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Update Archives For January 2009

25 January 2009

British Update: Collected Editions, Scorcher & Wizard plus Don Lawrence Jubliee Book

A mixed plethora of delights for you British comics fans this week as follows:

*Collected Editions: Titan Books continues its splendid work in reproducing treasures of the recent and not-so-recent past, with new volumes for Judge Dredd (Complete Case Files 11), ABC Warriors (3rd Element: Robot War), Modesty Blaise (Green Cobra), and James Bond (new volume Polestar, plus Trouble Spot, Phoenix Project, and The Spy Who Loved Me back in stock). Other publishers are stepping up to meet the nostalgia boom, however, with hardcover collections Wild West Picture Library: High Noon and Romance on Ward B following up recent successes with war reprints. The Knockabout hardcover, Bolland Strips, presents all of the renowned artist's 'Actress & Bishop' strips plus other ephemera, and the labour-of-love magazine Jeff Hawke’s Cosmos presents complete stories of the 1950’s and 1960’s science-fiction strip from the Daily Express, together with articles and retrospectives.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Scorcher, the soccer weekly of the Seventies, is star of the show this time, with 150 of its 230+ issues added to our inventory, from the very first (10/01/70) to the very last. To get over the repetitiveness of the subject matter, Scorcher gave us soccer stars who were robots ('Charlie Ironsides'), convicts ('Lag’s Eleven') or feral children raised by marsupials ('Kangaroo Kid'), to ring changes on the theme. Not that I know much about football, but isn’t winning by having robotic strength, kangaroo-like leaping or a record for GBH that you’re not afraid to use, kind of, well, cheating? The long-running star of Scorcher was 'Billy’s Boots', in which a crap young lad became an ace footballer by donning the supernaturally-possessed boots of a long-ago player. Forget testing for steroids – the referees should check the footwear! In any event, 'Billy’s Boots' survived Scorcher’s merger into Tiger, then Tiger’s merger into Eagle, and even had a last run in the 21st-century series of Striker, winning the official title of ‘Strip That You Can’t Beat To Death, Even With A Very Big Stick’. Other highlights include a series of one-page humour strips in most issues by Ken ('Faceache') Reid, Christmas issues, and the merger issue with the short-lived Score, which added 'Lord Rumsey’s Rovers', 'Nipper', and brothers-on-opposing-teams 'Jack of United' and 'Jimmy of City' to the line-up. But as if that wasn’t enough – Wizard mark II steps up with more issues ranging from 1972 to 1977, in an engaging, but dated and ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to revive the traditional story-paper for a new generation.

*Magazines/Books About Vintage UK Comics: Denis Gifford’s International Book of Comics from 1984 is now available again, plus the extremely-limited edition 1998 Don Lawrence Jubilee Book published in the Netherlands – see the listing for exhaustive details of content, and a cover image.

Posted by Rob | 01:23 p.m. GMT | 25 January 2009

American Update: Gold Key, Misc. 1940s-50s, Romance & Modern Reprints

A wide range of the obscure and the esoteric this week as follows:

*Gold Key: A number of iconic characters refreshed and recharged this week, in affordable mid-grades: new listings for Andy Panda (no, not Andy Pandy…), Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Pink Panther, Road Runner, Golden Comics Digest featuring Turok, and, okay, Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan – but don’t hold the stereotypes against us, we didn’t write it!

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Simon & Kirby strike again with the second Fighting American, the 1950’s patriotic-hero parody which eluded its audience back in the days of Red-baiting, but is a sought-after classic today. We also have new entries for Atlas (crime titles Caught and Private Eye), Premier (Police Against Crime), Hillman (Crime Does Not Pay), and Comic Media (Noodnik, a ‘funny eskimo’ comic that, amazingly, doesn’t involve any crime at all!) The cover of Fighting American #2 may be inspected in our Cover Gallery.

*Romance: Love conquers all, with more stock for a plethora of 50’s titles, including Artful/Ajax’s All True Romance, Bride’s Secrets, and My Personal Problem, Comic Media’s Dear Lonely Hearts, Toby’s Great Lover Romances, Charlton’s True Life Secrets, Love Journal from Our Publishing, and, top of the shop, Hollywood Secrets #1 from Quality, with Bill Ward providing cover and interior art. With titles like 'Delinquent Wife!', 'First Kiss Me' (and then what…?), 'Stand-In Boyfriend' and 'Are You A Fat Girl?', these stories present a skewed view of the battle of the sexes that confused and baffled a generation. The cover to Hollywood Secrets #1 may be seen in our Cover Gallery – go to the catalogue listing and click on the link to view!

*Modern Reprints: DC leads with a Showcase edition devoted to Strange Adventures, their cult science-fiction title of the 1950’s, with daring explorers, strange fates for planet Earth, exotic aliens galore, and an unfeasible number of spacefaring gorillas! Marvel responds with new editions of its Masterworks series, full-colour hardcovers devoted to the Avengers (Volume 8) and Daredevil (Volume 5), while several Masterworks volumes which had been out of print –Avengers 2 & 3, Iron Man 1, Spider-Man 6, Thor 2, and Uncanny X-Men 3 – are now available again. Staying with the Man Without Fear, the third volume of the collected Daredevil by Miller & Janson is now out, reprinting the celebrated 1980’s run, and finally from Marvel, the two-part full-colour paperbacks reprinting the complete Jack Kirby Eternals series from the 1970’s. Turning to other publishers, Fantagraphics brings us the Compleat Cannon in an oversized softcover, collecting Wally Wood’s soldier of fortune, who, despite his emotionless demeanour, manages to meet a disproportionate amount of ladies who have trouble retaining their clothing, while The Heart Of Juliet Jones Vol. 1 commences a complete sequential reprinting of Stan Drake’s acclaimed newspaper-strip drama, and the 1977 Miss Fury collection shows off Tarpe Mills’ feline heroine to great advantage. Further additions include Basil Wolverton’s Intense! and Planet of Terror pre-Code horror and sci-fi compilations, Mr, Monster’s Sci-Fi Special and Mr. Mystic from Eclipse, and new issues of Seduction of the Innocent.

Posted by Rob | 01:17 p.m. GMT | 25 January 2009

Housekeeping Update

As regular visitors to our site will know, on a regular cycle, we sweep through our entire vintage 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:

*Modern Reprints

As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date with every item listed available, so you may order with confidence! More soon!

Posted by Rob | 01:11 p.m. GMT | 25 January 2009

18 January 2009

British Update: Lots of Alan Class pre-decimal issues, 1980's Eagles, lots of new boys' picture libraries inc. many Pearson's, Buster 1966-1970

Another huge British update this week with much new stock in some of our best-selling ranges:

*Alan Class Reprints: More than 150 new items in stock, a massive influx of mostly pre-decimal issues, including five of the ‘Big Six’; Astounding Stories (from #4), Creepy Worlds, Secrets of the Unknown (almost 40 new SOTU issues, from #9 onwards), Sinister Tales, and Suspense (from #4). We also have new inventory for three short-run and sought-after titles, Out Of This World, Tales Of the underworld (from #2), and Weird Planets (from #2). Our Rough Guide to Alan Class Comics feature has also, as previously noted, been comprehensively updated to include approximate contents of each issue, so check it out for info., then make your selections!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Eagle Mk II is comprehensively relisted this time, from its very first issue in 1982 to mid-1986, with approximately 300 new entries. This revival of the venerable 1950’s title paid lip-service to its predecessor by featuring space-adventuring Dan Dare' – the great, great grandson of the original, it was alleged – but backed up by photo-strips featuring tough cops ('Joe Soap', 'Sgt. Streetwise'), footballing kids ('Thunderbolt & Smokey'), and science-fiction ('Doomlord'), in which embarrassed editorial staff and their relatives faked unconvincing streetfights and soccer matches. By 1983, it had moved from ‘fumetti’ on slick paper to traditional strip stories on standard bogroll pulp, (possibly because parents were by then more suspicious of phrases like “We’re going to take your little boy to a deserted warehouse and photograph him, okay?”). Despite the drop in production standards, the strip content improved, with Ian Kennedy and Oliver Frey both revitalising the 'Dare' series, while John M. Burns’ work stood out on pugilistic hero 'Danny Pyke' and can-do skivers 'Dolebusters'. This update includes the abruptly-forced merger when Mary Whitehouse nagged Scream into oblivion, bringing in 'Monster' and 'The Thirteenth Floor', and through the union with veteran Tiger, in which 'Deathwish' and the unsinkable 'Billy’s Boots' were the holdovers. More Eagles on the way, from July 1986 to close of play in 1993 – keep watching for updates!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A fine selection of combat tales in digest form, including the extra-length Air Ace, Battle, Battler Britton and War Holiday Specials, and additions to our stocks of Conflict and Commando. Cream of the crop, though, is a selection of a dozen or so Pearson’s picture libraries, scattered over various series such as Air War, Picture Stories of World War II, Sea War and Secret Agent. Every Pearson’s war Picture Library we’ve ever had in stock has departed very rapidly, so order now to avoid disappointment!

*Humour Comics & Picture Libraries: Returning to our previously-in-progress big Buster Bonanza, we flashback to the years 1966-1970, with forty+ new issues added in, encompassing the title’s merger with the short-lived Giggle in 1968, and featuring such popular strips as 'Thunderbolt the Avenger', 'Dinah Mite', Victorian rogue 'Charlie Peace', 'Fishboy', and our nominal hero, the apparently-illegitimate son of newspaper strip hero 'Andy Capp'. Busters of this vintage are harder to find nowadays – have you seen what some people are asking for them on eBay? – so grab these copies, averaging GD/VG, while stocks last!

Posted by Rob | 05:16 p.m. GMT | 18 January 2009

American Update: DC Silver/Bronze plus Modern Complete Sets

We've added some popular and inexpensive stock this week in the folowing categories:

*DC: A selection of Silver Age in very affordable low-medium grades, including Action, Adventure, Batman, Brave & Bold, Blackhawk, Flash, Hercules Unbound, Joker, Justice league of America, Mr. Miracle, Sgt. Bilko, Shadow, Superboy, Supergirl, Superman, and Wonder Woman (including some of the uncommon 'Quest for the Justice League' issues). Plus – the big one! Forget tawdry, media-fuelled non-events like the Barack Obama issue of Spider-Man – Super-Heroes Battle Super-Gorillas #1 is now back in stock! Buy it now before it swings away!

*Modern Comics Complete Sets: We add more to our selection, ranging from 1987 to 2008, including Mark Millar’s JLA: Paradise Lost, Ragman, Beautiful Killer, the appealing Spider-Man tie-in Deadline, gender crisis drama with JLA: Created Equal, Marvel’s cosmic Infinity War, the JLA/JSA crossover DC 2000, and the superbly-crafted Batman & Robin Adventures, which, despite being part of the ‘juvenile’ line, were at the time of their publication the best Batman comics around! Suppress your collecting bug by getting them all at once – and at less than normal retail!

Posted by Rob | 05:07 p.m. GMT | 18 January 2009

11 January 2009

New Catalogue Category: Modern Comics Special Interest debuts with Hellboy & Miracleman!

*Modern Comics Special Interest: A new category added this time round, to reflect perceived demand for certain characters or series. We inaugurate this new division with almost 100 issues of Hellboy and Hellboy-related titles, spurred on by high demand for Mike Mignola’s supernatural guardian and his pals n’ gals in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence. Hellboy, B.P.R.D., Abe Sapien and Lobster Johnson are all represented here, as well as crossover series with Ghost, Painkiller Jane, and the rare Hellboy/Batman/Starman two-parter, plus crossover and guest appearances in other series such as Goon or the Savage Dragon. Backing up Hellboy is a selection from Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman’s Miracleman, the groundbreaking reinvention of a classic 1950’s British hero. We'll be adding more titles to this category from time to time.

To reflect this, our Catalogue Index now shows a sub-section for Modern Comics, where you'll find our bargain price complete sets and series, our signed, variant and rare editions and this new category. Because you demanded it (it says here)!

Posted by Rob | 03:05 p.m. GMT | 11 January 2009

British Update: Annuals inc. Joe 90 and Boyfriend 1965 (Beatles), plus 300+ Tiger 1965-1985, Valiant, Victor, Warlord, Wizard & 3 girls' #1 issues: Roxy, June & Blue Jeans (with free gift!)

Another mammoth selection of British goodies for your perusal this week, including rarities, long runs, #1 issues and a spectacular (ahem) free gift! Details as follows:

*Annuals: A plethora of updates from the Swingin’ Sixties to the – what would you call it? Nifty Noughties? – anyway, the present day. In Humour Annuals, we top up popular series Beano from 1983-2009, Dandy from 1981-2009, Oor Wullie, Cor! And Whizzer & Chips; in Boys’ Adventure, we add Hotspur from 1976, Shoot from the late 80’s and early 90’s, and Warlord from 1983; in Film & TV Related, we can offer a FN- Joe 90 Annual from 1969, with Joe himself, the Champions (Alexandra Bastedo and Stuart Damon, not the Black Widow and Ghost Rider), and Star Trek, with three stories beautifully illustrated by Ron Turner; and in Girls’ Annuals, we add a vintage Boyfriend Annual from 1965, with a Beatles photo-cover and fashions, ‘charm’, pop gossip and love picture-strips to make any pre-feminist giddy with delight! (And if that remark doesn’t land me in trouble, I don’t know what will…) (Rob would just like to point out that this entry was composed by Will, not him!)

*Boys’ Adventure and War Comics: More than 300 issues of Tiger added to our lists this time, ranging from 1965, when it was a more general adventure-based weekly, through its various mergers with Hurricane, Jag, Scorcher, Speed, and Eagle, becoming progressively more themed until by 1970 it was pretty solidly a sports-only title, though it still retained a surprising variety of twists and gimmicks for its sporting stars, including being supernaturally guided ('Billy’s Boots'), being horribly disfigured ('Deathwish'), or being – eek! - a girl! ('Tallon of the Track'). This mammoth update runs until the series’ final year, 1985, but we don’t stop there! We also have new entries for Valiant (1971-1976), Victor (1970-1973), Warlord (from #4), and Wizard, both the first series (from 1953), and the second series (from #2 in 1970)

*Girls’ Comics: The power of three! A trinity of number ones from three decades, with Roxy from 1958, June from 1961, and Blue Jeans from 1977. Roxy was a short-lived title aimed at the older girl, with romance picture strips narrated, allegedly, by pop stars of the day – this issue’s lead is told to us by Tommy Steeele himself! The venerable June lasted from 1961 to 1974, gobbling up Poppet, Pixie, and most enduringly School Friend along the way; the terribly nice girls having sedate adventures in the first issue, including 'Kathy of Marvin Grange' and 'Diana’s Diary', were a foreshadowing of wackier stuff to come. And Blue Jeans, later famous for one-off photo-strip romances, featured regular comics serials in its early issues, bringing us in its first issue 'The Survivors' (post-earthquake refugees find love & danger) and 'Luke Tyler' (the secret agent with a license to break hearts!). Our Blue Jeans #1 comes with the original free-gift – a blue plastic carrier bag with a picture of a be-denimmed midriff on it! (Does their generosity know no bounds?). For a look at the front covers of all three (and the carrier bag!), check out our Cover Gallery feature by clicking on the catalogue link!

Posted by Rob | 11:34 a.m. GMT | 11 January 2009

American Update: Fiction House Jungle Girls & War Comics 1950s-1970s

Some less common stuff fresh in our American boxes this week in the following categories:

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the jungle, we have a bevy of savage goddesses for your entertainment in a new selection of Fiction House. We have a nice grade Sheena #16 with a glorious Maurice Whitman cover, Jungle Comics with Kaanga and his mate Ann, Camilla, Tabu and others, and ten issues of Jumbo, Sheena’s ‘birthplace’, including the last 7 issues which featured horror covers, presenting scenes of terror, ghosts, and a surprisingly dapper werewolf. The anthology format continued inside, however, with Sheena holding sway over Ghost Gallery, Werewolf Hunter, and science-fiction and adventure strips. Scans of the covers of Sheena #16, Jungle #131, and Jumbo #148 can be seen in our Cover Gallery – check the links in the catalogue.

*War: A wide range of new stock, the star of the show being the first issue of Atlas’ Battle, from 1951, in VG+ for £60. An attractive copy for the grade, this clean, glossy issue with good eye appeal is a prime opportunity to purchase an Atlas premier issue at an affordable price. But does the war end there? Heck no! Marvel’s Sgt. Fury joins the fray with new issues from #4, including several Kirby-illustrated numbers, and DC’s battle stars weigh in with, among others, Battle Classics, G.I.Combat (including several of the ND Dollar Comic issues from #201 up), Men of War, Our Army At War, Our Fighting Forces, Sgt. Rock, Star-Spangled War Stories and Weird War. As they used to say in the ‘70s, “Make War No More” – just read about it with a cup of tea instead! A scan of the Battle #1 may be viewed at our Cover Gallery – you know what to do with the catalogue link, right?

Posted by Rob | 11:23 a.m. GMT | 11 January 2009

Housekeeping Update

As regular visitors to our site will know, on a regular cycle, we sweep through our entire vintage 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 files in our American section:

*Classics Illustrated
*Mad
*Religious Comics

As of the time of writing, all these categories are bang up to date with every item listed available, so you may order with confidence! More soon!

Posted by Rob | 11:12 a.m. GMT | 11 January 2009

4 January 2009

British Update: Judy 1990-91 inc final issue, plus picture (and text!) libraries for boys and girls

We start the New Year with a very nice selection of material with great collector interest:

*Boys’ Adventure and War Picture Libraries: Popular series restocked in this week’s exercise include Air Ace (from #13), Fleetway Super Libraries (both Fantastic/Stupendous and Secret Agent series, starring the Steel Claw and Barracuda respectively), the Pearson series Picture Stories of World War II and Sea War, Fleetway’s Suspense Holiday Specials, Thriller Illustrated World Library Series, Super-Detective starring Temple Fortune and Rick Random (no, not together!), Top Secret and a ten-issue run of Football Picture Story Monthly, providing you with a dazzling diversity of entertainment and adventure.

*Girls’ Comics: It’s with a tearstained hankie we wave farewell to Judy with this chapter of our Big Girls’ Bonanza, as we cover the final two years, 1990 & 1991, of the venerable title’s existence. Flirting briefly with the idea of grittier stories, Judy bigged up the suffering of her protagonists with series like divorced-family drama 'Torn Apart', schoolgirl sadism in 'The Loneliest Girl In The School', and 'Sally Says…' in which a girl was forced to be the voice of her mute sister. Furthermore, long-term followers of our website will be relieved to know that, while 'Bobby Dazzler' had fallen by the wayside in the ‘80s, plucky Victorian skivvy 'Wee Slavey' was beavering away till the very final issue, twenty-five years after her debut! Issue 1,635 marked the final number of Judy, as on the last page she met Mandy for the first time, and the two commenced a new partnership in the very next week’s Mandy & Judy #1 – but we’ll save that excitement for a future update!

*Girl’s Picture Libraries: we have a misleading update this week, as many of the new additions aren’t picture libraries at all, but text libraries in the digest-sized format, from publishers such as Pearson and Amalgamated/Fleetway. Titles include Glamour, Hospital Romance, Lucky Star, Silver Star, Woman’s Life, Pearson’s Romantic and Schoolgirls’ Own Library, which we have been asked for in the past, but which we haven’t previously stocked, as, being words, we considered them outside our comics-based remit. However, we’re giving them a go; so, if you want to see what happens to 'The Schoolgirl In Mink', experience 'Love-Time In Paris', or visit 'Ken and Joyce and the Ghost Elephant', well, now’s your chance! Pearson’s Picture Romantic Library and Schoolgirls’ Picture Library (in which the 'Three Bright Girls' appear to thwart an alien invasion, though I’m sure there’s a more prosaic explanation) are also topped up this time.

Posted by Rob | 03:05 p.m. GMT | 4 January 2009

American Update: Lower graded early Marvels inc. 'big pantie monsters' & 1960-80s Horror inc. complete Arrgh!

A chance to grab some very affordable iconic Marvels plus more horror this week as follows:

*Marvel: A Silver Age sweep with a difference, as the predominant trend is towards early issues of key titles in medium-to-low grades, making them very affordable indeed. Avengers from #4, Fantastic Four from #9, and Spider-Man from #8 are among the titles substantially relisted in this 100+ copy update. But there are also some noteable higher grade items, including Fantastic Four Annual #5, Strange Tales Annual #1, Tales to Astonish #35 (with the first Ant-Man in costume), and a nice selection of Journey Into Mystery, Suspense and Astonish Pre-Hero issues, featuring Rro, Spragg, and many other monsters to rumble with. Plus – Homer the Happy Ghost! Never let it be said that we don’t try & cater for all tastes here… Scans of Avengers #4, Fantastic Four Annual #5, Strange Tales Annual #1, and Tales To Astonish issues #35 and #39 are available in our Cover Gallery – go see for yourselves. But go quickly - in our experience, early key Marvels such as these at these prices don't hang around for long!

*Horror/Mystery, 1960-1980’s: Our Complete Set Initiative continues with a complete five-issue run of Marvel’s Arrgh!, the horror-parody that was an attempt to cash in on the perceived success of DC’s Plop! Although not as distinguished as its competitor, Arrgh! nevertheless had artwork by Sutton, Sekowsky and Alcala to commend it, as well as reprints from 1950’s Atlas parodies featuring Everett and Andru & Esposito. We also offer new stock for ACG’s 'Big Three' – Adventures Into The Unknown, Forbidden Worlds and Unknown Worlds – and Charlton’s second series of Strange Suspense Stories, with dazzling Ditko artwork.

Posted by Rob | 02:59 p.m. GMT | 4 January 2009

Housekeeping Update

As regular visitors to our site will know, on a regular cycle, we sweep through our entire vintage 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 files in our American section:

*Tarzan/ERB
*Phantom
*Flash Gordon
*Spirit

As of the time of writing, all these categories are bang up to date with every item listed available, so you may order with confidence! More soon!

Posted by Rob | 02:52 p.m. GMT | 4 January 2009

Alan Class Rough Guide Updated

Alan Class Feature Update: In anticipation of an imminent influx of more than 200 pre-decimal issues, we have updated this ‘rough guide’ to the Alan Class series with more information about their diverse content. Full details can be found by following the link from our Features & Articles page.

Posted by Rob | 02:49 p.m. GMT | 4 January 2009