*Undergrounds: Something uniquely quirky this update. In 1973, Bruce Hershenson published Steve Ditko’s Avenging World, an underground comic which followed on from Ditko’s earlier Mr. A (himself an extreme version of the Question, whom Ditko created for Charlton Comics). While Mr. A had a titular hero and a narrative, while still presenting extreme and uncompromising viewpoints, Avenging World is Ditko’s excoriation of all that was wrong in the world in 1973 – and, given that the work has been subsequently reprinted many times, the challenges, whether one agrees with Ditko’s assessment of them or not, are still faced by the world today.

In 1984, Ditko, in conjunction with Robin Snyder, released a limited number of the first printings of Avenging World with Ditko’s signature. This signed copy is one of a handful such gifted to the late Martin Skidmore, via Snyder, in acknowledgment of the contributors to a Ditko feature in Martin Skidmore’s fanzine Fantasy Advertiser. This specific copy belonged to the artist/colourist Steve Whitaker, who passed away in 2008, and was recently sent to us by a member of his family. While, I emphasise, we have no physical evidence of provenance, Robin Snyder, when contacted, was gracious enough to confirm that the Ditko signature is genuine.

In our twenty-five years of trading, we have not previously encountered another signed Steve Ditko comic – in fact, he was notorious for refusing to sign comics he had worked on, when requested – so we believe this to be a rare item indeed. The condition of the comic itself is VG+  (Steve Whitaker, bless him, was not meticulous with his collection, which he used as working reference) and, while sound, shows wear at the edges, particularly at the top and bottom spine. Interior pages are clean and unmarred. We are offering this virtually unique item at £300. SORRY, THIS HAS NOW SOLD