*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Although being the birthplace of Don Lawrence’s rightly celebrated Trigan Empire, the large format Ranger had a lot of other things going for it as well: nice paper quality, glorious painted covers and lots of other beautifully executed strips such as H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines & Allan Quartermain, Treasure Island , Space Cadet and many other stories of war, western, science fiction and historical adventure in a mix of colour and black and white. It had a short life of 40 issues before being subsumed into Look & Learn, but we have all issues fresh in from #2-40 from its 1965/66 run. Plus we have knocked about a third off of our Ranger prices. Consult our catalogue for details, where the reduced prices are now shown.
PICTURED: RANGER 25/9/65 VG £10 2nd issue SOLD

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: This week’s release of Love Story Library (later Love Story Picture Library), the longest running romance picture library from Fleetway, comprises 17 issues in the 400’s number range from 1963/64. The series always maintained a high standard and the very accomplished art reflected the fashions and mood of the times. These new additions are in decent condition, with little wear or creasing in most cases, the grades mainly determined by the amount of staple rust.  Full details as always in our catalogue.

*Comic Strip Books: Two 1978 paperbacks new in this week, reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #7-13 and Hulk #1-6 in full colour. A great way to enjoy these classic stories at a fraction of the price available in other reprints!
PICTURED: BOTH SOLD
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOLUME 2 by STAN LEE Pocket Books 1978 1st US PB GD/VG £9
Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #7-13 in full colour. Spine cracked; some edge wear.
INCREDIBLE HULK by STAN LEE Pocket Books 1978 1st US PB GD £9
Reprints Hulk #1-6 in full colour. Lots of cover creasing, but glossy and intact.

*DC: Although DC missed a trick by not including him on the cover, let me assure you that Green Lantern’s arch nemesis, Sinestro, does indeed make his first appearance within Green Lantern #7 (1961). Steeped in Green Lantern lore, the lead story introduced the renegade Green Lantern who would go on the plague the Emerald Gladiator throughout his career. This is a nice flat pence printed copy with strong colour and supple off-white to cream pages. The cover is off at bottom staple, but firmly attached at top, with both staples tight at centrefold. There is some edge wear, but nothing bad, with some thin colour-breaking creasing just in the very bottom right corner. There’s a tiny tear at the top of the spine, and a 1.5 cm one at the bottom. Tiny red ink mark centre right cover. A clean copy that presents well from an original owner collection new to the market.
PICTURED: GREEN LANTERN #7 GD/VG p £350 SOLD

*Marvel: A superb offering from the Good Doctor Collection this week with Amazing Spider-Man #8. In this special ‘Tribute To Teenagers’ issue, your friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler tackles the Human Torch, the Living Brain and Flash Thomspon (poor Peter just wasn’t getting along with anyone that month!) Single digit Spideys need very careful consideration these days for budgetary purposes, but this nice copy offers a cheaper option than most in its grade. Pence printed, with very strong colours and totally unmarked cover. A small number of spine ticks just break colour, but only very faintly. Corners are fairly sharp, staples are tight and firm at spine and centrefold. Supple pages are off-white (perhaps just a hint of cream). This will look very nice in your Spidey collection. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8 FN- p £500 SOLD

*Marvel: From the Bute Collection this week, and from 1963, the first Fantastic Four Annual. We don’t see this one turn up too often, so are delighted to have a fresh copy new in. In the lead story, the Sub-Mariner and Atlantis invade New York in a 37 page epic. There’s also an expansion of the FF’s first meeting with Spidey and a reprint of their origin from their first issue, plus a rogues’ gallery and other features. A decent pence printed copy with spine and edge wear, a long colour-breaking reading crease at spine, a tiny chip out top right corner by Comics Code box, a colour-breaking crease of about 2 cm across bottom right corner, and one or two short colour breaking horizontal creases at spine. Staples are virtually okay if a little rusty; final page is coming loose from bottom staple. Faint pencil/narrow crayon line vertical across Namor’s bofy. The spine is intact except for the top 1.75 cm, where it is split; it looks like a patch has been placed just over the top spine area (not on the front or back cover), so we have considered this may be amateur restoration and given this an ‘Apparent’ grade. A reasonably attractive copy of this relative rarity.  
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #1 App VG- p £175

*Horror 1940-1959: There were two Pre-Code Horror series that bore the name ‘Beware’; it’s the first from Youthful in 1952 that concerns us here. Truth be told, this first series ran to only three issues (#10-12), previously being named Fantastic and from #13 on, changing its name to Chilling Tales. Beware #12, from the Bute Collection, has four accomplished tales of horror beneath a striking man- fights-off-monster grabbing-chick cover. Body snatchers, evil children, monsters, rats and zombies all await you within. A vivid yellow background with strong colours on this vibrant, unmarked cover. Minor corner blunting, but very little wear – just a miniscule corner off cover bottom right. One small tear with no loss right edge of cover (about 1.5 cm) with similar on one internal page. Pictured below. As is evident in the scans, the comic is slightly mis-cut (not trimmed) and not quite square; this is fairly common in comics of this age from some companies.  High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: BEWARE #12 VG/FN £500 Pre-Code. SOLD

*Annuals: Four UK versions of Batman annuals published in the 1960s available this week, all in fairly low grade, but with bumper reading value! All feature classic Batman strips and John Jones, Manhunter from Mars or other contemporary DC features in black and white.
IN THIS UPDATE: BATMAN ANNUAL ALL SOLD
1959/60 FA £25 (PICTURED) Joker story and debut of Ace the Bat-Hound. Cover fixed on by brown tape. Edge wear with some scuff marks.
1960/61 PR £8 No spine. Front cover detached. Lots of edge wear and significant tape and scuff marks.
1962/63 FA/GD £12 Small bits of spine missing. Small tape and scuff marks. Fair bit of wear.
1967 GD £10 Spine present but a little scuffed. Corner and minor edge wear; small markings on cover.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Famous later, following a name change to Cowboy Picture Library, this title started out in 1950 as Cowboy Comics, originally published by Amalgamated until Fleetway took over. It lasted a very respectable 468 issues until 1962. We have almost all issues between #11-50 freshly available this week, when the title alternated between Buck Jones & Kit Carson (although I did notice Tim Holt in #20). A surprising number of cowgirls featured on many of the covers, as well as totem poles (go figure). Low grade but rarely seen, these all have taped spines with varying degrees of rust stain at the staple and migration to match, but are all complete. Grades are FA to FA/GD; prices £7-8.
PICTURED: COWBOY COMICS #11 FA £7

*DC: “What?” you youngsters incredulously cry. “There was a Suicide Squad without Harley Quinn in it?” Oh yes, ye of little faith. Travel back with us to the early days of Brave & Bold, wherein a team of non-costumed specialists – astronomer Hugh Evans, physicist Jess Bright, medic and intermittent psychic Karin Grace, and manly leading man Rick Flag Jr. – tackled meteor storms, dinosaurs, giant lizards, giant monsters – actually, mostly just freakishly big critters – in exotic locales. Written by Barking Bob Kanigher, the stories were short on logic but heavy on the pulse-pounding action, sleekly illustrated by the team of Andru & Esposito, and are fondly remembered today – particularly since Flag and Grace popped up in significant roles in later incarnations of the Squad. Four of the six original Suicide Squad adventures fresh in from the Bute Collection this week, missions 3-6 from Brave & Bold #27 & #37-39.
IN THIS UPDATE: BRAVE & BOLD
#27 GD/VG p £48 (PICTURED) Solid copy with good colour, pages and staples. Tiny splits at either end of spine. A few tiny creases in bottom right cover corner break colour.
#37 GD p £17.75 Lots of small tears and creases at spine and edge wear elsewhere; bookshop stamps. SOLD
#38 VG+ p £35 Solid copy with just minor edge and spine wear.
#39 FA/GD £11.75 Rusty staples. Off top staple. Great cover image. Wear along top edge.

*Marvel: Key issues don’t come much more key these days than Iron Man #55, wherein the cosmic arch-villain Thanos, nemesis of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, made his first appearance, the brainchild of fan favourite writer/artist Jim Starlin. Thanos has of course gone on to plague Marvel’s heroes in comics and movies ever since, but here is where it all started. This landmark issue also features the debuts of Drax the Destroyer, Mentor, Eros (later Starfox of the Avengers) and Kronos. This pence printed copy is rather nice, with brilliant colours and gloss, firmly attached staples, and supple white to off-white pages. Printed very slightly askew, with the base of the spine showing a slightly wider white edge than the top. It would grade significantly higher were it not for a faint coin-sized stain at the right edge between the logo and a Blood Brother’s head. Fortunately, this does not really detract from the cover image. There are also a couple of tiny biro letters in the price box below the ‘6p’.
PICTURED: IRON MAN #55 VG/FN p £365 SOLD

*Marvel: Lots of Hulk from the Good Doctor Collection this week, most issues between #141 and #176. As well as numerous encounters with foes old and new, there are significant first appearances here. #141 has the first Doc Samson, #142 the first Samantha Parrington iteration of the Valkyrie, and #168 the first Harpy. Turn your fellow collectors green with envy as you stock up on your Hulk goodies.
PICTURED: HULK 
#141 VG+ p £42
#142 VF+ p £90

*DC: In the wake of the Justice League/Justice Society crossovers, interest was revived in the 1940s heroes of the JSA, and one of several tryouts was the Spectre, a literal ghost who wandered the Earth, battling evil with mighty supernatural abilities. Brought back for a solo tryout in Showcase #60, by the superb team of Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, the Ghostly Guardian’s powers were elevated to almost godlike levels, to the point where the writer must have strained to come up with credible opposition for him – but the epic clashes between mystical and demonic forces pioneered ‘cosmic’ themes in comics. Two more Showcase issues followed (#64 here) before the Spectre launched his own series shortly afterwards.
IN THIS UPDATE:
SHOWCASE #60 PR/FA p £27 Re-stapled, long spine split and long back cover tear. Cover image okay, but not a nice copy. 
SHOWCASE #64 VG p £35 (PICTURED) Decent copy with spine and edge wear, short colour-breaking vertical crease bottom third cover centre.
SPECTRE #1 GD- p £20 Worn spine with small tear at top (slight loss); biro prices (small) on cover. SOLD

*Alan Class Reprints: For many years now, we’ve been scouring the personal archives of legendary publisher Alan Class (who is still very much with us) 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 have now reached the final phase of these plate set releases, which will last us throughout 2022. These sets are time-consuming to prepare, so our release schedule will be staggered. But the good news is that all the sets we have left are among the best, either featuring a classic Marvel comic reprint, or else a very early fantasy/mystery issue. 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.) We’re approaching the very end of these sets now, with just a few more to be listed. Three new sets this week as follows: ALL SOLD
CREEPY WORLDS #111 £90 Comic FN; Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #61 plus cover, Atlas, Charlton, 1 Jaguar
SUSPENSE #117 £100 Comic FN+; 100 Pages; Reprints Avengers #75 (inc cover) & #76, ACG,  Charlton. Extra: Colour cover proof, with small tear taped.
UNCANNY TALES #76 £60 Comic GD (contents detached from covers);  Reprints Daredevil #54 plus cover, Atlas, Charlton SF. Extra: Colour cover proof.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Not just #1, but in fact the first six issues of this celebrated  Picture Library series from Fleetway this week, dating from 1963. Subjects ranged from war to western to historical adventure. All in pretty nice shape.
IN THIS UPDATE: VALIANT PICTURE LIBRARY ALL SOLD
#1 VG £20 (PICTURED)
#2 GD/VG £8
#3 FN £20
#4 FN £10
#5 FN £10
#6 VG/FN £9

*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 re-listings for authors from Banister-Blaylock. All three branches of this category are represented, from relatively obscure pulp era and later science fiction authors such as Manly Banister, Ben Barzman, Barrington Bayley and Eando Binder, through to more famous authors such as Lloyd Biggle Jr (including a new-in Nebula Awards anthology edited by him) and Michael Bishop with his tour de force time travel novel No Enemy But Time, then on to horror from Charles Beaumont with an uncommon collection of stories (The Edge) and fantasy from Peter S Beagle (The Last Unicorn) and James Blaylock. There’s even a genre hybrid: the excellent A Scent Of New-Mown Hay from the wonderful John Blackburn which combines science fiction and horror; highly recommended. Several are pictured here. Full details as always are given in our catalogue.
PICTURED:
ECHO X by BEN BARZMAN Paperback Library 1964 2nd US PB GD £3
THE LAST UNICORN by PETER S BEAGLE Pan Ballantine 1971 1st UK PB FA/GD £15
THE EDGE by CHARLES BEAUMONT Panther 1966 1st UK PB GD/VG £15
NEBULA AWARD STORIES 7 by LLOYD BIGGLE JR (Ed) Panther 1974 1st UK PB VG £10 (NEW IN)
MENACE OF THE SAUCERS by EANDO BINDER Belmont 1969 1st US PB FN £8
NO ENEMY BUT TIME by MICHAEL BISHOP Sphere 1983 3rd UK PB VF £5
A SCENT OF NEW-MOWN HAY by JOHN BLACKBURN New English Library 1968 1st UK PB VG £7

Our January Blues Half Price sale is now concluded. Thanks to all of you who made it such a tremendous success with your unrestrained ordering!

*DC: Two particularly ropey (but relatively cheap) copies of the debuts of Flash villains from early Silver Age issues: the Trickster in #113 and Captain Boomerang in #117. Both would go on to long and infamous careers in the DCU. These are hardly copies that would look great in your collection, but for those on a budget or wanting just to fill gaps, these’ll do the job!
PICTURED: FLASH
#113 PR/FA p £60 Neatly taped spine. Lots of bookshop stamps all over the cover; the original pence stamp has been inked over. Cover has creases with wear to edges, but pages are okay. Complete.
#117 PR p £30 Very clumsily taped spine; tape coming loose and attached to part of image, cover almost detached and very worn with tears and creases and a corner off bottom right (see scan). Pages aren’t awful and comic is complete, except that back cover is missing.

*Marvel: Leading from the Good Doctor Collection this week, we have the first cameo and full appearances of Ultron. In 1968, Ultron was introduced as the secret leader of the Masters of Evil. At first seemingly, ‘just another robot’, he became one of the Avengers’ greatest enemies, particularly when his poignant connection to Hank Pym, Goliath, was revealed, and his menace has metastasised into other media, most notably the ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ film of recent years. We have Avengers #54, in which Ultron made his first fleeting appearance, and #55, in which his full villainy was unleashed, new in for your enjoyment in lovely condition. 
PICTURED: AVENGERS
#54 VF £135 Glossy cover with vivid colour. Staples tight and firm at spine and centrefold, supple white to off-white pages. Virtually no wear; a couple of minor stress marks to spine do not break colour. Tiny crease of less than 0.5 cm across very edge of top right cover corner, almost too small to see. .
#55 VF+ £175 Glossy cover with vivid colour and bright white background. Staples tight and firm at spine and centrefold, supple white to off-white pages. Just the tiniest corner rounding to bottom spine and bottom right corner; no other wear.

*Marvel: This week, the first appearance of Marvel’s version of Hercules in Journey Into Mystery With Thor Annual #1 from 1965, as Thor’s opposite number, and brawling partner/comrade-in-arms, as the exigencies of the plot demanded. Not the first Hercules in comics, nor the last – but Marvel’s well-intentioned wenching boozer is probably the best-loved iteration since the original legend! This bumper 72 page edition also features reprints of the debuts of some of Thor’s early major foes, including Loki. A lower-graded copy, pence stamped, spine intact but for 1cm split at bottom and tiny wear at top. Handling, edge and corner wear, mostly non colour-breaking, one small tear at right edge. Staples are strong and supple pages are a good off-white to cream. Small distribution marks below pence stamp inked over. 
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY WITH THOR ANNUAL #1 GD p £150

*Horror 1940-1959: Two excellent Pre-Code examples from the Bute Collection this week. Charlton’s This Magazine Is Haunted #21 from 1954 has a classic Ditko cover, with interior stories by George Evans, Chic Stone and others. Tormented #1 (of 2) from Sterling (also 1954) has a classy cover with two skeletons dragging a woman into a grave in a cemetery at night. The cover is by Mike Roy, who with Mike Sekowsky shares most of the interiors.
PICTURED: BOTH SOLD
THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED #21 FN- £200 Pre-Code. A superior copy with minor edge and corner wear. A faint white vertical line running the lower third of the cover looks like a printing issue rather than a crease or wear. Good staples and supple white to off-white pages. 
TORMENTED #1 PR/FA £240 Pre-Code. A very low grade copy of this prized issue. The cover colour is good and the image intact apart from a long, jagged narrow strip off the bottom and lower right edge (see scan). There are also small chips out at top and bottom spine and several chips out top edge, with a further outage centre right edge. There are also chips out of the back cover. The cover is still attached at the staples (as is the centrefold), but the spine is split almost all the way above, between and below the staples. The pages however are nicely intact and off-white.

*Alan Class Reprints: From the personal archives of Alan Class, we’re delighted to present another selection of copies certificated by Alan himself. Creepy Worlds was the (joint) first of his publications and probably the most famous. More than a dozen copies between #39 and #74, nearly all in nice shape are available in the certificated section of this category.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A Rara Avis of the comic world this, the forerunner of the Lion Summer/Holiday Special which started in 1968, this extra-thick one-off from 1967 didn’t actually feature any of the Lion regulars, but rather adaptations and articles on ‘the Greatest Films Ever Made’, as the cover boasts. These include Thunderbirds Are Go, Batman, The Lost World, Tobruk, Quo Vadis, You Only Live Twice and others. A lovely copy, with only the very slightest edge wear, no tears or creases and nice white pages. As is not unusual with a 96 page item, just a hint of spine roll. Also included in this update, a lowish grade copy of the 1972 Lion & Thunder Holiday Special with a small corner off top right cover.
IN THIS UPDATE: BOTH SOLD
LION SUMMER SPECTACULAR EPIC 1967 VG/FN £65 (PICTURED)
LION HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1972 GD £15

*TV/Film Tie-Ins: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our TV/Film Tie-Ins category, where the TV show or film pre-dated the book. There’s one helluva lot of fiction written about Dr Who, but we concentrate on the true vintage stuff, the adaptations of the stories of the first seven Doctors, published by Target, lovingly remembered from the days before video, when this was the only way of re-living these classic stories, and still fondly collected today. Our final update (for now) devoted to the Doctor, has stories of the 3rd, 4th & 5th Doctors.
PICTURED:
THE POWER OF KROLL by TERRANCE DICKS Target 1980 1st UK PB FN £3
THE RIBOS OPERATION by IAN MARTER Target 1979 1st UK PB VG £5
THE SPACE WAR by MALCOLM HUKLE Target 1976 1st UK PB GD £3
THE TERROR OF THE AUTONS by TERRANCE DICKS Target 1976 2nd UK PB VG/FN £6
TIMELASH by GLEN MCCOY Target 1986 1st UK PB VF £5
UNDERWORLD by TERRANCE DICKS Target 1980 1st UK PB VG £4

*DC: Six excellent issues of Strange Adventures, DC’s longest running science fiction series of the Golden, Silver & Bronze Ages. In the early number 100’s, three recurring features alternated in the spotlight each issue: Star Hawkins, Interplanetary Detective and his robot secretary Ilda, Space Museum, with tales of exhibits and Atomic Knights, post-apocalyptic adventures of Earth’s last armoured defenders. Take it from me, all wonderful stuff backed up by lovely little stories from DC’s best creators. All three features will be found in the last four of the issues featured here, with the debut of the Atomic Knights in #117.
IN THIS UPDATE: STRANGE ADVENTURES
#103 FA/GD £7.50 Off lower staple and cover scuff SOLD
#111 GD £10 SOLD
#115 FA p £4.75 Taped spine
#117 GD/VG £60 (PICTURED) 1st Atomic Knights; off lower staple SOLD
#118 GD p £8.75 Book shop stamps SOLD
#119 VG+ £22