*DC: The debut of a major Batman villain from the Midas Collection this week. Although he was known as Mr Zero on his debut in 1959, he was re-named Mr Freeze for the Batman TV show in 1966 and the name changed in the comics thereafter. Mr Freeze has a long and infamous career in the DCU and portrayed as a tragic super-villain whose main motivation was preserving his wife’s life. He was created by Dave Wood (writer) and Sheldon Moldoff and Bob Kane (artists). Batman #121 features an evocative cover featuring Mr Zero by Curt Swan. Alongside the Mr Zero debut and origin story, there are two more Batman thrillers by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff: Batman & Robin discover a criminal’s dead body in the Bat Cave, and a railway story featuring circus and prison trains. Not a bad copy here, although there are some flaws, which keep it relatively affordable for a major key issue. The cover has bright colours with a white background. Minor handling and edge wear with one or two small nicks. Upper 3.5 cm spine split. Small creases break colour over the second ‘A’ in the logo and across the bottom right cover corner. A small figure ’10’ in pencil has been written in the white background above Mr Zero’s head, and there is a 1 cm circular white stain over the first ‘A’ in the logo. Staples are firm and the pages are a clean off-white. Overall, presents very well. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: BATMAN #121 GD+ £1,200

*DC: Edited in the 1950s by Whitney Ellsworth, My Greatest Adventure was one of a series of science fiction/weird mystery adventure titles from DC, which presented a consistent standard of story and art. The editorial reins passed to Jack Schiff with the issues in this update from 1959/60. 
IN THIS UPDATE: MY GREATEST ADVENTURE
#27 GD £14.75 (PICTURED) Loose centrefolds SOLD
#28 FA £11.25 Jack Kirby art; loose pages SOLD
#29 FA £7.75 SOLD
#30 GD+ £18.50 SOLD
#32 GD/VG £18.25 SOLD
#41 VG p £20.50 

*Marvel: Okay, so 2009 is quite a way too modern for us normally, but we’ll make an exception for Amazing Spider-Man #601, with its stunning and much-prized Mary Jane cover by fan favourite artist J Scott Campbell. This is the lovely sort of high grade you would expect from an issue from this time, flat and glossy with square corners and white, glossy pages. There is just one tiny stress mark at centre spine preventing a grade that includes the word ‘mint’. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #601 VF+ £125

*Harvey: During the 1960s, probably as a reaction to the Marvel Age of Comics, Harvey produced a series of short run super-hero titles, featuring characters that may by now be forgotten, but which had distinction and charm, were often by famous creators and were more than just a bit on the wacky side. The Giant-Sized Double-Dare Adventures headlined B(ee)-Man, and featured the Glowing Gladiator (art by Bob Powell), Magicmaster (with art by Jack Sparling and scripts by that famous magician Jim Steranko), plus a Jack Kirby sci-fi short. Fighting American (also Giant-Size) featured many stories of the patriotic Golden Age hero with his sidekick Speedboy, by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Spyman, the super-hero spy, featured scripts and a limited amount of art by Jim Steranko in #1 (his first pro-art), who was probably a spy when he wasn’t being a magician. Unearthly Spectaculars (Giant-Size) headlined Jack Q Frost by Sparling and and Gil Kane, Clawfang the Barbarian by Wally Wood and Al Williamson, Tiger Boy by Gil Kane, Miracles Inc by Wally Wood, Three Rocketeers by Mike Sekowsky and Earthman by Wally Wood. We expect demand for these to be, um, wacky… 
PICTURED: ALL SOLD
DOUBLE-DARE ADVENTURES #1 VG+ £15 Small book shop stamp
FIGHTING AMERICAN #1 VG £12.50 Small book shop stamp
SPYMAN
#1 VG £40
#3 VG £20
UNEARTHLY SPECTACULARS #2 GD/VG £10

*Alan Class Reprints: Long-time visitors to our site will remember that we’ve been selling the Printing Plates from Alan Class’s Private Archive for many years. Although they ran out in 2023 (apart from two high-end key issues shown in our listings), there has always been the possibility of a few more being located with the co-operation of Alan himself. Such has now happened with two issues of Suspense, starring Daredevil and the Silver Surfer, but please note that only two plates from each set have been located. Suspense #60 has no cover colour plates, but features a wonderful Daredevil splash page plate and a further inside back cover plate for a fantasy story. Suspense #108 has two of the cover colour plates, including the main plate with most of the image. Both sets come with copies of the comics from the Alan Class Personal Archive, and a signed certificate of authenticity signed by Alan Class himself. These are packaged in a special protective presentation case. Full details follow (please remember that these sets are not available for postage to addresses outside the UK).
PICTURED: SUSPENSE BOTH SOLD
#60 £60
Comic FA with taped spine. Reprints Daredevil #8 (1st Stilt Man). Cover and lead by Wally Wood, plus Atlas, 1 Chameleon, 1 Young King Cole, 1 Target. Pre-decimal.
Internal Plates: 2 inc dynamic Daredevil splash page by Wood.
Signed certificate of authenticity
Presentation case
#108 £90
Comic VG+ Reprints Silver Surfer #10. Cover and lead by John Buscema, plus ACG. Both pre and post decimal priced. 
Colour cover plates: 2 inc main plate, good colour inks.
Signed certificate of authenticity
Presentation case

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for this books category, with an image for each book. This week, the first of many updates devoted to the work of H P Lovecraft. H P Lovecraft is now seen as a natural successor to Edgar Allan Poe, but his life followed the tragic arc typically expected of artists. The bulk of his work was originally published in pulp fiction, most notably Weird Tales, so it was usually considered not be ‘literature’. Lovecraft is most famous for his Cthulhu stories, and the literary group that gathered around him, notably Robert E Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth and E Hoffman Price all contributed to that mythos. During the 1960s Lovecraft’s work was revived and re-evaluated, becoming far more popular, and granting him cult status as a highly influential author. Two prestigious hardcover volumes to start. The Ancient Track – The Complete Poetical Works ‘does what it says on the tin’, collected in one volume for the first time. The Dunwich Horror And Others, from the legendary Arkham House, contains many of his most famous stories; prepared by S T Joshi following consultation with original manuscripts and early publications. Both in good quality dust jackets protected with removable archival film. For many books about H P Lovecraft, see our Books About Books category. The second part of our HPL re-working coming soon. 
PICTURED: BY H P LOVECRAFT
THE ANCIENT TRACK – THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS Night Shade Books 2001 1st US Hardcover, 2nd printing VF £45 With DJ VF
THE DUNWICH HORROR AND OTHERS Arkham House 1984 11th US HC FN £40 With DJ VF

*DC: From the Bute Collection this week, an early Detective Comic, #46 from 1940. Headlining Batman, of course, with Robin the Boy Wonder, this issue also features Spy, Crimson Avenger, Speed Saunders, Larry Steele, Steve Malone, Cliff Crosby and Slam Bradley. A dynamic Batman cover by Bob Kane is followed by the Batman lead (Professor Strange’s Fear Dust), written by Bill Finger, with art by Kane, Jerry Robinson and George Roussos. This was Hugo Strange’s third Golden Age clash with the Caped Crusader, and although he apparently falls off a cliff to his apparent death, you and I know that he would return time after time as one of Batman’s most enduring foes. This is a miscut copy, presumably a victim of the production line, cut at an angle off-centre as can be seen in the scans below. Nevertheless it has bright colours and nice off-white pages. There are a few internal page tears restricted to the margins. There are small splits to top and bottom spine; the lower staple is off and the upper is reinforced by small pieces of tape on the inside covers. It presents reasonably well despite all that, with a striking cover image (and what a classic logo!). High resolution images are available on request.   
PICTURED: DETECTIVE COMICS #46 GD £900

*DC: In the wake of the Justice League/Justice Society crossovers, interest was revived in the 1940s heroes of the JSA, and one of several revivals was the Spectre, a literal ghost who wandered the Earth, battling evil with mighty supernatural abilities. Brought back for solo try-outs in Showcase #60, by the superb team of Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, the Ghostly Guardian’s powers were elevated to almost godlike levels, to the point where the writer must have strained to come up with credible opposition for him – but the epic clashes between mystical and demonic forces pioneered ‘cosmic’ themes in comics. The Spectre swiftly graduated to his own title in 1967, begun by Fox and Anderson, before Neal Adams took over on art for issues #2-5. Accomplished art was a prime feature for this series and in this update we have the complete ten issues available as a set. A rare chance to get hold of a complete Silver Age series of a significant DC character. 
IN THIS UPDATE: THE SPECTRE COMPLETE SERIES #1-10 Av VG/VG+ £145 SOLD
#1 VG (PICTURED)
#2 VG+
#3 VG+
#4 VG+
#5 FN
#6 VG
#7 GD/VG
#8 VG+
#9 GD-
#10 VG-

*Marvel: During the lean years of the mid-1950s to early 1960s, the company that would become Marvel ran a moderately successful sci-fi/suspense line built around two tropes: one, the famous ‘Big Panty Monsters’ by Lee & Kirby lauded in many previous updates, and the other, quieter, but even more chilling, twist-ending tales reminiscent of TV shows such as ‘The Outer Limits’ and ‘The Twilight Zone’. The latter proved so popular that the fledgling Marvel devoted an entire series just to them, Amazing Adult Fantasy, taking over the numbering of Amazing Adventures from #7 and rebranding as ‘The Magazine That Respects Your Intelligence!’. Lovely though they were, it didn’t catch the mass market’s eye, and the series finished with #14 (with #15, of course, it became simply ‘Amazing Fantasy’ and featured an upstart hero called Spider-Man, of whom you may have heard). These low-circulation, high-quality issues are now greatly in demand, and we have two of them newly listed.
PICTURED: AMAZING ADULT FANTASY
#8 GD- £50 SOLD A worn copy with book shop stamps, edge wear, corner creases breaking colour and corner blunting. Staples are firm and tight; pages are decent, off-white to cream. 
#12 GD/VG p £80 SOLD Pence printed. Some edge wear but mostly unmarked. A 7 cm crease across bottom right cover breaks colour, and there is a small discoloured patch over the word ‘intelligence’ in the bottom edge blurb. But a sound copy with tight, firm staples and supple off-white pages. 

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: An unusual attempt at a villainous protagonist was the Yellow Claw, an Oriental scientist whose relentless attempts to conquer the world were thwarted by the vigilance of FBI Agent Jimmy Woo – the company’s first Asian-American hero, historians please note. Resemblance to Sax Rohmer’s legendary Doctor Fu Manchu is entirely coincidental, ahem ahem. In this fourth and final issue of the Claw’s series from 1957, he launches four separate attacks upon democracy: the Living Shadows, solidified thought-projections, the unnerving bird-human hybrids the Skreemies, and his most fiendish plot yet – brainwashing by television! All four tales are illustrated by Jack Kirby and John Severin (behind a solo Sev cover), and the combination of the two artists gives a compelling air of palpable menace, highly appropriate to the narrative. The Yellow Claw returned to the Marvel Universe in the 1960s (sort of) as a nemesis of SHIELD and in the 1970s as an antagonist of Captain America, and Jimmy Woo became one of the Agents of SHIELD (and then Atlas), so both hero and villain have a lengthy pedigree. This is a reasonable copy of #4 with some cover wear including corner blunting, edge wear and a couple of cover creases which break colour but do not interfere with the cover image; small nick out of bottom centre cover and small tear without loss to right edge. Staples are firm and pages are a decent white to off-white.
PICTURED: YELLOW CLAW #4 GD/VG £240 

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: Three heroes with military overtones in UK reprints from the American originals this week. Captain Midnight appeared in two series in the 1950s and 1960s from Miller, having appeared in Dell and Fawcett originals after originating in US radio and TV. He was an aviator, super-hero and (eventually) spaceman. Captain Video was a science fiction hero from an American TV series starting in 1949 and the US original comic series from Fawcett. Commander Battle (& His Atomic Sub) was just one Miller issue from the ACG original; it always makes me think of those atomic submarines American kids could send off for from the ads on the back of comic books and in which two children could fit…
IN THIS UPDATE:
CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT 
(1st series)
#42 VG/FN £11
(2nd series)
#5 GD £10 Off staples
#10 GD/VG £12 (PICTURED)
CAPTAIN VIDEO
#2 VG £9 (PICTURED) Book shop stamp. 
#5 VG £9
COMMANDER BATTLE AND HIS ATOMIC SUB
#1 VG £12 (PICTURED) 

Check out our new ‘About Us’ page, which has now replaced our former Home page. It tells you about our background and what we provide, as well as featuring a handful of our star items in stock, in what will become a changing roster. 

*DC: Also from the Midas Collection this week, issue #51 of Wonder Woman from 1952, with a novel Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor cover by Irwin Hasen. Three stories written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Harry Peter. The Daily Globe runs a contest to discover Wonder Woman’s secret identity, an Amazon demands the right to go to Man’s World and fight crime like Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman volunteers to go to nursing school to convince young girls it’s a glamorous occupation. Not a bad copy, with slight spine roll, cover almost off lower staple, and a small doodle by the logo. Bright cover colours and decent off-white pages. Small splits at both ends of spine. Small chips and nicks out back cover with small chip out right edge centre. Colour breaking crease across Wonder Woman’s cleavage. 
PICTURED: WONDER WOMAN #51 GD+ £100

*Marvel: Following his return to active service in Avengers #4, Captain America became a companion feature of Iron Man in Tales of Suspense. After the division of the Marvel double-feature books in 1968, when distribution embargoes were slackened, Cap gained his own series again, though it retained the numbering of Tales of Suspense, premiering with #100. Featuring the talents of Lee, Kirby and Shores, this re-introduced the Sentinel of Liberty in solo action to the modern age (though between the retelling of his origins and his ongoing plotlines, he certainly had enough pals along in his first issue!). This is an okay copy; although it is not pence priced there is an ‘8c’ stamp beside Cap’s figure on the cover. The inside covers have edge tan, with what looks like water damage at outer edges, which is not too bad, although you can notice marks on the right cover edge towards the bottom. Staples are tight and firm; creamy pages. 
PICTURED: CAPTAIN AMERICA #100 GD/VG £120 SOLD

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week, five consecutive issues of the Fantastic Four, featuring the threat of the made-over Sandman, and the debuts of Blastaar, the Living Bomb-Burst, the Sentry Sinister and Ronan, the Accuser. 
IN THIS UPDATE: FANTASTIC FOUR
#61 FN+ p £35
#62 VG+ p £18.25 1st Blastaar
#63 VF p £60 (PICTURED) A superior copy with clean black background. Good staples and near white pages. Only very minimal wear at top edge. 
#64 GD+ p £14 SOLD 1st Sentry
#65 VG/FN p £60 (PICTURED) 1st Ronan the Accuser. Decent copy with nice colours; centrefold off lower staple. Near white pages. Faint crease across bottom right edge. 

*Gold Key/Whitman: Space Ghost is a superhero created by Hanna-Barbera Productions in the 1960s for TV network CBS. He was designed by Alex Toth. In his original incarnation, he was a superhero who, with his teen sidekicks, Jan and Jace, and Blip the monkey, fought supervillains in outer space. If this was ever shown in the UK at the time, I don’t remember seeing it. There was just one contemporary comic spin-off from Gold Key in 1967, with art by Dan Spiegle, which has become something of a cult collectable and is quite uncommon. This copy is very nice – tight, flat, glossy and clean, with good staples and supple white to off-white pages. Just a little corner blunting, a couple of spine stress marks and a tiny crease at base of spine breaking colour. There is a very tiny imperfection mark central front cover, partially hidden by text, but a lovely item. 
PICTURED: SPACE GHOST #1 FN- £285

*Horror 1940-1959: From the Bute Collection this week, three pre-code issues of Astonishing from Atlas, whose material in this genre was always of a consistently high standard of story and art.
PICTURED: ASTONISHING
#34 VG- £130 SOLD Cover by Maneely, interior art by Reinman, Fass and many others. Solid copy with notorious cover, small marks and edge wear, plus tiny split at top spine. Good staples and pages, very slight colour fade at lower edge of cover towards spine. 
#36 VG- £130 Cover by Burgos, interior art by Berg, Winiarski, Reinman and others. Nice solid copy with some corner blunting, good colours, staples and pages. Minor edge wear with small splits at both end of spine. 
#37 GD/VG £115 Cover by Brodsky, interior art by Andru, Everett, Ayers and others. Clean copy with short upper spine split and tiny corner of bottom left worn away, but very little loss in extreme margins. Good colours, staples and pages. Nice colours. 

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Around 1966/67, John Spencer published four series of limited lifespan, containing black and white stories of the supernatural under colour covers, several stories each issue. All material was original, with Mick Anglo at the artistic helm; some covers were repurposed from Badger Books, by the same publisher. Here is a complete set of one of those series, Strange Stories #1-5. Hey, we know it was scary ‘cos they used the words ‘unknown’, ‘supernatural’, ‘weird’ and ‘eerie’ on the covers just in case you were in any doubt. These turn up occasionally, but are not  common.
PICTURED: STRANGE STORIES Complete Set #1-5 £60 SOLD
#1 GD
#2 VG
#3 GD
#4 GD/VG
#5 FN/VF

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for this books category, with an image for each book. This week, we list authors Murray Leinster, Stanislaw Lem, Rex Dean Levie, Jack London & Frank Belknap Long. A real mixed bag of period and sci-fi themes. More details as always in our catalogue. 
PICTURED:
MURRAY LEINSTER: PLANET EXPLORER Bart 1989 1st US PB thus FN £4
STANISLAW LEM: THE CYBERIAD Orbit 1977 1st UK PB GD £8
REX DEAN LEVIE: THE INSECT WARRIORS Ace 1965 1st US PB GD £4 SOLD
JACK LONDON: THE STAR ROVER Corgi 1976 1st UK PB GD £5 
FRANK BELKNAP LONG: IT WAS THE DAY OF THE ROBOT Belmont 1963 1st US PB VG/FN £5

*DC: We celebrate the Midas Collection this week with the historic 2nd issue of Batman from 1940. Appropriately enough, this 2nd issue features the 2nd appearances of both the Joker and the Cat-Woman (sic), the latter out of costume. Dynamic cover by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson. All stories by Bill Finger, with pencils by Bob Kane and inks by Jerry Robinson and George Roussos. In the lead story, featuring a fabulous Joker splash page (see below), learning the Joker is hospitalised with wounds, the members of the Crime Syndicate make plans to rescue him to lead their mob again. But the Joker has planned a double-cross and the appearance of the Cat-Woman complicates matters. In the second story, the Dynamic Duo encounter a Jekyll & Hyde character who changes at night. The third story revolves around a mystery concerning a strange will and the fourth involves a prehistoric man brought back from Africa and a criminal circus. 
This is a reasonable copy. The cover image has well preserved colour and is unspoilt apart from a 3.5 cm tear (without loss) near the base of the spine across the wording in the bottom left corner. There is a 6.5 cm split at the top of the spine and a 2 cm split at the bottom. The cover is off at the top staple and at the bottom staple, off at the front only. The staples bind the pages together strongly. Inside covers are slightly tanned at edges only. Page quality is excellent, with bright or moody colours as appropriate and a consistent off-white. 
A rare opportunity to acquire a cornerstone of comics’ history. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: BATMAN #2 GD £4,000 SOLD

*DC: Three pairs of fan favourite 1960s humour titles from DC in this update: Angel & The Ape, Inferior Five and the Maniaks. 
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
ANGEL AND THE APE #1 VG+ p £10 (PICTURED) Loose centrefold 
ANGEL AND THE APE #2 GD £3.50
SHOWCASE #62 GD+ £10.50 (PICTURED) 1st Inferior Five; off lower staple
INFERIOR FIVE #2 GD/VG p £3.50 Book shop stamps
SHOWCASE #68 GD- p £3.50 1st Maniaks
SHOWCASE #69 GD £4 (PICTURED) Maniaks

*Marvel: Two years after Amazing Spider-Man #16, Spidey returned the ‘favour’, guest-starring in the 16th issue of Daredevil (and spilling over to #17 in a two-parter). These two issues from the Bute Collection featured the debut of John Romita art on Spider-Man, a title he would shortly inherit following the departure of Steve Ditko. 
PICTURED: DAREDEVIL BOTH SOLD
#16 VF £360 A really nice clean copy, with bright colours and good gloss. The cover is totally unmarked, the staples are tight and firm at spine and centrefold, and the supple pages are a very attractive white to off-white. There is just a suggestion of corner blunting and one or two slight marks at spine. 
#17 FN £60 A very decent clean copy, with good colours and gloss. Minor handling wear at spine and edges, with some corner blunting. Firm staples and the supple pages are a very attractive white to off-white. 

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week, five consecutive issues of the Mighty Thor by Lee & Kirby, in which the God of Thunder battles Ulik as the trolls invade Asgard, encounters the omniscient Orikal, faces Kang and his Growing Man, as well as Replicus and the Super-Skrull. All the pomp and grandeur you’d expect of this title at its finest.
IN THIS UPDATE: THOR
#138 VF+ £70 (PICTURED) SOLD
#139 VG/FN £18
#140 VF- £40 (PICTURED) SOLD
#141 FN/VF £28
#142 FN/VF £28

*Charlton: After debuting in Steve Ditko’s Blue Beetle in 1967, the Question, Ditko’s own creation, went on to star in his only Silver Age solo comic, Mysterious Suspense #1, a full length story by Ditko of his urban vigilante. It’s a great shame that Charlton cancelled their ‘Action Hero’ line at this stage, robbing us a possibly a whole universe of heroes drawn by Ditko. This is a very nice copy of the Question’s only solo outing, with vivid colour and an unspoilt cover image. There is some corner blunting and very minor wear along the right edge with faint colour-breaking marks. Tight, firm staples and supple off-white pages.  
PICTURED: MYSTERIOUS SUSPENSE #1 FN £70 SOLD

*Western: 10 issues of Marvel’s Western anthology series from 1960-1963, the dawn of the Marvel Age of Comics. Each issue features Kid Colt; the earliest three here also feature the original Two-Gun Kid. Plus a whole horde of tales from the Old West, with art by Kirby, Heck and other stars of the Marvel Bullpen. Grades are mixed, but mostly towards mid-grade. 
IN THIS UPDATE: GUNSMOKE WESTERN ALL SOLD
#59 VG+ p £23 (PICTURED)
#62 GD+ £8.25
#63 GD £6.75 Cover tear
#65 VG+ £14.75 (PICTURED)
#66 VG p £11.75
#67 VG p £11.75
#69 VG p £11.75
#70 VG p £10.25
#73 GD/VG p £7.75 Book shop stamps
#77 VG p £10.25