What's New

Update Archives For May 2008

29 May 2008

American Update: New Catalogue Category - Signed, Variant & Rare Editions

*Modern Comics Signed/Variant/Rare Editions: An exciting new category for our online catalogue. Having had success with our Modern Complete Sets, we’re expanding our listing to accommodate rarities, variant, signed/limited editions of other modern titles, and we kick off with a plethora of certificated, glow-in-the-dark, chromium, platinum, or otherwise hard-to-find editions of popular titles including Spider-Man, X-Men, Batman & Spider-Man, Death: The High Cost Of Living, Tomb Raider, and The Blair Witch project, among others. On our index page, the link for this new category may be found at the end of our American section just below Modern Comics Complete Sets.

Posted by Rob | 12:21 a.m. GMT | 29 May 2008

26 May 2008

British update - Marvel UK inc. Spider-Man, Planet of the Apes, vintage annuals inc. Buffalo Bill, Okay, Robin Hood, Superboy, Superman, Misty and more, tons more Valiant inc. complete years 1966 & 1967

Another huge British update this week, featuring gems from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s as follows:

*Marvel UK: Substantial additions to our Planet of the Apes stock, with many of the first ten and several issues featuring Ape-Slayer, a re-edited Killraven strip that has to be seen to be disbelieved! Also, extensive updates to Spider-Man Comics Weekly, beginning with 1972’s #7, and further stock for Avengers, Conan (weekly), Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, and the Super-Heroes.

*Annuals: A number of significant editions this update, with the first Buffalo Bill Annual from 1949, the first and second Superboy Annuals, the second Superman Annual, Robin Hood (from 1950’s Thriller Picture Libraries), and several of the 1950’s Okay/Ajax/Adventure compilations, with new Denis McLoughlin work and Quality Comics reprints of Doll Man, Plastic Man and Co. In addition, we have new Kit Carson, Buck Jones, and Misty (including the scarce 1985 edition!) Scans of the 1st Buffalo Bill, the first two Superboys and the second Superman can be viewed by following the links from the catalogue page.

*Boys’ Adventure and War Comics: Another massive update to Valiant, the classic adventure weekly of the 1960’s, with several hundred attractive new copies, averaging Fine condition, added to our inventory. This 1965-1975 sequence has many issues and periods previously unrepresented, and as a special bonus, two Complete Year Sets, from 1966 and 1967, when Valiant was, in the opinion of many, at its peak, with Kelly’s Eye, Steel Claw, Mytek the Mighty, House of Dolmann, and, okay, Captain Hurricane (well, somebody must have liked him…). Valiant remains one of our consistent best sellers in the boys’ adventure line, and we don’t anticipate many of these new additions to be in stock long.

Posted by Rob | 05:08 p.m. GMT | 26 May 2008

American Update: Modern Reprints, Modern Complete Sets

*Modern Reprints: Further additions to DC’s Archives (Adam Strange Vol. 3), AND Showcase Editions (Challengers of the Unknown Vol 2,Green Lantern Vol 4) as well as Volume 5 of the Batman Chronicles, reprinting every Batman story in full colour and in strict chronological order. Marvel smites back with Thor Masterworks, now up to Volume 7, and two more entries in their handsome oversized hardcover Omnibus Editions: the second volume of Fantastic Four, reprinting 31-60, Annuals 2-4 and the FF spoof from Not Brand Ecch in full colour, and a debut volume for the Hulk, with 1-6 of his original series and much of his Tales to Astonish run included.

*Modern Comics: Our Complete Set project presses onward, with many full runs by prominent creators added to the listing, including the acclaimed Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean Black Orchid from 1988, the controversial and scarce Grant Morrisson/J.G. Jones Marvel Boy, the scarce Citizen V and the V Battalion, Hulk: Future Imperfect by David & Perez, Infinity War, the Last Avengers Story, the DC/Wildstorm Thundercats, the entire 2001 series of Green Arrow, from Kevin Smith, Judd Winick and Brad Meltzer, Lobo/Mask, Tank Girl: The Gifting, Red Sonja Vs. Thulsa Doom (that Doom family doesn’t get along with anybody, do they?) House of M: Avengers, Suburban Glamour, and dozens more, from 1989’s Damage Control to 2007’s Newuniversal and Captain America: The Chosen.

Posted by Rob | 05:01 p.m. GMT | 26 May 2008

25 May 2008

Shop closed on Thursday 29th May

Please note that we shall be closing the shop for one day on Thursday 29th May as a mark of respect to our deceased business partner Peter as we attend his funeral. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, but we're sure everyone will understand the reason at this sad time.

This being a Bank Holiday week, new comics are due in Friday rather than Thursday, and we will be open as normal from Friday 30th May.

Posted by Rob | 08:35 p.m. GMT | 25 May 2008

24 May 2008

Peter Hayward-Brewer, 1954-2008

It is with great sorrow that we announce the death of our 30th Century Comics co-founder, and our much-loved friend, Peter Hayward-Brewer. He passed away in hospital on Friday 16th May, after a short illness, at the age of 54.

Peter was very much a believer in heroes, in the ideals they embodied of helping those who needed it, and that belief was exemplified not only in his love of comics, but in the principles of his daily life.

Unstinting in the time and support he gave to his friends, he also championed the vulnerable in his ‘day job’ as a manager of services for the mentally ill, and was constantly striving to improve himself by learning new skills, such as neuro-linguistic programming and hypnotherapy. We often used to tease him that he was learning these disciplines in the hope of gaining ‘super-powers’ of his own. He’d always laugh at the accusation…but he never actually denied it!

He is survived by Bernard, his partner of twelve years; by his children Alex and Charlie; and by a legion of bereaved friends and colleagues who will miss his kindness, generosity, humour and warmth.

Posted by Rob | 12:45 a.m. GMT | 24 May 2008

18 May 2008

Australian Update: Phantom!

*Phantom: A first for 30th Century, our first ever update devoted to purely Australian comics. (Please note that for simplicity, all our Phantom issues, whether UK, US or Australian appear in the American comics section). Here we have an avalanche from the Antipodes for the Ghost Who Walks; since 1949, Australia’s Frew Publishers have been issuing a Phantom Comic regularly, making theirs (clocking in at 1400+ issues in 2006) the longest-running Phantom series by a very large lead. It reprints a bewildering variety of eras and publishers’ takes on Lee Falk’s character; vintage and modern newspaper strips, the Charlton issues, a whole bunch of unidentified material presumably produced for the European market and never before translated into English, and possibly even some original material – it’s hard to tell, as the blurb “New story!” is used with bewildering abandon, often just to indicate the beginning of a new reprint. Huge effort has been gone to, to retrieve previously-edited sequences and present the fullest version possible, and extensive annotations in later editorials indicate that this is a labour of love, and that there is a system to it all…us whingeing Poms just haven’t figured out what the system is yet! We have 300+ of this series new in stock, between the late 900s and mid 1400s (approx. 1993-2006), varying between good and fine, and including many of the 300+ page Annual Specials which present ‘free gift’ facsimiles of the earliest numbers in the series.

Posted by Rob | 10:20 a.m. GMT | 18 May 2008

American Update: DC - Adventure Comics & Flash, plus Teen Humour & Funny Girls

*DC: 30th Century Comics’ inspiration, the Legion of Super-Heroes, gets a revamp this week with extensive new stocks of their appearances in Adventure Comics from the early through to the late 1960’s. Some critics have called the early Legion stories ‘silly’; we call those critics ‘po-faced ignoramuses’. Under the guidance of Edmond Hamilton, John Forte, Jim Shooter and Curt Swan, the future never looked brighter, as our future-based lads and lasses battled aliens, super-monsters, super-pets, super-babies, and the most terrifying menace of all… super-girls! (Eek!) Okay, maybe they were a little bit silly, but they had imagination, energy and miles of charm. This selection, over fifty strong, begins with Adventure 311, and runs to the close of the series in 380, varying from Fair to Fine. Right behind the Legion (and it’s not often he’s behind anyone), the Fastest Man Alive, the Flash, returns with a dozen of his best and brightest, including adventures with Elongated Man, Captain Cold, the Trickster, the Flash of Earth-2, Doralla Kon the Girl from the Super-Fast Dimension, and Kid Flash’s ‘extreme makeover’! No, really. The sleek work of Fox, Broome, and Infantino is still a joy to behold decades later. And, okay, there’s the post-Infantino second Superman/Flash race, which is a bit of a pooey copout, but hey – dead historic! This includes the one & only Flash Annual, and new entries for his Eighty-Page Giant Issues.

*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: More of Millie the Model, as the Stan Goldberg years are topped up including scarce ‘Queen-Sized Specials’, plus we have the oddball 1950’s media tie-in Henry Aldritch from Dell, and the bizarre 1950’s Miss Beverly Hills of Hollywood from DC, in which our titular heroine and aspiring starlet rubs shoulders with the great, the good, and the “who the hell’s that?” of movieland, thanks to stills supplied by the film companies. Unfortunately the stills offered were clearly in short supply, so Bev’s illustrious co-stars sometimes go through the stories at very odd angles indeed! For a scan of the lovely Miss Hill’s cover, go the catalogue, click on the link, and all will be revealed!

Posted by Rob | 10:17 a.m. GMT | 18 May 2008

British Update - Lion, Tiger, Valiant, Jag, Jet, Swift, TV21, Eagle Complete 1985, 2000 AD #1, Action #1 and loads more!

*Boys’ Adventure and War Comics: More than a dozen titles topped up, ranging from scarce single issues to updates of a couple of dozen. From the 1960’s, the short-lived Jag, Lion (1961-1970), Swift (1961 & 1962), Tiger (1965-1970, immediately post-‘Hurricane’ merger), TV 21 (1968), Valiant (1963-1976), and Victor (1964); from the 1970’s, two crucial first issues of 2000 AD and Action, (sadly without Free Gifts), plus Jet, Kick-Off, Scorcher, TV 21’s second series, the 1976 Victor Summer Special, and Warlord; and from the 1980’s, a Complete Year Set of Eagle from 1985, including the first Eagle & Tiger merger, plus Hot-Shot, Speed, Wildcat, and Warrior. Over 250 new copies to our listing. For a scan of 2000 AD #1, go to the catalogue listing, and click on the link.

Posted by Rob | 10:15 a.m. GMT | 18 May 2008

11 May 2008

British Update: Buddy, Monster Fun, Shiver & Shake, Whoopee, Judy & Mandy Picture Libraries

Lots of British favourites from the 70's and 80's featured this week:

*Boys’ Adventure and War Comics: A virtually complete series of Buddy, one of D.C. Thomson’s valiant later attempts to revive the boys’ adventure genre. Running from 1980 to 1983, Buddy gave ‘streetwise’ makeovers to a lot of old standbys which had run in their previous titles from 1922 through to the 1970’s: Limp-Along Leslie, the Wolf of Kabul, General Jumbo, Billy the Cat, the Iron Fish and Q-Bikes all made dutiful appearances in re-drawn, modernised adventures. But there was also new material, with perennial orphan 'Tuffy - A Boy All Alone', and Grange Hill lookalike series 'Tom Smith’s Schooldays' being among the longer-running series. This run averages VG/FN, features the first issue, both Christmas numbers, and the final issue, (‘Tuffy’ and ‘Leslie’ making the cut into Victor, in case you were wondering), and lacks only four copies for the full 130 run of one of the more experimental, and better-drawn, comics of the 1980’s.

*Humour Comics and Picture Libraries: Selections of three highly sought-after titles this time, with the incredibly scarce Monster Fun leading the pack. We only have three issues to offer, but since one of them is the rare final issue – and given the infrequency with which you find complete Monster Funs anyway – we’re still justified in boasting! (A word of caution: it’s a frequent problem in Monster Fun to find centrefolds ripped out, since this title had a huge array of pull-outs through most of its run. All the Monster Fun issues we ever offer have the centrefolds present). Backing up Monster Fun, we have a selection of Shiver & Shake, for those eternally-unsatisfied pachyderm n’ poltergeist groupies, and finally 30+ issues of Whoopee! from 1974’s issue #3 through to the early 1980’s. Shiver & Shake eventually incorporated into Whoopee, which also starred former Monster Fun headliner Frankie Stein, so it’s all one ever-flowing stream, really…. (ooh, philosophy.)

*Girls’ Comics and Picture Libraries: This is the last of our sections in the current cycle to be completely updated and upgraded, with every item listed guaranteed present at the date of this posting. So buy now, before someone else beats you to ‘em! And just to tempt you to leap in, we have the second half of Judy Picture Library (from #150 up) and new Mandy Picture Libraries (from #7) for your delectation this update. With stories like 'Bionic Bunny' 'Uncle Herbert’s Sherbet', 'Rag and Bone Rose' and fantasy fare with 'Dragonchild', there’s something to tickle every palate…So dig in!

Posted by Rob | 10:07 a.m. GMT | 11 May 2008

American Update: Decades of horror, Alter Ego back issues, Bisley Lobo joins our Modern Comics Complete Sets & more

Another broad range of updates for you this week as follows:

*Horror 1940-1959: Another batch of pre-code thrills and chills from Fiction House (Ghost), Charlton (Tales Of The Mysterious Traveller & This Magazine Is Haunted), Harvey (Tomb Of Terror), Ace (Web Of Mystery), St. John (Weird Horrors) and Comic Media (Weird Terror). Come and get ‘em before they scare the pants off us!

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: Additions to our stocks of DC’s wonderfully eclectic Plop!, with Wolverton, Toth, Cardy and more, Red Circle’s perennially underestimated Madhouse, with Gray Morrow and company, and Charlton’s second-series Strange Suspense Stories (and try saying that three times fast!), with Ditko and Aparo, plus two more entries in our Complete Set Initiative: the 22 issues of the first Man-Thing series from the 1970’s, by Gerber, Ploog and Mooney, disturbing and innovative fare, and the complete Giant-Size Werewolf By Night, five issues of undistributed extra-thick lycanthropic fun (NB: issue 1, featuring the debut of Tigra the Were-Woman, was titled Giant-Sized Creatures, and re-titled with issue 2; there is no Giant-Seize Werewolf # 1).

*Magazines/Books About Vintage US Comics: A massive update to Alter Ego, Roy Thomas’ labour-of-love appreciation of the Golden and Silver Ages, beginning with #3 and incorporating most of the first 35 issues; also updates to our stocks of the much-missed Comic Book Artist and Comic Book Marketplace magazines, an issue of Jim Steranko’s legendary 1970’s fanzine Mediascene, and retrospective books on Carmine Infantino (‘Amazing World Of…’), Caped Crusader co-creator Bob Kane (‘Batman & Me’), and Marvel’s Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers (‘Assembled!’).

*Modern Comics: Our Complete Set event continues with the Vertigo crime series Angeltown, Gibbons and Rude’s 1990 World’s Finest Prestige Format series, the 1994 time-altering Zero Hour, and three Lobo mini-series, from Grant, Bisley, and Dwyer. Everyone’s favourite Czarnian (mainly because he’s the only remaining Czarnian!) in chaos and carnage for all the kiddies!

Posted by Rob | 09:57 a.m. GMT | 11 May 2008

4 May 2008

American Update: Golden Age Batman, Mary Marvel, Speed Carter, Westerns, Modern Sets and more!

A wide cross-section of comics from over 60 years this week as follows:

*DC: A double dose of vintage Caped Crusader; Batman #25, with an iconic ‘ring-of-fire’ cover and the first major villainous team-up, as the Joker and the Penguin join forces. Also, issue #55, with a Joker cover and story by Dick Sprang, in which our Dynamic Duo solve 'The Case of the 48 Jokers', and face 'The Bandit of the Bells', a.k.a. The Gong, whose noise-based modus operandi strangely didn’t click with the readers. Scans of both covers can be seen on our cover gallery – go click on the link, you know you want to…

*Miscellaneous Publishers 1940-1959: Mary Marvel, the World’s Mightiest Girl, joins us with her 13th issue, and also stars (together with Commando Yank, Phantom Eagle, and Mr. Scarlet & Pinky) in Wow #40, new this update; we also have the final issue, #69, of Fiction House’s Rangers Comics, with G. I. Jane by Bill Benulis, and the first and second issues of Atlas’ Speed Carter, Spaceman, sci-fi adventures sumptuously illustrated by Joe Maneely, in which our hero and his ‘Space Sentinels’ rocket around the galaxy rescuing the lovely Stella. Scans of the covers of Mary, Wow, and both Speed Carters can be seen on our Cover Gallery – click the catalogue link and see the image!

*Westerns: Some oddities and rarities on the Western front, with the first issue of Gold Key’s Buffalo Bill Jr., new listings for Dell’s Gold Key, Marvel’s Western Gunfighters and DC’s Weird Western Tales, and a sparkling issue of Atlas’ Annie Oakley, with a gorgeous Joe Maneely cover in sparkling FN/VF grade. But don’t take our word for it – see for yourself at the Cover Gallery link!

*Modern Comics: Our captivating ‘Complete Set Initiative’ continues this time with Batman/Predator II, the unexpected ‘Countdown’ tie-in Captain Carrot & The Final Ark, Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill, Tales of the Unexpected starring the Spectre and Dr. 13, Legend of Wonder Woman by Busiek and Trina Robbins, Union Jack, Vigilante, Villains United, and a plethora of Titans-related tomfoolery: the Wolfman/Perez Tales of the New Teen Titans ‘Secret Origins’ series from 1982, the ICG Teen Titans Index mini-series, and a stonking great dollop of the 1999 Titans series, launched by Devin Grayson and Mark Buckingham – 50 issues, plus Annual and two Secret Files.

Posted by Rob | 02:40 p.m. GMT | 4 May 2008

British Update: Rupert, Hotspur, Crikey!

New this week in our British section:

*Rupert: A complete overhaul of this section, with facsimile editions now listed separately, plus many new Annuals, primarily from the 1970’s, featuring Bestall’s superb interpretation of Mary Tourtel’s creation.

*Boys’ Adventure and War Comics: Remember we promised you ‘New’ Hotspur last update? Well here it is! Reinventing itself as a pure comic in 1959 with a new #1, one measly week after the 1197th issue of its story-paper incarnation, Hotspur gained a new lease of life with such serials as 'The Purple Killers', 'The Fighting Barber of Six Trails', 'The Last School' (because when civilization crumbles and you’re one of a handful of survivors, the first thing you do is don a mortar-board and start teaching. Obviously.) and the ever-popular handicapped soccer star, 'Limp-Along Leslie'. We’ve around sixty issues from 1961-1964 added this time, then we jump a decade to a nice consecutive run from mid 1974 to mid 1975, when ersatz super-heroes such as 'The Scarlet Hawk', 'Red Star Robinson', and 'Nick Jolly, Flying Highwayman', held sway.

*Magazines/Books About Vintage UK Comics: Crikey!, the magazine devoted to articles and retrospectives about British comics, goes from strength to strength with is fabulous fourth issue, and all three of the previous issues are now back in stock. Here at 30th Century, we’re big supporters of anyone pushing back the frontiers of ignorance about the UK comics field, and it looks like the Crikey Crew are having great fun along the way. Try an issue and give yourself a treat!

Posted by Rob | 02:32 p.m. GMT | 4 May 2008