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Update Archives For July 2009

28 July 2009

British Update: Alan Class, Marvel UK, TV Century 21, June & School Friend (comic 1966 with Emma Peel strip) and Pictue Libraries.

Another very diverse range of vintage British collectability this week in the following categories:

*Alan Class Reprints: More pre-decimal goodness from the popular publisher of the 1950’s and 1960’s, including the first series of short-run science-fiction title Out Of This World (with the debut of the Amazing Spider-Man by Steve Ditko reprinted in #17), Secrets Of The Unknown, Sinister Tales, Suspense (including Lee & Kirby’s ‘The Man In The Ant-Hill’ in #21), and the one-off Tales Of The Supernatural.

*Marvel UK: Extensive new stock for some long-overlooked series, including the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Mighty World Of Marvel, Rampage, and the smattering of series with new material: Hulk (featuring David Lloyd’s noir-esque Night Raven and work by Steve Dillon and John Bolton), Captain Britain, and Marvel Super-Heroes, the latter with the acclaimed Captain Britain revival by Alan Davis.

*TV & Film Related: New listings for the 1990’s Thunderbirds revival and the original series of TV Century 21 (late editions), plus importing of the former Marvel UK titles Action Force (aka America’s ‘GI Joe’), Indiana Jones, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, Star Wars (in all its many permutations), and Thundercats, to house them in a more appropriate section. Ever wondered what the likes of Barry Kitson and Bryan Hitch did before they became famous? Check out some of these titles for the startling answer!

*Girls’ Comics: ‘Mrs. Peel – You’re needed!’ Or, more accurately, Miss Knight, as our update of June & School Friend from 1966 includes the strip, ‘The Growing-Up of Emma Peel’, in which the 13-something Emma Knight, already a judo expert and stickybeaking do-gooder, accompanies her ambassador father around the globe, taking a rather more pro-active stance on diplomacy than her dear old Dad. This little-known spin-off of the hugely popular ‘Avengers’ TV show looked like a certain hit, but for some reason – perhaps a licensing conflict – it ran a scant seven issues (29th January-16th April) before being replaced by ‘Captain Kate’. We have five of Emma’s seven-issue run on sale, together with twenty more issues from 1966, filling out that year nicely for aficionados of Bessie Bunter, Casey & Her Crazy Cowboys, jungle adventuress Zanna, and all the usual suspects.

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: A remarkable selection of June & School Friend PL’s, with titles ranging from the familiar to the bizarre (‘Mystery of the Schoolgirl Puppet’, ‘Flying Fashion Girls’, ‘Sue and the Vanishing Baby’), from the mid 400’s to the early 500’s, averaging Fine grade.

Posted by Rob | 04:57 p.m. GMT | 28 July 2009

American Update: ECs and Vintage Magazines

A relatively small American update this week, but filled with goodies:

*EC: Three more of the finest from the controversial 1950’s publishing house – Haunt of Fear #16, and Weird Science #20 & #21, featuring the lush work of Wood, Ingels, Kamen and other masters of the field. Affordable mid-grades, so you can see for yourself what all the fuss was about – the ‘Fifty Frozen Dolls’ cover on Weird Science #20 is worth the price of admission alone!

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Marvel magazines replenished this time include Doc Savage, Marvel Super Action, Marvel Super Special, and Savage Sword of Conan. Warren hits back with new stock for later Creepy and Eerie; Atlas/Seaboard wades in with Devilina, in which the little-known ‘Sister of Satan’ narrates ‘tales of female-filled fantasy’ – or, to put it another way, horror stories with indifferently-drawn boobs in ‘em. Mad-imitator National Lampoon makes its debut in our listings; and in a departure from our norm, the all-text ‘Men’s Sweat’ magazine, Sir! tells us what was raunchy and edgy in 1962, including, apparently, ‘VD’s Onslaught On Teenagers’. So, very little changed there, then…

Posted by Rob | 04:49 p.m. GMT | 28 July 2009

21 July 2009

American Update: Gold Key, Charlton Romance & War, Phantom, Flash Gordon, Walking Dead, BPRD

A significantly huge update to our American stocks this week across the following very broad range of categories:

*Gold Key: A light refurbishment to this popular section, with premier issues for TV tie-ins Flipper, the Nurses (who? That was one that didn’t cross the Atlantic to the UK…), and 77 Sunset Strip, as well as new stocks for Gold Key Spotlight (‘Occult Files of Dr. Spektor’), Freedom Agent, Pink Panther, and Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories.

*Romance: New stocks for the classic Charlton love titles Brides In Love, First Kiss, I Love You, Just Married, and Teen Confessions, with the usual romance-comic tropes of cripples, orphans, blind people, snooty heiresses, movie stars, and faithless trumpeters – just the kind of crowd you’ll find round your local!

*War: High-grade (never mind the content, look at the cover gloss…) early-Sixties copies of Attack! (2nd series), D-Day (first issue, with quite a nice Giordano cover), Fightin’ Army, Submarine Attack, and War Heroes.

*Phantom: The Moonstone series of Lee Falk’s iconic jungle adventurer is completely relisted this week, with new issues from 1st to last (#26) and the second Annual, guest-starring his King features associate Mandrake the Magician. The Phantom’s original Moonstone ongoing may have ended for now, but fear not – he returns in not one but two new series from Moonstone, Phantom: Generations and Phantom: Ghost Who Walks, the ‘pilot’ issue #0 of the latter also being included in our listing this time.

*Flash Gordon: More classic adventures of the defender of Mongo and his valiant companions, in the vintage space-opera originated by Alex Raymond. We have issues of the ongoing King/Charlton/Gold Key-Whitman series from #3 to #33, with beautiful work by Williamson, Crandall, Fawcette, Kane and Boyette, mostly low- or non-distributed in the UK, as well as the Complete Set of the 1988 Dan Jurgens ‘re-envisioning’, and Volume Two of the Checker Publishing hardcover reprinting the original newspaper strip in full colour.

*Modern Comics Special Interest: More hard-to-find Walking Dead, as the sleeper hit from Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard shambles on. Originally dismissed as another standard gorefest on its release, word-of-mouth soon boosted its popularity, and issues below #50 are quite difficult to obtain. The story of survivours trying to eke out an existence in a world overrun by zombies, it admittedly sounds like a bog-standard scenario – but deft characterization and the gift to shock and surprise even veteran comics readers have taken this inversion of, and commentary on, modern society to an unanticipated level of depth and complexity. There are, however, still plenty of blood n’giblets for them as likes ‘em – so, something for everyone! Plus, further adventures of Hellboy’s pals n’ gals over in the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense , with BPRD: Black Goddess and BPRD: War On Frogs newly listed.

Posted by Rob | 02:54 p.m. GMT | 21 July 2009

British Update - 2000 AD, Victor, Warlord, Air Ace PL, Joe 90, Mask, Starburst, June & School Friend, Mandy, Romeo

Also, another very large update of British proven favourites this week in the following categories:

*Boys Adventure & War Comics: And it’s the future’s end this week, as we conclude our mammoth 2000 AD top-up, expanding our previous range of stock from 1986 all the way up to the early months of 2009, in a comprehensive upgrade including 200+ issues, covering a span which saw ‘new kids’ Durham Red, Bix Barton, and womanising wastrel Nikolai Dante become mainstays of the title as its focus shifted decidedly to a ‘young adult’ readership. Also included are a dozen or so scarce Sci-Fi Specials, from the late Eighties and early Nineties. Victor, the doughty old man of DC Thompson’s adventure line, gets a refresh from the mid-1980’s, with around fifty new issues added, and Warlord gets a top-up of around the same quantity of issues from #5 upwards, with ‘Gustav’s Cossacks’, ‘Pawnee Patrol’, and the out-of-place looking sci-fi sojourn ‘Sabor’s Army’ among the featured stars.

*Boys Adventure and War Picture Libraries: And we conclude another marathon top-up with Air Ace, new issues added in from #401 to the final issue of the first series, #545, with a virtually unbroken run missing only two numbers from the sequence, and in astonishingly high grade for its vintage, averaging Fine.

*TV Related Comics: Joe 90’s fleeting 1994 revival is highlighted, with the first two issues of the big-brained brat from W.I.N. in high grade with free gifts. A rare Gerry Anderson misfire at the time of its release (kids wanted to identify with adult heroes, not with swots their own age!), Joe 90 has subsequently grown in popularity, and owing to both its short runs, remains a highly-sought collectible in its comics incarnation. MASK is a new title, in which our clean-cut pre-assembled heroes battle the forces of Venom (no, not *that* Venom; I think Marvel’s cuddly brain-eating symbiote would make short work of this lot, cutesy robot and all!), and we have the first three issues of cult sci-fi/comics magazine Starburst from 1978, the first two in outstanding condition.

*Girls Comics: June & School Friend from 1964 and 1965, with a lucky thirteen issues featuring ‘Lucky’s Living Doll’, ‘Sally Starr’, ‘Vanessa from Venus’, ‘Mimi the Mesmerist’, and fearless resistance femme ‘Roxanne – Fighter For France!’. We also have a selection of Mandy from 1970, a stray School Friend from 1964 (pre-June merger), and a paisley-tastic selection of Romeo from 1970, in which, devoid of continuing characters (Romeo being for ‘older ladies’), some astonishing sartorial faux pas meet and make out in prettily-drawn one-off romance tales. Romeo seldom lasts long in our stock (I suspect the committee for the suppression of Flares and Sideburns destroys them furtively…) so buy them before the Fashion Police raid us!

Posted by Rob | 02:48 p.m. GMT | 21 July 2009

13 July 2009

American Update: Charlton, Harvey, Modern Reprints & Modern Complete Sets

We're a bit off the wall this week as follows:

*Charlton: A recently-acquired range of early 1960’s issues in a remarkable state of preservation – Fine or better on average. Stars of the show are three Ditko ‘big monster’ classics – Gorgo #15, Konga #15, and Return of Gorgo #2 – but other titles represented are as diverse as Space War, Hot Rods & Racing cars, Timmy the Timid Ghost, Strange Suspense Stories, and the one-of-a-genre Sue & Sally Smith, Flying Nurses! Dud star of this entry, though, has to be Three Nurses #21, which is vying, against considerable competition, for the coveted title of Worst Charlton Comic Ever. Lasting a scant six issues (#18-#23), it took over the numbering from Confidential Diary and mutated subsequently into the rather more successful Career Girl Romances, but during its short run, ‘Three Nurses’ featured some of the most appalling work ever to grace an allegedly professional comic. When Tony Tallarico is the artistic high spot, you know things are grim…

*Harvey: More from the House of Dead Babies, Giant Ducks, and Children With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, with high-grade early-sixties issues of Baby Huey & Papa, Devil Kids, Harvey Hits, Hot Stuff, Little Audrey & Melvin, Little Dot Dotland, Sad Sack, Sad Sack’s Funny friends, and Wendy the good little Witch. Harvey’s titles were poorly distributed in the UK at the best of times, and remain highly sought-after by collectors, offering as they do an experience quite unlike anything else in the comics world.

*Modern Reprints; Further excavations into the past of the major companies, with DC’s Showcase Green Lantern reaching its fourth volume, and Marvel’s Masterworks continuing with new Golden Age (Marvel Mystery Vol 4), Atlas Age (Journey into Mystery Vol 2), Silver Age (Hulk Vol 5) and Bronze Age (Warlock Vol 2). The Marvel Essentials feature new volumes for Spider-Man, Thor and X-Men, while the special 70th Anniversary Commemorative one-shots continue with new releases for Human Torch, Marvel Mystery, Miss America, USA and Young Allies, with more on the way. We close with two out-of-print paperbacks, Teen Angst, a treasury of 50’s Romance comics, reprinting Matt Baker aplenty, and The Complete Saga of the Victims, with the Skywald ‘Horror-Mood’ saga gathered in one volume with a brand-new ending.

*Modern Comics Compete Sets: More Complete Sets for the economy-minded buyer, including the Beast, DC/Wildstorm Dreamwar, Doc Savage, a mammoth 52 + World War III package, Judge Dredd: The Judge Child, Nemesis the Warlock, Red Sonja Vs. Thulsa Doom, Reign In Hell, and X-Men: Deadly Genesis, in which everything you ever knew about the origin of Marvel’s mightiest Mutants is revealed to have been a lie – what, again?

Posted by Rob | 05:19 p.m. GMT | 13 July 2009

British Update: Vintage UK & Australian Reprints, Axa, Rick Random & TV21 collections, Rover 1968-72, Wizard 1961-62, 2000 AD, 1950s Buffalo Bill by McLoughlin, new Crikey! & Spaceship Away!

Another bumper bundle of British goodies for you this week as follows:

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: More miscellany and occasional outright mystification from fifties and sixties, an era when distribution of American comics in the UK was restricted, so publishers sprang up to repackage US material for the British Empire, as it was then. Prominent among these repackagers were Miller, Streamline, Strato/Arnold, Thorpe and Porter, and World Distributors (many of whom shared familial or business links we haven’t yet been able to fathom), who sometimes reprinted the same material in different series and formats. Scores of new entries this time covering dozens of titles, including western stars, (Bob Steele, Casey Ruggles, Cheyenne Kid, Gabby Hayes, Lash Larue, Masked Raider, Outlaws, Rocky Lane, Roy Rogers, Six-Gun Heroes, Texas Rangers in Action, Tom Mix, Wild Bill Pecos), horror and mystery (Adventures Into the Unknown, Fantastic Tales, Forbidden Worlds, Mystic, Out Of This World, Spellbound, Voodoo, Zombie) adventure, crime, war and more.

*Collected Editions: Axa, the scantily-clad revolutionary of a post-apocalyptic future, joins us this week in the full-colour Enrique Romero album from 1985, and the 1950’s Ron Turner-limned space adventurer Rick Random gets his first significant collection courtesy of Prion Books. Meanwhile, in the 21st century, a new series of TV 21 paperbacks has been launched, gathering Stingray, Thunderbirds, Fireball XL5, Captain Scarlet, Lady Penelope and Zero X into handsome full-colour albums, with two volumes so far released.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics; We continue (and for the moment, conclude) our massive Rover update with 100+ issues from 1967, 1968, and a smattering from 1970-1972; turn a spotlight on the ultra-rare Buffalo Bill comic from the 1950’s, with superlative art by Denis McLoughlin - a scan of the available issue is viewable in our Cover Gallery by clicking on the link provided – refresh our Wizards from 1961 & 1962, and soldier on with our Tintinnabulating 2000 AD Top-Up! The 1970’s sensation which revolutionized Boys’ Adventure comics has been a huge hit since our recent stock expansion, and we’re replenishing our lists from #12 to well into the #600’s, including Judge Dredd, Pat Mills, Ro-Busters, Alan Moore, ABC Warriors, Brian Bolland, Halo Jones, Grant Morrisson, Strontium Dog, Bryan Talbot, DR & Quinch, Simon Bisley, Nemesis, Skizz, Dave Gibbons, Kevin O’Neill, Slaine, Alan Davis, Mike McMahon, Zenith and hordes more of the great & good of the far-flung future, including several scarce Summer Sci-Fi Specials! A final surge in the next couple of weeks will bring our 2000 AD inventory entirely up to date – keep watching the web!

*Magazines/Books About Vintage UK Comics: We’re delighted to announce that both Crikey! And Spaceship Away! continue unabated, with new issues of both popular nostalgiafests added this week. Spaceship Away is now up to its 18th issue, spotlighting the classic Dan Dare as ever, but also featuring Jet Morgan, Nick Hazard, and, from next issue, Frank Bellamy’s Garth, for the first time ever in full colour. Crikey! #10 focusses on the ‘Glamour girls’ of UK comic strips, starring Jane, Carrie, Wicked Wanda, Axa, and, er, Rogue Trooper. Crikey! has announced a major revamp from next issue – as ever, we’ll keep you fully informed.

Posted by Rob | 05:14 p.m. GMT | 13 July 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: Blackhawk & Brave & Bold

Many more to follow on a regular basis.

Posted by Rob | 05:04 p.m. GMT | 13 July 2009

6 July 2009

British Update: Annuals inc Beano/Dandy compilations, Roy Of The Rovers, Tiger, June & School Friend Picture Library

A diverse mixture of goodies in this week's British update as follows:

*Annuals: A splendid range of the hardcover Beano & Dandy (and earlier, before the box-office values of the titles were realised, Dandy & Beano) compilations, which were launched in the 1990’s as a celebration of the titles’ Golden Anniversaries, and have continued ever since. These carefully-produced themed anthologies and re-present a dazzling selection of series from the comics’ now seventy-plus years history, featuring obscurities and long-forgotten characters as well as the major stars such as Dennis the Menace and Desperate Dan. We also have new stock in the companion Broons & Oor Wullie compilations, reprinting the enduringly popular strips from Scotland’s Sunday Post. In Film & TV related, the Avengers take charge, with 1968’s annual featuring new girl Tara King, and Westerns are enhanced by two further TV tie-ins, with Outlaws and Tales of Wells Fargo saddlin’ up.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: It’s a sporting life this week at 30th Century, (known as we are for our lithe agility) as we add significantly to our stock of Melchester’s favourite son, Roy of the Rovers, from his very first solo issue, after graduating from Tiger in 1976, through to 1979. In excess of 150 issues new in, featuring not only Roy himself, but family football rivals ‘Smith & Son’, ‘Martin’s Mini-Men’ (Subbuteo drama, not skirt-wearing action!), Jag-alumni ‘Football Family Robinson’ and ‘Tommy’s Troubles’, the saga of a soccer-starved young lad so beset with cruelty that he should’ve run in ‘Tammy’! Following the athletic theme, we turn to Tiger from 1975, with more Roy of the Rovers (is there no escaping the man?), plus racing driver ‘Skid Solo’, junior footballer ‘Billy’s Boots’, Seminole matman (that’s a wrestler, for the benefit of the perplexed…) ‘Johnny Cougar’, and ace biker ‘Tallon of the Track’, who would have been championship material – if only she hadn’t been a girl! How ironic. We also have, in this run, ‘special reports’ authored – allegedly – by Tony Greig, Malcolm MacDonald, and Trevor Francis, and a guest appearance from Dickie Davies in the 21st Anniversary Issue! How much excitement can you stand?

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: New blood for June & School Friend Picture Library, which by the time of this range – late 1960’s – had absorbed the backlog of Schoolgirls’, Girls’ Crystal, and Princess, so had a wide inventory to call upon. Some of the hi-jinx included this time: ‘An Otter Goes To School’, ‘The Riddle Of Lu Fang’, ‘Our Laird’s A Lassie!’, and for those who favour a sterner persuasion, ‘Tina Takes Charge!’ Ooer… We’ve also a very small selection of new Schoolgirls’ Picture Libraries, from #37’s ‘Sally- Sensation of the School!’.

Posted by Rob | 12:43 p.m. GMT | 6 July 2009

American Update: Silver/Bronze Marvels, 1960s/70s Archies, IW/Super

Another wide range of new American stock this week as follows:

*Marvel: A new update headlined by Not Brand Ecch, the satirical Marvel title which shamelessly poked fun not only at the competition, but also at the House of Ideas itself, as Stan Lee, Gene Colan, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Marie Severin and other headliners lampooning their own creations. Too witty for the general public, it lasted only 13 issues, and this not-quite-complete top-up features most of the first twelve. We also feature premiere issues for Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., with superlative Steranko artwork, and the 1980 Star Trek series, as well as new stock for Spider-Man, Marvel Feature, Red Sonja, Logan’s Run, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

*Archie: Riverdale’s favourite son marches inexorably on, in a sweeping restock of several titles, including many from the early 1960’s in Fine or better grade: Betty & Me, Betty & Veronica, Jughead, Jughead’s Jokes, Laugh, Life with Archie, (featuring the debut of Dr. Doom – no, not that one….), Pep, and the short-lived title starring Archie’s rival, Reggie. In addition, there’s the wittily-done Dan DeCarlo look at teenage life, Seymour My Son, a one-off which it was hoped would spin into a series as DeCarlo’s other creations, Josie and Sabrina, had, but which instead only made one sequel (the imaginatively-titled More Seymour) before vanishing without trace.

*IW/Super: This short-lived series of Golden Age reprints from 1959-1963 is famous for randomness and peculiarity, being the acquired leftovers from a defunct printing plant, but the five issues added this week all have marks of distinction setting them above the run-of-the-mill. Blazing Sixguns #10 features a nifty new John Severin cover over bizarre Ajax/Farrell western tale, Doll Man #11 has two tales of the diminutive crime-fighter by Crandall and Kotsky, with Bill Ward’s slinky Torchy as a bonus featurette, Mystery Tales #16 reprints Toby’s Tales of Horror #2 for pre-Code goofiness and bloodshed, including the inexplicable ‘Love from A Plant’; Strange Planets #10 repackages Avon’s Space Detective #1 in which our square-jawed hero and his curvy assistant thrash crime in the outer worlds, as superbly illustrated by Wally Wood; and most peculiarly, Daring Adventures #18, which is technically not a reprint, as the original publisher crashed & burned while the plates were at the printers, so the scheduled 1945 release of what would have been ‘Atlas Comics #1’ never saw the light of day until 1963, when somebody swept up the neglected printing plates. It’s no good at all, mind you – but it’s a historical curiosity!

Posted by Rob | 12:37 p.m. GMT | 6 July 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 (Silver Age from #101)

Many more to follow on a regular basis.

Posted by Rob | 12:31 p.m. GMT | 6 July 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 British section:

*Boys' Adventure & War Comics (T-Z)

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

Posted by Rob | 12:26 p.m. GMT | 6 July 2009