*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: One of the myriad ‘alternative’ comics publishers of the 1940 s was Columbia, which ran the anthology Big Shot Comics for more than 100 issues from 1940 onwards. Like many such titles, Big Shot started as a collection of newspaper strip reprints – prominent among them ‘Joe Palooka’ and ‘Dixie Dugan’, which stayed with the full run – but it also augmented its content with new series created for the title. Three such were the delightful everyman-superhero pastiche ‘Sparky Watts’, from the wonderfully deranged mind of Boody Rogers, the stylish costumed adventurer ‘Skyman’, illustrated by Ogden Whitney and ‘Tony Trent, aka the Face’, the tale of a young man who dons a mysterious mask, turns green, and gains amazing abilities – hm, wonder if the folks at Dark Horse Comics ever read this? We have a selection of Big Shot from 1945 to 1947 in very affordable low-mid grades, including several (as a bonus novelty) with holiday themes: New Years’ (#52), Easter (#55) and Christmas (#84), as well as the 1947 Thanksgiving issue (#83 pictured VG £17).