Take a Cold Tub Sir! The Story of the Boy's Own Paper
Jack Cox. Butler & Tanner, 1982. First Edition. Out of Print. Very Fine. First issued in 1879, priced at one Penny, the Boy's Own Paper was produced as an antidote to the lurid penny dreadfuls of the day. In its heyday its influence was worldwide & the name remains a household word. In eleven chapters Jack Cox tells the paper's enthralling story from the start to its demise in 1967, each filled with classic illustrations from this vintage Comic book.

This is an uncommon edition offered here, in very collectable condition. 1st print, minor spine bumps, VF/ NM. Dust wrapper, minor edge creases, attractive, VF. (ISBN: 0718825055) 128 pages. Hard Cover Black & White 8" x 10" (20cm x 25cm) Dust Jacket

Our Price: £20.00 ($30.00) (€22,00)      

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Tattoos: True Love
CONTAINS ADULT MATERIAL. Henk Schiffmacher. Taschen, 2001. Icons series. The history and development of the tattoo conveyed by masses of colour and b&w photos. From the beautiful to the grotesque it is all a matter of taste. 192 pages. Soft Cover Part Colour 6" x 8" (15cm x 20cm)

Our Price: £4.99 ($7.49) (€5,49)      

The Ten-Cent Plague
David Hajdu. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. In the years between World War II and the emergence of television as a mass medium, American popular culture as we know it was first created - in the pulpy, boldly illustrated pages of comic books. No sooner had this new culture emerged than it was beaten down by church groups, community bluestockings, and a McCarthyish Congress - only to resurface with a crooked smile on its face in Mad magazine.The story of the rise and fall of those comic books has never been fully told - until "The Ten-Cent Plague".

This remarkable new book vividly opens up the lost world of comic books, its creativity, irreverence, and suspicion of authority. When we picture the 1950s, we hear the sound of early rock and roll. "The Ten-Cent Plague" shows how - years before music - comics brought on a clash between children and their parents, between prewar and postwar standards.

Created by outsiders from the tenements, garish, shameless, and often shocking, comics spoke to young people and provided the guardians of mainstream culture with a big target. Parents, teachers, and complicit kids burned comics in public bonfires. Cities passed laws to outlaw comics. Congress took action with televised hearings that nearly destroyed the careers of hundreds of artists and writers.

The author radically revises common notions of popular culture, the generation gap, and the divide between "high" and "low" art. As he did with the lives of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington (in Lush Life) and Bob Dylan and his circle (in Positively 4th Street), Hajdu brings a place, a time, and a milieu unforgettably back to life. 434 pages. Hard Cover Black & White 6½" x 9" (164mm x 229mm) (ISBN-13: 9780374187675)

Our Price: £12.99 ($19.49) (€14,29)      

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Tijuana Bibles: Art and Wit In America's Forbidden Funnies, 1930s-1950s
CONTAINS ADULT MATERIAL. Bob Edelman, commentary by Richard Merkin, introduction by Art Spiegelman. Simon & Schuster, 2004. A uniquely American phenomena, Tijuana Bibles, those pocket sized sex Comics, are celebrated here. Now claimed as the original undergrounds, they were drawn in a variety of styles, a true folk art. Many sought to lampoon famous celebrities of the time. Other issues took cartoon strip characters or popular stereotypes, such as the Fuller Brush Salesman & subverted them with openly explicit, sexual shenanigans. This is a letterbox format softcover edition. It contains complete reprints of numerous Tijuana editions, with explicit images of nudity, sex and adult themes. 160 pages. Soft Cover Black & White 12" x 9" (30cm x 23cm) ISBN: 0743255895
List Price: £12.50 SAVE £8.45

Our Price: £4.05 ($6.08) (€4,46)      

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The Ultimate Guide To Science Fiction (Second Edition)
David Pringle. Scolar Press, 1995. This second edition of The Ultimate Guide To Science Fiction offers short evaluative descriptions of around 3500 novels, collections and anthologies, all arranged by title and offering brief statements and reviews by critics and a guide to sequels, related titles and film versions. Over 40,000 words of new entries have added, much of the old material has been revised, and the coverage of older books of the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries expanded.

David Pringle has tried to cover all SF movie novelizations as well as a generous selection of radio and television SF novelizations. Metropolis, Star Trek, Doctor Strangelove and Terminator will now be found. The question 'Is there a book of such and such a film?' can now be answered. 485 pages. Hard Cover 6½" x 9½" (17cm x 24cm) ISBN: 1859280714
List Price: £40.00 SAVE £31.01

Our Price: £8.99 ($13.49) (€9,89)      

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Unseen America The Greatest Cult Exploitation Magazines 1950-1966
Alan Betrock. Shake Books, 1990. The American fifties are usually thought of as tame and conservative times. But during this era, a relatively forgotten wave of scandal, crime, sex, drugs, gossip, violence, and vice swept over the country. This was the world of 'unseen America', the other side of the rush to middle-class suburban families. For over a decade, this torrent of scandal was brought to the American public via mass circulation magazines - magazines that today offer us a unique view of another America, and graphically illustrate a chapter of American pop culture and journalistic happenings previously left unchronicled. This book shows the hidden side of the American 50s in over 350 photos! 115 pages. Soft Cover Black & White 8" x 10½" (20cm x 25cm)

Our Price: £9.99 ($14.99) (€10,99)      

The Untold Story (Signed) (Limited Edition)
CONTAINS ADULT MATERIAL. Frans 'the fox' Leeflang, Davido 'sorted' Howarth. Leeflang-Howarth Ink, 1946. This VERY LIMITED edition introduces two unsung heroes who have become the key movers and cocktail shakers in the field of British comics. Their unqualified knowledge of the genre is matched only by book-keeping brilliance and dogged organizational flair. Their art is always sought after, but never by the cognoscenti. Yet their pencil strokes are sharp, and they have acquired a biro-centric art paradigm that allows their luminous personalities to shine through. Although Woolly Jumpers have - with remorseless enthusiasm - enhanced their output, the heady mix of untutored talent is indubitable. A fascinating tome for all fans of the unknown, and especially recommended for the professional connoisseur. Rare edition, slight yellowing. Too many pages. Very Hard Cover Grey 2" x 4"

Our Price: £12.34 ($18.51) (€13,57)      

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Victorians At Home And Abroad
Paul Atterbury and Suzanne Fagence Cooper. V & A Publications, 2001. Published on the centenary of Queen Victoria's death, this richly illustrated book is an opportunity to revisit the achievements of the Victorian period, putting aside the attitudes and judgements of the twentieth century. Monarchy, family, Victoria's New Britain and the Gothic vision, sport, ships and trains, domestic life, death and religion, nature and landscape, interior decoration, the impact of world cultures and exoticism are all featured in this colourful snapshot of the Victorian vision of the world. 100 pages. Hard Cover Full Colour 7½" x 8½" (19cm x 22cm) Dust Jacket ISBN: 0810965739

Our Price: £12.50 ($18.75) (€13,75)      

Victorian Illustrated Books
Percy Muir. Portman Books, 1985. Out of Print. A fully illustrated book on this fascinating subject. Collectors and booksellers will especially welcome the sections on the most important books of the period and category.

Illustrated throughout. 288 pages. Hard Cover Part Colour 8" x 10" (20cm x 25cm) Dust Jacket
List Price: £40.00 SAVE £20.01

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The Victorian Vision
Edited by John M. Mackenzie. V & A Publications, 2001. The Victorians were people with vision: they were ambitious and outward looking, always seeking to change and improve society.

Published to coincide with a major exhibition at the V & A, this highly illustrated and broad- ranging survey looks at how the Victorians went about creating a new, more modern world: at home in domestic and public life, and globally, as the Empire expanded and widened their horizons. 360 pages. Hard Cover Full Colour 10" x 11½" (25cm x 29cm) Dust Jacket ISBN: 0810965798
List Price: £55.00 SAVE £30.00

Our Price: £25.00 ($37.50) (€27,50)      

The War Libraries: The Fleetway Picture Library Index volume 1 (Signed)
Compiled by David Roach and Steve Holland. Book Palace Books, August 2007. This is the first in a series of 3 volumes chronicling the full credits of all Fleetway Picture Libraries. This volume lists full writer, artist and cover artist credits for War Picture Library #1 – 2083, Battle Picture Library #1 – 1706, Air Ace Picture Library #1 – 545, War At Sea Picture Library #1 – 36, plus Giant War Picture Library and all the Holiday Specials.

An enormous undertaking that required years of research, this definitive index is an essential purchase for all fans and students of British comics. This indispensable index has over 420 cover illustrations of which 202 are in colour, including 32 colour pages of comic covers and original cover art recently discovered in the IPC warehouse.

In addition there are 60 interior page illustrations and 72 full colour illustrations of original art covers. Also included is an expert detailed essay on the publishing history of these hugely popular comics. 196 pages. Soft Cover Part Colour 7" x 10" (178mm x 254mm) (ISBN-13: 9780955159626)
List Price: £29.99 SAVE £10.00 Signed by authors Steve Holland and David Roach.

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Watching The Watchmen
Dave Gibbons, Chip Kidd & Mike Essl. Titan Books, October 2008. Voted among Time magazine's 100 Best Novels from 1923 to the present, a perennial bestseller over the past twenty years and widely considered the greatest graphic novel of all time, WATCHMEN is a gripping, labyrinthine piece of comic art, which has earned an acclaimed place in modern literary history.

Now, you can enjoy the ultimate companion to the comics masterpiece, as artist Dave Gibbons gives his own account of the genesis of WATCHMEN in this dust-jacketed hardback volume, opening his vast personal archives to reveal excised pages, original character designs, page thumbnails, sketches and much more, including posters, covers and rare portfolio art.

Featuring the breathtaking design of Chip Kidd and Mike Essl, this is both a major art book in its own right, and the definitive companion to the graphic novel that changed an industry. 208 pages. Hard Cover Part Colour 9" x 12" (228mm x 304mm) Dust Jacket (ISBN-13: 9781848560413)

Our Price: £24.99 ($37.49) (€27,49)      

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Wonderwoman: The Complete History
Les Daniels. Chronicle Books, 2004. Les Daniels' trio of books about DC's greatest superheroes, Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman, is now available for the first time in paperback. 'Wonder Woman' became an Eisner award winner, in its earlier hardcover format edition. Follow her here, in her transition from curiosity to feminist icon. See the Caped Crusader's mysterious real world origin and his evolution via the classic 1960s TV series. Finally, relive Krypton's favourite son's adventures on Earth, his adopted home. Each edition is filled with archival quality images, photographs, art, memorabilia and in-depth history, enough to satisfy the most discerning of fans. 208 pages. Soft Cover Part Colour 8" x 10" (20cm x 25cm) ISBN: 0811842339

Our Price: £12.99 ($19.49) (€14,29)      

Wooley's History of the Comic Book 1899 - 1936 The Origin of the Superhero
Charles Wooley, 1986. A brief but detailed history of the period. Magazine size. 48 pages. Soft Cover Black & White

Our Price: £8.95 ($13.43) (€9,85)      

World Of The Rings The Unauthorised Guide to the World of JRR Tolkien
Ian Lowson, Keith Marshall and Daniel O'Brien. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2002. First Edition. World of the Rings is the perfect handbook and guide to the world of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, now a major motion picture. For those new to Tolkien's Middle-earth and those returning to the magical world of Hobbits, Wizards, Elves and Orcs, the authors have devised a simple-to-use guide to Tolkien's books and their various TV adaptations. This guide gives guidance on where to find out more, in print and on line. 128 pages. First Edition. Soft Cover Black & White 5" x 7¾" (13cm x 20cm) £6.95 Save £1.95

Our Price: £5.00 ($7.50) (€5,50)