BRAVE AND THE BOLD (1ST SERIES), THE

Perhaps a second tier title to Batman and Superman but I always loved this one for the sheer variety of great characters. The first officially distributed issue in the UK was #26 and very scarce it is too as a pence variant copy. Try finding one in any condition!

The British-priced variants are considerably rarer than their US cents counterparts as it is thought that only 2-3% of the print run was put aside for export to the UK and whatever was left over was sent to South Africa and Australasia.

UK variant copies have 9d cover stamps from #26-55. From #56-60 the covers have a larger 10d stamp and from #61 it's the smaller, lighter 10d cover stamp.

Brave and the Bold #28 was the first appearance of the Justice League of America and was the first time in the Silver Age, the 1960s, that a super-team got together. This event heavily influenced the creation of the Marvel Universe of characters with Fantastic Four #1 being published eighteen months later in Nov 1961. Brave and the Bold #28 is being recognised as a very significant key issue and arguably the most important of the Silver Age, perhaps eclipsing the traditional importance status of Showcase #4.

Other favourites/important issues are #34, the first try-out for Hawkman, #59 the first of the regular Batman team-ups and #79, the first of the classic Neal Adams artwork run.