*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. Timely/Atlas’ Miss America Magazine wasn’t named after the beauty pageant, but after Miss America, the premier super-heroine of Timely Comics, created by Otto Binder, who made her debut in Marvel Mystery Comics #49 in 1943, and proved so popular that she was awarded her own title a year later. With the second issue, however, the editors decided to alter the concept. From a straight super-hero book, Miss America became a hybrid comic and general girls’ magazine, with features on fashion, beauty, dating, movies, and prose fiction in addition to the comic strips. More significantly, from our perspective, a new feature was introduced. Patsy Walker, created by Stuart Little and artist Ruth Atkinson, graced the pages of Miss America Magazine #2 for the first of thousands of stories over dozens of titles. We have Patsy’s first two appearances available for purchase.

Miss America Magazine #2, November 1944, features a 14-page story of Miss America versus super-villain ‘The Shocker’, and a photo-cover of a model dressed in the super-heroine’s iconic costume, the first ‘super-hero cosplay’ cover we’re aware of. Patsy’s 7-page debut is the only other comic-strip content in this 68 page issue. As previously noted, Ruth Atkinson drew Patsy, while Miss America’s adventures by this time were illustrated by Pauline Loth, a former animator, in a delightful lively style. This copy of Miss America #2 is Apparent VG/FN: there is slight foxing on the white cover background, but the interior pages are cream-coloured and flexible, no trace of brittleness and browning, the staples firm at cover and centrefold; the top staple is loose at the front cover only. The reason for the ‘Apparent’ designation is that pages 39-40 have had a large corner, approximately 25% of the page, ripped out. This does NOT affect the comics, but impacts upon two text features, a fashion page and a story on baby-sitting. Otherwise this is an extraordinary grade for its vintage. #2 App. VG/FN, on sale at £1,750. Images of front and back cover, splash page and Patsy splash page are shown to the left above; high resolution images are available on request.

Miss America Magazine #3, December 1944, is a ‘girl power’ special! In addition to all the text features carrying female by-lines, Ruth Atkinson illustrates Patsy’s second story, the striking painted cover is by Louise Alston, and Pauline Loth illustrates not one, but two Miss America tales, as our teenage heroine takes on the villainous King Cobra and ‘The Mystery of the Ring!’ This is an unabashed Fine, with only very minor wear at the extreme outer edge. Cover colours are bright and vivid, interior page quality excellent, staples firm and tight corners. On sale at FN £900. Images of front and back covers, splash page, Miss America splashes and Patsy splash are shown to the left and below; once again, high resolution images are available on request.

These issues carry not only the cachet of Patsy’s earliest appearances, of a character still active in the Marvel Comics and Media Universes today, but also of being Golden Age Timely super-hero issues – Miss America herself has appeared many times in the current Marvel Universe in flashbacks and retro series, so both characters have strong ties to the current continuity. We anticipate keen interest in these lovely items, so don’t hesitate!

*Alan Class Reprints: A further update to one of Alan Class’s ‘big six’ titles, Uncanny Tales. We have new issues available in our regular listings section from some of the earliest (starting with #2) right through to some post decimal offerings.
PICTURED: UNCANNY TALES #2 GD/VG £33

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Rick Random was one of the best of the 1950s spacemen prolific in British comics. Debuting in Super-Detective Library #37 and created by Edward Holmes (writer) and Bill Lacey (artist), many subsequent stories were graced with the wonderfully stylish artwork of Ron Turner; the famous American science fiction author Harry Harrison had a hand in writing several. This week, we are delighted to present the first four of Rick’s adventures, including the debut issue, plus one slightly later story. All from an original owner collection, these are uniformly in a nice VG/FN condition, with intact spines, vivid clean covers, superb page quality and the inevitable rusty staples; however, very little rust migration. 
PICTURED: SUPER-DETECTIVE LIBRARY
#37 VG/FN £25 1st Rick Random
#44 VG/FN £20 Turner art
#48 VG/FN £20
#49 VG/FN £20 Turner art
#70 VG/FN £20 Turner art SOLD

*Childrens’ Books: Something a little different, quirky and quite rare in our Books update this week. ‘Blitz Books’ is a generic name for various publishers’ series of miniature books (approx 3 x 4.5 cm, around 16 pages, and published 1940-1944), these booklets helped distract children in air-raid shelters and Underground stations during bombing raids over London. They became known as ‘Blitz Books’, and, like many publications from the years of World War II, are quite scarce, particularly in as nice condition as the examples we have here. Five from the Pocket Series, illustrated text stories with colourful, evocative covers. None of these have ever passed through our hands before.
PICTURED: BLITZ BOOKS: POCKET SERIES ALL SOLD
#6 THE PEARL SMUGGLERS FN/VF £9
#15 THE FLOATING ISLAND VG/FN £7
#19 THE TERROR OF THE CAVE FN £8
#23 THE VENGEANCE OF BLACK ANDREW VG/FN £7
#32 STOLEN FLIGHT FN/VF £9

*DC: A smattering of miscellaneous Batman titles featured in this week’s Batmania update. From regular Batman series, #252, #253 (with the Shadow) and #308 (1st Tiffany Fox), Batman Family #1 & #3, Batman & The Outsiders #1 (1st series 1983), and the Batman Spectacular from DC Special Series #15.

*Marvel: Smiling Stan tested the waters for a fully-fledged return of Captain America with this appearance in the Human Torch story in Strange Tales #114. Spoiler Alert: Of course, this wasn’t the real Cap; as revealed at the story’s conclusion, it was really the Torch’s old foe the Acrobat. But Stan made no bones about testing the water for Cap’s proper return, asking for letters to see if fans wanted the real Cap back. Of course, it was just a short while until Avengers #4, and the rest is history! Speaking of letters, the third ever Dr Strange story appeared as back-up here, in response to fans’ positive reaction to the character in #100 & #111. So, a very significant issue. Pence stamped, solid with good staples and nice pages, only minor edge wear and corner blunting. The cover has two things marring it a little. The distributor used an ugly stamp over the original US price and there is a pencilled ‘6’ central on the cover between Cap and the Torch, although this is not too intrusive; both these defects should be visible on the scan and are taken into account on the grading and pricing. 
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #114 VG+ p £125 SOLD

*Marvel: Growing up reading DC, I was a relative latecomer to the Marvel Age of Comics. I tried a few before coming to my first issue of Amazing Spider-Man: #27, the second of a two-parter featuring the Crime-Master and the Green Goblin. At first, I didn’t know quite what to make of it. It was , I think, my first exposure to the work of Steve Ditko, and the gangsters depicted on the cover looked so old-fashioned that I found myself wondering if the story was set in some earlier period. And who was that grinning gargoyle floating in the background? The teenage me also loved Stan’s way with titles. This is a reasonable cents copy (with a small 9d price written in pen on the ‘D’ of Spider, with a rich colour cover (dark blue background), stapled in from the spine, so there is a reading crease along the spine where the comic has been opened to read, a fairly soft central subscription crease which just breaks colour and a colour-breaking crease across the right bottom cover. Other than that, only minor edge wear and tight staples. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #27 VG+ £95

*Marvel: A chunky update to the Man Without Fear, as we add a couple of dozen issues of Daredevil to our catalogue between issues #30 and #108. In a mixture of grades, we now offer a choice of grades on more issues plus many issues not previously in our listing.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: We dip our toes into Tomb of Dracula this week, the famous series by Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan, with four issues featuring the super-star Vampire Slayer Blade, who debuted in issue #10. All four issues are cents copies in high grade: #28, #42 (with a very faint price stamp centre cover – see scan), a Blade/Hannibal King encounter in #45, and another in #53. #45 is particularly drawn to your attention as it has received much attention in recent times for featuring the first full appearance of Deacon Frost, the vampire who bit Blade’s mother; a beautiful very high grade copy with just the tiniest hint of wear on a corner of the back cover.
PICTURED: TOMB OF DRACULA ALL SOLD
#28 VF/NM £55
#42 VF £30
#45 NM- £225
#53 NM- £35

*Power Comics: Appetite for UK reprints of Marvel Silver Age key issues has grown enormously over the last few years, driving the prices upwards. In this instance, if you add the factor of the hugely successful WandaVision TV series, these first UK reprints of X-Men #4, featuring the debut of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (inc Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch) are now highly sought after. Now, take care here — there are sellers on eBay (and elsewhere) who will try to convince you that Fantastic #6 features the debut of the Scarlet Witch — that’s not true. Odhams reprinted X-Men #4 over two issues in Fantastic #5 & #6. Although the cover of X-Men #4 featured on Fantastic #6 (complete with Wanda’s miscoloured outfit), she actually debuted in the first part of the story in Fantastic #5. We’re offering both issues in one lot, both VG (loose centrefold on #6) for one price.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC #5 & #6 VG £40 SOLD

*Humour Comics: Following on from the example of our Dandy 1956 update a couple of weeks back, we have a new batch of Beano in this week from 1957 and 1958, and we have now annotated all our stock for those years with details of strip debuts, so look out for the first appearances of Brannigan’s Boy, Thrill-A-Day School, Dippy the Diver, Fusspot Annie, Bringing Up Dennis, Johnny Go Back, Bristol Billy, Rattlesnake Ranch, Cookie, Betty’s Grandad, the Hogan Boy, Sparky’s Space Helmet and Dashalong Dot (whew!) As well as all that, we also have not one but two issues which include a promotional flyer for Bunty #1. We’ll be adding first appearance data to all new Beano issues listed from now on, and, if we ever have time, we’ll go back and look up that info for all our previously listed stock as well. 
PICTURED: BEANO
#808 VG £20 with Bunty #1 Promotional Flyer (slight edge damage)
#809 VG £20 with Bunty #1 Promotional Flyer SOLD

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Post-war faux American gangster novels (often termed pulps due to their paper quality) written and published in the UK have become something of a collector thing over the last decade or so. Written mostly by house names and featuring sleazy dame covers, the most famous of these are by the Hank Janson/Reginald Heade combo, but there are plenty of other fish in the sea too, for all the rarity of editions that have survived the decades. This week we have four more examples as detailed below.
PICTURED:
IMPATIENT VIRGIN by DONALD HENDERSON CLARKE 1st UK PB 1950s John Long VG £40
(slightly grubby with minor foxing at cover edges; more a racy sex novel than a gangster thriller)
STICK OR BUST by RICKY DRAYTON 1st UK PB 1983 Scion GD/VG £40
(cover art by Roger Davis; slightly foxed)
TOO TOUGH TO LIVE by GRIFF 1st UK PB 1950s Modern Fiction VG £45
(cover art by Oliver Brabbins)
THE HOUSE OF SIN by ANDRE LATOUR 1st UK PB 1950s Kaye GD/VG £40 SOLD
(small spine split to rear cover bottom)

*DC: In Batman #294, the Joker testifies how he killed Batman. But did he really? Reader, what do you think? A nice cents copy, with no specific defects beyond minor edge and handling wear.
PICTURED: BATMAN #294 VF £55

*Marvel: In Fantastic Four #18, the Skrulls, sworn enemies of the FF since their second issue, developed their own super-soldier with all the powers of the FF – and one more! The Super-Skrull has been more seen on Marvel’s cosmic stage than with the FF in later years, but this is where he got his start. This is a pence printed copy with rich colour covers and nice pages with a couple of small edge tears. Minor edge wear, plus a couple of colour breaking creases across the bottom edge and right corner; there is also a 2 cm tear to the bottom cover edge. Small tears at the bottom staple have been skilfully sealed and the price reflects that; staples are firmly attached. 
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #18 VG p £160 SOLD

*Marvel: After a one-off black & white magazine in 1975, Legion of Monsters, used up a rag-bag of separate inventory stories starring Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, Manphibian and other horror heroes, someone at Marvel decided that the title was nifty enough to merit a further outing, and therefore the bizarre and otherwise inexplicable Marvel Premiere #28 came about. Unlike the Legion of Monsters one-shot, which featured unrelated stories, Marvel Premiere #28 brought Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Werewolf By Night and Morbius the Living Vampire together as an actual team, albeit one even more mis-matched than the Champions! From the team of Bill Mantlo and Frank Robbins, it’s… everything you might expect! For decades discarded in bargain boxes everywhere, this issue has acquired white-hot collector’s status in the last decade. This is a nice, glossy cents copy with sharp corners, tight staples and off-white pages. No marks or creases. 
PICTURED: MARVEL PREMIERE #28 VF £85 SOLD

*Marvel: Hawkeye’s first mini-series from 1983 was the story in which he and Mockingbird became an item. Clint Barton has been a stalwart of the Avengers virtually since the beginning, epitomising them almost as much as Captain America, Thor and Iron Man and is a true fan favourite character. All four issues of this entertaining series by Mark Gruenwald now available in one set in VF/NM grade. 
PICTURED: HAWKEYE #1 VF/NM; COMPLETE SET 1-4 VF/NM £40 SOLD

*Marvel: We continue our series of spotlights inspired by the Disney+ smash series ‘WandaVision’ with Giant-Size Avengers #4. Remember how in the TV show, there was some doubt cast as to whether Wanda and Vizh had ever officially married? Well, no such question about their comic book union, which was solemnized in the this very issue, as a mutant sorceress and a synthetic human wed in a double ceremony with a Celestial Madonna and her dead boyfriend’s body which was inhabited by an intelligent tree spirit, the whole ceremony being conducted by a Ruler of Limbo and occasional villain who may or may not be a manifestation of Kang. Got that? So, all perfectly above board, then! Sadly, only a low grade copy on offer here, superficially okay but with a long spine split, about 3/4 up from the bottom.
PICTURED: GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #4 FA/GD £10 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 through 2021 and probably into 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.) Full details as always in our catalogue. 
We start this week with the following:
PICTURED: 
ASTOUNDING STORIES #1 £100 Comic FA Reprints Charlton (mostly SF), 1 western story, 1 Nyoka story. Extra: several printer’s cover colour proofs and finished cover. SOLD
CREEPY WORLDS #103 £80 Comic GD Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #53 & #54, plus Atlas. Extra: cover print SOLD
CREEPY WORLDS #104 £85 Comic VG Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #55 & #56, plus Atlas plus pre-Hero Marvel (1 Kirby). Extra: interior plate of lead story splash page. SOLD
SUSPENSE #2 £50 Comic FA Reprints Atlas (1 Williamson)

*Girls’ Comics: Another brace of Free Gift issues from the UK’s longest running girls’ title this week. From 1972, #766 comes with ‘the Bunty Fairy Ring’, #767 with ‘The Bunty Blue Necklace’. Both comics are VG, having suffered some creasing in storage with their gifts over the years, but with no other defects. The Fairy Ring is VF, still sealed in its original envelope; the Blue Necklace is still mounted on its original card and is in great condition, although the card itself is a little worn, so FN.
PICTURED: BUNTY
#766 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £35 SOLD
#767 VG WITH FREE GIFT FN £35 SOLD

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Philip K Dick is one of our best-selling authors. I guess his themes of religion, drugs, counter culture and destructive relationships appeal. So we’re pleased to present five of his works this week in paperback. Clans of the Alphane Moon is about human survivors of a hospital moon and the family clans they comprise, Counter-Clock World is a story where time moves backwards, Eye In the Sky is a surreal tale of a personal world realisation with religious overtones, Our Friends From Frolix 8 is about a search for help for humans from the stars and the Penultimate Truth is about a feudal oppression of the masses in the future. Full details of all editions in our catalogue.
PICTURED:
CLANS OF THE ALPHANE MOON VG £7 US PB 1972
COUNTER-CLOCK WORLD VF £8 UK PB 1977
OUR FRIENDS FROM FROLIX 8 VG £7 1st US PB 1970

*DC: From Jack Kirby this week, that marmite of opuses, part of his Fourth World saga from DC in the early 1970s. Like it or loathe it, there’s no denying the power, majesty and ambition of vision by one of comics’ greats in his series of linked titles from this time. The Forever People from Super Town star in their own 11 issue series and are introduced in #1 along with the first full appearance of Big Bad Darkseid, following cameos elsewhere. All that plus Superman too! All 11 issues are present in this update; the #1 is a decent pence stamped copy with minor edge wear and corner blunting, good page quality and tight staples. For details on the rest, consult our catalogue as always.
PICTURED: FOREVER PEOPLE #1 FN- p £90 SOLD

*Marvel: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. This week, a jewel in the crown of the Square Mile Collection! In 1962, following the success of the Fantastic Four, Marvel were casting around for their next hit. Combining elements from popular TV shows of the time, Lee & Kirby brainstormed a ‘mash-up’ of Frankenstein and Jekyll & Hyde – the old horror movies then going great guns on late-nite TV – and threw in a jive-talking teenager a la ’77 Sunset Strip’s ‘Kookie’, leavening the mix with a hearty dose of Cold War paranoia. The result was the Incredible Hulk; mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner runs out into a gamma-bomb test to save the life of a feckless teen, and in consequence Banner becomes the Hulk, a creature of incalculable strength and uncontrollable rage! Most key components of the Hulk mythos were introduced here: Banner and the Hulk himself, perpetual hero-groupie Rick Jones, love interest Betty Ross and antagonist General ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross – but several elements needed to be refined, including our hero’s skin colour. In this first issue only, he was grey, like the monsters in the black & white TV horror shows; from #2 onwards, without explanation, he became the emerald-hued behemoth we love today. But the main theme of the character – intelligence and compassion warring with brute strength – was evident from the beginning, as Bruce, not the Hulk, turns an enemy into an ally and saves the day. Curiously, the Hulk was an initial flop, cancelled after six issues, and condemned to a few years as a guest villain or back-up strip until the revival of his solo title in 1968, but this is where his long career began. This is a CGC Blue Label (no restoration) 3.5, a VG- equivalent, a pence copy (or ‘UK Price variant’, as our American cousins would have it). Several fine lines at the spine and corners do not detract from the central cover image, with beautiful unfaded midnight-blue cover background colour. Hulk #1 is regarded by many authorities as the second rarest Marvel key issue (behind Amazing Fantasy #15, with Fantastic Four #1 in third place); we have only been lucky enough to have three or four copies through our hands in our near 30 years of trading.
PICTURED: HULK #1 CGC 3.5 VG- p £10,000 SOLD

*Marvel: This week, a two part encounter with Mysterio, that most tricky of villains who benefits from a timeless and stylish design by Steve Ditko back in the day. Here again he’s trying to make our friendly neighbourhood web-slinger crack up in this harrowing story. Mysterio stories have become increasingly popular since his appearance in the MCU, so we expect demand for these two lovely condition issues to be high. Both nice flat glossy copies, #142 is just marred by ballast ink marks at the top and bottom edges which do not intrude on to the cover.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#141 VF £47 SOLD
#142 FN+ £37

*Marvel: Hey, it’s the early 1990s (gosh, 30 years ago) and the age of the polybag and trading card, as exemplified by the mega 12 part X-Men crossover ‘X-Cutioner’s Song’ which ran in Uncanny X-Men, X-Men Vol 2, X-Factor & X-Force and featured Stryfe as the central villain. The main issues of the crossover were sold polybagged with a special trading card that featured Stryfe’s personal views of key characters from the crossover. This week we have the first four parts of the crossover new in, all still sealed in their polybags and untouched by human (or mutant) hand, complete with trading cards. I’m sure if you were there at the time, these will have some nostalgic appeal for you.
PICTURED: ALL SOLD
PART 1 UNCANNY X-MEN #294 NM £23
PART 2 X-FACTOR #84 NM £10
PART 3 X-MEN #14 NM £13
PART 4 X-FORCE #16 NM £10

*Marvel: Several issues of Astonishing Tales new in this week from the early 1970s. Prominent are #1 with the debut of the Ka-Zar and Dr. Doom strips, plus #6, with the first appearance of Bobbi Morse, who would later become Mockingbird. We also have a couple of solo Ka-Zar issues, a couple of Deathlok issues and a nice #29, featuring a reprint of the first Guardians Of The Galaxy story. See our catalogue for full details.
PICTURED: ASTONISHING TALES
#1 VF- £35 SOLD
#6 FN p £40 SOLD