*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: From the Bute Collection this week, five issues of nefarious deeds as below.
PICTURED:
CLIMAX #1 VG £32 1 of 2 issues of suspense, mystery and intrigue from Gilmor 1955. SOLD
DATE WITH DANGER #6 FA/GD £23 1 of 2 issues of spies and espionage from Standard 1953 with atom bomb story. Art by Mayo, Morisi, Sekowsky and more. Long spine splits SOLD
PUBLIC ENEMIES #5 GD/VG £27 Gangsters and bad ‘uns from DS 1948; 52 pages. Tiny corner off at bottom spine.
REAL CLUE CRIME STORIES V4 #12 FN- £32 More gangsters with historical and humour stories amongst the bad stuff. Hillman 1950. Art from Powell and Rosenberger among others.
WANTED #45 VG+ £42 From Orbit 1952 With art by John Buscema and Mort Meskin among others. Marijuana story.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: The first appearance of Moon Knight in Werewolf By Night has now risen to staggering values, putting it beyond the reach of many collectors, as is increasingly the case with a lot of Marvel big key issues. Some collectors are turning to second appearances as a consolation, and although prices on these are rising as a result, many of them are still within reach. Here we have the second appearance of Moon Knight, one issue after the first, in Werewolf By Night #33. A lovely pence priced copy with brilliant colour and gloss, white pages, sharp corners and tight staples. With almost no wear, it’s kept from an even higher grade by a short non-colour breaking crease from the Comics Code Box to the logo and a tiny crease across the bottom corner, with just a 0.5 cm colour break. A lovely item.
PICTURED: WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #33 VF p £100

*Magazines/Books About Vintage UK Comics: Compared to the US market, there’s a dearth of material out there about the UK comics industry, so this is only a small category in our listings. Our Mega British Half Price Comics Sale continues apace, with many titles now running low in stock, so we thought to stoke the fire a bit with the entire contents of this category now reduced to half price. The names referenced are like a Who’s Who of British comics artists: Bellamy, Turner, Embleton, Hampson and many others. Consult our catalogue but move fast to grab a bargain.
PICTURED: TRUE BRIT SC NM was £25 now £12.50 Spotlight on 21 celebrated British comics artists.

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Crime, Spies and Sleaze category for the first of a two-part re-listing of the adventures of Mike Shayne by Brett Halliday. Halliday was the primary pen name of Davis Dresser, who wrote in a number of genres, but whose major work were the Mike Shayne private eye novels for which he used the name. It’s a bit more complicated than that, since it’s believed that most or even all of the Shayne novels after 1958 were ghost-written by others (there are around 70 novels in all). The world of Mike Shayne was cool, tough, sexy and full of mystery and action. Our first selection dates from the mid-sixties and is blessed with fabulous covers by the famous artist Robert McGinnis.
PICTURED: ALL MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERIES BY BRETT HALLIDAY ALL SOLD
ARMED…DANGEROUS… Dell 1966 1st US PB GD £4
THE BODY CAME BACK Dell 1964 1st US PB VG £5
GUILTY AS HELL Dell 1967 1st US PB FN £5
HEADS YOU LOSE Dell 1965 1st New Edition US PB VG  £4
THE HOMICIDAL VIRGIN Dell 1967 1st New Edition US PB VG/FN £6
IN A DEADLY VEIN Dell 1968 1st New Edition US PB VG/FN £4
MERMAID ON THE ROCKS Dell 1967 1st US PB VG £5

*DC: 3 Silver/Bronze Age DC #1 issues this week, all with artwork by comics greats. Captain Action was in fact a spin-off from a toy franchise, but with story and art by Jim Shooter and Wally Wood, and a guest appearance by Superman, this #1 issue has a lot going for it. Jack Kirby’s Forever People was part of his Fourth World sequence at DC in the 70s, and #1 features not only the first appearance of the Forever People themselves, but also the first full appearance of Darkseid, the Big Bad. The Spectre was granted his own series following a successful try-out run in Showcase, and Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson continued their wonderful work there on the Ghostly Guardian. 
PICTURED:
CAPTAIN ACTION #1 FN- £17
FOREVER PEOPLE #1 VG- p £30 Slight spine roll and some corner and edge wear. SOLD
SPECTRE #1 GD- p £20 Creases and tears to right edge and corners. SOLD

*Marvel: Ditko Spider-Mans are always a welcome addition to our lists, and this one seems to be less common than most. Returning from a period of insecurity and self-doubt, Spidey roars back into action despite the Daily Bugle’s carefully-orchestrated smear campaign, aided by his best ‘frenemy’ the Human Torch, as they take on the combined menace of the Sandman and the Enforcers. A Lee/Ditko classic, with all the tropes you look for – JJJ’s insane ranting! Aunt May’s dicky ticker! Betty and Veronica – sorry, Betty and Liz’s – dating shenanigans! And, as a bonus, the first fleeting appearance of MacDonald ‘Mac’ Gargan, the man who would become the Scorpion. A decent enough cents copy, a bit worn but with no cover markings. A colour-breaking vertical crease left of centre from logo down across title box, but no colour breaks as far as Spidey’s figure. Minor chipping to top and right edge, corner blunting with tiny tear at top of spine. Staples are tight and firm, pages are off white to cream with small stain to top of margin on just a few pages. A little tired but not bad. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #19 GD/VG £110

*Marvel: A nice five issue consecutive run of Tales Of Suspense from the Good Doctor this week. By the time we got to issues #76-80, the title was in full flow and featured some of the great stories of this double-barrelled title. Iron Man came up against the Mandarin plus Ultimo, and the Sub-Mariner with Warlord Krang in tow. Cap faced up to Batroc Ze Leaper, Them (who somehow morphed into AIM), the Red Skull and the Cosmic Cube, plus in a wartime story, we discovered Peggy Carter as the girl from Cap’s past. (Peggy, of course, went on to star in her own well-received TV series, which I must say I enjoyed myself.) Quality stuff in superior grades.
PICTURED: TALES OF SUSPENSE
#76 FN+ £22.50 SOLD
#77 VG+ £55 (PICTURED) 1st Peggy Carter SOLD
#78 FN+ £22
#79 VG p £16.25 SOLD
#80 FN+ £32

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: Adventures Into The Unknown from ACG was the earliest ongoing horror title, starting in 1947. It’s the Silver Age incarnation that concerns us here, when the horror of pre-code had given way to the more whimsical fantasy/mysteries for which ACG became known in the 1960s. As the run drew to a close, recurring super-hero characters started to appear, such as Nemesis, who debuted in #154 and took over the lead in each issue, still with those supernatural back-ups. 
IN THIS UPDATE: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN ALL SOLD
127 VG p £7.25
154 VG £8.25 (PICTURED) 1st Nemesis.
155 FN £10
157 VG £6.75 John Force, Magic Agent story
158 VG £6.75
159 VG £6.75

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In 1977, 2000 AD launched into the consciousness of the nation, and for better or for worse, the comics world was never the same again! Oddly enough, the title’s most famous denizen, ‘Judge Dredd’, didn’t make it into the first edition, debuting in #2, but the five strips that did premiere in #1 pushed the boundaries; ‘Flesh’ saw a starving near-future use time-travel to go back and harvest dinosaurs – what could go wrong? ‘Invasion’ saw a band of rebels standing alone against the ‘Volgans’ who had conquered the United Kingdom; ‘Harlem Heroes’ produced a violent reprise of the original ‘Rollerball’ movie, and ‘MACH 1’, with its bionically-enhanced action hero, was a clear homage to… oh, well, have a guess. No, not ‘Get Smart’. Topped off by a ‘reimagining’ of the classic hero ‘Dan Dare’ designed to induce apoplexy in aficionados, the violent, bloodier ‘heroes’ set the scene for myriad imitators, some more successful than others. This is a low grade copy for the budget conscious, with a 5 x 2 cm chunk out of the front cover lower margin (only) and a water stain at the top of the spine which permeates through the comic. There’s a short cover tear top centre, and the top right edge has been dog-eared and straightened out to some extent. Only very minor residue where free gift has been removed from the cover and page quality, apart from the stain, is okay.
PICTURED: 2000 AD #1 FA £40

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: The crime writer John Dickson Carr, in common with many other authors, published books under a different name, in his case Carter Dickson. Whatever name he used, readers could be assured of a well-told, well-plotted story, often with a seemingly insoluble mystery. Carr was an acknowledged master of the locked room mystery. Under his own name, his main recurring detective was Gideon Fell; he used Carter Dickson for his second most featured detective Sir Henry Merrivale. We have three such mysteries fresh in this week: two are uncommon 1st UK paperback editions, the third is a second edition hardcover of the first Merrivale mystery.
PICTURED: ALL BY CARTER DICKSON ALL SOLD
CROSS OF MURDER WDL 1959 1st UK PB GD/VG £10
MURDER IN THE ATLANTIC WDL 1959 1st UK PB GD £10
THE PLAGUE COURT MURDERS Heinemann 1966 2nd UK HC FN £25 With DJ (VG/FN)

*DC: One of the least explored of Batman’s classic villains is the sinister Scarecrow, who appeared but once in the 1940s, then stayed in limbo until resurrected for Batman #189 in 1967. Psychology professor Johnathan Crane used the mechanics of fear in his crime sprees, and despite numerous appearances since his revival, remains – certainly by comparison with the much-loved but over-used ‘Big Four’ Batman villains – enigmatic and compelling. This is a low grade copy of this key issue, pence-stamped with a label removal scuff over the stamp. Cover off lower staple; centrefold loose at upper staple. Quite a bit of edge wear with colour-breaking creases, particularly along the right edge. Striking cover image and nice white to off-white pages.
PICTURED: BATMAN #189 FA/GD p £100 SOLD

*DC: When Brave & Bold became a team-up title with #50, I can remember there was some excitement over the possibility of what characters would appear together. Before it became exclusively a Batman team-up title a couple of years later, there were plenty of intriguing combinations. And I’m sure a Supergirl and Wonder Woman story was among the most in demand, even if it entailed our heroines casting off their ‘frumpy’ super-heroine duds to become a Paris model and a jet-setting glamourpuss (as you do). But have no fear, there’s plenty of action in costume against the villainy of Multi-Face. A superior cents copy here, with strong colour and gloss, tight, firm staples and supple white to off-white pages. Just minor handling wear and corner blunting, with a tiny dink at the base of the spine. 
PICTURED: BRAVE & BOLD #63 FN+ £30

*Marvel: The first Inhuman to appear in the Marvel Universe, Medusa was presented here in Fantastic Four #36 as a mystery woman of unknown origin in command of her ‘living’ hair, and recruited by the Wizard into his fledgling Frightful Four. The Good Doctor Collection copy is a nice mid-grade pence stamped example, with good colour and no creases other than light to moderate wear at spine and top edge. Tight firm staples and supple off-white pages. 
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #36 VG+ p £120

*Marvel: I don’t need to tell you much about Star Wars, do I? Suffice it to say that after adapting the first film in Star Wars #1-6, Marvel went on to tell new stories of Han, Luke, Leia and the gang from #7 onwards.
IN THIS UPDATE: STAR WARS ALL SOLD
#7 NM- £22.75 (PICTURED)
#8 VF- £11
#9 VF £12.25
#10 NM- £22.75
#11 VF £12.25
#12 VF- £11

*Charlton: There’s no doubt that Charlton produced a quirky mix of material. Rumour has it that rather than let their printing presses sit idly, they kept them rolling 24 hours a day, which may explain some of the material they produced. Here we have super-hero adventure with Son of Vulcan and Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, cartoon comedy with Atomic Mouse and Li’l Genius, and science and supernatural fiction with Strange Suspense Stories and Shadows from Beyond (the last one puzzled me a bit, until I realised that, at #50, it was the continuation of Unusual Tales and the only issue to bear that title).
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
ATOMIC MOUSE #48 FA/GD p £3
LI’L GENIUS #50 GD £2
MYSTERIES OF UNEXPLORED WORLDS #46 GD £3.25 1st Son Of Vulcan
SHADOWS FROM BEYOND #50 GD £4.25 (PICTURED) Ditko cover
STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #71 GD £4.25
THUNDERBOLT #51 GD £2.75

*Classics Illustrated: 6 UK versions of Classics Illustrated now added, most of them previously missing from our listings: and all cover priced 1/3. Listed below. For full details of editions, please consult our catalogue. 
IN THIS UPDATE: CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED UK
#55 VG £6 Silas Marner
#64 FN £3.75 Treasure Island
#78 FN £7.50 (PICTURED) Joan Of Arc
#89 VG/FN £3.50 Crime And Punishment
#98 VG £3 The Red Badge Of Courage
#122 FA/GD £3.50 The Mutineers

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: This digest-sized comics series, most famous under its later title of Thriller Picture Library, ran for 450 issues until 1963, and while it featured a plethora of characters during its lengthy run, the trend for the early years was for historical swashbucklers based on fictional (but serendipitously copyright-free) characters, but also featuring crime, war, western and science-fiction adventures. The artists were all accomplished Fleetway professionals, and readers thrived on these beautifully-illustrated pocket adventures. Issues #21-30, fresh in this week, feature The Saint, Robin Hood and the Three Musketeers among many other one-off characters. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: THRILLER COMICS/PICTURE LIBRARY
#23 GD/VG £17.50 The Saint In California
#29 GD £15 Ivanhoe

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Crime, Spies & Sleaze category for a miscellany of authors whose names begin with ‘G’. We start with Hugh Greene, who edits More Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, an anthology of Edwardian tales of cosmopolitan crime. Then, from Netta Grey, a rare 32 page ‘booklet’, Romance In Algiers, from the late 40s; danger, adventure, love and death in the Kasbah with
cover art by Oliver Brabbins. Then a gangster pulp from the infamous Griff, City Of Lost Women, a dark tale of the ‘snatch racket’. Finally, a new addition for this update, Arnold E Grisman’s Early To Rise, a young man on the make in sleazy New York, with a cover by the great Robert Maguire.
PICTURED:
HUGH GREENE (Ed): MORE RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES Penguin 1976 2nd UK PB GD £4 SOLD
NETTA GREY: ROMANCE IN ALGIERS Hamilton late 1940s 1st UK PB 32 pp VG £8
GRIFF: CITY OF LOST WOMEN Modern Fiction 1953 1st UK PB GD £30
ARNOLD E GRISMAN: EARLY TO RISE Berkley 1959 1st US PB GD/VG £6

Our half price or less Mega British Comics Sale enters its second month. Whilst some titles are now running low in stock, there’s still thousands of bargains available in our catalogue, where sale prices are marked in red, in the British weekly categories as shown below. Some titles are all at half price; others may just be selected years – if it’s not in red, it’s still full price.

*Power Comics
*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics
*TV & Film Related Comics
*Humour Comics
*Girls’ Comics

The terms and conditions for this sale are as follows:

Unlike our previous sales, this sale is open to all customers worldwide

There is no minimum quantity required for an order, but the value (at sale prices) must meet our regular level, i.e.
In the UK: £10
In the EU: £50
Rest of the World: £25

Our regular postage and packing charges will be extra on top of these minimums; please note we cannot give a postage quote until you have made a selection.

Sale stock may be mixed with full priced stock in the same package.

*DC: Okay, this one’s for anyone who doesn’t want to shell out £200 plus for a decent-looking copy of Guy Gardner’s debut issue in Green Lantern #59. This copy has been in the wars. Firstly, some wit has ruled a drawing grid over the entire cover in pencil., rendering it very unattractive with a couple of tiny ink dots as well. Secondly, it’s missing an ad page, although the story is complete. Finally, there’s a nasty small chunk out at right edge which runs right through the margins of the entire comic. If you can ignore all that (a tall order, I know), it’s in pretty decent nick with staples tight at spine (bottom loose at centrefold) and very reasonable page quality; moderate spine wear. Still, a significant key issue for your collection, if only as a place marker till a better opportunity comes along.
PICTURED: GREEN LANTERN #59 App FA p £25 SOLD

*Marvel: One of the more tragic entries in Spider-Man’s Rogue’s Gallery is the Lizard, a.k.a. Dr. Curt Connors, a dedicated scientist and devoted husband and father whose research into a regenerative serum, to help himself and other amputees, went horribly wrong when the lizard-like properties of tissue regeneration ran rampant, turning him into a humanoid reptile. The Lizard debuted in the sixth issue of Spider-Man, and we are delighted to have a copy new into stock in attractive mid-grade. This pence printed copy is clean and unmarked with strong colour and some gloss. The corners are just a little blunted, with a tiny chip out of the top edge at the left corner of the masthead box and an even smaller chip out of the right edge at centre. Just above the latter is a thin tear, barely visible, that extends horizontally from the right edge for less than 2 cm. Leading from this are a couple of short creases that only faintly break colour. The spine has only very minor wear and the remainder of the edges are unworn. Pages are a supple off-white to cream and staples are tight and flat at spine and centrefold. Inside covers are tanned at edges without sign of brittleness, and the grade has been adjusted to reflect this. A very attractive copy that looks better than the grade awarded and presents well. High grade images are available on request.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #6 VG- p £650
 

*Marvel: Five quality consecutive issues of Avengers from the Good Doctor Collection this week, representative of a really good period for everyone’s favourite Assemblers. Cap’s Kooky Quartet became his Snazzy Six after the addition of Goliath and the Wasp in the previous issue, followed here by a three part adventure which started out with an encounter with the Black Widow, the Swordsman and the original Power Man and morphed into a struggle with some esoteric types from a lost land. Then, in #32 and #33, the Sons of the Serpent were introduced, a KKK type bunch of bigots; #32 also featured the first appearance of Bill Foster, who would become Black Goliath many years later. More Black Widow here too in her classic fishnet and swimsuit look that never made it into the movies. All issues in really nice, superior grades.
IN THIS UPDATE: AVENGERS
#29 FN+ p £29
#30 VF £55 (PICTURED)
#31 FN £22
#32 FN+ p £26
#33 FN+ £29

*Archie: As a recurring feature in Life with Archie between 1965 and 1967, Archie and friends became superheroes and battled a host of bizarre supervillains in a series of tongue-in-cheek adventures. Archie and Jughead span off into their own series, Archie as Pureheart the Powerful (3 issues) and Jughead as Captain Hero (7 issues). We have some fresh into stock this week; fondly remembered but rarely seen.
IN THIS UPDATE:
ARCHIE AS PUREHEART THE POWERFUL
#3 GD £5
JUGHEAD AS CAPTAIN HERO
#2 FN £12.25 (PICTURED) Guest-starring Pureheart, and Betty as Super-Teen.
#3 FN- £9.25
#5 FN £10

*Horror 1940-1959: The first issue of one of the more notorious series from the Pre-Code horror years. Dark Mysteries was originally published by Master Comics and had a number of infamous issues. Beneath a striking cover by Joe Orlando and Wally Wood, the art standards on #1 are maintained by Wood, Lou Cameron and others. Ghouls, ghosts and corpses aplenty. A really nice copy, with square corners (tiny dink at top of spine), no significant creases (small non-colour-breaking one across extremity of top right corner), very little wear and strong cover colour. Lovely white to off-white pages. Staples are tight at spine, if a tiny bit rusty at centre, where the centrefold has become cleanly detached. There are signs that some pencil markings above the logo have been erased. A small crayon letter remains. An outstanding copy from 1951. 
PICTURED: DARK MYSTERIES #1 VG+ £425

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Some examples this week of 1950s comics from the UK and Australia that attempted to look more like the American size and format, despite being in black and white. All three titles are noteworthy: Ace Malloy, adventurer, featured stories of the Navy, Army and Air Force by Mick Anglo; Lone Star, primarily a Western title, featured Space Ace by Ron Turner, and Yarmak, sort of an Australian Tarzan, had sumptuous art by the renowned Stanley Pitt. 
IN THIS UPDATE:
ACE MALLOY
#60 VG £6 (PiICTURED)
#64 FN/VF £9
#65 VF £10
LONE STAR
V2 #4 VG £10
V3 #5 VG/FN £12
YARMAK #24 VG £12 (PICTURED)