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Update Archives For October 2008

26 October 2008

American Update: High grade early Silver DC, 1970's DC gothic Horror, scarce Romance gems from the 40s and 50s, Miss Beverly Hills, Undergrounds, Modern Sets and more!

We've been working overtime again this week to catch up with processing just some of the very many wonderful American collectibles heading our way. Our biggest update for several weeks with much more to come:

*DC: Some high-grade items this week, with Batman #135, Batman Annual #1 & #2, Brave & Bold #26 & #27 (2nd & 3rd appearances of the Suicide Squad), Justice League of America #2 & #3 (both highly attractive cents copies with virtually unmarred cover colour), and Wonder Woman #93. While Silver Age DC has always been a speciality for us here at 30th Century, it’s a rare treat to get so many vintage items in appealing condition. But don’t take our word for it - click on the catalogue links for most of the above-named items, and see a cover scan for yourself!

*Horror/Mystery, 1960s-1980s: A stellar selection from DC’s House of Mystery and House of Secrets, when, in the late 1960’s, both titles revitalized the mystery comic genre with beautiful art by Adams, Wrightson, Morrow, Kaluta, and more. Of particular note is a lovely run of House of Secrets from #88 up, which for several consecutive issues played with variations on the classic ‘gothic cover’ – scenes of a diaphanously-clad damsel fleeing an old moody house/terrible monster/both – with wit and imagination. Also topped up this time are Marvel’s Seventies stalwarts Creatures on the Loose, Journey into Mystery, Where Creatures Roam, Where Monsters Dwell, and Weird Wonder Tales, as well as a late 1961 issue of Prize’s Black Magic, just before it ignominiously transformed into the teen humour title, Cool Cat – a sad end for an illustrious career.

*Romance: if you have tears, prepare to shed them now, as we bury you under a torrent of petal-scented moonbeams from publishers Atlas (Lovers), DC (Falling In Love, Girls’ Love Stories), Charlton (Sweethearts, Romantic Story, Time For Love), Quality (Brides Romances, Girls In Love, Love Letters, Love Secrets), Harvey (First Love), ACG (Confessions of the Lovelorn), and more. Featured items include the first issue of Hollywood Confessions from St. John, a gorgeously-illustrated Joe Kubert tome telling tales of tragedy in Tinseltown, and several Matt Baker-helmed stories in the Quality books, as well as some gloriously lurid titles such as 'Man-Starved!', 'I Was A Japanese War Bride!', and 'I Fell For A Commie!', to name but a few. Cover scans of Quality’s Love Letters #49 and Hollywood Confessions #1 are available online – click on the link in the main catalogue entry for those titles.

*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: Only one this update – but she’s a cracker! From DC, Miss Beverly Hills of Hollywood, aspiring actress, pursued her career while consorting with badly-caricatured movie stars which even the deft touch of artists like Bob Oksner and Winslow Mortimer couldn’t make convincing likenesses. Short-lived and now sought-after, Beverly’s issues command a lot of attention these days, and we have her second issue (with special ‘guest stars’ William Holden, eve Arden and Gail Russell – oh, go ask your grans who they were, you young whippersnappers!) in VG at £75. For a scan of the cover, check out the catalogue entry and click on the link!

*Undergrounds: A halcyon medley of counter-culture, activism and just plain hallucinogenic silliness spotlighting two particular rarities, a near-complete run (missing only issues #13 and #14) of Jack Katz’ epic fantasy The First Kingdom, and two issues of Bizarre Sex, the notorious anthology whose cover on #1 got it banned from several American cities. We have #7 and a first printing of #1 – but we’re not going to scan *that* and put it in the cover gallery! We also have several other rare series including ‘Grass’ Green’s Super Soul Comix, flesh-flashing adventures with Miranda the Tease, the New Adventures of Jesus, Girltalk, Gay Comix, No Ducks!, Lois and Snarf. Aside from the very biggest titles, print runs on undergrounds tend to be vanishingly small, so if you’re interested in the field, you’re best advised to grab ‘em when you see ‘em.

*Modern Comics: Our ever-popular Complete Set Initiative continues with up-to-the-minute mini-series of modern masterworks – and a few clunkers, but we’ll let you be the judge of which is which! Among the newcomers are a plethora of Annihilation mini-series, several Spider-Man minis (including Hobgoblin Lives, Mysterio Manifesto, Get Kraven, and Revenge of the Green Goblin), Batman: It’s Joker Time, Factor X, Civil War, Daredevil/Spider-Man, House of M, James Bond: Shattered Helix, JLA Incarnations, New Avengers Illuminati, World War Hulk, and Marville (okay, we’ll give you that last one – that’s such a clunker it has to be seen to be deplored!)

Posted by Rob | 11:01 a.m. GMT | 26 October 2008

British Update: early Alan Class issues, Annuals inc. Smash & Penelope, TV Comic with Dr Who, Bonnie & Twinkle, latest Crikey and Spaceship Away, guides to Lion & Valiant and more!

A bumper bundle of goodies for you this week of great diversity and charm:

*Alan Class Reprints: Another splendid selection from the Alan Class line, including a copy of Creepy Worlds #1, which (together with Secrets of the Unknown #1, which was published at the same time) was the first Alan Class comic! Only in fair condition, admittedly – but that makes it affordable. Other highlights include sci-fi anthology Out Of This World (from first series #5), Secrets of the Unknown from #4, Sinister Tales from #11, a big wad of Suspense commencing with #3, and additions to Astounding Stories, Uncanny Tales, and Weird Planets.

*Annuals: A heaping helping of Smash!, with several of the later Valiant-alike annuals, including the scarce paperback from 1976, featuring Janus Stark, His Sporting Lordship, the Birdman from Baratoga, and many more. We also have a seldom-seen Penelope Annual from 1969 (after she switched from a Gerry Anderson-adventure weekly to a standard girl’s comic – thought there’s still one full-fledged Lady Penelope adventure here!), and additions to our stock of Cor.

*TV Related Comics: Minor additions to TV Action (1972) and TV Century 21 (1967-1969) this time, but the primary focus is on TV Comic, a weekly that had an astonishingly long run (1951 to 1984) given its oddball mix of features; starting as a showcase for Muffin the Mule – no, really – it rapidly metamorphosed from a toddler’s comic into a weekly bearing such strange bedfellows as Dad’s Army, Tarzan, Basil Brush, Pink Panther, Roobarb & Custard, and Tom & Jerry, plus non-licensed ‘originals’ such as the TV Terrors, Mighty Moth and Nelly & Her Telly! A prime reason for its longevity in the Seventies, however, was that it was for many years the only source for original Dr. Who comic strips, with the Time Lord and his intrepid companions (some from the TV series – step forward, Sarah-Jane – and some Just Made Up) thwarting evil for two pages every Friday. This batch of 30 dates between 1972 and 1977, and except for two, all feature Gallifrey’s Favourite Son in all-new adventures.

*Girls’ Comics and Picture Libraries: It’s amazing how long you can be in this business and still be surprised - as we were, last week, by the discovery of Bonnie, which we’d never heard of despite it having a respectable run in the 1970’s as IPC/Fleetway’s answer to DC Thompson’s Twinkle. We have around twenty Bonnie from 1974 and 1975, plus the 1975 Holiday Special, and a further selection of Twinkle from 1975-1980, including the scarce 1977 Holiday Special. Despite Bonnie having the star power of Florence and Dougal from TV’s Magic Roundabout, Twinkle was the ultimate victor in the kindergarten catfight and reigned supreme as the ‘story paper for little girls', but why limit yourself? Try both!

*Magazines/Books About Vintage UK Comics: We happily received new issues of Crikey! And Spaceship Away! in the same week, encouraged to see that exploration of the past of UK comics will support two regular quality productions. Crikey! #7 focuses on, among others, Thunderbirds, Halo Jones and Garth, and Spaceship Away! #16, in addition to Dan Dare and chums, introduces Ron turner’s Nick Hazzard to the mix. We also have a copy of Jeff Hawke’s Cosmos, the magazine which aims to do for Jeff what Spaceship Away! and Eagle Times have done for Dan Dare’s gang, and two of the scarce Complete Indexes published by CJ productions in the 1990’s. These paperbacks catalogue (in this instance) Valiant and Lion, and list all the features, with start and stop dates and illustrations of each, plus artists and writers where known, in addition to featuring an overview history of the comic in question. A treasure trove of information, these low-print run books were snapped up at the time, and are now very hard to find.

Posted by Rob | 10:48 a.m. GMT | 26 October 2008

19 October 2008

American Update: Charltons plus Jungle Girls from Atlas & Fiction House

An influx of the rare and esoteric this week as follows:

*Charlton: A marvellous miscellany (and as we’ve pointed out many times, you don’t get much more miscellaneous than Charlton!) from three decades, with Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds, Timmy the Timid Ghost, House of Yang, E-Man, and Unusual Tales all refreshed with new stock, and additions to Nyoka the Jungle Girl (with inventory from the Fawcett series) and Zoo Funnies, which Nyoka also headlined.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: It’s a jungle out there! Well, more 'in here', as 30th Century welcomes a bevy of scantily-clad savage beauties such as Jann, Sheena, Lorna, Camilla, and, er, Ka’a’nga, for equatorial shenanigans involving implausible natives and geographically-confused wildlife. Jann joins us from her first issue, #8 (she took over the numbering from Jungle Tales, where she used to star) in VG/FN, backed up by Lorna the Jungle Girl and the first four issues of Jungle Tales from Atlas, while the Fiction House line gives us Jumbo, Jungle and Ka’a’nga. A scan of Jann #8 can be seen in our Cover Gallery feature – go to the catalogue listing and click the link! (And for another tropical heroine, see our Charlton update for Nyoka the Jungle Girl in Zoo funnies and her own series)

Posted by Rob | 11:50 a.m. GMT | 19 October 2008

British Update: Bullet, Roy of the Rovers, Scorcher, Score, Lion & Thunder Holiday Special

A huge update to our most popular section this week:

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A super soccer update this time, with approximately 100 issues of Roy of the Rovers weekly, a couple of dozen Scorcher and a scattering of Score. Spinning off from his long run (1953 onwards) in Tiger, Roy headlined his own mag from 1976 to the early 1990’s, with a keen knack for courting publicity from celebrities of the day, and a lively selection of back-up features including ghostly goal-scorer 'The Footballer Who Wouldn’t Stay Dead.' Undergoing several changes in format along the way, this run takes us from his first year of publication to the close of 1980. Scorcher, a soccer weekly with a whimsical imagination, featured convicts, feral children, robots, and yes, ghosts amongst its football stars, and this run from 1970 to 1973 includes the scarce 1971 Holiday Special. The more down-to-earth Score only managed a short run before being gobbled up by Scorcher, but we have three new issues listed from 1970 and 1971. Finally, something that doesn’t star footballers! Bullet featured adventures of hard-man 'Fireball', a mulleted and mustached medallion man, backed up by crazed robot 'Smasher', 'Hit Man' (have a guess what his speciality was..), lost teens in 'The Valley Of Fear', and, yes, football star 'Kid Cox', a title you wouldn’t get away with these days. Approximately forty issues added to our lists, including the first four. All this, plus a rare Lion & Thunder Holiday Special from 1971 (Adam Eterno hitches a ride on a pterodactyl, if you’re curious…) – what more do you need?

Posted by Rob | 11:47 a.m. GMT | 19 October 2008

11 October 2008

American Update: DCs 1940s-1960s, Modern Reprints old and new, latest magazines and books about Vintage American Comics, Ultimate Spider-Man #1-7

A nice bundle of delights this week as follows:

*DC: A small but very select group of vintage DCs freshly added, including Action #285, where Supergirl reveals herself to the world (too many punchlines...), Batman #67 with Joker story, a brace of Brave & Bold, #23 & #24, the only two all-Kubert all-Viking Prince issues which would grace any collection (nice greytone cover in particular on #23), Sensation Mystery #110 (the first issue with that title continuing from Sensation Comics) and Showcase #16, the second appearence of Space Ranger. Cover scans of the Batman, Brave & Bolds, Sensation Mystery and Showcase may be seen in our Cover Gallery, and may be accessed by following the link from the listing on our DC catalogue page.

*Modern Reprints: A significant revision of this popular section, with multiple new releases from DC and Marvel bringing their inventories within reach of the consumer. DC’s Archives continue with Doom Patrol Vol 5 and Seven Soldiers of Victory Vol 3, and the Spirit presses on with Vol 25 just released and at least one more to go. DC’s Showcase volumes add new books for the Atom, Metal Men, Blackhawk, Hawkman, House of Mystery and Superman, among others. Marvel’s Masterworks series brings us a debut volume for the Defenders, the third Atlas Heroes reprinting Bill Everett’s glorious 1950’s Sub-Mariner, and new volumes for Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the Golden Age Marvel Mystery Comics, while their Essentials bring us new Man-Thing and FF. DC also continues their Superman Chronicles series with Vol 5, reprinting the entire chronological run of 1940’s man of steel in full-colour paperback, and gives us the second book in the Modesty Blaise/Emma Peel era of Diana Prince – Wonder Woman! Elsewhere, Dark Horse has commenced the Herbie Archives, handsome hardcovers collecting the adventures of Richard Hughes and Ogden Whitney’s 'Little fat nothing' anti-hero, and a facsimile of Arnold Drake and Matt Baker’s It Rhymes With Lust, held by many to be the first mass-market graphic novel. We also have a recharge of other modern reprints of vintage titles in comic form from many publishers.

*Magazines and Books About Vintage US Comics: New editions of Alter Ego and Back Issue, plus a new issue of the seldom-seen Charlton Spotlight, with previously-unpublished stories. The DC Vault, a hardcover history and retrospective, features ‘interactive’ facsimile artefacts as well as a comprehensive look back over the company’s 60+ year span, and the Comic Eye paperback presents reminiscences by comics creators about their comics experience, in comics form! Lastly, the vintage Glx Sptzl Glaah! looks back on the life and career of Sheldon Mayer, the genius behind Black Orchid, Sugar & Spike, and many more.

*Modern Comics Signed/Variant/Rare Editions: We don't often make a song and dance here at 30th Century about something published in recent years, but this one's worth the odd note. Marvel’s ‘reboot’ of the Spider-Man legend, Ultimate Spider-Man, takes centre stage this week, with the first seven issues, all sought-after rarities, joining our lists for the first time. With the dawning of the new millennium, Marvel decided to relaunch some of its longest-running series as contemporary titles, freed of 40+ years of accumulated continuity ‘baggage’, and the Amazing Spider-Man’s reinvention by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley proved hugely successful, driving demand for the low-printed early issues through the roof. While not the sales phenomenon that they were, demand for the first seven remains very high, and they’re seldom seen in any condition, let alone the near mint selection we have to offer.

Posted by Rob | 10:57 a.m. GMT | 11 October 2008

British Update: Valiant 1963-1976

Just one catergory updated this week, but it's a goodie:

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Valiant gets a major update this week, as we add in excess of 150 issues ranging from the second year of publication, 1963, to its final year, 1976, with many Christmas issues among the new stock, and featuring the ‘amalgam’ issues when it absorbed Smash and TV21 in rapid succession in 1971. With Captain Hurricane, Kelly’s Eye, Mytek the Mighty, House of Dolmann, Raven on the Wing, Adam Eterno, Steel Claw and One-Eyed Jack, Valiant’s stellar line-up of adventure strips holds fond memories for an entire generation of readers.

Posted by Rob | 10:41 a.m. GMT | 11 October 2008

5 October 2008

British Update: Free Gift Farrago abounds with Ranger, Beano & Buster, plus Rover #1 and #2 from 1922 and Rover 1949/50, also Judy 1976!

A British update with a real wow factor this week as we bring you some very rare items as follows:

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A Free Gift Farrago Update! Ranger and Rover, two peripatetically-inclined weeklies, star in this update. Ranger, from 1965, brought Don Lawrence’s lustrous science-fiction epic, 'The Trigan Empire' to the world, for which we are forever grateful, but the other features weren’t too shabby either, including schoolboy adventurer 'Rob Riley' 'Space Cadet Jason January', western hero 'Dan Dakota', interplanetary investigator 'Rip Solar', and a very peculiar translation of 'Asterix' in which our favourite Gaul & chums are recast as Britons! This selection features many early issues, including the first four with the original free gifts still intact. Also, the popular story paper Rover returns, with the first two issues from 1922 (low grade but readable - when did you last see a Rover #1?), introducing 'Invisible Dick', 'The Traitor of the Team', and 'Telegraph Jim’s', in, it says here, 'queer and dangerous adventures!' We then fast forward to substantial runs of 1949 and 1950 (almost a complete year of the latter), where Alf Tupper, 'The Tough of the Track', headlined alongside oddball series such as 'The Menace of Pit 19' (giant moles, anyone?). Cover images of the first four Rangers and the first two Rovers are in our Cover Gallery feature – click on the link in the main catalogue entry.

*Humour Comics & Picture Libraries: A Free Gift Farrago update! Beano from the 1980’s to the 2000’s, and Buster from the 1980’s, all with the original free gifts attached. Ranging from the rather good (Gnasher glove puppet), through the bizarre (Clumsy Colin’s Broom Broom Bike!?) and the inexplicable (Heinz’s Haunted house badge?), the editors’ ideas of what constituted a suitable gift will bewilder and amuse. For other free gifts, see Ranger in the Boys’ Adventure section.

*Girls’ Comics & Picture Libraries: After an hiatus, our Big Girls’ Bonanza continues merrily on, with a virtually complete year of Judy from 1976. Bobby Dazzler was finally ousted from the cover slot (but continued inside, so fear not, fans!), and replaced for the first half of the year with highly melodrama from 'Flight To Fear!', 'Dangerous Days For Diana!', 'Slaves to the Spotlight!', and teenage highwaywoman 'The Countess of Monte Cristo'. Then in the second half, the cover featured psychedelic pop-star portraits of staggering ineptitude – cover up the lower quarter of the picture and try and guess who they are, I dare you. Many, many more girls’ comics to come – keep an eye on the website for further updates!

Posted by Rob | 06:28 p.m. GMT | 5 October 2008

American Update: A triptych of the lovely Blonde Phantom plus more Warren and other magazines

Some star items in this week's American update as follows:

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Beware… the Blonde Phantom! A Timely classic! One of the leading exponents of ‘Good Girl Art’, the slinky noirish adventuress lived a double life as mousy secretary Louise Grant (“I walk in every day, and I can’t get a tumble!” – were those more innocent times, or what?) until danger beckoned, whereupon she slipped into a low-cut, thigh-slit evening frock, redid her hair and make up and emerged as the glamourous crusader – though realistically, you’d think that by the time she got all gussied up, the emergency would be over! Fortunately for us all, realism has no place in comics, and her adventures had a late 1940’s ‘spike’ of popularity, defying the anti-superhero trend and becoming a much sought-after commodity today. We have her very first appearance in All-Select #11, in which she so stole the show that the series was renamed for her with #12, and we also have issues #14 and #15 of her solo series, in very affordable low-mid grades, so cut yourself a slice of vintage cheesecake and enjoy! Scans of all three covers are viewable in our Cover Gallery; click on the link in the catalogue listing.

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Yes, we did only update this listing recently, but your collective appetite for black & white gore and thrills is apparently insatiable – thanks for that! – so here we are again, with additional stock for Marvel’s Savage Tales, Skywald’s Nightmare, the cult 1970’s UK series House of Hammer, and the Warren titles Creepy, Eerie, and Famous Monsters of Filmland, newly refreshed for your enjoyment!

Posted by Rob | 06:16 p.m. GMT | 5 October 2008

3 October 2008

Credit Crunch Buster at 30th Century -- comics at just 20p each!

Got the blues due to the credit crunch? Need cheering up with a cheap read? We've now got 500-1000 back issues of selected American titles from 1980 to the present day on sale at the shop at just 20p each! DC, Vertigo, Marvel, Image and Independent titles at giveaway prices, so pop by the shop and pick up a bargain! (Please note we are unable to supply information about these via email and this offer applies to personal callers at the shop only, not available by mail order.)

Posted by Rob | 01:23 a.m. GMT | 3 October 2008