classics Illustrated #158a. This material was repackaged by DC as issue #43 of its ‘tryout’ series Showcase with a new cover by Bob Brown, but being released before the film, it was a bit of a flop, and DC lost the license which, decades later, several other publishers took up to good effect. Subsequent popularity of the James Bond character in multiple media has made this issue highly sought-after in retrospect. Our copy is pence stamped, with good cover colour and gloss, tight staples and only light wear at bottom corners. 
PICTURED: SHOWCASE #43 FN p £120

*Marvel: From the response so far, you can’t get enough of our ‘Wandavision’ event, so we’re turning this week to the debut of the series’ Big Bad, none other than Agatha Harkness, Beldame of the Mystic Arts! (Be honest – you just can’t get that “Agatha All Along” theme song out of your head, now can you?) Less whimsical, more virtuous, and rather more… mature than her televisual counterpart, Agatha has long been a staunch ally of the Fantastic Four and a mentor to the Scarlet Witch, but has occasionally shown darker tendencies and a mordant sense of humour that make her TV iteration not that much of a stretch. This first appearance of the series’ breakout character is a lovely high grade cents copy, with wonderful cover colour and gloss, close to white pages, tight and flat with firmly attached stapes and no defects except a couple of the tiniest virtually invisible stress marks at the cover masthead and a tiny, soft non-colour breaking crease at the extremity of the top right cover edge, but that’s us being really picky. We’ve never seen a better copy of this black background cover issue.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #94 VF+ £325

*Marvel: When the Black Widow movie finally gets released later this year, it will introduce Natasha’s former husband, the Red Guardian, into the MCU. But you don’t have to wait until then for his comics debut, which was in Avengers #43, dating from 1967. Sadly, we can only offer you a low grade copy this time, with a fair bit of wear, particularly to the spine and upper back cover edge, as well as some corner creasing and loosening staples. But the cover image is good, the pages okay and it’s a good price for a movie character debut issue.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #43 GD+ £40 SOLD

*Marvel: Four of the ever-popular Marvel Treasury-sized editions fresh in this week, two from the numbered series and two specials, all depicted here. Worth noting that the Conan Treasury (all Barry Smith) includes the story ‘Red Nails’, previously only published in black and white, Howard the Duck  features a new story where our favourite fowl joins the Defenders, and both the Cap and 2001 are all new material from Jack Kirby, of course.
PICTURED:
MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #4 FN+ p £15 SOLD
MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #12 FN p £12.50
CAPTAIN AMERICA’S BICENTENNIAL BATTLES VG p £15 SOLD
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY FN+ p £25 SOLD

*Marvel: We return to our progressive Marvel alphabetical listing this week, reaching the letter ‘M’ with additions to Marvel Classics, Marvel Premiere (Dr Strange & Iron Fist), Marvel Spotlight (1st and 2nd series, Son Of Satan & Captain Marvel), Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-In-One and Ms Marvel (including the final issue). Lots of stuff previously missing from our listings — see our catalogue for details. 

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: A top up for the following titles from the House of Ideas: Monsters On The Prowl, Supernatural Thrillers, Tomb Of Darkness, Tomb Of Dracula (#9), Tower Of Shadows (inc #1 with classic Steranko story), Vault Of Evil, Weird Wonder Tales, Where Monsters Dwell and Worlds Unknown. See our catalogue for details.

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: With publishers such as Miller, Strato and Top Sellers, the 1950s were rich here in the UK with reprints of earlier American science fiction and horror and we have a swell bunch of them fresh into stock this week, including Fantastic Tales, Forbidden Worlds, Miller’s digest-sized Marvel Tales (reprinting Atlas horror/mystery), Mystery In Space (with DC reprints from that title) and Out Of This World (Charlton reprints featuring lots of Ditko). A sample is shown here, but check out our catalogue for the full run-down. 
PICTURED:
MARVEL TALES #3 FN+ £20 SOLD
MYSTERY IN SPACE #2 GD/VG £12
OUT OF THIS WORLD #3 GD+ £10 SOLD

*TV & Film Related Comics: From 1969, the much-publicised Joe 90 Weekly, released to tie-in with the latest Gerry Anderson ‘Supermarionation’ TV series, in which bespectacled nine-year-old Joe McClaine acquired phenomenal skills by having computerised knowledge downloaded into his brain, and set out as the unlikeliest secret agent of all, for the World Intelligence Network (W.I.N.) Sadly, for all its pre-publicity, Joe 90 turned out to be a rare Anderson flop – apparently young viewers related to adult heroes, not kids their own age – and the show foundered after 30 episodes, with the comic’s run lasting only a few weeks longer before being incorporated into TV 21 Mk. II! Now, however, the short achievable run of Joe 90 is much sought-after, having the usual quality artwork of the Anderson adaptations, and co-featuring comic strip versions of such popular TV shows as Star Trek, the Champions and Land of the Giants. Just a small update here, but including #1, #3 & #27. #1 is a nice VG, but has a coupon out affecting the ‘Ninepence & Tenpence of Sport’ story. 
PICTURED: JOE 90 #1 App VG (and page with coupon missing)

*Girls’ Comics: A round up of loose but distinctive ends this week, including an early Bunty (#127 from 1960), a few issues of Jinty from her first year of 1974 (inc #3), and the final issue of Tammy from 23rd June 1984. Tammy, after a long run, ended rather ignominiously when a printer’s strike caused several issues not to be printed and the title was then cancelled without either the end of the serials or an announcement of merger with another title.
PICTURED: TAMMY 23/6/84 VG £9

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Some classics from some of science fiction’s biggest names this week. In addition to the three pictured, we also have Isaac Asimov’s Second Foundation (an early UK paperback edition) and Arthur C Clarke’s Earthlight (2nd UK PB). Full details of all these plus thousands of other quality vintage books may be browsed in our catalogue.
PICTURED:
I, ROBOT by ISAAC ASIMOV 2nd UK PB 1968 VG £10
VERMILLION SANDS by J G BALLARD 1st UK PB 1975 FA £8
THE CITY AND THE STARS by ARTHUR C CLARKE 4th UK PB 1970 VG £3

*DC: Following on from the Elongated Man’s stint as Batman’s back-up in Detective Comics, Batgirl took cover billing from #384 and shared the title in her own adventures up to #424. Moreover, this was a time of change for the Caped Crusader himself and the darker and grittier mood took centre stage, as exemplified by Denny O’Neill and Neal Adams, among others. Man-Bat, She-Bat and the League of Assassins all debuted at this time. We have new stock of almost all issues from this period, mostly in superior high grade; check out our catalogue for full details. Many examples are shown here:
PICTURED: DETECTIVE COMICS
#397 FN £40
#404 VF £47 SOLD
#407 FN/VF £40
#410 VF- £40
#412 VF/NM £43
#416 VF+ £40

*Marvel: From Journey into Mystery #103, when the Asgardian landscape was still ‘settling down’ in the relatively new Thor strip, two figures debuted who were to make a lasting impact in the life of the God of Thunder: The Executioner, a menacing figure whose might almost equalled that of the God of Thunder himself; and the Enchantress, mightiest of sorceresses, who was to become Thor’s most beloved enemy, occasionally doing good deeds because of her unrequited feelings for Thor – but never for long! Two of the most powerful characters in the Marvel mythos, the diabolical duo have bestrode the four-colour cosmos for decades, and this is where their infamous careers began! This pence printed copy has a fair bit of edge wear and colour-breaking creasing, but the cover colours are good and the pages sound, apart from one small margin tear with margin-only loss. Small spine splits at top and bottom cover; staples reasonably tight at cover and centre. A good, honest issue from Stan & Jack. 
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #103 GD p £100 SOLD

*Marvel: Continuing our ‘WandaVision’ event, in tribute to the Disney+ smash hit TV series, we spotlight the second series of Vision and the Scarlet Witch, a twelve-issue maxi launched in 1985. Wanda and Vizh leave the Avengers for suburban domestic bliss, but although they’ve quit the life, the life hasn’t quit them – as we witness a battle with Salem’s Seven, the breakup of Crystal and Quicksilver, a tussle between Wanda and the Enchantress for the Vision’s synthetic heart, and the greatest challenge of all – Thanksgiving dinner with the Avengers and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants! Written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Richard Howell, we have six of the twelve issues in stock of this underrated gem, from which much of the inspiration for the TV show was taken. All in VF grade, a little wear here and there, but nothing horrible, all bright and shiny.
PICTURED: VISION & SCARLET WITCH 1985 ALL SOLD
#3 VF £10
#5 VF £10
#6 VF £10
#7 VF £10
#9 VF £10
#10 VF £10

*Horror 1940-1959: Superior was a Canadian publisher active from 1945-1956 who mostly reprinted American comics from the same time period. They also published a number of original series that were distributed in the United States. Among these were three horror titles famous for their hallucinogenic covers and accomplished Fiction House style interior art. When you see a lot of these together, they have an almost hypnotic and uncomfortable effect. This week we feature Journey Into Fear #10-12; specific defects are listed below, otherwise general wear.
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO FEAR ALL SOLD
#10 GD/VG £145 Off top staple at front cover only
#11 VG £190
#12 VG £190 Small upper spine split

*Alan Class Reprints: An update this week to two Alan Class titles: just a tickle to Creepy Worlds, but a chunk of Weird Planets from #1 onwards. This short run title was known for Ditko mystery reprints, and many abound in all the issues added this week, particularly #1. You can check our Alan Class Rough Guide for content detail. This update is for our regular, non-certificated stock.
PICTURED: WEIRD PLANETS #1 VG £33

*TV & Film Related Comics: When the first series of TV Century 21 faltered, competitors Polystyle were quick to generate a successor in ‘Countdown’, featuring many of the most popular Gerry Anderson TV shows in comic strip form. Fireball XL5, Captain Scarlet, Thunderbirds, Stingray all graced its pages, plus a brand-new sci-fi strip ‘Countdown’, illustrated rather spiffily by John M. Burns, and the star power of a Doctor Who comic series imported from TV Comic! Later issues added the Persuaders in a prelude to the change into TV Action that was to follow. Our latest Countdown update features around 20 issues new in, all previously missing from our listings, in a range of grades, but nearly all pretty good condition.
PICTURED: COUNTDOWN
#15 FN/VF £9 SOLD
#53 VG/FN £7 SOLD

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: This popular series, published by Amalgamated Press (later IPC/Fleetway), ran from 1952-1976, clocking in over 1600 issues. We have 50+ issues from the first 100 numbers (1952 to, our best guess, 1955 – like many publications of the time they’re not dated), ranging between issue #2 to issue #99.  The title was later changed to Love Story Picture Library, to avoid confusion with the similarly formatted text fiction series which abounded at the time. These are of course all comics stories. These average Good condition, but it should be emphasised that this is purely because of the staple rust which unfortunately plagues many comics of the period. They’re otherwise sound, with bright covers and clean interior pages, and would, if not for the rusty staples and rust migration, average at least a grade higher than stated, but, as ever, we try to err on the side of caution. The earliest four numbers are shown here; please consult our catalogue for the full listing. 
PICTURED: LOVE STORY LIBRARY ALL SOLD
#2 GD £15
#7 GD £9
#9 GD £0
#23 GD £6