*Marvel: In Ms Marvel #1, spinning out of Captain Marvel, former background character Carol Danvers got her own set of super-powers and a whole new supporting cast (including new boss J. Jonah Jameson) as she attempted to discover the mystery behind her own origins. Although moderately successful, the series was attacked by critics who derided Carol’s derivative costume, which made her look like Captain Marvel’s sidekick, and the fact that Marvel were offering a ‘powerful, confident’ heroine who suffered from blackouts and amnesia. Despite these jibes, Ms Marvel has been a prominent member of the Marvel Universe for nearly forty years in one guise or another – whether as Ms Marvel, Binary, Warbird, or most recently the latest Captain Marvel, her chequered history has provided many intriguing plotlines. With the Captain Marvel movie, starring Carol Danvers, being a blockbuster hit worldwide, early appearances of the character have heated up. This is a CGC 9.2 (NM-) cents copy, unrestored universal blue label, with white pages and a case in perfect condition. 
PICTURED: MS MARVEL #1 CGC 9.2 NM- £170

*EC: Always a joy to welcome original ECs to our listings, for quality and workmanship in the genres they covered unsurpassed before or since. Two issues of Shock Suspenstories new in this week, the ‘sort of’ compendium title which featured horror, science-fiction and crime. Both #7 and #11 are full of all of these, with art in #7 by Jack Kamen, Wally Wood, Joe Orlando and George Evans, within a classic melting face Al Feldstein cover. #11 features Johnny Craig (inc cover), Wood, Reed Crandall and Kamen. 
PICTURED: SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES
#7 VG+ £250 Pre-Code. A very solid copy with great spine, firmly attached staples and very little wear, marred only by the previous owner’s name written in biro several times across the logo and blurb box, but fortunately not the cover image. There is the very faint vestige of a very soft diagonal crease across the bottom left of the cover (the window area), but this is barely noticeable.
#11 GD/VG £60 Pre-code. Staples firm at centre, a little loose at spine. Long horizontal colour-breaking crease across logo, small paint stain just below it. Spine and edge wear. SOLD

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: The longest-running Western character from Atlas/Marvel, Kid Colt, was heavily reprinted in two series in the UK in the 1950s. The first, from Strato, lasted 58 issues from 1955-1958 and the second, from Top Sellers, lasted (as far as we know) just 6 issues from 1959-1960. All issues were a bumper 68 pages in black and white and featured Kid Colt stories alongside other Western Heroes from Atlas, DC and other publishers. A large update this week with issues from the 1st series between #46-52, as well as what we believe to be the complete second series from #1-6. Full grading and pricing details in our catalogue.
PICTURED: KID COLT OUTLAW (2ND SERIES) #1 FN £20 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Probably the most valuable and prized of all Picture Libraries, we’re pleased as punch to present a copy of Commando War Stories In Pictures #1 from 1961: ‘Walk Or Die!’. We don’t see many copies of this coveted collectable — perhaps this is the fourth to come through our hands in 30 years (and one of the previous was incomplete). The good news is that this copy is complete and probably in the best shape of all the copies we’ve had. The cover image is strong with great colour and all the pages are white and firmly attached, with just minor tanning to the very edges. There are a few cover wear marks, mainly in the smoke part of the image to the right edge. The spine is almost totally intact with a very small 1 cm tear midway with no loss and a 2 cm lower spine split.  A great opportunity to obtain this iconic item. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: COMMANDO #1 GD/VG £625 SOLD

*DC: We continue our Legion of Super-Heroes event with one of the earliest adventures of the Legion in their own series, Adventure Comics #309 (although DC missed a trick really by continuing to feature the Superboy back-up story on the cover at this time). The main event is the ‘Legion of Super-Monsters’ story featuring the villainy of Jungle King, who, following the refusal of his application to join the LSH forms his own Legion of alien beasts to wreak havoc. Contains the classic lines from Sun Boy: “You can’t bring that dangerous borlat in here!” and Brainiac 5: “We’ll draw lots for the job excluding Saturn Girl, because it’s too risky a mission for a girl!” (Guess he forgot she was leader at the time!) A lovely CGC 7.5 VF- cents copy with light tan/off-white pages, unrestored blue label, totally undamaged case. 
PICTURED: ADVENTURE COMICS #309 CGC 7.5 VF- £55 SOLD

*Marvel: Absolutely loads of goodies to come from the Good Doctor Collection in 2022! We kick off the year with the first appearance of the Vision in Avengers #57. A significant latecomer to the Silver Marvel Age, the enigmatic synthezoid, the Vision premiered as a villainous pawn of the evil Ultron. Rapidly being discovered to be misguided, he was offered membership the next issue, in one of the most rapid reforms ever, and became a mainstay of the Avengers and the MU in general, particularly through his convoluted relationship with the Scarlet Witch. Based on a Simon & Kirby character from the 1940s, Roy Thomas’ love affair with all things Golden Age stood him in good stead, as the Vision captured the hearts and minds of readers worldwide… though the exquisite art by John Buscema doubtless didn’t hurt! Now a pillar of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Vision’s star continues to rise. This cents copy is a solid mid-grade with a strong and colour-rich cover image retaining some gloss; there are minor creases to the top and bottom right edge corners, but these barely break colour. There are a couple of 2 cm scoring marks around Hawkeye’s upper left arm, but these do not penetrate paper. Staples are tight and firmly attached; reading wear at the spine is very minor; excellent off-white page quality.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #57 VG+ £275

*Marvel: We round off this week’s selection from the Good Doctor Collection with a consecutive run of Iron Man between #21 to #30, which seem to turn up less often than most titles from this period. Mostly in nice grades, these are all flagged up as ‘The Good Doctor Collection’ in our catalogue and are available for immediate order and despatch. More from the Good Doctor next week!

*Marvel: Following his 1976 return to Marvel, the legendary Jack Kirby was anxious not to get trapped in the cycle of just illustrating super-heroes again, and one of his conditions was that he would be allowed to write and draw his own concepts. How much of the Eternals concept was his is, politely, open to debate; reminiscent of the then-popular Erich Von Daniken paperbacks, which asserted that mankind’s historical ‘Gods’ were alien visitors, Kirby’s Eternals postulated the return of ancient immortal extraterrestrials and the cataclysmic repercussions for humanity. Originally intended to stand apart from the Marvel Universe, it was shoehorned in at editorial insistence, which resulted in Kirby eventually abandoning the strip mid-story, but with the Eternals movie this series has gathered a lot of interest. This is a nice, above average copy of the first issue, pence printed, with just minor reading wear at the edges and a tiny colour-breaking crease at the bottom right corner (and I do mean tiny!). Great colour and gloss, firm, tight staples and white pages.
PICTURED: ETERNALS #1 FN+ p £90 SOLD

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Also known as Marvel Spring Special #1, this one-shot black and white magazine from 1988 adapts the then new comedy horror feature film starring the famous glamour horror hostess. Not distributed in the UK and not well distributed anywhere, this is the first copy of this rarity we’ve ever had for sale. Colour cover by Joe Jusko and colour back cover with a photo of Elvira herself. A lovely copy, with just the very slightest signs of ageing at the spine and edges.
PICTURED: ELVIRA MISTRESS OF THE DARK #1 VF £75

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: This week, we conclude our 1953 listing of Lion, the ‘King Of Picture Story Papers’ with the fourth and final quarter, all 13 issues from October to December. From an original owner collection, these average a nice uniform VG at £5 each, with one or two higher or lower. The inevitable rusty staples are not too much in evidence with only minimal bleed. As Lion succinctly put it in one of their straplines: ‘School, War, Detective & Adventure Picture Stories.’ See our catalogue for full details.

*Girls’ Comics: From January 1958, we are pleased to welcome the first issue of the girls’ weekly which came to define the category: Bunty. D C Thomson’s first venture into the girls’ comic market (they had essayed a few story papers for the fairer sex, without conspicuous success) proved to be a smash hit. Granted, at the time of its launch, rivals were scarce – only Odhams’ distaff Eagle, Girl, and the converted story papers from Amalgamated, Girls’ Crystal and School Friend, existed to compete – but Bunty trumped them all, becoming the longest-running of the type, not hanging up her hockey sticks until the early days of the 21st Century. This copy of #1 – only the third we’ve ever had in stock during our 30 years’ trading – features ‘The Four Marys’ (who lasted until the final issue – without ever leaving school!), ‘The Dancing Life of Moira Kent;, ‘Orphan of the Circus’, ‘Parachute Nurse’, and what appeared to be a European import, ‘Bimbo and her Baby’ – which would be a very different strip if it were released these days! Make no mistake if you’re considering adding this to your collection — it’s a POOR copy, with browned ragged cover edges; 90% of the cover is loose with just a small piece to the bottom spine hanging on. There are also chips out and margin tears inside. Apart from the missing chips however (which don’t affect stories) it IS complete, and at a price which won’t break the bank and will fill a gap for you until a better one turns up.
PICTURED: BUNTY #1 PR £50 SOLD

As I write this, the infection rate for Covid is 1 in 20 in London. All of us involved with filling and despatching your orders have had three vaccinations, and there is no incidence of the virus here. However, we have a highly vulnerable family member that we have to care for. 

Our warehouse is located in a complex of similar businesses and we share common entrances, lifts, stairs and corridors. Thus it is impossible not to encounter others on trips there. In view of this, we have decided that we can only have very restricted access to it for short specific periods until the level of infection has decreased to what we woud consider to be within the realms of safety.

For the time being, therefore, and until further notice, we will only be able to fill orders from the stock listed in our new weekly newsletters (from 1st January onwards) and comics listed in our catalogue which are priced at £50 or more.

You can place orders for other items from our catalogue and we will record them, reserve the items for you (as long as no one else has reserved them before you) and contact you again when we can access our warehouse fully and check that you want to go ahead with your order. It’s impossible to say at the moment how long this will go on for, but we will post further information here as things change.

I apologise for any disappointment and inconvenience this may cause, but I’m sure you understand that we have to put health and safety first in these difficult times.

*DC: Originally planned as a regular Batman Annual, the story which would become The Killing Joke evolved by accident; as the wait lengthened for the pages to come in from illustrator Brian Bolland, Alan Moore’s story shifted, becoming more of an examination about the nature of the relationship between Batman and his arch-nemesis the Joker. Collateral damage along the way was Barbara Gordon, Batgirl, who was crippled and traumatised in the start of events which transformed her into Oracle, a sequence which outraged many at the time and polarises factions even today. Regardless of whether you love it or hate it – and there’s many on both sides – its importance and popularity can’t be denied, as it has remained constantly in print and gone through a myriad of formats. This first printing copy is an excellent VF/NM, with just a small area of very slight wear at the top of the spine.
PICTURED: BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE VF/NM £70 SOLD

*Marvel: Following their first encounter with Spidey in Amazing #16, the Circus of Crime appeared for a return engagement in #22, this time without the Ringmaster, but with new addition Princess Python in her first appearance. A great cover with the Spider symbol and Spidey’s elongated shadow. This is a CGC 8.5 VF+ cents copy, unrestored universal blue label with case in perfect condition and cream to off-white pages.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #22 CGC 8.5 VF+ £475

*Marvel: We lead off this week’s selections from the Good Doctor Collection with the fifth title we’ve covered thus far; it’s the debut issue of Iron Man’s own series. After a long run as the co-star of Tales of Suspense, Iron Man was given his own title in 1968, when the ‘Berlin Wall’ of Marvel’s distribution came down, and they were allowed to expand their range of titles. New in this week, a copy of Iron Man’s first solo issue, with Gene Colan’s hyperkinetic art driving the drama onward as Shell-Head comes up against the forces of A.I.M.; plus there’s a brief re-telling of Iron Man’s origin. The Good Doctor copy is mid-grade, pence stamped, with a rich colour cover, firm staples at spine and centrefold and nice cream to off-white pages. Around the cover edges, there is some thin, spidery creasing which breaks colour (in a very minor way) and there is some corner blunting, but overall this solid copy presents very well. 
PICTURED: IRON MAN #1 VG+ p £360 SOLD

*Marvel: The entire first run of the Silver Surfer’s own title from 1968 is highly sought after, partly because there’s only 18 issues to collect (although some of them are getting rather pricey!), but within that, the first seven 25 cent giant issues are particularly prized and this update, we’re featuring four of those seven. #2 debuts the Badoon, #5 features the Stranger, in #6 the Surfer comes up against the Overlord, and in #7 he encounters the heir of Frankenstein. In each issue, the double-length Surfer saga is backed up by a Tale of the Watcher. Higher graded copies are pictured and described below; see our catalogue for full details of all issues.
PICTURED: SILVER SURFER
#2 FN £90 Nice clean copy with intact spine, great staples and pages, good unmarked cover with gloss; just minor edge wear and corner blunting. SOLD
#7 FN+ p £60 A superior pence-stamped copy with faint reading crease at spine; glossy unmarked cover, great staples and pages. Great spine and just a minimum of edge wear. SOLD

*Marvel: The tabloid-sized Treasury Editions are always a popular choice; people like to see the art at the larger size that these offer. Here’s the very first Treasury in the main numbered sequence, featuring the web-head himself, natch, with some of his most famous adventures, including the debut of the Green Goblin. Art by Ditko, Kirby (!), Romita, Andru, Kane and more, plus a whole host of special features, this superior condition copy is quite something!
PICTURED: MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #1 FN/VF £35 SOLD

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Ten more issues of Creepy this week, Warren’s famous black and white horror magazine of the 1960s-1980s. The roster of artists recruited for this extravaganza reads like a Who’s Who of the best horror artists of the time: Frazetta, Adams, Jones, Brunner, Ploog, Corben, Wrightson, Ditko, Wood, Toth etc. Fresh in are issues between #12 and #22; full details in our catalogue.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Dozens of later issues of D C Thomson’s Commando in this week, the most popular and best-selling of all picture libraries. Lots of issues fresh in between #1329 and #1750. See our catalogue for full details.

We thought it Timely (if not Marvelous) to advise you of how we’re operating over the upcoming festive period.

To order in time for Christmas, UK orders must be placed by 4 pm on Saturday 11th December. As long as they’re paid for by 4 pm on Tuesday 14th December, they’ll be posted on Wednesday 15th December. Royal Mail advise that these should be delivered in time for Christmas. (Delivery times vary outside the UK, so we’re not giving dates for these.) After this, we won’t be posting again until Wednesday 29th December.

Our weekly Newsletters will continue up to and including 11th December, after which they’ll be taking a two week break, returning on Saturday 1st January. You can of course place an email order at any time, and we will fill your order and bill you to fit in with the above postage dates.

We shall be using the time to catch up with the assessment of several collections that are awaiting valuation, so that when the Newsletter returns on 1st January, it should feature bumper updates going forward.

JUST TO REPEAT – IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE AN ORDER WITHIN THE UK BEFORE CHRISTMAS, YOU NEED TO PLACE IT BY 4 PM THIS COMING SATURDAY 11TH DECEMBER

*DC: One of my favourite off-beat DC Silver Age series was Dial H For Hero, which appeared in House Of Mystery #156-173. Robby Reed, a small town teenager (with a penchant for exclaiming ‘Sockamagee!’) found a magical dial he used to transform himself into a variety of new super-heroes to battle the bizarre menaces that threatened his town. A charming series that benefitted from the artistic talents of Jim Mooney, whose design skills were well to the fore in the colourful and inventive guises that Robby adopted such as Giantboy, the Cometeer, Quake-Master, Mr. Echo, Astro, Man Of Space and dozens of others. He was accompanied by his neighbour Suzy who dialled into Gem Girl for one adventure, and he also dialled once into Plastic Man, technically being that hero’s first Silver Age appearance. Many issues new into stock, low grade reading copies to join our nice existing stock; oh, and each issue has a Martian Manhunter back-up to boot!
PICTURED: HOUSE OF MYSTERY #169 GD/VG p £4.75 

*Marvel: We start this week’s listings from the Good Doctor Collection with a classic run of five consecutive issues of the Fantastic Four from #30-34, with Stan and Jack really in their stride on ‘The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine’. #30 features the debut of Diablo, #31 the return of the Mole Man and #32 the tragic/heroic story of Sue and Johnny’s father. #33 has the fabulous photo-montage cover featuring Sub-Mariner and Attuma (whose debut is in this issue) and #34 the malevolent menace of Gideon in his first appearance. Full details of all (including #31 & #32) may be found as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR
#30 GD p £55 Pence printed, long vertical colour-breaking crease and several smaller creases, fingernail-size chip missing at bottom of spine, with resulting small tear throughout most of comic. Small tear in masthead area with no loss, goes throughout comic. Spine and edge wear with a couple of small tears. A little tired but okay SOLD
#33 VF- £215 Lovely cents copy, tight and flat with mostly sharp corners, unmarked glossy cover, tight firm staples and great off-white pages. Very little wear. SOLD
#34 FN+ £80 A superior cents copy, with minor edge wear and corner blunting, flat, tight staples and nice off-white pages. Tiny creases at spine and right edge barely break colour. Glossy and appealing. SOLD

*Marvel: The Gladiator became a stalwart of the Marvel villainous ranks, standing out due to his sinister spinning wrist buzz-saw blades. It was here in Daredevil #18 that he made his debut, drawn and designed by Jazzy John Romita in one of his last outings on the title before switching to Spider-Man. Here is a story dripping in atmosphere. This is a nice pence printed issue in mid-grade, with an unmarked cover, a soft, non-colour breaking crease across the bottom right corner (and similar on the back), only minor edge wear and corner blunting and nice off-white pages. More from the Good Doctor Collection next week!
PICTURED: DAREDEVIL #18 VG+ p £50 SOLD

*Marvel: Personally, back when I was collecting X-Men, I never troubled myself with issues from #67 to #93, since they were all reprint issues before the series was relaunched with #94. However, I know there are many of you out there who have to have every numbered issue to complete your run, so this update’s just for you, featuring half a dozen examples from this time. Some nice new Gil Kane covers on many of these. Full details as always in our catalogue.