*Horror 1940-1959: There are certain pre-code horror comics that are the Holy Grail for collectors, and this week the Bute Collection affords us one of the best. Harvey’s Chamber of Chills #19 from 1953 features a classic cover (probably by Lee Elias), featuring a couple of celebrating ghouls in a highly original vision through a glass image. Interior art is by Powell, Nostrand and Sparling among others. This is a lower-graded copy, with spine splits of about 4 cm at top and bottom, edge wear, particularly at the spine, with spidery, colour-breaking creases along the length. The central cover image though is unblemished. Staples are pretty well attached at spine and centrefold; inside covers have minor tanning, but pages are nice and supple off-white. This is now a very expensive comic, so even a copy in this grade is a significant price. High grade images are available on request. 
PICTURED: CHAMBER OF CHILLS #19 GD- £4,000 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Newly in, we have three of the four 2000 AD progs set during Judge Dredd’s ‘Cursed Earth’ which, owing to their use of copyrighted properties, were until 2015 banned from being reprinted; #71 and #72, the ‘Burger Wars’ issues, which caused umbrage with MacDonalds and Burger King and #77, the first of the ‘Jolly Green Giant’ numbers, in which a certain verdant behemoth (no, not the Hulk) was an antagonist. Despite the reprint embargo having been lifted owing to a change in copyright law allowing parodic usage, we have found demand for the originals to remain high, judging by the speed with which they’ve sold out previously!
PICTURED: 2000 AD
#71 FN £30 SOLD
#72 FN/VF £32.50 SOLD
#77 FN £30

*Pulp Fiction: Two pulps of a true vintage fresh in this week. Firstly, Avon Fantasy rader #2, digest-sized from 1947, featuring stories by Robert E Howard, Robert W Chambers, Fletcher Pratt and many others; solid copy, slight spine marks, laminated cover. Secondly, probably the most famous pulp title of them all, Weird Tales, this issue from 1949 featuring stories by Fredric Brown, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, Seabury Quinn and many others under a gory and iconic cover by the celebrated Matt Fox; missing lower spine 3 cm, ragged edges to top of covers, small chip out bottom right cover.
PICTURED: BOTH SOLD
AVON FANTASY READER 1947 #2 VG £20
WEIRD TALES 1949 JULY GD £50

*DC: We offer three complete mini-series for your consideration this week. Firstly, from 2004, the highly-prized mini-series Batman: Harley & Ivy, starring you-know-who. Written and drawn by the HQ creators Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, this has all the wit and charm that somehow seems to have got subsequently lost with the mass dilution of these characters in more recent years. #1, #2 NM, #3 VF+. Secondly, the Catwoman mini from 1989 that preceded her ongoing title, a stylish noir thriller telling her origins; all four issues averaging VF/VF+. Finally, the Tales Of The New Teen Titans mini from 1982 by creators Wolfman and Perez, revealing secrets and origins of the ‘new kids on the block’ Cyborg, Raven, Changeling and Starfire; all four issues in VF.
PICTURED:
BATMAN: HARLEY & IVY #1 NM; COMPLETE SET OF 3 DELUXE ISSUES £50
CATWOMAN #1 VF; COMPLETE SET OF 4 ISSUES £15
TALES OFTHE NEW TEEN TITANS #1 VF; COMPLETE SET OF 4 ISSUES £25

*Marvel: This week the most sought-after comic of the 1970s. Hulk #181 features the first full appearance of Wolverine, the Canadian super-hero who, outstripping everyone’s expectations, became the most popular Marvel character created since the dawn of the Marvel Age. Created by Len Wein and Herb Trimpe (from a John Romita design), Wolvy was revived by Wein when he put together the ‘New’ X-Men who debuted in Giant-Size X-Men #1, and since then, Wolverine has become the star of the lucrative X-Men franchise, and a multi-media darling in his own right. This issue, where it all really kicked off following a one-panel cameo in the preceding ish, is a superior copy with brilliant cover colour and gloss, firm, tight staples at spine and centrefold and supple white to off-white pages. Most crucially, the Marvel Value Stamp (probably the most important appearance of Shanna the She-Devil, bless her!) is still in place. This promotional coupon is the blight of Marvels from a certain period, often clipped and missing – but not in this instance! There are the most minimal signs of handling wear at the spine, right corners and along lower right edge, but this copy is conservatively graded. Not the rarest Marvel key by any means, but the most in demand and fastest-selling. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: HULK #181 VF- £4,250 SOLD

*Marvel: Modok, the little guy with the big brain (and head!), has become something of a star villain in the Marvel Universe, and it was here, in the Captain America story in Tales Of Suspense #94, that he first appeared as leader of A.I.M. (or was that Them? I could never tell…) That’s him, down in the very bottom left cover corner. The Good Doctor Collection yields a very nice cents copy, with excellent cover colour and gloss. Printed without a bottom staple, but held firm and tight by the upper, with supple off-white to white pages. Small spine ticks and tiny creases across bottom corners do not break colour on this dark background cover. 
PICTURED: TALES OF SUSPENSE #94 FN+ £165

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Also from the Bute Collection this week, the first two issues of Avon’s Prison Break from 1951, both with iconic covers. Hard-hitting crime stories with an emphasis on prisons. Issue #1 cover features a machine-gun wielding gun moll front and centre, with an inside front cover by Wood just as sexy! Interior art is mostly by unidentified artists, but very accomplished including a re-worked Saint story full of glamorous dames. Issue #2 has a male guard at the mercy of female inmates (gosh, that prison hairdresser worked wonders!) by Sid Check very much in the Wood style, with a spooky inside cover by Kintsler. Interior art by Joe Kubert and others with another re-worked Saint story. The series lasted five issues, but these are the best two covers. 
PICTURED: PRISON BREAK BOTH SOLD
#1 FA/GD £140 Small chip out top centre. Spine very worn with top and bottom splits; couple of small chips along bottom edge, with minor right edge chipping. Cover detached at front from bottom staple. Nice pages.  Great cover image unspoilt with vivid colour.
#2 VG+ £145 Nice copy with decent gloss and colour and solid spine. Good staples and pages; minor edge wear.

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: In the early 1950s, a small number of horror comics (around 40) were produced by a variety of UK publishers reprinting US pre-code horror stories in black and white. Just as in the USA, these became notorious and subject to censorship which led to their discontinuation. There’s a lot of information online about the banning of UK horror comics if you want to know more, and I particularly recommend a youtube video by Canadian Dave Dustin on the subject (see the Links page in our Extras section for more information). These UK horror comics have become both extremely rare and much sought after in recent years, and this week we have one that also fits our L B Cole Miasma feature. L B Cole was one of the most famous of Golden/Atomic Age cover artists. He drew in a variety of genres, and was artistic director at Star, illustrating 95% of the company’s covers; his lurid, feverish style, almost hallucinogenic, graced horror, science-fiction, jungle and romance alike. Here we have the UK version of Startling Terror Tales, published by Arnold in 1954, with a particularly unsavoury example of Cole’s work.
PICTURED: STARTLING TERROR TALES #1 CGC 3.5 VG- £450 Arnold number this as #1, although the CGC label calls it #9 (which it is a partial reprint of). Also contains stories from Spook #28 and Shocking Mystery Cases #58. Unrestored blue label, cream to off-white pages. PLEASE NOTE: The CGC case is severely cracked at the rear, top side and one corner. This is as it came to us and appears to be the result of impact damage rather than tampering. Certainly the CGC grader notes match the defects for the encased copy, so we believe this is a genuine CGC copy. SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: 14 issues of the long-lived Boys’ weekly Tiger from 1966 between 1st January (New Year issue) and September fresh in this week. Prior to this, we hadn’t had any issues new in for this year for some time. Throughout its history, Tiger (original home to Roy of the Rovers) always had strong sporting associations and indeed in later decades, virtually became a comic of sport-related strips, but here in 1967, Roy, Skid Solo, Johnny Cougar and other sporting stars rubbed shoulders with war and adventure strips such as the Robot Builders, Nelson Lord TIGER Agent, the Black Archer, Typhoon Tracy, Saber King Of The Jungle and many more. A classic British comic at its best! Mostly £2-£3.50 each. As always, please see our catalogue for details. ALL SOLD

*DC: A chance to fill some gaps in your vintage Batman collection this week with eight issues from the early 100s, all pre-UK distribution between #101-115. These are all lowish grade, with tape, tears and other defects, but are all complete.
IN THIS UPDATE: BATMAN
#101 PR/FA £30 Taped spine; chipped right edge; back cover tear SOLD
#102 FA £34 Long horizontal cover tear, sealed with tape from the inside.
#103 FA £34 Bat-Hound, Movie Star. Rolled spine; tape over upper staple and lower spine. Two black felt tip characters ‘B+’ below logo, central but only over background.
#104 GD £65 (PICTURED) The Creature From 20,000 Fathoms. Reasonable copy with age wear but no specific defects. SOLD
#106 PR £18 Heavy tape around all cover edges, small corner off bottom right. Spine and staple area very ragged.
#110 PR/FA £27 Joker story. Brown tape around edges of inside covers.
#114 FA+ £35 A couple of slash/tear holes in lower cover.
#115 FA+ ££5 Worn spine with tears; 3 cm upper spine split.

*DC: A huge update to our Wonder Woman stocks, running from #205 right through to #300, from the heart of the Bronze Age through to the dawn of the Modern Age., with dozens of issues new to our catalogue. Mostly high grade copies and all cents. Most issues from #272 upwards feature the Huntress in back-up stories. Includes the Giant #300 Anniversary issue and, as a bonus, the Wonder Woman Spectacular from 1978 with Hitler cover (listed as DC Special Series #9). 

*Marvel: Being a childhood DC fan, I was a latecomer to Marvel, so Fantastic Four #39 & #40 were among the earliest issues I read. I remember them making a big impression despite my lack of knowledge of FF history. Deprived of their powers, the FF come up against their greatest foe, with their only ally a blind super-hero. A Blind Man Shall Lead Them – what a great title for FF #39, and what a superb brooding cover to boot. And the Thing’s hand to hand combat with Doom in #40, after he suffers the misery of not being human again. This was truly great stuff. The Good Doctor provides.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR
#39 FN- p £120 Pence stamped. Excellent cover colour and gloss. Unspoilt and unmarked image. Minor edge wear and corner blunting, with a tiny colour-breaking crease across the very extremity of top right corner. Tight and flat with excellent staples and nice off-white pages. 
#40 VG p £55 Pence stamped. Decent copy with good colour, nice staples and supple off-white pages. Some creasing, mainly at spine and edges, breaking colour, corner blunting, but nothing horrible.

*Marvel: It seems the follicularly-challenged, attitude-enhanced mental marvel Moondragon has been spiking up in popularity. We speculate that the rise in interest is owing to her connection with Thanos and his merry crew, and all things Marvel Cosmic. Her first appearance in comics, however, was under a somewhat less dignified nom de guerre of Madam McEvil in Iron Man #54 (also starring the Sub-Mariner). Our latest copy is a very respectable pence printed mid-grade, flat and glossy with vibrant colour, tight staples and white to off-white pages. Small scuff marks below the upper staple and small wear at the base of the spine are the only real defects.
PICTURED: IRON MAN #54 FN p £65

*Horror 1940-1959: From the Bute Collection, three pre-code issues of the venerable title Journey Into Mystery from 1953/54. Details below:
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY
#13 VG £230 Pre-Code. Cover by Carl Burgos. Art by Burgos, George Roussos, John Forte, Myron Fass and others. Reasonable copy with unblemished cover scene. Good staples, nice off-white to cream pages. Minimal edge and spine wear (some chipping to right edge back cover). Small spine ticks, slight reading crease between staples faintly breaks colour, crease at very top right corner cover with tiny loss at extreme.  
#15 GD+ £150 Pre-Code. Cover by Sol Brodsky. Art by Paul Reinman and others. Okay copy with reasonably unblemished cover scene with great image. Good staples, nice off-white to cream pages. 3 cm upper spine split. Some handling wear with minor creasing that breaks colour, particularly along the top edge and logo area. Small spine ticks and minor creasing along right edge and bottom right corner. SOLD
#17 VG+ £275 Pre-Code. Cover by Sol Brodsky. Art by Sid Check, Robert Q Sale and others. Nice copy with some gloss. Tight, firm staples and nice off-white to white pages. Very little edge wear, lies flat. Spine ticks are almost imperceptible. A very presentable copy.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Humbug was a short-lived title in the late 1950s in the same satirical parody vein as Mad, with many of the same creators at work. Founded by Harvey Kurzmann, #3 of the series on offer here features art by Bill Elder, Jack Davis and Al Jaffee. Graded 5.5 (FN-) by CGC, this copy is blue label (unrestored), off-white to white pages, case perfect. The cover features a (small) photo of Marilyn Monroe.
PICTURED: HUMBUG #3 CGC 5.5 FN- £40 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: War Picture Library was the earliest and longest-running of the classic war-themed picture libraries. Published by Amalgamated Press/Fleetway, this first issue, Fight Back To Dunkirk, was published in 1958, and the title continued for 2103 issues until 1984. Our latest copy of #1 is a decent copy with unblemished cover image and nice pages. The single staple has the inevitable rust stains, but migration to the pages isn’t too bad. There is a tiny jagged chip out at top right cover (see scan).
PICTURED: WAR PICTURE LIBRARY #1 VG £75 SOLD

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror category and the works of John Brunner. Brunner was a very prolific writer from the late 1950s into the 1990s (he died in 1995) and wrote on many themes in different styles. He started out with conventional space opera, and developed into ‘hard sci-fi’, fantasy and dystopian futures; overpopulation was a subject often re-visited. Our stock is extensive enough to split into two parts – the first features among others the award-winning Jagged Orbit and a later hardcover first A Maze of Stars signed by the author, as well as a mix of other novels and short story collections. Some of this update’s books are featured here; full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ALL BY JOHN BRUNNER
THE DREAMING EARTH Pyramid 1963 1st US PB GD/VG £4
THE JAGGED ORBIT Ace 1972 2nd US PB GD/VG £4
A MAZE OF STARS Del Rey 1991 1st US HC FN in VG DJ £30 Signed by author
NOW THEN Mayflower 1965 UK PB VG £5
OUT OF MY MIND Four Square 1968 1st UK PB VG £3

*DC: The villainous Star Sapphire was originally a foe of the Golden Age Flash, but as with so many Golden Age DC characters, was reinvented for the Silver Age. This time she was a nemesis of Green Lantern and her alter ego was Hal’s love interest (and boss) Carol Ferris. Carol was brainwashed into the role by the Zamarons, a race of warrior women out to prove men inferior (‘well, we all know that’ – Dr Evilla). The Star Sapphire concept has been much broadened by DC over the years, but never bettered, in my opinion, than these original appearances in the classic Silver Age Green Lantern series, particularly as depicted by Gil Kane. Star Sapphire debuted in #16; this pence stamped copy is reasonable with bright colours and nice clean off-white pages. The cover is off at the bottom staple and centrefold; top staple is good. Some edge wear and corner blunting, and some faint creasing over the logo, just breaking colour. The main defect which brings the grade down is that the price in the pence stamp has been covered in felt-tip pen, which has also been used to create a price in a penny-sized circle to the right of the logo.
PICTURED: GREEN LANTERN #16 GD- p £90

*Marvel: Occasionally, we will feature an item in this What’s Old slot if we think it’s been overlooked or if, as in this case, prices have fallen from a peak and we’ve re-priced it. Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four added to its many innovations in 1966’s FF #52, when they introduced the first black super-hero in comics. Previously, the vanishingly rare heroic black characters in comics had been either embarrassing sidekicks or ‘noble savages’, but the Black Panther was the monarch of a highly sophisticated and technologically advanced African nation, Wakanda, and was to become not only one of the FF’s greatest allies, but a mainstay of their fellow heroes, the Avengers. This copy is CGC 5.0, unrestored blue label, a pence printed copy, off-white to white pages and a totally undamaged case.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #52 CGC 5.0 VG/FN p £550 SOLD

*Marvel: Following his debut in the previous issue, Dr. Strange returned for his second outing in Strange Tales #111, where for the first time he came up against his arch nemesis-is, Baron Mordo. In just five pages, Lee & Ditko manage to create an eerie tale of atmospheric mystic adventure. There’s something unique and beautiful about these little back-ups. The lead Human Torch story is a standard tale with a villain, the Asbestos Man, who didn’t exactly go on to find infamy in the MU; we didn’t know about the deadly effects of asbestos back then, though. A low grade copy from the Good Doctor collection, with fairly severe right edge chipping, a small corner off bottom right, small spine splits top and bottom and wear and tear around the edges. Good tight staples though and reasonable page quality, with some blunting.   
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #111 FA+ £100 SOLD

*Marvel: Thor took over Journey Into Mystery with #83, and some years later, the title was re-named Thor from issue #126. We have the first seven issues from that point fresh in this week, mostly in low grade. The Thor series hit the ground running with a Hercules clash leading to adventures with the Greek pantheon, before heading out into space with the Colonizers and the debut of Ego, the Living Planet.
IN THIS UPDATE: THOR
#126 GD p £55 (PICTURED) 1st issue of series. Long colour-breaking creases across cover. Good staples, slightly at the back of centre, so that the very left edge of the cover is at the back. Decent off-white to cream pages.
#127 FA p £4.25 Book shop stamps SOLD
#128 GD p £8.25 SOLD
#130 GD/VG p £13.50 SOLD
#131 GD/VG p £10
#132 VG- p £20 1st cameo Ego, the Living Planet. Price sticker over pence stamp.
#133 GD+ p £32 1st full Ego, the Living Planet. Small chip out splash page.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: A real gem from the Bute Collection this week. From 1943, Four Favorites #11 published by Ace. An iconic cover featuring an animated war bond smashing Hitler and Mussolini in the chops as they stumble back over Hirohito while our titular heroes look on. That’ll be Magno & Davey, Lightning, the Unknown Soldier and Captain Courageous. Four long stories in a packed interior of very accomplished art: Magno & Davey is by L B Cole, Lightning and Lightning Girl by George Gregg, Unknown Soldier by Harvey Kurtzmann and Captain Courageous by L B Cole. The Axis forces didn’t stand a chance! We’ve graded this copy as an Apparent GD, i.e. it has some restoration. Mostly small horizontal tears at the spine have been glued, and the spine has been reinforced and rebuilt at the central staple, which is now firm. There is a 3 cm upper spine split and some flat colour-breaking creases around the cover edges. Nice clean creamy pages and strong colour cover. The price takes the restoration/repair into account. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: FOUR FAVORITES #11 App GD £600 

 

*Alan Class Reprints: For many years now, we’ve been scouring the personal archives of legendary publisher Alan Class and with his full co-operation, releasing for sale sets of the original printing plates that were used to print the covers of his comics from 1959-1989. We’re approaching the very end of these sets now, with just a few more to be listed. So, this final phase represents your last opportunity to add one or more of these unique pieces to your collection. Each set comprises the lead printing plates used in the original comic’s colour printing, a copy of the comic printed with these plates and a signed certificate of authenticity signed by Alan Class himself. These are packaged in a special protective presentation case. Several sets (as noted) have additional historical artefacts such as colour proofs, interior page plates, printers’ photostats etc. (Please be aware that these weigh a lot and postage will be expensive. Also note that due to the onerous paperwork required for customs declarations following Brexit, we can no longer post these Plate Sets outside the UK.) Three new sets this week as follows:
CREEPY WORLDS #125 £90 Comic GD/VG; Reprints Avengers #72 plus cover, ACG. 100 Pages SOLD   
SINISTER TALES #3 £100 Comic FN; Reprints Atlas, pre-hero Marvel, 2 Kirby, 1 Ditko, 1 Frazetta-esque Torres. A very early Alan Class comic. SOLD
UNCANNY TALES #78 £75 Comic VG;  Reprints  Daredevil #56 inc cover, Charlton, Atlas. Extra: Colour cover proof SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Just a small top-up to this category this week, with Combat (#203 & #231), Commando (#1545), Cowboy (#288), Football (#200) and Top Three (#13). Full details in our catalogue.

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror category with Ace Doubles and more. We’ve decided to list Ace Doubles at the beginning of our page, since they fit there alphabetically and collectors like to home in on them. Authors featured will also be cross-referenced in the listing. Ace Doubles are flip books and we’ll be featuring both covers per volume. Two listed to start with (one new in), and we’re also featuring this week The Long Way Home by Poul Anderson (new in) and The Alien Ones by Leo Brett, a Badger book.
PICTURED:
ACE DOUBLE: JOHN BRUNNER: ENIGMA FROM TANTALUS / THE REPAIRMEN OF CYCLOPS
Ace 1965 1st US PB GD £2.50
ACE DOUBLE: KENNETH BULMER – THE HNUTERS OF JUNDAGAI / JOHN GLASBY – PROECT JOVE
Ace 1971 1st US PB VG £3