*Alan Class Reprints: From the Alan Class Personal Archive, we’re delighted to present ten post decimal issues of Astounding this week, all in very high grade, never read or circulated, and each with a certificate signed by Alan Class.
IN THIS UPDATE: ASTOUNDING
#111 VF/NM £5
#115 VF+ £4.75
#119 NM £5.50
#130 VF £5.25
#134 VF/NM £5
#135 VF/NM £5
#139 NM £5.50
#142 VF/NM £5
#143 NM £5.50
#144 VF/NM £5

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: All the Queens Of Crime had their recurring detectives of course, and Margery Allingham’s was Albert Campion, a suave sleuth of noble blood, perfectly portrayed on TV by Peter Davison. Four Allingham Penguins in classic green and white stripe livery from the 1950s/60s fresh in this week, all featuring Campion in typically clever murder mysteries. Although perfectly readable, these copies are in mixed condition; full details, including condition notes, await you in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ALL BY MARGERY ALLINGHAM ALL SOLD
THE BECKONING LADY Penguin 1960 2nd UK PB VG £5
THE FASHION IN SHROUDS Penguin 1961 3rd UK PB VG £5
FLOWERS FOR THE JUDGE Penguin 1950 3rd UK PB GD/VG £7
MYSTERY MILE Penguin 1950 1st UK PB FA/GD £4

*DC: Also from the Midas Collection this week, four consecutive issues of Batman #101-105 from 1956 in a variety of grades.
PICTURED: BATMAN
#101 GD/VG £120 Clark Kent guests. Cover and art by Sheldon Moldoff; stories by Bill Finger and Edmond Hamilton. Edge wear and moderate spine wear. Staples firm, nice white to off-white pages. Faint diagonal cover crease.
#102 GD £67 Cover by Sheldon Moldoff; interior art by Moldoff and Dick Sprang. Stories by Bill Finger. Cover wear with faint staining; subscription-like crease. Discolouration on small part of logo. Staples tight and firm, pages off-white.
#103 FN+ £260 ‘Bat-Hound, Movie Star’. Cover by Sheldon Moldoff; interior art by Moldoff and Dick Sprang. Stories by Bill Finger and Arnold Drake. Superior copy with bright colours and sharp corners. Firm, tight staples and near white pages. Faint cover crease does not break colour. Tiny mark over ‘B’ in logo.
#104 VG- £115 Cover by Sheldon Moldoff; interior art by Moldoff and Dick Sprang; stories by Bill Finger and Edmond Hamilton. Decent copy with relatively minor cover wear. A couple of small tears top cover edge and a crease that only just breaks colour. Firm, tight staples and off-white pages.

*Marvel: We present in Amazing Spider-Man #13 the first appearance of a major member of Spidey’s Rogues’ Gallery. Peter Parker’s costumed alter ego faced one of his most baffling foes: Mysterio, whose inexplicable feats bordered more on the supernatural than the super-powered, and brought Spidey close to the edge of insanity. Steve Ditko’s artwork here transplanted a touch of his imagination from Doctor Strange to Spidey’s more urban environment, and from the visual evidence, Sturdy Steve was having great fun making both worlds collide! This is a serviceable pence printed copy, with good cover colour and a fair bit of handling and reading wear. There are faint-ish creases at spine, further in across Spidey’s head and at bottom right corner, with some colour breakage. Staples are tight and firm at spine and centrefold. Short back cover tear and nicks. Narrow sun shadow along right cover edge, with tanning (non-brittle) to inside covers, particularly at edges. Pages are a flexible off-white to cream. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #13 GD p £400 SOLD

*Marvel: You know the one, right, where in Fantastic Four #57-60, Doctor Doom steals the Silver Surfer’s cosmic powers and uses them to defeat the FF in one of THE classic adventures of Marvel’s first family? Oh, and somewhere in there the Inhumans break free of the Great Refuge. This quartet from the Good Doctor Collection features a really nice copy of #57, with one of the great Dr Doom covers, plus lower graded copies of #58-60.
IN THIS UPDATE: FANTASTIC FOUR
#57 FN/VF £275 (PICTURED) Beautiful fresh copy with deep and vivid cover colours, tight, firm staples and supple white to off-white pages. Solid spine, very minor corner blunting and just very slight edge wear. There is a tiny 2-3 cm crease across extreme bottom right corner which faintly breaks colour. 
#58 GD/VG p £11 SOLD
#59 GD/VG p £11 SOLD
#60 App VG/FN £9.25 Ad page out; story complete. SOLD

*Miscellaneous 1960 Onwards: It’s quite rare that we stray into the 21st Century for our stock, but for Alan Moore, we’ll make an exception. Moore created, in conjunction with artist Kevin O’Neill, a Victorian era combination of characters from famous literary works: Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man and so forth. This unlikely and reluctant alliance faced down foes in two mini-series, then resurfaced periodically from various publishers in a number of one-offs, original graphic novels and spin-offs. The subject of a controversial film (which Moore publicly disavowed and condemned, and which is rumoured to have caused star Sean Connery to retire from acting!), the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics and graphic novels are of a much higher quality. Even if, over the intervening years, Moore’s narrative techniques have become ever more esoteric and oblique, there is much entertainment to be had in his shameless plundering of popular culture. This week we feature Volume 2 of the series, a complete six issues, which is inspired by the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H G Wells among many others, and essentially is a retelling of the War Of The Worlds.
PICTURED: LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN VOL 2 #1 NM; Complete Set #1-6 all NM £20 SOLD

*Romance: Finally from the Midas Collection this week: Secret Hearts was a long-running DC romance title, lasting 153 issues until 1971, but it started here in 1949 with #1. As was usually the custom with most publishers romance titles around this time, a photo cover was used on early issues, here a very happy cycling couple. Interior art, as always with DC was of a high standard, including here a couple of stories possibly by Toth and Infantino, and a signed story by Kinstler. A nice clean copy with upper and lower short spine splits and tears without loss at top left and back right cover corners, including a loose chip top left.
PICTURED: SECRET HEARTS #1 GD- £60 SOLD

*Humour Comics: Continuing our policy of providing more information for Beano and Dandy, we’ve now overhauled our stock of Beano for 1950, adding details of strip debuts and special issues; along the way we’ve added about half a dozen issues fresh in (most of which bear the marks of having been removed from a bound volume). As well as the April Fool and Easter issues, we also have the debuts of Sinbad the Sailor (#400), the Wily Ways of Simple Simon (#412) and Bird Boy (#436). We’ve now also marked which years of Beano and Dandy in our catalogue have been checked and overhauled where necessary with new and enhanced information.
PICTURED: BEANO #402 VG/FN £35 April Fool issue

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: No introduction to arguably the greatest American detective writer is really needed from me here. Chandler’s books, such as The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye remain high in profile due to his fame and popularity, and their film versions are classics of film noir. He himself contributed screenplays to that genre such as Double Indemnity and Strangers On A Train. His creation, Philip Marlowe, is the quintessential American private detective, and the dry, sometimes laconic prose style of Chandler’s writing set the tone for generations of imitators to follow. He wrote seven novels and lots of short stories and we feature many of them in our catalogue. Four novels new in this week, all in distinctive Penguin Green livery:
PICTURED: ALL BY RAYMOND CHANDLER ALL SOLD
FAREWELL, MY LOVELY Penguin 1961 7th UK PB thus GD/VG £4
THE LADY IN THE LAKE Penguin 1954 2nd UK PB thus GD £4
THE LITTLE SISTER Penguin 1959 3rd UK PB thus GD/VG £4
PLAYBACK Penguin 1954 1st UK PB thus GD £4

*DC: Our star attraction from the Midas Collection this week is Batman #5; with an eye-catching ‘Scales of Justice’ cover, this issue features a classic Joker story, and is the first appearance of the ‘classic’ Batmobile with the bat head/shield design. (Previously, Batman had driven a succession of cars referred to as ‘the Bat-Mobile’, but they lacked this distinctive configuration). Cover by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson. All stories by Bill Finger and Bob Kane. Joker story, The Riddle of the Missing Card, sees the clown prince of crime involved with a smuggling gang named after playing cards and a brief fling for the Black Queen with our hero. Book Of Enchantment features a magical adventure for Batman & Robin in Fairyland. The last two stories, The Case Of The Honest Crook and Crime Does Not Pay, are mobster encounters.  This is a decent lower-graded copy with bright cover colours and a fairly undamaged cover scene, although it’s a bit worn from handling with several mostly unobtrusive creases (some of which just break colour), particularly at the bottom right corner. The spine is more or less intact, although the bottom staple has pulled through the front cover (and is also loose at the centrefold). Top staple is not tight, but is still well attached. There is a small faint name above the logo and even fainter figures written near the spine to the left of Batman’s shadow. Pages are a remarkable near white, with just a little foxing at the very edges. Short back cover tear. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: BATMAN #5 GD £1,850 SOLD

*DC: It’s not often that we market a coverless comic, but even less often that we have something from the very dawn of the comics industry as we know it. In 1936, the forerunner of DC started publishing New Fun Comics, changing the name to More Fun Comics after the first six issues. The anthology title featured a wide range of characters from many genres in stories that ran in 1, 2 or 3 page instalments. By issue #19 in 1937, these included Dr Occult by Siegel and Shuster, Sandra of the Secret Service, Pep Morgan, Mark Marson of the Interplanetary Police, the Radio Squad and many others. This coverless copy is otherwise complete, except that a large corner is off the first page, affecting the first story. The general condition of the pages is okay, with some tape, tears and extra staple repairs at the spine. You probably won’t get too many chances to buy an issue from this series at this sort of price, so good luck to anyone who places an order!
PICTURED: MORE FUN COMICS #19 COVERLESS £50 SOLD

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection, Strange Tales #159 saw the debut of Contessa Valentina Allegro De Fontaine (‘Val’ for short). Although Val’s origins, motives and indeed affiliations seem shrouded in contradiction and mystery with her later appearances, it was much simpler back in her first comic appearance, where she portrayed herself as an Italian noblewoman enrolled in SHIELD’s spy-school and created by the multi-talented Jim Steranko, in an issue guest-starring Captain America. (Also in this issue, a superb Dr Strange story by Roy Thomas and Marie Severin). This is a pence printed copy with great colours and just minor edge and handling wear; tight, firm staples and near white pages.  
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #159 FN p £50 SOLD

*Marvel: Five issues of the Mighty Thor with art in transition. #168 & #169 features Kirby art and the origin of Galactus. #181 is by Neal adams. #184 & #188 has art by John Buscema and feature the first and last parts of the Infinity saga.
IN THIS UPDATE: THOR
#168 GD+ p £33 Origin of Galactus
#169 VG- p £27 Origin of Galactus concluded
#181 GD/VG p £6.75  Neal Adams art
#184 VG+ p £6.25 1st Infinity
#188 GD+ p £4 Last infinity

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: From our fabulous Arch Collection this week, three early issues of the long-running Blackhawk title from Quality, published in 1946-48, long before DC took over the reins. Great art on these cracking adventure stories, starring our magnificent seven aviators (as long as you can turn a blind eye to the horribly racially stereotyped and caricatured Chop Chop). Often the Blackhawk comic has a bevy of curvaceous heroines and slinky villainesses not always obvious from the covers, and these issues are no exception, starring as they do the adventuress known as Fear, the Blackhawks’ ally, here in her second appearance in #13, plus subsequent in #14 and #22 (her final Golden Age appearance). Her romantic interest in Blackhawk himself was never requited.  
IN THIS UPDATE: BLACKHAWK
#13 VG+ £150 (PICTURED) Nice solid copy with some cover creases that don’t break colour, tight and firm staples and very minimal edge wear with some corner blunting. Pages are off-white with a little tan at edges and some margin foxing. We just had to show the Fear story splash page!
#14 INCOMPLETE Free with #13. Decent copy with centrefold missing, which just happens to feature the Fear appearance. Plenty of other femme fatales in evidence though. Buy #13 and you get this issue free.
#22 GD £42 (PICTURED) A lower graded copy with cover staining, creases and small tears sealed with tape on inside cover. Staples firm at spine but centrefold loose. Pages are okay but inconsistently cut.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Following strong sales and a big influx of new stock, we’re totally overhauling and relisting our Eagle stock: many additions and deletions and new streamlined pricing. One of the icons of British comics’ history, Eagle started up in 1950; every issue of its twenty year run starred Dan Dare, its most famous son, as well as loads of other strips, featuring the cream of British artists and superior quality printing and paper. Volume 9 is now processed and re-listed, continuing from Volumes 1-8 previously done. Please refer to our catalogue for details. Volumes from 10 upwards will be dealt with over the coming weeks, but for now they remain at half the old prices in our half-price sale.

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for this books category, with an image for each book. This week, we reach authors with the surname Jones in our re-listing. D F Jones contributes two novels in his Colossus series (the first two) about the ultimate machine. Langdon Jones, himself an alumnus of the famous New Worlds magazine, presents an anthology very much inspired by that seminal publication, featuring stories by Brain Aldiss, J G Ballard, Thomas Disch, Michael Moorcock, John Sladek and many more. Neil R Jones has three novels of his Professor Jameson Space Adventure series. Raymond F Jones has two stories of psychological space opera. As always, more information, including condition notes, in our catalogue.
PICTURED:
D F JONES: COLOSSUS Pan 1968 1st UK PB VG £15
D F JONES: THE FALL OF COLOSSUS Berkley Medallion 1975 1st US PB GD/VG £10
LANGDON JONES (Ed): THE NEW SF Arrow 1970 1st UK PB GD/VG £7
NEIL R JONES :PROFESSOR JAMESON SERIES:
#1: THE PLANET OF THE DOUBLE SUN Ace 1967 1st US PB FN £6
#2: THE SUNLESS WORLD Ace 1967 1st US PB VG £5
#4: TWIN WORLDS Ace 1967 1st US PB GD £4
RAYMOND F JONES: THE ALIEN Belmont 1966 US PB GD £4
RAYMOND F JONES: THE NON STATISTICAL MAN Brown Watson 1965 1st UK PB VG £5

*Clearance Corner: Very occasionally, a lot comes our way which either does not justify its place in our catalogue (but is too good to discard), or is superfluous to our requirements. These lots are offered here on our What’s New page, but are no longer listed in our catalogue. Lots listed under Clearance Corner will be available for a short time only, and are offered post free to UK buyers only. They are not normally bagged and boarded as our normal stock, but will be securely packaged for transit. If you order a Clearance Corner lot, it may not be combined with another order in the same package. This lot comprises eight 2000 AD Sci-Fi and Winter Specials, all in at least FN or VF condition, as follows:
Sci-Fi Specials 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988
Winter Specials 1988, 1990
All for £30 with Free UK Postage and packing SOLD

*DC: Two classic issues of Wonder Woman from the Midas Collection this week. #45 is a special issue re-telling and updating the origin of Wonder Woman in a long two-part story. In a whimsical third story, a leprechaun wins a scholarship to Holliday College, and Wonder Woman, as acting dean, must endure his pranks while protecting him from gangsters attempting to steal his pot of gold (!). The final story features a western wedding when Wonder Woman travels to the New West. Three longer adventures feature in #46. All stories by Robert Kanigher with art by Henry Peter; covers by Irwin Hasen.
PICTURED: WONDER WOMAN BOTH SOLD
#45 GD+ £200 Good colour to cover, with damage restricted to edges, apart from a subscription crease breaking colour down the centre. Small upper spine split below 2 cm. Chips out at bottom spine and right corners (see scan). Minor chipping to right edge. Firm, tight staples. Pages are off-white to cream. 
#46 GD/VG £125 Great clocks cover with nice colours. Small handwritten monogram in between logo words, small stamped ’10’ on background. Some wear along top edge (with tiny corner off right edge) and spine, with small chunk out back cover at spine base with small split. Reading creases break colour a little near spine. Firm, tight staples. Pages are off-white to cream. 

*Marvel: Iron Man’s very first appearance, in the pages of Tales of Suspense #39; abducted by Reds behind the Bamboo Curtain and forced to manufacture advanced weapons to crush capitalism, Tony Stark turned the tables on his captors by devising a cybernetic suit of armour which transformed him into an unstoppable juggernaut of justice – but at the cost of a near-fatal injury to his heart, which required constant contact with his robotic armour to keep beating! Under the artistic talents of (usually) Don Heck (who devoted special attention, bless him, to the many shapely ladies Tony Stark romanced), the sophisticated world of Tony Stark vied with the action-adventure of his Iron Man persona for the readers’ attention. With two fantasy back-ups, one by Steve Ditko.
This is a pence printed copy with an unmarked cover and good colours. The spine is worn, with small splits along its length, an upper split of about 3 cm and a much shorter lower split with slight creasing at the corner of the spine base. The body is secured well at the staples, which are also firm at centrefold. There are a couple of small chips out at cover right edge. Minor tanning on inside covers, particularly along bottom edges, but decent off-white page quality. Plenty of images shown here; high resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: TALES OF SUSPENSE #39 GD p £3,850

*Marvel: Seven consecutive issues of the Avengers from the Good Doctor Collection this week from #34-40, featuring the debut of the Living Laser (what would a dead laser be like, we wonder?), the alien Ultroids, Hercules becoming an Avenger, the Mad Thinker and the Sub-Mariner. Roy Thomas takes over on scripts from Stan Lee, and Don Heck’s dynamic pencilling is given greater depth and definition by the inks of George Bell.
IN THIS UPDATE: AVENGERS
#34 FN- £20 SOLD
#35 FN- £20 SOLD
#36 VG/FN p £16.50 SOLD
#37 VF £47 (PICTURED)
#38 VG p £13.25
#39 VF- £41 (PICTURED)
#40 VF £47 (PICTURED)

*Marvel: Five issues of the X-Men between #143 and #148 (exc. #144). Covering the last John Byrne issue, where Kitty has an alien encounter at Christmas and welcoming Dave Cockrum back to the artistic helm, with Dr Doom, Iceman, the Angel, Havok, Polaris, Arcade, Caliban, Dazzler and Spider-Woman all popping by with well wishes and otherwise.
IN THIS UPDATE: X-MEN ALL SOLD
#143 VF- £17.75
#145 VF- p £7.25 (PICTURED)
#146 FN/VF p £6.50
#147 VF p £8.25
#148 VF p £7.50
 

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Something a bit niche for your consideration this week, and a rarity that you won’t find many. if any, of on the market. This is a regular comic-sized supplement to the European edition of the New York Star Dec 1948, containing, beneath an admittedly nondescript cover, what appears to be a rebound copy of Blonde Phantom #19. As far as we have been able to ascertain, this supplement (called Jet Comics) rebound the interiors of a comic with a new generic cover, in much the same way as the later UK Double Double Comics, so there are probably several different comics lurking under this cover (one issue at a time). This appears to be a rebind rather than a reprint. Blonde Phantom #19 was dated September 1948, just three months before this. Three Blonde Phantom stories, probably by Ken Bald, and one Sub-Mariner story with Namora, probably by Mike Sewkowsky. Nice enough copy with small chip out top centre cover and small lower spine split. A fraction of the price of Blonde Phantom #19. Lots of images shown here. 
PICTURED: JET COMICS VG- £100 SOLD
 

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: A small showcase of the variety available in the UK in the 1950s/60s, reprinted from the American originals (almost always in black and white): Mike Shayne (Private Eye), a Motion Picture Comic (Mask of the Avenger), 2 x Nyoka the (sensibly clothed) jungle girl and two issues of Miller’s Robin Hood.   
IN THIS UPDATE:
MIKE SHAYNE #1 VG £10 (PICTURED)
MOTION PICTURE COMICS #56 GD £6 Mask Of The Avenger; Movie cover.
NYOKA THE JUNGLE GIRL #52 VG £6
NYOKA THE JUNGLE GIRL #64 FA/GD £3
ROBIN HOOD #31 GD £5
ROBIN HOOD #32 GD £5

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for this books category, with an image for each book. This week, two very different novels with distinctive art by celebrated artists. From John Jakes, the science fiction fantasy Master Of The Dark Gate, with cover art by Jim Steranko. From the master of gangster pulp, Hank Janson, a science fiction novel, The Unseen Assassin, blessed with cover art based on an original by Reginald Heade (figure) and Ron Turner (background).
PICTURED:
JOHN JAKES: MASTER OF THE DARK GATE Lancer 1970 1st US PB VG £8 SOLD
HANK JANSON: THE UNSEEN ASSASSIN Alexander Moring 1956 2nd UK PB VG £25

*Children’s Books: This week, we return to the adventures of Biggles. Written by Captain W E Johns, the wartime (and later) stories of James Bigglesworth gave us an iconic British hero, a highly competent fighter pilot with a characteristic gentlemanly air, who has gone on to represent an archetypal figure. Nearly 100 Biggles books were written and published and reprinted many times over, and we have a new selection now available, four Armada and two Knight paperbacks from the 1960s/1970s. And I wish Biggles, Algy, Ginger and Smyth were still up there now, looking out for us – we could do with them and their wizard prangs.
PICTURED: ALL BY W E JOHNS ALL SOLD
BIGGLES FLIES NORTH Armada 1966 UK PB GD £3
BIGGLES: FOREIGN LEGIONNAIRE Armada 1971? UK PB VG £4
BIGGLES IN THE SOUTH SEAS Armada 1975 UK PB FN £5
BIGGLES IN THE UNDERWORLD Knight 1971 UK PB VG/FN £4
BIGGLES SORTS IT OUT Knight 1979 UK PB VG/FN £4
BIGGLES WORKS IT OUT Armada 1971? UK PB VG £4