*DC: One of the jewels in the crown of the Midas Collection this week, in the shape of Superman #4 from 1940. This is an important issue in many ways: the second mention of the Daily Planet, the 2nd and 3rd appearances of Lex Luthor (he’s in two stories) and the first issue of the series to fully feature original stories. A brief note on Luthor’s hair: here, as with his first appearance in Action #23, Luthor has red hair; for his 4th (issue #5), it had turned grey; on his 5th appearance he had become the bald baddie we know today, having previously been temporarily bald as a teenager. The bald guy on the cover of #4 (by Joe Shuster) is NOT Luthor. Four Superman stories: two tussles with Luthor, a plot where sinister forces attempt to disrupt national industries and a story involving racketeers and the truck drivers’ union. All stories by Jerry Siegel, art by Joe Shuster and Paul Cassidy.
A very decent copy of this example from the dawn of comics. Good cover colour and no pen, pencil or printed markings. There is a very narrow and minor water stain on the lower part of the spine, plus a lower spine split of about 5-6 cm, with an upper split of about 3 cm. Staples are good, but a little rusty on the exterior spine. The centrefold is detached from the staples. Pages are nice, supple and off-white, with a narrow band of foxing/staining at the centrefold bottom (margins only). High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: SUPERMAN #4 VG £2,750

*DC: We don’t see these early issues of Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane (to give it its full title) too often over here, so we’re delighted to present these Bute Collection copies of #6-10 from 1959, before UK distribution. A lovely mix of humour and adventure, this series, along with Jimmy Olsen, has a unique place in comics’ history. Lois certainly gets into some scrapes!
IN THIS UPDATE: LOIS LANE
#6 FA+ £21.50 Lots of cover scuffing; some water damage
#7 GD- £30 Subscription and reading creases; previous owner’s name stamped twice on cover. 
#8 GD £29 Heavy reading creases at spine. 
#9 VG+ £65 (PICTURED) Nice clean copy with great reflectivity and only minor reading crease at spine. 
#10 FA/GD £22 Baby Lois Lane. Cover off staples. 

*DC: Another diverse selection of odds and ends in this week’s Grab Bag, as follows:
ACTION COMICS #302 VG p £14.75
AQUAMAN #12 FA p £4.25 Water damage
ATOM #18 GD p £5.25 Small label removal scuff over Comics Code Box
BLACKHAWK #191 GD+ p £3.75 Lady Blackhawk; off top staple
STRANGE ADVENTURES #222 VG p £6 New Adam Strange story
TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #89 FA p £2.50 Rusty staples

*Marvel: One of Marvel’s long-running and more beloved villains, Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man, premiered in Journey Into Mystery (with Thor) #114, with his ability to absorb and replicate the properties of any person, object or substance causing quite a headache for our favourite Thunder God! Despite his surly mien, many folks feel that Crusher Creel is, to quote the Shangri-Las, ‘Good-bad, but not evil‘, and he has quite the fan-base, especially in latter decades since he married Titania. This mid-grade copy is pence stamped, has nice colours with some reflectivity. Structurally sound with good staples and spine and nice off-white pages. Minor edge wear, with a 4 cm horizontal crease at the base of the spine which breaks colour. 
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (WITH THOR) #114 VG+ p £65 

*Marvel: Both illustrated by comic book greats, we present two classic issues of Sub-Mariner from Namor’s Silver/Bronze Age run.
PICTURED: SUB-MARINER
#8 VG £45 By Roy Thomas and John Buscema. A classic black background backdrop cover with Namor and the Thing. The story includes a Golden Age flashback featuring Subby’s lost love Betty Dean, and her poignant re-appearance in the present. A reasonable copy with the black cover only disturbed by narrow colour-breaking reading creases along the spin e and a small spot of reds ink on Namor’s knee. Tight, firm staples and supple white to off-white pages. 
#57 FN+ p £25 Pence printed. By Bill Everett, Sub-Mariner’s creator, who wrote and drew this one great masterpiece before his death, which co-starred another pre-Marvel great he was associated with, Venus the Goddess of Love, whom he had portrayed in the now highly sought after Atlas horror issues of her own title. The joy of seeing them paired up in this Everett written and drawn story provides an apt legacy for this comic book great. A lovely glossy copy with good staples and near white pages; just minor edge and spine wear.  

*EC: This is the 5th printing of the Complete Old Testament Edition of Picture Stories from the Bible, published by EC and DC in the 1940s. 232 colour pages. All the big hitters are here: Adam & Eve, Noah, Moses, Samson, David, Jonah and many more. The entire Old Testament, ‘told chronologically for the first time in full color continuity’. A bit of a wreck, actually, with clumsily taped spine loads of creases, page edge tears and some brittleness. Amazingly, still holding together although one story page (two sides) is missing, and the final page has lots of chips out. To be honest, we wouldn’t be selling this ordinarily, except that it’s rare – and so thick!
PICTURED: PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE – COMPLETE OLD TESTAMENT EDITION PR/INCOMPLETE £12   

*Miscellaneous 1960 Onwards: In the 1980s and 1990s, new universes were quite commonplace (Valiant, Ultraverse, Defiant etc), but back in 1975 a whole new comic group launch competing with DC & Marvel was quite a bold and innovative move. Sadly, this project helmed by Marvel’s founder Martin Goodman was doomed to failure, and none of the 28 comic and magazine titles lasted more than 4 issues, despite having stellar names involved. So a complete run of Tales Of Evil is just issues #1-3, and we’ll never find out what became of the two star characters, the alliterative Bog Beast and Man-Monster. Issue #1 is VG, #2 FN/VF and #3 VF. 
IN THIS UPDATE: COMPLETE SET OF TALES OF EVIL #1-3 £25; #1 PICTURED

*Alan Class Reprints: We have just two of these remarkable artefacts remaining in stock, both high end collectables featuring the debuts of Iron Man & Loki as featured in our catalogue. Under instruction from Alan Class, we are now inviting offers for these. This is not a procedure we normally adopt, but as these belong to Alan Class, we are happy to abide with his wishes. Make an offer for either or both to us by email, and we’ll either accept, reject or make a counter offer. Please remember that these are only available for shipping to addresses in England, Scotland or Wales. Full details in our catalogue. 
SINISTER TALES #23 Comic and Plate Set £2,000 Make Us An Offer!
*Comic VG. Vibrant colour, totally unmarked except for tiny monogram above logo. 3 cm spine split to base of front cover. Crisp pages; virtually no creasing or glue puckering. Reprints 1st appearance and origin of Iron Man from Tales Of Suspense #39, plus Atlas, pre-hero Marvel, Charlton (1 Ditko). High resolution images of the comic are available on request.
*Colour cover plates: 3. Among the best of all the plates we’ve seen in terms of definition and still imbued with the colour inks used in the printing process.
*Signed certificate of authenticity
*Presentation case
*Extra: High quality glossy colour photo of Alan Class with the comic and plates.
*Optional bonus: At no extra charge, Alan Class will sign (and dedicate if required) the comic and/or photo for the buyer. 

SUSPENSE #29 Comic and Plate Set £1,000 Make Us An Offer! 
*Comic FN+ Reprints 3rd Thor story and cover (both by Kirby) from Journey Into Mystery #85, 1st Loki, 1st Baldur, 1st Heimdall, 1st Asgard, 1st cameo Odin.    
*Colour cover plates:  4
*Signed certificate of authenticity
*Presentation case
*Optional bonus:  At no extra charge, Alan Class will sign (and dedicate if required) the comic for the buyer.

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for this books category, with an image for each book. Frederik Pohl was a writer with a career spanning 75 years, a novelist, short story writer, collaborator, editor and fan. He was heavily involved with the science fiction genre throughout the 20th Century and beyond. He won very many awards, including several Hugos and Nebulas. Our first Pohl update concentrates on his work on novels, short stories and editing. We’ll take a look at his collaborative work in Part 2, coming soon. Condition notes and further information, as always, will be found in our catalogue. 
PICTURED: ALL BY FREDERIK POHL
THE ABOMINABLE EARTHMAN Ballantine 1963 1st US PB VG £5 Short stories
THE DAY THE MARTIANS CAME Grafton 1990 1st UK PB GD £3
DAY MILLION Pan 1973 1st UK PB GD £4 Short stories
DIGITS AND DASTARDS Corgi 1971 UK PB GD £3 Six short stories and two ‘experiments with digits’
DRUNKARD’S WALK Penguin 1966 1st UK PB VG 4
HOMEGOING Gollancz 1991 1st UK PB GD/VG £4
THE MAN WHO ATE THE WORLD Ballantine 1960 1st US PB GD/VG £4 Five mostly long stories
SLAVE SHIP Four Square 1967 UK PB GD £4
SLAVE SHIP Four Square 1963 1st UK PB GD/VG £5 
(Ed) THE EIGHTH GALAXY READER Pan 1968 UK PB GD £4 Anthology

We’re taking a short break next week, after filling orders received up to 4 pm today (30th May) and posting them next Wednesday (3rd June). There will not be a Newsletter nor stock updates next Saturday, but they will be back on 13th June. After this coming Sunday 31st May, we’ll next be filling orders on 14th June. You may of course continue to place orders at any time; we will acknowledge them and reserve items for you wherever possible. 

If you have withdrawal symptoms while we’re on a break, why not take a browse through our catalogue for comics and/or for books? There’s tens of thousands of goodies there just ready and waiting for you!

*DC: Some more Golden Age treasures from the Midas Collection. Three consecutive issues of Batman, all in reasonable or better condition from 1946.
PICTURED: BATMAN
#34 VG/FN £400 A motor racing story, the return of the overly talkative Ally Babble (‘Ally Babble and the Four Tea Leaves’), an Alfred short and a story where Batman tests Robin’s crook-hunting abilities, with cameos by the Joker and the Penguin. Stories by Bill Finger, art by Dick Sprang (inc cover) & Jerry Robinson. A nice copy with bright colours; just one or two small grubby marks on cover. Firm, tight staples (set in slightly from the spine), square corners, supple off-white to cream pages, only very minor edge wear. 
#35 GD/VG £300 Lead Catwoman story where Selina decides on a daring plan: to prove she has the nine lives of a cat and cannot be killed. This is the story where Catwoman adopts the classic purple and green costume with mask instead of Cat’s head. Also, Batman and Robin are challenged to a game of “Touch Hunt” on famed Dinosaur Island (the mechanical dinosaur later ends up in the Bat-Cave’s trophy room) and Dick is invited to write a comic strip. Art by Dick Sprang (inc cover), Bob Kane & Paul Cooper; stories by Bill Finger. Not a bad copy with good cover colours. Wear at all edges with some chipping at right edge. Good tight staples and off-white pages. Horizontal tear around central spine without loss. 
#36 FN- £385 The Penguin opens a restaurant as a new con trick. A famed movie stand-in uses his skills to lead a life of crime. Plus an adventure in King Arthur’s Court and an Alfred short. Art by Paul Cooper and Jerry Robinson, cover by Dick Sprang, stiories by Bill Finger, Al Schwartz & Don C Cameron. A nice copy with bright colours and no markings. Minimal wear, but very slight spine roll. Square corners, firm staples and supple white to off-white pages. 

*Marvel: During the lean years of the late 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 by Lee & Ditko, taking over the numbering of Amazing Adventures from #7 and rebranding as ‘The Magazine That Respects Your Intelligence!’. Wall-to-wall Ditko in these issues. A brace of them freshly available, preserved in CGC plastic. Both present very well. 
PICTURED: AMAZING ADULT FANTASY
#10 CGC 4.0 VG p £90 Unrestored blue label, case perfect, CGC Ref: 4563037002 Pence printed. Cream to off-white pages
#11 CGC 4.0 VG p £90 Unrestored blue label, case perfect, CGC Ref: 4563037001 Pence printed. Off-white pages

*Marvel: The Black Knight has a long and distinguished history at Marvel. Originally, a heroic knight at the court of King Arthur in the Atlas series of the 1950s, the name was revived in the Silver Age, first as the villainous foe of Giant-Man, and later as the new Black Knight (Dane Whitman) in the Avengers and elsewhere in the Marvel Universe (both US & UK). Shortly after Dane Whitman’s debut in Avengers, a Black Knight solo adventure appeared in the pages of Marvel Super-Heroes, which delved more into the origins of the character, written by Roy Thomas with moody and atmospheric pencils by Howard Purcell. Also in this giant volume, golden age reprints of the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and the All-Winners Squad. This is a lovely clean copy with gloss and vibrant colours, an unmarked cover (albeit pence-stamped), solid firm squarebound spine, great staples and supple off-white pages. Just very minor spine, edge and handling wear, but a beautiful example. 
PICTURED: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #17 FN+ p £50 SOLD

*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: Some really obscure funny girl comics dating from the late 40s/early 50s from the Bute Collection this week. I don’t think we’ve ever had an issue of one of these through our hands before. 
PICTURED: 
BOOTS & HER BUDDIES #5 (#1) FN- £110 Published by Standard, the series starts at #5, as so many of theirs did. Humour and drama with the titular good girl and her chums. A lovely superior copy with just a colour-breaking crease across the bottom right corner lowering the grade.
ELLA CINDERS #5 GD/VG £13 Humour from newspaper syndication, with the title character based on Cinderella. Not a bad copy, but small upper spine split and wear along top edge. 
MAZIE #1 FA/GD £14 ‘Have fun with Mazie Dean, the School Queen.’ Digest-sized Archie-alike from Nationwide. Originally, only 5 cents. Spine splits, front cover off front staples, hanging on at the back. 
TAFFY #7 GD/VG £26 Teenage and juvenile fun with the titular character and assorted hangers-on. Published by Orbit. A solid copy with edge and handling wear; subscription crease. 

*Girls’ Comics: It’s been many years since we last had any issues of Lucky Charm for sale, and demand for these ‘done-in-one’ classic 64-page reprints from D C Thomson girls’ titles seems stronger than ever, and this and rarity has driven prices upward. We are ‘lucky’ enough to have acquired issues #2 and #3 of these magazine format specials, as detailed below.
PICTURED: LUCKY CHARM
#2 VG £60 Sandra Of The Castle Ballet. Nice clean, bright copy with strong colours and structurally sound. Some creasing and handling wear at spine, but mostly on back cover. 
#3 VG £60 Balloon Of Doom. Nice clean, bright copy with strong colours and structurally sound. Minor handling wear, mostly at spine, with two short creases across front cover right corners. 

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Often compared to her contemporary James Bond, we have always found Modesty Blaise to be superior! Starring in Peter O’Donnell’s superbly crafted thrillers, Modesty is the former crime queen turned secret operative (often for the UK Gov), along with her partner Willie Garvin. They first appeared in the Evening Standard newspaper strip, and O’Donnell went on to write 11 novels and 2 short story collections (there were also two films: the first from the 1960s with Monica Vitti, Dirk Bogarde and Terence Stamp, which, while having a high camp quotient, was nothing like the characters; the second, produced by Quentin Tarantino (himself a big fan) told of Modesty’s origins and was much truer to O’Donnell’s vision). Three Modesty Blaise novels and one short story collection new in this week, in great-looking paperback editions from Souvenir Press, including the first (Modesty Blaise). If you haven’t tried Modesty, she really is the best policy!
PICTURED: MODESTY BLAISE BY PETER O’DONNELL ALL SOLD
DEAD MAN’S HANDLE Souvenir 2007 UK PB VG £10
MODESTY BLAISE Souvenir 2006 UK PB VG £10
PIECES OF MODESTY Souvenir 2019 UK PB VG £10 Short stories
A TASTE FOR DEATH Souvenir 2000s UK PB VG/FN £10

*DC: A splendid issue of Superman from the Midas Collection this week, with a great Toyman cover by Wayne Boring as Superman is menaced by the Toyman’s toy soldiers (cf General Jumbo in the Beano). Two great stories in addition to the Toyman tale, featuring premature obituaries that come true and a time travel story where Clark and Lois save Shakespeare’s life and later on, Superman helps the Bard write Macbeth (as you do). Is this a babootch I see before me? Graded as 3.0 GD/VG by CBCS, unrestored, case perfect. Off white to light tan pages. CBCS Ref: 17-244BEBC-050. 
PICTURED: SUPERMAN #44 CBCS 3.0 GD/VG £200 SOLD

*Marvel: The earliest appearances of Kraven the Hunter in Amazing Spider-man, including his debut in #15.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 
#15 VG+ p £600 1st Kraven the Hunter (plus the Chameleon). A nice glossy mid-grade copy, pence printed. Vivid colours and no cover markings. There is a spidery (no pun intended) reading crease along the top half of the spine, breaking colour and tanning around the inside cover edges, but no brittleness. Small margin tear without loss at centrefold. Staples are tight and firm, corners are almost square. Pages are supple, off-white to cream with slight narrow tanning at edges in margins. A very presentable copy. High resolution images are available on request. 
#34 FA/GD p £33 ‘The Thrill Of The Hunt!’ Pence printed. A worn and tired copy with colour-breaking creases, slightly pulled staples, and tanning around the inside cover edges (not brittle). Pages are okay, off-white to cream with slight narrow tanning at edges in margins.
#47 VG+ p £48 ‘In The Hands Of The Hunter!’ Pence printed. Features Mary Jane and Gwen Go-Go dancing. A bright copy with good colours and no cover markings. One of those copies stapled off the spine so that a little bit of the cover is ‘around the back’. Square corners, tight staples. Supple off-white pages with just a very slight tan to the inside cover edges. 

*Marvel: Six fine issues of the Fantastic Four this week, featuring sundry monsters, various internal conflicts, the Mole Man, Medusa, the Frightful Four including the debut of Thundra and a lot more. All pence printed. 
IN THIS UPDATE: FANTASTIC FOUR ALL SOLD
#124 FN- p £8.25
#126 VG+ p £8.50
#127 FN/VF p £15.50
#128 VG+ p £14.75 Includes 4 glossy page inserts: friends and foes pin-ups
#129 VG p £16.25 1st Thundra
#130 VF- p £19.75 (PICTURED) Steranko cover

*EC: For my money, the Gemstone EC reprints of the early 1990s represent the best available reprint editions of the classic EC line. These stories have been reprinted countless times in various formats and paper qualities, but I think these versions are the best for ease of reading, colour reproduction and authentic paper quality, giving the closest experience to reading the originals, at, of course, a fraction of the cost. Gemstone got it right, reprinting everything in the correct format and running order. Their Annuals are a convenient way to get and enjoy them, with even the covers reproduced inside on the right quality stock. Crime SuspenStories is EC’s hybrid Crime/Horror pre-code horror title, and I shouldn’t have to tell you how EC set the standard for these genres and featured the very best artists working in comics at the time. This complete set of all six Annuals (all in lovely VF/NM virtually as new condition) features all 27 issues of Crime SuspenStories, including the famous hanging cover and axe/decapitated head cover and many more of that ilk. (NB we have now moved our EC reprint section from Modern Reprints into this category, to keep all our EC material under one roof, so to speak.)  
IN THIS UPDATE:
COMPLETE SET OF ALL 6 CRIME SUSPENSTORIES ANNUALS VF/NM £120; #5 PICTURED SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: The Bute Collection delivers more thrills and chills this week. Harvey’s Black Cat started out in 1946 as a super-heroine comic, before later becoming Black Cat Western, then Black Cat Mystery, ending its life in the early 60s with Giant reprints of the original titular character. Here we are concerned with the pre-code horror phase. This series featured some of the most infamous covers of the genre and the content was full of gore, graphic violence and supernatural themes. Issue #46 from 1953 features a pretty gruesome mad scientist/disembodied head in a flask cover by Lee Elias. Whilst not all the creative credits are known for the contents, we can confirm that artists include Manny Stallman, Howard Nostrand and Bob Powell (among others). This is a pretty rough copy, with the covers detached and separated and with several chips missing at the spine. There’s also a large spine split throughout all the pages, although the staples hold the body of the comic together. The cover is only affected at the spine and edges, and the lurid cover colours are strong. Nevertheless, really a reading copy or placemarker only in this state.
PICTURED: BLACK CAT MYSTERY #46 PR £50 SOLD

*Pulp Fiction: In 1950, a companion title to New Worlds, Science Fantasy, was launched, but when the publisher of both, Nova, went out of business in 1964, the reins were taken up by Roberts & Vintner, who published both magazines in paperback book format. Science Fantasy retained a more traditional approach to science fiction than its companion to some extent, but both titles were instrumental in developing the careers of Moorcock, Brian Aldiss, J G Ballard and Keith Roberts, among many others from both sides of the Atlantic. Science Fantasy later rebranded as Impulse/SF Impulse, with Harry Harrison as the nominal editor, Keith Roberts in actuality. We have ten issues new in from the Roberts & Vintner/Compact period of Science Fantasy edited by Kyril Bonfiglioli, a wonderful mixture of the long and short story, by big names and unknowns alike, with much to recommend them. Many excellent covers by Keith Roberts, 
PICTURED: SCIENCE FANTASY EDITED BY KYRIL BONFIGLIOLI
65 JUNE/JULY 1964 VG £6 Brian Aldiss, Kenneth Bulmer, many others
66 JULY/AUGUST 1964 VG/FN £7 Kenneth Bulmer, John Rackham, Daphne Castell, many others.
67 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1964 GD/VG £5 Thomas Burnett Swann, Keith Roberts, Rudyard Kipling, Johnny Byrne, many others.
68 DECEMBER 1964/JANUARY 1965 VG £6 Thomas Burnett Swann, John Rackham, Harry Harrison, Keith Roberts, Charles Platt and others.
69 JANUARY/FEBRURAY 1965 VG/FN £7 Langdon Jones, Johnny Byrne, Keith Roberts, Thomas Burnett Swann, many others.
70 MARCH 1965 VG £6 Harry Harrison, John Rackham, Keith Roberts, many others.
71 APRIL 1965 VG £6 Brian Aldiss, Keith Roberts, many others.
74 JULY 1965 GD/VG £5 Keith Roberts, Johnny Byrne and others. 
75 AUGUST 1965 GD/VG £5 Keith Roberts, John Rackham, many others.
80 JANUARY 1966 VG £6 John Rackham, E C Tubb, Daphne Castell, Harry Harrison and others. 

Both copies of the Hardcover Supergirl Archives reprinting the earilest Supergirl stories. 
Both copies are in VF condition. 
Both for £25 

A bumper package of books and magazines focusing on the King. 
COMPLETE JACK KIRBY 
Vol 1 NM 
Vol 2 VF 
JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST
NM  
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR
18 NM 
19 VF
21 VF 
25 VF 
28 NM
29 NM
JACK KIRBY QUARTERLY
10 VF 
11 FN 
15 VF
JACK KIRBY TREASURY 
Vol 2 NM 
All 13 for £45 SOLD

Lot of 22 issues of the UK version of Mad between #41 and #96 from the 1960s. All in decent condition GD-FN.
All 22 for £30 SOLD