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Update Archives For May 2009

24 May 2009

American Update: DC Silver/Bronze G-Z inc Green Lantern #40, near complete runs of 1940s Rulah & Zoot from Fox, Underground Comix expansion

Quantity, rarity and diversity aplenty this week with the following updates to our American stock:

*DC: Concluding our current huge Silver/Bronze update, we have substantially increased our on-sale range of (deep breath!) Green Lantern, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Jimmy Olsen, Justice League, Kamandi, Lois Lane, Metal Men, Metamorpho, My Greatest Adventure, Mystery In Space, New Gods, Rip Hunter Time Master, Sea Devils, Shadow, Showcase, Strange Adventures, Superboy, Superman, Tales of the Unexpected, Teen Titans and Worlds’ Finest. Dates vary between 1961 and 1978, averaging VG range, for very collectable mid-budget copies in an attractive condition. A cover scan of the pick of the bunch, the retroactively declared Crisis On Infinite Earths prelude in Green Lantern #40 may be viewed in our Cover Gallery – just click on the link from the main catalogue listing for this issue.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: From the infamous 1940’s publisher Victor Fox, the notorious Rulah, Jungle Goddess! Former American playgirl and Aviatrix Jane Dodge crash-lands in the African jungle and demonstrates good ol’ US know-how by making a bikini out of a dead giraffe (bet she got a Blue Peter badge for that trick…) and setting out to reign over the curiously bi-racial natives - all the tribesmen are black, but their women are white movie starlets! Benefiting from an off-panel hairstylist and beauty salon, Rulah keeps her coiffure and her composure through a checklist of trials that would frazzle even the average jungle queen: vampires, werewolves, harpies, satanic cultists, inexplicable blizzards (giving our heroine a chance to wrap up warm in a leopard-skin mini, big scarf and snowshoes!), cannibal chorus girls, and of course her own evil twin. Created by definitive ‘Good Girl’ artist Matt Baker, and continued by Jack Kamen, so the art standard remained high as the stories got progressively more lurid and bonkers. This selection is not quite the complete run, but close too it; from her debut in Zoot Comics #7 through to #16 (including both #13’s and one of the #14’s (Fox’s numbering system was eccentric to say the least...)), and her debut solo issue taking over Zoot’s numbering with #17 and progressing through to #27 (only one of each!), her final issue. There are few, if any, collections of Rulah this comprehensive available anywhere in the world. Most of the issues have been cover-scanned, and may be viewed at our Cover Gallery feature; click on the links in the catalogue listing and prepare to be boggled!

*Undergrounds: A large influx of stock, with several new titles added to our range. Underground/Indie (Undie?) comics creators have continued the underground gamut of irreverence and authority-challenging into the modern era, and some of the most prominent creators are ‘upgraded’ to this listing: Peter Bagge (Hate, The Bradleys, Apocalypse Nerd, Junior and Friends), the brothers Hernandez (Love & Rockets, Girl Crazy, Pipo, Luba, Penny Century, Whoa Nellie), Roberta Gregory (Artistic Licentiousness and her slash & burn post-feminist savage comedy, Naughty Bits). But don’t despair, ‘traditional’ underground readers (and isn’t that a contradiction in terms?) as we add new stocks to Death Rattle, Wonder Wart-Hog and Zap!

Posted by Rob | 02:03 p.m. GMT | 24 May 2009

British Update: Marvel UK inc. Planet Of The Apes & early Spider-Man, Rupert, 2000 AD #11-#100, lots of UK 1950s stuff in US format inc Swift Morgan, Knockout 1970s, Giggle & more Buster

Several more boxes full of stuff for you to peruse this week in the following categories:

*Marvel UK: ‘Get your paws off me, you damn dirty ape!’ Yep, it’s time for a return to the Planet of the Apes, as the Marvel UK weekly is updated with fresh stock from #4 onwards; elsewhere, we have considerable additions to Spider-Man Comics Weekly, (from #4, all under issue #100), Rampage (weekly & monthly), the Super-Heroes, and Thundercats, plus an oddity: the 1977 Star Wars Official Collectors’ Edition one-shot, a Marvel Comics publication with no comics in it, but with photos and features contemporary with the release of the iconic film.

*Rupert: Additions to our stock of Nutwood’s celebrity citizen, with new listings for Annuals (commencing 1969), the debut of his fortnightly comic series from 1989 (with original free gift stickers!), and the out-of-print Rupert Bear Dossier from 1997, a handsome hardcover retrospective and history of the character and his creators.

*Boys’ Adventure and War Comics: Two significant and diverse areas updated this time: we have a wide range of US-format UK titles, a practise that started in the 1940’s. When wartime paper rationing halted the import of the American editions, UK publishers stepped in with ersatz variants, and the tradition continued up until the mid-1960’s, when widespread availability of the US editions drove the imitators to extinction. Among the dozens of titles added to or introduced this week are Ace Malloy, Buffalo Bill, Captains Justice, Tornado and Vigour, Charles Rand (the Man from S.U.N.D.A.Y.), Colorado Kid, Danger Man, Davy Crockett, Fantasy Stories, Hooded Rider, Jim Bowie, Lone Star (with Ron Embleton art and Space Ace by Turner), Mysteries of the Unexplored Album, The Saint, Space Comics (with Captain Valiant of the I.P.P.), Space Commander Kerry, Spectre Stories, Star Comic, Steve Samson, Strange Stories, TV Heroes, and Swift Morgan Space Comic (that’s a title, not a profession – he doesn’t go around the galaxy doing stand-up…), featuring the intrepid astral adventurer and his shapely companion Silver in the story ‘On The Planet Of Destiny’. It also features ‘Sam English, Museum Rover’, but never mind – that’s also illustrated by Denis McLoughlin, and a joy to look at. Swift Morgan’s cover is viewable in our Cover Gallery Feature. The second important update in this section is part two of our Tantalizing 2000 AD Top-Up, with issues #11-#100 listed, including the debut of Robo-Hunter in #76, the 2000 AD/Starlord merger in #86, and a plethora of Brian Bolland-illustrated issues. Perhaps the most sought-after issues in this run are #71, #72, #77 and #78, chapters in the Judge Dredd ‘Cursed Earth’ saga, which featured a literal war between two rival burger chains, and, later, appearances by a certain Jolly Green Giant (no, not the Hulk…), which caused McDonald’s, Burger King and Nabisco to join up and say ‘Oi! No!’, the finer points of parody apparently being lost on American conglomerates. Owing to the possibility of litigation, these chapters will never be reprinted, so the original issues are the only way completists can get ‘em!

*Humour Comics & Picture Libraries: A range of the Seventies’ incarnation of Knockout, from IPC/Fleetway; notching up more than a hundred issues before its eventual merger with Whizzer & Chips, this title specialised in taking slender concepts and making them run a long way; the original cover-feature, ‘The Super Seven’, was rapidly superseded by the rather ingenious ‘Full House’, a cutaway maisonette in which the family demonstrated a different obsession, in each room, every week. Sadly, this was a bit too ingenious for the readers, and the pedestrian ‘Joker’, who played endless tricks on his long-suffering friends and family, eventually became the lead. Inside, we had ‘Fuss Pot’, a young lady for whom nothing was ever good enough (and we’ve all worked with at least one of those, haven’t we?), sibling rivalry with ‘My Bruvver’, a Swots-and-Blots lookalike school saga with ‘The Toughs and the Toffs’, and the frankly inexplicable ‘Barry and Boing’, in which a young lad befriends a robot made out of springs. We’re also continuing our Big Buster Bonanza with the years 1976 and 1977 – but we’ve rattled on enough about Buster in many previous updates - and a couple of ultra-rare Giggle from 1967!

Posted by Rob | 01:56 p.m. GMT | 24 May 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 British section:

*Annuals
*Rupert

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

Posted by Rob | 01:51 p.m. GMT | 24 May 2009

17 May 2009

British Update: 1950s US reprints, Complete Set of Scream, 2000 AD #1-10 inc Free Gift issues, Buster, Girls' Fun (Swan), Sally, Tammy, Valentine

Another big British update this week with lots of significant items:

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: Around fifty new items for this category, the star of which has to be a rare peculiarity: Space Adventures #2 from Miller, a digest-sized comic starring Fox’s (by then Charlton’s, I guess) Blue Beetle in what appears to be partially-redrawn stories! Blackhawk – both the Boardman and the Thorpe & Porter series – and various Fawcett hero series (Captain Marvel Jr, Captain Midnight, Whiz Comics) have also been restocked, as well as Simon & Kirby’s Black Magic and Boys’ Ranch, Bugs Bunny, Casper the friendly Ghost, Flintstones, Laurel & Hardy, Mandrake the Magician, Motion Picture Comics, Mystery In Space (from #1), and a selection of oversized softcover albums – Mystic Bumper Book, Spellbound Album, Strange Suspense Stories, and Tales of the Mysterious Traveler.

*Boys’ Adventure and War Comics: Two impressive selections this week: firstly, an entire run of Scream!, the 1984 weekly that set out to do for horror what 2000 AD had done for science-fiction – and, with contributors such as Alan Grant, Alan Moore, Jesus Redondo and other 2000 AD alumni, it looked like making a promising start. A little too promising, as it attracted the attention of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse, a crusading lady who, from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, simply could not resist the urge to impose her standards on everyone else, because, well, her opinions mattered more than anyone else’s – at least in her head… With her minions behind her, Whitehouse threatened a boycott, not only of Scream! but all IPC/Fleetway magazines, which terrified the publishers to the extent that they cancelled it after 15 issues, without so much as a ‘Great News, Chums!’, though a couple of the strips did survive, in much diluted form, into Eagle. Our complete run averages VG/FN, and separately, we also have listed the 1985 Holiday Special. Even more excitingly, we have the first ten issues of 2000 AD, the 1977 weekly that remains, today, virtually the sole survivor of the once-thriving boys’ adventure field. Originally intended to showcase Dan Dare, re-imagining the venerable Eagle star for a new generation, the editors were shocked when the new Dan was roundly ignored, and instead a future-cop strip which, owing to deadline bungles, didn’t debut until the second issue, became the series’ runaway star. Judge Dredd, Lawman of Mega-City One, captured the public imagination, and despite some severe setbacks (yes, we’re looking at you, Sylvester Stallone…), remains the main man more than thirty years on. The issues (or ‘Progs’, as they call ‘em) #2 and #3 have the original free gifts with them, for added enjoyment! Scans of the covers (and gifts, where applicable) of the first three issues are available on our Cover Gallery – click the link in the catalogue listing. This ‘first ten’ opening is only the beginning of a huge update to our 2000 AD stock which will encompass the first 500 issues – keep watching!

*Humour Comics & Picture Libraries: Our Bumper Buster Bonanza continues, with new listings from 1967 through to the close of 1975, incorporating the mergers with Jet and Cor!, and adding a further 1975 Holiday Special to our inventory. More than a hundred new issues added this week, with hundreds more to come as soon as we’ve processed them.

*Girls’ Comics: Are you ready for Girls’ Fun? Well, we weren’t, as until the other week we didn’t know it existed! From Gerald Swan Publishing, this monthly (at least in 1954) title features half comic strips, and half text stories; the illustrator of the text tales appears to have looked quite hard at the faces in Matt Baker’s Phantom Lady work, which is disconcerting seeing these perky siren’s faces on top of schoolgirl bodies. Be that as it may… We also have additions to our stock of Sally from 1969, romance anthology Valentine from as early as 1958, and a selection of hard-to-find Tammy from 1980, the coveted merger-with-Misty issues in which our Friend of the Mists looks decidedly uncomfortable narrating spooky stories while teenage gymnast Bella shows off her spread-eagle yamashita next door. (No, it’s a gymnastics move; honest.)

Posted by Rob | 02:00 p.m. GMT | 17 May 2009

American Update: DC Silver/Bronze plus War 1950s-1970s

Big updates to two of our most popular sections this week:

*DC: The first half of a massive Silver/Bronze Age Sweep, as we add incoming items to a wide range of long running titles – Action (from #302), Adventure (from #296), Atom (from #5), Batman (from #114), Brave & Bold (from #60), Blackhawk (from #187), Challengers of the Unknown (from #30), Detective (from #323), Doom Patrol (from #93), Flash (from #125), a virtually complete run of the 80-Page Giant series, the debut issue of Beowulf, and, somewhat redundantly, the first issue of First Issue Special; a panoply of talent and entertainment ranged from the late 1950’s to the late 1970’s, in affordable mid-grades. Watch for Green Lantern and all points south to Worlds’ Finest in a near-future bulletin!

*War: An extensive top-up across the board, with perhaps the most significant addition being the Pre-Code Comic Media slaughterfest War Fury #2, but with dozens more issues added to Charlton (Attack, Fightin’ Marines, Fightin’ Army, War), Marvel (the ineffable Sgt. Fury and his Howling You-Know-Whats), and DC (GI Combat, GI War Tales, Our Army At War, Our Fighting Forces, Sgt. Rock, Unknown Soldier, and Weird War Tales.)

Posted by Rob | 01:53 p.m. GMT | 17 May 2009

10 May 2009

British Update: Starlord complete run with Free Gifts, plus #1-3 also with Free Gifts, Air Ace Picture Library #301-400, TV related inc Countdown, TV Action, TV21 (1st & Second series), School Friend 1960-1962, Girls' Crystal 1959-1961

A huge British update this week with many favourite titles from the 1950s-1970s as follows:

*Boys’ Adventure and War Comics: Not only a complete run of the 2000 AD stablemate Starlord, complete with free gifts in issues #1-3, but a separate #1-3 with free gifts available as individual issues! In 1978, 2000 AD attempted to expand its franchise with this high-end product (slicker paper, more interior colour), but despite a promising start, the series only lasted 22 issues before being folded into its ‘parent’ title. It did, however, provide two long-running strips; mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, a.k.a. Strontium Dog, and the Rob-Busters, the leads of which (Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein), became the nucleus of the ABC Warriors. Both Strontium Dog and ABC Warriors still appear regularly in 2000 AD more than thirty years later, and this is where they got their start! This VF selection is of outstandingly high grade for the period. Cover scans of the first three issues, with accompanying free gifts, are available in our Cover Gallery feature.

*Boys’ Adventure and War Picture Libraries: We continue our considerable expansion of the popular Air Ace series with issues from #301-400, a range previously largely unrepresented in our stock. Most of this range is now added, with grades ranging from Fair to Fine, but tending towards the higher end of the scale for some very attractive copies. Regular featured heroes are Battler Britton and Dogfight Dixon, with one-off stories featuring such diverse themes as ‘Walrus At War’, ‘Flying Joker’, ‘Stringbag Glory’, ‘Jungle Snatch’ (steady on, chaps…), ‘Bombers Betrayed’, and the splendidly conflated ‘Cat O’Nine Lives’. Chocks Away!

*TV & Film Related Comics: Further stocks of Countdown (from #15), its successor TV Action (from #61), and the first and second series of TV 21, (from #35 and #23 respectively) for the finest in comics adaptations of classic sci-fi and thriller shows such as Thunderbirds, Dr. Who, Captain Scarlet, Stingray, Alias Smith & Jones, the Persuaders, and many more!

*Girls’ Comics: Our gargantuan update of Girls’ Crystal and School Friend comes, sadly, to a conclusion this week. The years 1959-1961 are restocked for Girls’ Crystal, with ‘Zora the Gypsy Girl’, schoolgirl vigilantes ‘The Phantom Circle’, ‘Cherry and the Children’ (who survived GC’s 1962 cancellation to transfer across to School Friend and thence to June), and ‘Star the Sheepdog’ holding sway. The 1959 sequence is briefly interrupted by a publishing hiatus, as was its stablemate School Friend, but as far as we can determine the 29/6 and 29/8 gap is bridged by the undated and ‘A’ issues. School Friend itself is restocked from 1960-1962, with the ‘Gay Princess’ rebranded as ‘Lola’s Golden Quest’; the g-word resurfaces with ‘Gaye and Mr. X’, the tale of a plucky schoolgirl who assists a secret agent, the canine adventurer slot is filled by ‘Kim, Dog of Mystery’, scatterbrained schoolgirl ‘Dilly Dreem’ grows up and becomes ‘Dilly At Work’, and there are not one but two ‘Silent Three’ adventures. That’s it for now for these two classic girls’ titles, but we’re ever-vigilant for more, so keep watching the website!

Posted by Rob | 01:08 p.m. GMT | 10 May 2009

American Update: Superboy & Superman 1950s/60s, Marvel 1970s high-grade #1 collection inc. Conan, Horror/Mystery 1960s-1980, Classics Illustrated, Mad & Cracked, significant Modern Comics inc. Walking Dead back issues

An absolutely mammoth update to the American part of our catalogue this week, with hundreds of new entires in the following categories:

*DC: Superboy (from 1957’s #61) and Superman (from 1951’s #70) both replenished this week, with several scarce Silver Age collectibles in medium-high grades. Cover scans of Superboy #75, and Superman #70, #110 and #142 may be viewed at our Cover Gallery – click on the link in the catalogue listing to view for yourselves.

*Marvel: We’ve recently acquired an outstanding original-owner collection which specialised in first issues from the 1970’s, mostly Marvels. The Marvel Universe premier issues are listed this week, with exceptional items being the Conan #1 in VF-, and Peter Parker, Spectacular Spider-Man #1 in NM (both featured in our Cover Gallery). Other debut issues from 1970-1979, averaging FN to NM, include; Astonishing Tales, Black Goliath, Black Panther, Cat, Champions, Dazzler, Devil Dinosaur, Doc Savage, Dr. Strange, Eternals, Godzilla, Howard the Duck, Human Fly, Inhumans, Invaders, Iron Fist, Jungle Action, Ka-Zar, Kull, Logan’s Run, Machine Man, Marvel Chillers, Marvel Presents, Ms. Marvel, Nova, Omega, Red Sonja, Red Wolf, Shanna the She-Devil, She-Hulk, Skull the Slayer, Son of Satan, Star Wars, and 2001. Featuring the talents of Kirby, Brunner, Smith, Wood, Severin (John and Marie), Perez and more, this selection of predominantly low- or non-distributed copies (remember the ‘fun’ we all had searching for Marvels during the early years of the Marvel UK embargo? Grrr…) comes from a decade when high-grade Marvel #1’s are still affordable, and present an outstanding investment potential for the future.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: A plethora of startling shudders from Charlton (Beyond the Grave, Haunted, Scary Tales), DC (Ghosts, House of Mystery, Secrets of Haunted House, Unexpected), and Marvel. The Marvel selection features four premier issues from the #1 collection mentioned in our Marvel update, above: the horror-parody Arrgh!, anthology Chamber of Chills, Mary Shelley’s tormented anti-hero Monster of Frankenstein, and the second series of Man-Thing. We also have the first and third issues of Harvey Comics’ early-sixties anthology Alarming Adventures, new to this section.

*Classics Illustrated: Twenty new listings this time for Classics’ original US incarnation and the Classics Illustrated Junior spinoff series. Titles added include A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, The Master of Ballantrae, The Call of the Wild, The Covered Wagon, and William Tell, while additions to the Junior series (scarcer, if anything, than its senior equivalent in the UK) include adaptations of such famous fairy tales as The Golden Bird, The Nightingale, The Glass mountain, The Magic Servants, King Thrushbeard, How Fire came To the Indians, and Brightboots… no, we haven’t heard of but a couple of them either, but we are assured that they’re very famous fairy tales. Somewhere. Hey, Disney probably had dibs on all the big names…

*Mad: Further additions to both the US and the UK editions of Bill Gaines’ best-known brainchild, (actually Harvey Kurtzman’s, but let’s not get into all that…), with stocks from the mid-1970s upward replenished.

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Cracked, previously barely represented in our stock, is newly expanded with only a light touch to its American incarnation (which, running from 1958 to the turn of the century, was Mad’s longest-running imitator and rival), but with substantial additions to both its British series; the first UK Cracked, in the mid-70’s, appears to have lasted only a short time, perhaps a dozen issues, but the second series, commencing circa 1978, ran for seventy-plus issues, running John Severin, Bill Ward, Don Martin (after his defection from Mad) and all the other artists associated with the US series. This update also includes a large quantity of double-size Cracked Specials in various incarnations (King-Size, Super Cracked, etc.) for even greater value.

*Modern Comics Signed/Variant/Rare Editions: We’ve expanded the range of this category to include selected modern items that are more expensive or distinctive than the everyday 1980’s or 1990’s comic title. Examples include Amazing Spider-Man with notable events, villains, or creators (the Hobgoblin revelation, or Todd McFarlane Venom issues), the first issue of Wolverine: Origin, DC Presents #26 with the debut of Wolfman & Perez’ New Teen Titans, the first two ultimate X-Men, Several early issues of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (including the first appearance of moody goth-girl Death in #8), and issues of Uncanny X-Men with the debuts of Jubilee and Gambit, among others.

*Modern Comics Special Interest: New issues to our stock for esoteric series Grimm Fairy Tales (and its spin-offs, Return To Wonderland and 1,001 Arabian Nights), Miracleman: Apocrypha, Hellboy (and his colleagues in the BPRD), and a new title: Walking Dead! From Image Comics, the Robert Kirkman/Charles Adlard saga of surviving humans banding together in the face of a hideously changed world has won wide acclaim. Originally dismissed by some as “’28 Days Later’ in black & white”, its multi-layered storytelling and gripping characters have gained it a cult following, and back issues are notoriously hard to find. We’re pleased to be able to offer issues ranging from # 1 (the Special Edition variant) to #60, so now’s the time to make those cuddly zombies your own!

Posted by Rob | 12:59 p.m. GMT | 10 May 2009

Cover Gallery Update

We continue our 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: Batman (Golden Age up to #100)

Many more to follow on a regular basis.

Posted by Rob | 12:43 p.m. GMT | 10 May 2009

4 May 2009

Coming Attractions

Just relatively modest updates this week. A combination of record sales activity and record collections on offer to us has taken up all our time, but we're pleased here just to give you a flavour of some of the many goodies coming up to tempt you in the weeks ahead.

On the British front, we'll be concluding our massive recent run of vintage girls' comics with School Friend and Girls' Crystal from the early 1960s, adding extensively to our Rover stocks from the 1950s and 60s, hordes of Buster from the 80s and 90s, Topper from the 1950s, many more complete runs and years, including Starlord with Free Gifts, and a comprehensive restock of 2000 AD from #1, including all the rare issues, also with Free Gifts a-plenty. Plus Battle, Warlord, Scream, the odd Gerry Anderson title and many, many more -- and a veritable panoply of 1950s British reprints of American material and loads more Alan Class reprints.

From Across The Pond, we'll be having lots of rare 1970s DC War issues, Superman (& Boy) and Wonder Woman from the 1950s will be putting in appearances, plus from the 1940s, Rulah the Jungle Goddess from the inafmous Fox publisher will be present in almost complete runs of her stories from Zoot and her own title. For the more discerning modern comics' punter, back issues of the Walking Dead will be shambling along in our Special Interest section and oh, and did I mention the high grade Marvel #1 collection? No, I thought I didn't...

Keep and eye here in future weeks as all these and much much more are added to our listings.

Posted by Rob | 11:47 a.m. GMT | 4 May 2009

British Update: Collected Editions & Rover 1951/52

*Collected Editions: Kiss kiss, bang bang! Modesty Blaise soars ever on, with the fifteenth volume of her complete reprinting, the Lady Killers, released. We’re now more than half-way through the complete Modesty oeuvre, and this volume sees the debut of artist Neville Colvin, regarded by many as the artist who held truest to Holdaway’s original interpretation. Fingers crossed we all get to the end of the run, eh? Titan Books also score with new paperbacks for 2000 AD-alumni ABC Warriors and the VC’s, and Dynamite has issued a hardcover compilation of Garth Ennis’ unexpectedly respectful revival of the definitive British space-hero, Dan Dare.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: It’s the Rover’s return! The DC Thomson story paper gets new stock from the years 1951 & 1952, which feature old favourites The Tough of the Track, Morgyn the Mighty, and air ace Braddock, plus undiscovered gems like ‘The Purple Planet’, ‘The School In The Scarlet Fog’, and ‘Squadron X’. Approximately 100 issues new to our listings, including Christmas numbers.

Posted by Rob | 11:23 a.m. GMT | 4 May 2009

Houskeeping Update

*Collected Editions

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 | 11:19 a.m. GMT | 4 May 2009

American Update: Modern Reprints & Undergrounds

*Modern Reprints: The collective archiving of comics’ history continues apace, with DC presenting us with new Showcase softcover volumes for the Justice League of America, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and Superman Family (Lois and Jimmy’s solo series). Marvel marches on with its hardcover Masterworks (Silver Age Human Torch 2, Thor 8, and the Atlas-Era Strange tales Vol 2, with pre-Code horror aplenty), Essential Classic X-Men 3, and the splendid oversized hardcover X-Men Omnibus, reprinting the first 31 issues in full-colour. To celebrate its 70th Anniversary (if you stretch a point and ignore a name change here and there), Marvel is also issuing Commemorative Editions of its Golden Age titles, each featuring new stories set in the 1940’s and vintage reprints. So far, Captain America and Sub-Mariner have appeared, with Miss America, Human Torch, Young Allies, All-Select and USA in the pipeline. No announcement yet on 70th Anniversary Editions of Gay Comics, Tessie the Typist, or Ziggy Pig & Silly Seal, alas, but if we hear anything, we’ll let you know! Other publishers than Marvel & DC are also getting into the reprint market; Dynamite Editions is collecting Howard Chaykin’s law-enforcing roué of the future, American Flagg, in a definitive edition; Bill Ward’s Torchy, saucy siren of the 1940’s, (*not* television’s Battery Boy!) has been gathered up in a new paperback from Pure Imagination; and we at 30th Century would like to give a shout-out, as the young people say, to the dedicated team at Classic Comics Press, who are bringing out handsome sequential collections of two long-neglected newspaper strips: Mary Perkins – On Stage, and The Heart Of Juliet Jones. Those of you who’ve dismissed them as ‘girly stuff’, think again; yes, they’re romantic, but they’re also suspenseful, engaging, stunningly drawn, packed with memorable characters, and have the most seamless storytelling seen in newspaper continuity strips. All five books of Mary and the debut volume of Juliet are now back in stock, with the 6th and 2nd volumes, respectively, due for release later this year.

*Undergrounds: Another diverse selection of alternative, counter-culture and indie titles from the 1970’s to, oh, the turn of the century! Series restocked include Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Gay Comix Special, Acid Head Arnie Pucker Special, Forbidden Knowledge, and the highly-acclaimed Eightball, Daniel Clowes’ cynical and malevolent look at contemporary life which was the original source for the ‘Ghost World’ movie.

Posted by Rob | 11:10 a.m. GMT | 4 May 2009