*DC: From the Midas collection this week, two early Batman issues from 1943/44. The Joker is on the loose!
PICTURED: BATMAN
#19 VG- £450 A classic issue and a joy for Dick Sprang fans, as he illustrates not just the cover, but all four stories as well. The inventive cover scene has Robin mixing up a batch of chemicals, in the fumes from which we see the story titles displayed. Batman Makes A Deadline is a tough thriller focusing on a crime reporter; Atlantis Goes To War involves a Nazi submarine base hidden in lost Atlantis (!); The Case Of The Timid Lion has someone using the Joker’s calling card to perpetrate jokes and robberies, which doesn’t amuse the Joker, nor Batman & Robin; and in Collector of Millionaires, Bruce Wayne is kidnapped and replaced by a lookalike in a dastardly plot. Four very different but equally absorbing stories. A solid copy with a moderate spine roll. Nice cover scene with some small tears bottom edge, sealed on the inside. There are a couple of long diagonal creases from top centre across to upper right edge; these are quite hard, but barely break colour. Vertical reading creases at spine break colour. Staples are okay, a little rusty but firm. Good supple page quality, white to off-white. 
#24 FA £100 SOLD An almost all Dick Sprang issue, on all three Batman stories, with Jerry Robinson on an Alfred short. Stories by Joe Samachson & Don C Cameron. Batman and Robin are sent back to ancient Rome (as you are). Bruce Wayne pretends to juggle the books to lure out a clever gang. Alfred attends a police line-up. Batman & Robin and encounter Tweedledum and Tweedledee. This is a low grade copy with a ragged spine, very worn with many tears and holes, narrowly holding on to the rest of the comic by the lower staple at the rear cover only. Chips are out at all four corners. The cover image is pretty good though, apart from small, faint graffiti above Robin’s head. Staples, apart from being virtually detached at spine, hold the comic together firmly at centrefold. Back cover has a couple of chips out, and the corner (margin only) is torn off one of the internal pages. Not great, but complete and readable.