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Update Archives For February 2009

22 February 2009

American Update: Star Spangled & Wonder Woman from the 1940s plus a batch of ECs!

Continuing an amazing vernal line-up for you, we present another selection of true gems for your consideration:

*DC: A stellar quartet of Golden Age treasures this time, with issues #10 and #14 of Star-Spangled Comics from 1942, featuring Simon & Kirby’s Newsboy Legion, Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, Robotman, TNT, and comics’ first ‘Spider-Man’, the Tarantula. We also have issues #19 and #29 of Wonder Woman, in which our plucky Amazon Princess battles warmongers, errant ghosts, gypsies and the sinister Minister Blizzard, among others. These are exceptionally attractive copies for their vintage, ranging from VG- to FN+, and scans of all four covers may be viewed on our Cover Gallery feature.

*EC: Our stock of this highly acclaimed and controversial 1950’s publisher grows with issues of Aces High, Frontline Combat, MD (#1 in Fine), Valor, and a half-dozen of the science-fiction titles of which EC themselves were most proud – Weird Fantasy, Weird Science, and Weird Science-Fantasy. With the titanic talents of Wood, Ingels, Crandall, Davis, Kamen, and many of the period’s finest craftsmen, the EC reputation is justly earned – and with many of these copies being in affordable mid-to-low grades, here’s a chance to sample them without breaking the budget.

Posted by Rob | 08:15 p.m. GMT | 22 February 2009

British Update: Masters Of The Universe plus early 1960s Beezers and Toppers

Some strange bedfellows for you to contemplate this week:

*TV & Film Related: We have the power! The comic-strip adventures of the bemuscled and bemulletted Guardian of Eternia are back in force at 30th Century Comics, as we welcome 64 out of the 71 issues of Masters of the Universe fortnightly to our ranks! Our American customers should note that these are original stories and not reprints of material published in the USA. He-Man and his pals & token gal fought off the advances of Skeletor, Hordak, Evil-Lyn and sundry other bad guys for a surprisingly long time, considering it was the censorious Eighties and they weren’t allowed to, y’know, actually smite anybody. Making for an odd read (and an odder writing challenge, as 30th C’s own Will Morgan, who scripted some of these back in the day, can attest..), the MoTU adventures nevertheless were quite ingenious fun – but by the time the creators were mirroring naff new introductions to the toy line like ‘Clamp Champ’, it was time for He-Man to hang up his harness. First, Final and Festive Christmas Issues are included in this substantial run, so send us your orders now – By the Power Of Gayskrull! (Hang on, that’s wrong – the Gayskrull’s over in “Young Avengers”, isn’t he? Oh, never mind…)

*Humour Comics and Picture Libraries: The tabloid-sized titans of the DC Thomson empire, Beezer and Topper, join us for a 1960’s update, with 20+ Beezers from the year 1962, and a handful of Topper from 1961-1966, added to our stock this time. (And for those of you who still can’t tell the difference, Beezer had Pop Dick & Harry and Ginger, and Topper had Beryl the Peril and Mickey the Monkey, okay? Now you know.)

Posted by Rob | 08:10 p.m. GMT | 22 February 2009

Cover Gallery Update

We’ve now started a rolling programme of adding many more cover images of our stock to our catalogue. This week, new images can be seen for the following - just click on the link on the appropriate catalogue page(s):
*DC Comics: Action Comics (Silver Age)
Many more to follow on a regular basis.

Posted by Rob | 08:04 p.m. GMT | 22 February 2009

15 February 2009

American Update: DC Mystery/Sci-Fi 1950s/60s + Sheena & other 1940s Fiction House

This week, we start another amazing round of real vintage American gems; we are expecting a great many true collectors' items from many publishers from the 1940s-1960s to come into stock over the next few months. We're kicking off now with the following:

*DC: A plethora of science-fiction and mystery thrills from the outskirts of the DC universe, with pre- and early-distribution restocks of House of Secrets, My Greatest Adventure, Showcase starring Rip Hunter Time Master (his third and fourth appearances, with outstanding Joe Kubert artwork), and a range of high-grade Tales of the Unexpected. The Unexpected update includes Kirby issues, and the first cover appearance by TOTU’s long-running star feature, Space Ranger. Scans of both Showcases and most of the Unexpecteds may be seen in our Cover Gallery Feature.

*Misc Publishers, 1940-1959: A fabulous foursome from Fiction House, with a late and scarce issue of Jungle Comics starring Kaanga and Sheena, the fourth issue of Sheena’s stunning solo title, and a pair of Wings (which is just as well if you’re flying!); the Fiction House aviation anthology, Wings featured stars such as Suicide Smith, Greasemonkey Griffin, and the Ghost Patrol, but is best remembered for its outstanding range of covers featuring ladies in danger – one fine example of which is included in this week’s update. Scans of both Wings (Wingses?) and Sheena are available at our Cover Gallery – go to the catalogue listing and click the link!

Posted by Rob | 02:15 p.m. GMT | 15 February 2009

British Update: Eagle 1980s/90s

*Boys’ Adventure and War Comics: We conclude our mammoth Eagle update from mid-1986 to its penultimate year of 1992. As well as stalwarts Dan Dare and Doomlord, who had been there since the beginning, the 1985 merger with Tiger had given tragically-disfigured stuntman-adventurer 'Death Wish' a chance to rise to prominence as a cover star in Eagle. This period saw mergers with Battle (adding 'Johnny Red' and 'Stormforce' to the lineup), Wildcat (bringing 'Kitten Magee' and co. aboard) as well as toy tie-in MASK, and notable new strips were Atari-wielding 'Computer Warrior', Professionals-wannabes 'The Hard Men', cold war mercenary 'Comrade Bronski', own-brand Judge Dredd 'The Avenger', and 'Loner', in which a Jimi Hendrix lookalike endured various science-fiction ordeals. All of these mergers sustained Eagle for longer than might reasonably be expected, but when it started cover-featuring New Kids On The Block and the Girls from Neighbours, the writing was definitely on the wall. In April 1991 the series converted to a monthly mag, in which form it struggled through its tenth anniversary, falling off its perch at the end of 1993. This update features more than 200 issues from this period, including the 300th issue, Free Gift issues, and the first Eagle/Battle and Eagle/MASK amalgamations.

Posted by Rob | 02:10 p.m. GMT | 15 February 2009

Cover Gallery Update

We’ve now started a rolling programme of adding many more cover images of our stock to our catalogue. This week, new images can be seen for the following - just click on the link on the appropriate catalogue page(s):
*DC Comics: Action Comics (Golden Age)
Many more to follow on a regular basis.

Posted by Rob | 02:07 p.m. GMT | 15 February 2009

8 February 2009

British Update: Roy Of The Rovers, Ranger (inc #1), Valiant, Hotspur, Rover, Wizard, TV21, Countdown, TV Action, Joe 90, Picture Library #1s (Air Ace, War & Wild West), plus early Air Ace, Thriller, Little Star, School Friend 50s and 60s, Schoolgirls' Picture Library & more!

Whew! A deep breath as we plunge into this week's ocean of British goodies. Loads of stuff in the following categories:

*Boys Adventure & War Comics: Roy of the Rovers is back, with more than 100 issues from 1980 to his final year of 1991, with the Captain of Melchester Rovers developing strong soap-opera storylines in an attempt to diversify the readership, facing marital discord, temporary paraplegia, and the threat of being replaced by his own son, plus the most hideous ordeal of all – guest-appearances by Spandau Ballet! You couldn’t make this stuff up…but then, I guess someone did… Backstopping Racey this time is Ranger, most of the first ten issues which featured the luminous Don Lawrence series, Trigan Empire, and selections from Valiant, Hotspur, Rover, Wizard and more long-running favourites.

*TV & Film Rlated Comics: Additions to our stocks of TV21, first and second series, featuring Gerry & Sylvia Anderson’s ‘Marionation’ creations Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, as well as the gracious and lethal Lady Penelope. The later series also featured Star Trek and Land of the Giants, as well as other much-loved adventure strips. Following on from TV21, we have a single copy of its hard-to-find spin-off, Joe 90, and new entries for its spiritual successor, Countdown, with Dr. Who, Thunderbirds and UFO, as well as later adventure series the Persuaders; eventually Countdown morphed into the more thriller-related TV Action (though Dr. Who stayed till the end), with Cannon, Hawaii Five-O, Alias Smith and Jones, and Mission Impossible joining the line-up. New TV Actions also listed this week, for a plethora of unevenly-likenessed TV-related thrills!

*Boys Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A trinity of first issues from popular and long-lasting series: Air Ace (from 1960), War (from 1958), and Wild West (from 1966), averaging VG. Scans of the Air Ace and War #1’s may be seen in our Cover Gallery – click on the link and check them out! But we don’t stop there – a further selection of the first 100 Air Ace, from #5 to #99, have been added to our stock, with hundreds more Air Ace entering stock in forthcoming weeks! Furthermore, we have an influx of early Thriller Comics/Picture Library, with Robin Hood and other popular adventure stars.

*Younger Readers’ Comics: A baker’s dozen of Little Star, cover-featuring the hallucinogenic Goody Gumdrops and her pals in Sweetie Town. Obviously created by somebody with the munchies, these feature characters like Mr.McButterscotch, Grandma Peppermint, and – the action highlight – a tug o’ war between the Dolly Mixtures and the Humbugs! (tuts) And they used to sell this to children! Deplorable!

*Girls Comics: School Friend from 1950’s and 1960’s, starring at various times, Bessie Bunter, My Friend Sara, Lucky’s Living Doll, Jill Crusoe, the Secret Friends of the Sports Mistress, and those plucky vigilantes of boarding school, the Silent Three.

*Girls Picture Libraries: A Pocket Romance Library from the 1970’s, with a daisy-eating heroine (well, it looks like that’s what she’s doing on the cover, anyway…) narrating her tale of 'Love on the Surface'. Plus – Schoolgirls! Yes, the ever-popular Schoolgirls’ Picture Library is refreshed with stock beginning from issue #95 ('Runaway To the Circus'), and featuring tales of, among others, 'Kate Kelly’s Donkey', 'Jon of the Jungle' (what’s he doing in there?), and 'The Riddle Of Lu Fang'. Those Schoolgirls’ don’t normally hang about – so get your orders in now!

We're going to have a little lie down now. More next week!

Posted by Rob | 01:06 p.m. GMT | 8 February 2009

American Update: Undergrounds and Modern Complete Sets

Just a modest update to our American stock this week, as we're busy grading and evaluating some wonderful vintage items which will feature here in coming weeks. In the meantime:

*Undergrounds: Pssst! No, that’s not an exclamation, it’s a title – the early 1980’s magazine from Artpool, Pssst! featured, in addition to early appearances by Bryan Talbot’s Luther Arkwright, work by Chris Achilleos, John Higgins, David Jackson, David Hine, Glenn Dakin, Guy Lawley, Angus McKie and Bob Wakelin, among others whose careers were maintained or launched by this experimental European co-production.. A little bit too Heavy Metal for the British newsstand, Pssst! lasted only ten issues in total, and seven of them, including the first and final issues, are with us today, all still bearing their original free gift posters. We also have Graphixus 5 from 1979 with a Brian Bolland cover, and from the other side of the Atlantic, Dr. Atomic, Drool, and Zap added to our lists.

*Modern Comics Complete Sets: Everybody’s a Skrull – have you heard? Check it out in Secret Invasion, the much-talked about series of 2008, in which nothing is ever what it seems. Complete SI series, plus the Secret Invasion tie-in minis for Fantastic Four, Inhumans, Thor and X-Men, added in this week, plus Batgirl, Marvel Universe, Punisher (Ennis & Dillon), Stephen King’s Dark Tower: Long Way Home, Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer, Sentry and more!

Posted by Rob | 12:55 p.m. GMT | 8 February 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:

*Modern Comics Complete Sets
*Modern Comics Signed, Variant & Rare Editions
*Modern Comics Special Interest

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 | 12:50 p.m. GMT | 8 February 2009

3 February 2009

Shop open as normal today Tuesday 3rd February

We are pleased to state that we are open again as normal today following yesterday's closure due to inclement weather. Those of you who have placed orders within the last 24 hours or so will be hearing from us shortly, so please bear with us as we catch up!

Posted by Rob | 08:57 a.m. GMT | 3 February 2009

2 February 2009

Comic Storage Supplies & Links

We now have two new menu options on the site (see the sidebar to the left of every page).

Comic Storage Supplies details the bags, boards and boxes that we use and also sell to store and preserve comics, in response to many requests for information on these. You should consider these items in conjunction with reading the article on storage and protection in our Features & Articles section.

Links lists some of our favourite sites.

Hope you enjoy using these new facilities!

Posted by Rob | 11:34 p.m. GMT | 2 February 2009

Housekeeping Update

*Vintage Magazine-sized Comics
*Magazines/Books About Vintage US Comics
*Undergrounds

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 | 11:58 a.m. GMT | 2 February 2009

British Update: Marvel UK, Wham, 2000 AD complete year 1985 and Dr Who!

It's another lollapalooza of British material this wek, with a certain TIme Lord taking centre stage:

*Marvel UK: Dr.Who has now moved lock, stock and TARDIS over to our recently-established TV related Section, thereby clearing space for an influx of new Marvel UK stock, including additions to the satire mag Frantic, Transformers Collected Comics Specials, and a selection of the digest-sized Pocketbook editions, including Conan (reprinting the early Barry Smith classics), Hulk (including a Complete Set of all 13 issues), and Spider-Man.

*Power Comics: Ten new Wham issues for our stock, in grades ranging from Fair to Very Good. This weekly is doubly sought after because, in addition to being the first of what would become the Power line of Marvel reprints, it also started out as a challenge to established comedy heavyweights Beano and Buster, with a line-up incorporating some of British Comics’ finest creators; fondly-remembered characters such as 'The Tiddlers', 'Sammy Shrink', 'Eagle-Eye Junior Spy', 'Frankie Stein' and 'Georgie’s Germs' populate these issues, strange bedfellows with the Fantastic Four, but popular nonetheless.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Our Complete Year Initiative is revisited with 2000 AD for 1985, all 52 issues including the 400th issue, the 8th birthday special and the Christmas issue, averaging VG condition. 1985 was one of 2000 AD’s finest, with most of the strips that earned its reputation – 'Judge Dredd', 'Nemesis the Warlock', 'Rogue Trooper', 'Strontium Dog', 'Slaine', 'Robo-Hunter', 'ABC Warriors', 'Psi-Judge Anderson' and Alan Moore’s creations 'Halo Jones' and 'DR & Quinch' appearing in this year. Okay, there was also the completely inexplicable and unendurable 'Ace Trucking Co.', but that conspicuously excepted, 2000 AD didn’t get much better than this!

*TV Related Comics: He’s back – and it’s about time! Dr. Who, the peripatetic Time Lord whose adventures have been thrilling TV audiences since 1963, moves over from Marvel UK to TV Related to coincide with a massive influx of more than 300 items, more than doubling our previous Dr. Who stock. Marvel UK’s Doctor Who Magazine, which began as a weekly comic in 1979 and became monthly with issue #44, has consistently featured news, reviews, articles, interviews and retrospectives on the cult TV series, as well as brand-new comic-strip adventures of the Doctor and his myriad companions. The comics’ creators have included Dave Gibbons, Grant Morrison, John Ridgway, and dozens of other folks who went on to illustrious careers. In addition to the huge influx of DWM from the early days up to 2007, we also have DWM Special Editions, Doctor Who Classic Comics, Doctor Who Poster Magazine, and Doctor Who Adventures – many of the new stock (over 50) have, in addition to their other attractions, the original free gifts still enclosed, so this is a triple-whammy update – relocation, huge quantities of new stock, and a Free Gift Farrago! The excitement never stops!

Posted by Rob | 11:25 a.m. GMT | 2 February 2009

American Update: Silver/Bronze Age Marvel, EC Classics, Nemo and more!

Another haul of American goodies this week in the following categories:

*Marvel: Silver and Bronze Age excitement with new listings for Captain America by Jack Kirby, Captain Marvel (from #1), Eternals and 2001: A Space Odyssey by Kirby, Invaders, Iron Fist, Marvel Spotlight, Marvel Super-Heroes, Marvel Team-Up, Master of Kung Fu, Son of Satan, What If?, and the scarce X-Men Vs. New Teen Titans DC/Marvel crossover.

*Modern Reprints: New volumes for DC’s Showcase Presents series (Vol 3 of House of Mystery, with Kaluta, Wrightson, and numerous‘young guns of the Seventies) and Marvel’s Masterworks (Vol 3 of Golden Age Captain America, seeing out Simon & Kirby’s run on the character), plus a complete run of the 1980’s EC Classics from Russ Cochran. The EC series have been reprinted many times in many formats, so things can get confusing, but this 12-issue magazine’s run, in full-colour on high-quality paper, is one of the better reproductions. Each issue is subtitled with the name of one of EC’s anthologies – Tales from The Crypt, Weird Science, etc - and reprints two complete issues of the title in question; for clarity and faithfulness to the original artwork, these have seldom been matched.

*Magazines & Books About Vintage US Comics: New issues of Alter Ego, Back Issue, and From The Tomb have been released since our last update, and we have a range of Nemo, the Fantagraphics magazine devoted to classic newspaper strips, which is new to our stock. In addition, the hardcover entitled Holy S#@t! provides an affectionate look at some of the more bizarre comics ever, detailing such classics as 'Hansi, The Girl Who Loved The Swastika', with copious full-colour illustrations.

Posted by Rob | 11:17 a.m. GMT | 2 February 2009

Due to adverse weather, shop closed today Monday 2nd Feb

Sadly, since none of us live locally, and there's no transport running at all, we can't get to the shop to open up today. Many apologies, but I don't imagine many people were planning to travel to us today anyway!

We hope to open as normal tomorrow, but of course if the weather gets worse, that may not be possible. Further bulletins will be posted here, but you'd be as well to phone before setting out on any journey to get to us!

Posted by Rob | 10:50 a.m. GMT | 2 February 2009