We’re taking a short break next week, after filling orders received up to 4 pm today (11th July) and posting them next Wednesday/Thursday (15th/16th  July). There will not be a Newsletter nor stock updates next Saturday, but they will be back on 25th July. After this coming Sunday 12th July, we’ll next be filling orders on 26th July. 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: How do you wind down after a stint splitting your time between being the Daily Planet’s star reporter and trying to discover Superman’s secret identity, or even marry him? How about if you let your hair down, throw on an animal print swimsuit and head off to the jungle to lead a leopard pack? Just one of the many scrapes Lois Lane gets into in the wealth of stories comprising these five early issues that straddle the advent of UK distribution for the title. You’ll also find her wearing a box on her head (she could run for Parliament in that get-up) and dressing as Batwoman, which is enough for Superman to jump to the conclusion that she loves Batman and intends to marry him. A whole world of wild and wacky adventures awaits you. 
IN THIS UPDATE: LOIS LANE
#11 FN- £60 (PICTURED) Nice copy with great colours and just faint creasing towards the bottom corners. Nice pages and good staples (lower off centrefold). 
#12 VG/FN £55 (PICTURED) Decent copy, some stress at staples, good colours, slight reading crease and tiny crease across bottom right corner, both breaking colour. Nice pages and good staples (lower off centrefold). 
#13 GD/VG p £26 Pence stamped. Spine a little worn with short upper split. Blunted corners with edge wear. Previous owner’s name (small) above logo. 
#14 VG- £90 (PICTURED) Lois as Batwoman cover. Faint water/scuff mark over part of logo. Good colours. Faint subscription-like crease does not really break colour. Loose centrefold. Staples and pages are good.
#15 GD/VG p £26 Three-part Super-Family of Steel story. Lower spine split to lower staple. Reading crease breaking colour. Corner blunting with edge wear. Decent staples and pages. 

*DC: In 1985, for the company’s 50th Anniversary, DC released Crisis on Infinite Earths, a 12-part series in which all the multiple parallel Earths of the DCU, long established ever since ‘Flash of Two Worlds’, faced annihilation, in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting alternate realities, and result in a more comprehensible DC Universe. Marv Wolfman and George Perez delivered a truly epic story, sending shockwaves through fandom as veteran characters perished, mostly permanently. (Well, until reality rebooted again, but in fairness that was decades later…) For all its flawed legacy (it was unevenly followed up by other creators, resulting in a ‘streamlined’ DCU that was actually more confusing, and it set the precedent for sprawling cosmic crossovers to become a tedious annual occurrence), COIE was an epochal event in the evolution of comics. Marvel’s Secret Wars may have done it first – but Crisis did it with style, expertise and a genuine air of consequence. In memory of the late, great George Perez. This is being sold as a complete set of 12, averaging VF, no low grade copies.
PICTURED: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1; COMPLETE SET #1-12 AV. VF £75 SOLD

*Marvel: We’re delighted to bring you the first complete Inhumans saga from Fantastic Four #44-47 in lower grade and very affordable copies. Hitherto, only Medusa had appeared (as part of the Frightful Four), but in #44 we learned that she was one of a hidden race, and the second member of the Inhuman Royal Family, Gorgon, turned up to play the heavy. He was swiftly followed by the rest of the family in #45: Crystal, Karnak, Triton, Lockjaw and in a last page cameo Black Bolt, who got his full debut in #46. #47 featured the debut of Black Bolt’s nasty brother Maximus. The Inhumans have intrigued and enchanted us for decades as a very established part of the Marvel Universe, and their debut story in these four issues is something rather special. (As a sidebar, the cover of #45, with its deep purple background, close-ups of our heroes and the lurking threat of the mysterious Inhumans above is a strong contender for my favourite FF cover).
IN THIS UPDATE: FANTASTIC FOUR
#44 FA/GD p £14.25 Pence printed. A Marvel Pop Art Production. Spine roll, heavy wear at spine plus creasing. Centrefold loose.
#45 GD p £65 (PICTURED) Pence printed. A Marvel Pop Art Production. Spine and edge wear/creasing with a couple of small corners off at the margins of first couple of pages, but otherwise structurally intact with great central cover image. 
#46 GD/VG p £45 (PICTURED) Pence printed. Moderate spine wear and reading creasing, faint bookshop stamp on cover. Decent pages and staples. 
#47 GD p £18.25 Pence printed. Moderate spine wear with edge and corner creasing and other handling wear. 

*Archie: Five different titles in Archie’s Silver Age super-hero renaissance in this week’s Grab Bag. 
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
THE FLY, ADVENTURES OF #24 VG+ p £8.75
THE JAGUAR, ADVENTURES OF #14 App VG+ p £5.25 Ad page out, stories OK
MIGHTY COMICS PRESENTS #42 FN £9.25
MIGHTY CRUSADERS #3 VG £7 Off lower staple
SHADOW #3 GD £4.25

*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: Billed at various times as ‘America’s Sweetheart’ and ‘The Girl Who Could Be You’ (some imagination required), Patsy Walker had a very long career in Timely/Atlas/Marvel before she later became the Avenger Hellcat. Her avenging days were far into her future at the time of these comics, when she was simply a gal out for fun, fashion and boys. Two bumper annuals for your pleasure from the Bute Collection this update. and we’ve checked — all pin-up and fashion pages are present and complete. 
PICTURED: BOTH SOLD
PATSY & HEDY ANNUAL #1 (1963) VF- £70 Patsy co-starred with her ‘frenemy’ Hedy Wolfe in this early Marvel Annual from their ongoing title. Here it is!! The magazine you demanded!! 72 fabulous pages… chock full of fun, fashions, and frankly feminine foolishness!! (Ol’ Stan could certainly turn a phrase, couldn’t he?) An outstanding copy with great colours and gloss, very firmly bound with crisp white pages. Only minor handling wear and slight age wear at bottom of spine; a gem.
PATSY WALKER’S FASHION PARADE #1 (1966) FN+ £45 Queen Size Special. More Pages! More Glamor! Over 200 heavenly hair styles! More than 250 fabulous fashions! Plus a dazzling display of beauty tips, quizzes and special bonus features! It all adds up to the greatest collection of good grooming ideas ever assembled in one magazine! And it’s all for you! A very nice sound copy with good colours and gloss, firmly bound with supple white to off-white pages. Some handling wear at the top third, with a small colour-breaking crease across the bottom right corner. 
 

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Just one new entry here this week, but a notable one. Little, Big is a celebrated and monumental fantasy by John Crowley. ‘Edgewood is a mysterious, beautiful demesne and an extraordinary house that is home to some very remarkable people. When Smoky Barnable sets off for there on his way to marry Daily Alice, he opens the way into a, literally, magic world.’ Readers with dodgy eyesight need to beware: not only does this tome weigh in at 538 pages, it also has teeny-weeny print!
PICTURED: JOHN CROWLEY: LITTLE, BIG Methuen 1983 1st UK PB thus VG/FN £15

*DC: Two issues of Superman from the Midas Collection this week of 1946/47 vintage, both graded and slabbed in plastic by CBCS. Both have droll cover scenes typical of the period. 
PICTURED: SUPERMAN
#38 CBCS 3.5 VG- £300 Unrestored. Case perfect, white to off-white pages. CBCS Ref: 17-244BEBC-047. Cover by Jack Burnley. Stories by Don C Cameron, Bill Finger, Whitney Ellsworth, art by Pete Riss. 3 Superman stories and a Lois Lane short. Luthor tries to kill Superman with an atomic bomb, plus Superman goes to Camelot in a dream (don’t we all?).
#47 CBCS 3.5 VG- £230 Unrestored. Case perfect, white to off-white pages. CBCS Ref: 17-244BEBC-051. Cover by Wayne Boring. Stories by Don C Cameron and Jerry Siegel, art by Ira Yarborough. 3 Superman stories featuring the Toyman and Susie Thompkins, the young niece of Lois Lane who played tricks on Superman. 
 

*DC: Unlike its sibling title House Of Mystery, House of Secrets started in 1956 after the Comics Code Authority came in, and thus has no pre-code issues. What it does boast is clever horror/mystery/science fiction stories by some top artists and often classic covers. These six consecutive issues date from 1960/61 in the early days of UK distribution and flaunt a dazzling array of weird monsters. They all feature the recurring characters Mark Merlin, paranormal investigator and his companion the lovely Elsa.  
IN THIS UPDATE: HOUSE OF SECRETS ALL SOLD
#35 FA/GD p £7.25
#36 GD/VG £16 Corner off back cover
#37 GD+ p £12
#38 VG- £18.50 (PICTURED) Off lower staple
#39 FA p £5
#40 FA p £5

*Marvel: One of Spidey’s earliest foes returned in Amazing Spider-Man #82 to menace the friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler anew, by Lee, Romita and Mooney. A lovely, fresh and glossy copy, pence printed, with great colours, square corners, tight staples and white pages. Only faint handling wear and minor spine stress marks prevent an even higher grade.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #82 VF p £100

*Archie: In 1959, as part of their establishment of a super-hero line for the Silver Age, Archie chose Joe Simon and Jack Kirby to update the Golden Age hero the Shield. Lancelot Strong is a cross of the Simon and Kirby Captain America and the MLJ Shield concepts. Although there are only two issues in this series, the Shield went on to be a cornerstone of the Archie/Mighty Comics super-hero universe. Issue #1 is wall-to-wall Simon & Kirby inc. cover and a short Fly bonus; issue #2 has rather less Kirby (cover and one story), but Joe Simon is joined by others such as Al Williamson & George Tuska. Both issues offered here as a set.
PICTURED: THE DOUBLE LIFE OF PRIVATE STRONG, COMPLETE SET OF BOTH ISSUES £65 #1 GD/VG pence stamped, #2 VG+ pence stamped. SOLD 

*Horror 1940/1959: Adventure Into Mystery from 1956 was one of several Atlas short series which sprang up after the introduction of the Comics Code. Each of the 8 issues featured many stories, by the same top artists of the pre-code era, in the same style and vein as the pre-code days, but with less schlock and more subtlety. Some great covers on these Bute Collection copies.  
PICTURED: ADVENTURE INTO MYSTERY
#2 VG+ £90 Cover by Sol Brodsky. Art by Ross Andru, Ben Benulis, Manny Stallman and many others. Nice solid copy with only minor wear, good staples (upper off centrefold), nice pages. Great cover colours and reflectivity. There are a few creases at the lower spine, which only break colour for a mm or two. 
#5 VG+ £85 SOLD Cover by Bill Everett. Art by Everett, Joe Orlando, George Roussos, Werner Roth, Sol Brodsky and John Forte. Nice solid copy with only moderate spine and corner wear, good staples, nice pages. Great cover colours and reflectivity. Tiny chip our at base of spine. 
#7 VG+ £85 Cover by Bill Everett. Art by Gene Colan, John Severin, Robert Q Sale, Angelo Torres, Syd Shores and others. Nice solid copy with only minor spine wear, good staples, nice pages. Great cover colours and reflectivity. There are a few creases at the lower spine, which do not break colour. 

*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 commence the letter ‘R’ with three authors from the 1960s and first edition paperback works. More detail as always in our catalogue. 
PICTURED:
NAL RAFCAM: THE TROGLODYTES Digit 1961 1st UK PB FA £4 SOLD
RICK RAPHAEL: CODE THREE Panther 1968 1st UK PB VG £3
FRANCIS G RAYER: CARDINAL OF THE STARS Digit 1964 1st UK PB GD £3
FRANCIS G RAYER: TOMORROW SOMETIMES COMES Icon 1962 1st UK PB GD/VG £5

*DC: A special update from the combined Midas and Bute Collections this week to celebrate that Wily Old Bird of Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery, the Penguin, with stories and cover appearances in Batman and Detective Comics. 
PICTURED: 
BATMAN #14 FA/GD £350 SOLD The Midas Collection (1942/43). Penguin cover and story: Bargains in Banditry’ in which the Penguin decides to go into business for himself by offering to the underworld pre-planned crimes at cut rate prices. Plus three other Batman stories, including a murder mystery at a detectives’ conference, a kindly old pharmacist is victimised by a gang of crooks, and in Swastika Over The White House, the Nazis succeed in getting one of their undercover men hired as photographer in order to infiltrate defence plants and take secret photos that will be used to sabotage America’s war efforts. Cover by Jerry Robinson, stories by Don C Cameron, art by Robinson, Jack Burnley & Bob Kane. The main problem with this copy is an area of approx 4 x 8 cm central cover which has dozens of pin prick sized indentations, which do not penetrate the paper but are quite unsightly (see scan). Other than that, the spine is worn with small tears and a chip missing at the top. there is significant stress at the staples, but they remain attached at spine and are firm at centre. There is a tiny hole in front cover below logo. Edge wear with a couple of small tears without loss. Pages are a supple off-white, with some foxing at edges. 
BATMAN #38 Apparent GD+ £250 The Midas Collection (1946/47). Penguin cover and story: The Penguin goes on parole, but it’s short-lived. Plus, Batman & Robin travel back to ancient Greece (just like hopping on a bus!) and a new mystery evolves around a case from six years before. Cover by Dick Sprang, stories by Edmond Hamilton, Bill Finger and Don C Cameron, art by Jim Mooney. This copy has been re-stapled, hence the Apparent grade awarded. Wear to all edges, but mostly along the right edge, where a tiny corner is missing at the bottom. There is also a small sliver out of the back cover at outer edge. Otherwise, not a bad copy with nice off-white pages. 
DETECTIVE COMICS #126 GD/VG £325 SOLD The Bute Collection (1947). Penguin cover and story: in Case Of The Silent Songbirds, the Penguin invents a songbird society, then attempts to get famed singers to donate to its cause or risk losing their voices. Cover by Jack Burnley, art by Jim Mooney. The back-up features in Detective at this time were Slam Bradley, Air Wave and the Boy Commandos. Decent copy with some spine wear, including small holes down the spine, a tiny upper split and a slightly longer (2.5 cm) split on lower spine which extends through the first few pages. Previous owner’s name on cover, but not obtrusively. Otherwise nice clean cover, good staples and supple off-white pages. 

*DC: Seven classic Silver Age issues of the Justice League of America, by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky, with glorious covers from Sekowsky and Murphy Anderson. Among my personal all-time favourites. IN THIS UPDATE: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ALL SOLD
#17 VG+ p £39 Tornado Tyrant
#19 VG p £30 Super-Exiles
#20 VG- p £30 Spaceman X
#23 VG+ p £25 (PICTURED) 1st Queen Bee
#24 VG+ p £28 Kanjar Ro
#25 VG+ p £22.50 Outcasts Of Infinity
#26 VG p £24 Despero

*Marvel: So, what’s so special about Strange Tales #110 then? Well, it sure as hell ain’t the cover appearance of Paste-Pot Pete! Unheralded on the cover – honestly, is anyone really bothered if Paste-Pot Pete’s Invincible Paste-Gun does finish the Torch off? – Stan Lee & Steve Ditko, already the creators of hugely popular twist-ending tales in a plethora of Big Panty Monster comics, turned their talents to an eldritch hero, and Doctor Strange was born! Steve Ditko’s powerful and gripping artwork, quite unlike anything else in the field, catapulted the good Doctor from an interesting novelty into the Marvel Universe’s Master of the Mystic Arts. This stylish back-up story introduced the Sorcerer Supreme to the Marvel Universe, commencing a lengthy career; here he faces the recurring threat of Nightmare for obviously the first time. This CGC copy, graded at 4.5 (VG+) is a Purple Label Restored copy, but fret not. The restoration is limited to a small amount of colour touch on cover, and for that you get the benefit of a price vastly reduced to about half that of a blue label copy. Case perfect, white to off-white pages. Restoration: Slight C-1. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #110 CGC 4.5 VG+ (R) £800

*Marvel: The ever-popular pairing of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch starred in their first mini-series in 1982. Spoiler alert: this is the one where it was revealed that Magneto was the father of Quicksilver & the Scarlet Witch (at least for that month). Featuring a galaxy of guest stars, all four issues are offered here complete. 
IN THIS UPDATE: VISION & THE SCARLET WITCH COMPLETE MINI-SERIES #1-4 Av VF+ £35; #1 PICTURED

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Punch Comics was an anthology title from Chesler in the 1940s. In this issue we have super-heroics with Rocketman & Rocketgirl (drawn by Reuben Moreira), and with Master Key (with horror undertones), humour, war and aviation with ‘Happy’ Landing, adventure/teen humour with Johnny On The Spot, Crime with Manhunters, Guardians Of The Law, adventure with Scoop Daily and sports/humour with Punch & Cutey. All this plus an illustrated biography of Edgar Allan Poe and other shorts. This is a very nice firm copy with great cover colours (it’s a shame they went for humour rather than adventure as the cover theme), square corners, tight staples and white to off-white pages. Only minimal wear (a few stress marks at spine do not break colour) and the merest suggestion of a dust shadow at the right edge.
PICTURED: PUNCH COMICS #17 FN £130 SOLD

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: A mix of short stories and anthologies this week. Henry Kuttner’s Ahead Of Time features ‘stories that take the reader to the farthest reaches of the human mind.’ Leo Margulies edits 3 From Out There, long stories by Isaac Asimov, Damon Knight and Edmond Hamilton. Three more long stories by Mervyn Peake, J G Ballard and Brian W Aldiss in The Inner Landscape, edited (but uncredited) by Michael Moorcock. The Mervyn Peake story is a disquieting, haunting tale in the vein of Gormenghast. Finally, Charles Platt’s The City Dwellers, a mash-up of stories originally appearing in New Worlds and in my opinion, his finest work, with the city strangling and crushing humanity. Platt somehow never fulfilled the promise shown in his earlier New Worlds work such as this. 
PICTURED:
HENRY KUTTNER: AHEAD OF TIME Four Square 1961 1st UK PB GD £4
LEO MARGULIES (Ed): 3 FROM OUT THERE Panther 1964 2nd UK PB GD/VG £4
MICHAEL MOORCOCK (Uncredited Editor): THE INNER LANDSCAPE Corgi 1970 1st UK PB VG/FN £8
CHARLES PLATT: THE CITY DWELLERS Sphere 1971 1st UK PB VG/FN £5 SOLD

With great reluctance, we have decided to discontinue shipping to countries in the EU. We don’t take this step lightly, since we greatly value our international customers, and for many years we have tried to cope with the red tape that now surrounds exporting to the EU. Unfortunately, with even more changes to the regulations imminent, and more to come after that, we have decided that shipping to the EU is now too complicated and time consuming for a small business like ours to deal with. If you live in the EU, we can only accept an order from you if you have an address outside the EU to which we can post. 

Please note, we can no longer ship to the Republic of Ireland, but are still sending to Northern Ireland. 

We hope that one day, the UK rejoins the Customs Union with the EU, at which time we should be able to resume EU shipping. 

*DC: DC’s Silver Age war comics were peopled by many unique and memorable characters, none more so that Hans Von Hammer, the World War I flying terror known as The Hammer Of Hell, with his adventures carrying the title Enemy Ace. Created by Robert Kanigher and the superb Joe Kubert, Enemy Ace first appeared in our Our Army At War, following with two full length adventures here in Showcase #57 & #58, followed by a series in Star Spangled War Stories and many later revivals. It was a brave and innovative move by DC to produce a strip starring the enemy, and Hammer was portrayed as a dark but honourable warrior. Both Showcase issues from the Bute Collection this update in quite reasonable mid-grade. 
PICTURED: SHOWCASE BOTH SOLD
#57 VG p £40 Pence stamped
#58 VG p £24 Pence stamped
 

*Marvel: We’re always happy to welcome an early Spider-Man issue illustrated by Steve Ditko (the first and greatest Spider-Man artist, excellent later contributors notwithstanding), and this one’s a bit special, featuring as it does the first guest appearance of the then-fledgling Man Without Fear, Daredevil, and, we believe, his only guest-appearance in his original black & gold costume! Teamed with Spider-Man against the menace of the Ringmaster (against whose hypnosis DD’s blindness gives him an unexpected immunity) and his Circus of Crime.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #16 CGC 5.0 VG/FN p £465 Universal Blue label (unrestored), white pages, case perfect, CGC ref: 4607393003. UK pence (printed) variant. 

*Marvel: The Bronze Age re-launch of the X-Men came in two flavours, with Chris Claremont at the writing helm. Firstly with art by Dave Cockrum, innovator and designer, followed by John Byrne, on his finest work, with more than a finger in the writing pie. Here, issue #99 by Cockrum features the Sentinels, with #125, 127 & #128 highlighting the menace of the reality warping Proteus, errant son of Moira MacTaggert. 
IN THIS UPDATE: X-MEN
#99 VF- p £50 (PICTURED) Pence printed
#125 VF+ p £40 (PICTURED) Pence printed. 1st Proteus. 
#127 VF p £33 Pence printed
#128 VF+ p £28 Pence printed 

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: Where Creatures Roam was an 8-issue series from Marvel in 1970/71, concentrating on reprints from the pre-hero Big Panty Monster era of the late 50s/early 60s. Kirby work in all, plus 7 out of 8 covers, plus much Ditko and Heck. Relive Thorg, Vandoom, Gorgilla, Zog, the Glop and many more. All 8 issues in this set, mostly all in pretty good shape, with an average of FN. 
IN THIS UPDATE: WHERE CREATURES ROAM COMPLETE SET #1-8 Av FN £80; #1 PICTURED. SOLD

*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 concluding Pohl update concentrates on his collaborative work with C M Kornbluth and Jack Williamson. Condition notes and further information, as always, will be found in our catalogue. 
PICTURED:
FREDERIK POHL & C M KORNBLUTH:
SEARCH THE SKY Bantam 1977 US PB GD/VG £4
WOLFBANE Penguin 1967 1st UK PB VG £4 SOLD
THE WONDER EFFECT Ballantine 1962 1st US PB GD £5 Short stories
FREDERIK POHL & JACK WILLIAMSON: 
FARTHEST STAR Pan 1976 1st UK PB FN £5
ROGUE STAR Ballantine 1969 1st US PB VG £6
STARCHILD Penguin 1970 1st UK PB VG £4