*DC: This issue has a double-feature of debuts, of one of Barry Allen’s closest allies and one of his most relentless nemeses. The cover devotes itself to the meteorological shenanigans of the Weather Wizard, making the first of many appearances, but lurking unheralded within is the debut and origin of Wally West, aka Kid Flash, who shared Barry’s adventures (and became an integral part of the Teen Titans) for decades before assuming the mantle of the Flash himself. This early issue of the Silver Age Flash (which relaunched with #105, following the numbering of the Golden Age Flash Comics) is a nice mid-grade  pence stamped copy, with a great colour cover, firm staples at spine and centrefold, very nice off-white pages and a minimum of wear (slight corner blunting). Its worst fault is a small 2.5 cm colour-breaking crease across the bottom cover right edge, with a tiny chip out at its higher end. Beautifully supple and a joy to possess.
PICTURED: FLASH #110 VG £450 SOLD

*Marvel: There must have been something in the stars for Dr Doom and the number 5; after debuting in Fantastic Four #5, he turns up in Amazing Spider-Man #5 to take on everyone’s favourite friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler. How can Spidey beat the monarch of Latveria? Well… he can’t actually, but I don’t want to spoil the ending for you. This pence printed copy is a beauty, with a clean and colourful vibrant, glossy cover, hardly any corner blunting and an absolute minimum of edge wear. Staples are firmly attached at spine and centrefold. No creasing apart from a small dink at the base of the spine which barely breaks colour and a soft narrow crease on the bottom edge of the back cover only. Pages are supple, flexible and on the white side of off-white. Conservatively graded at FN+. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #5 FN+ p £1,900

*Marvel: Also from the Good Doctor this week, ten consecutive issues of Iron Man from #11-20, festooned with a stellar collection of friends and foes, including the 1st Controller in #12, and the 1st Madame Masque in #17. Mostly really nice higher graded copies.
IN THIS UPDATE: IRON MAN
#11 VF £75 (PICTURED)
#12 VG/FN p £30 1st Controller SOLD
#13 FN- £33 SOLD
#14 FN- £33 SOLD
#15 VF+ £65 (PICTURED)
#16 VF- £50 (PICTURED) SOLD
#17 FN £50 (PICTURED) 1st Madame Masque SOLD
#18 FN+ £38
#19 FN+ £38
#20 FN/VF p £30

*Marvel: Another selection from the comprehensive high grade Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection this week, featuring a consecutive run from #364-375. This run features many of Spidey’s most famous foes, plus the Black Cat, the Red Skull, the Invasion of the Spider-Slayers storyline and two anniversary issues: #365 (hologram cover 30th Anniversary), and #375 (30th Anniversary of Amazing #1).
IN THIS UPDATE: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#364 VF/NM £16.25
#365 VF+ £30 Hologram cover
#366 VF+ £19
#367 VF £14.75
#368 NM £19
#369 VF+ £20.50
#370 VF £15
#371 VF £10
#372 VF £15
#373 VF+ £17.50
#374 NM- £33 Venom cover
#375 (PICTURED) NM- £50 Venom foil cover

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Another rare opportunity to acquire a Timely gem from the Bute Collection this week. Marvel Mystery Comics was Timely’s anthology title and issue #24 (October 1941) in this update features Sub-Mariner by Everett, the Vision by Kirby, Human Torch & Toro by Carl Burgos, Angel, Ka-Zar, Patriot & Terry Vance. A typically distinctive Human Torch cover by Alex Schomburg. Unfortunately, this copy is a poor specimen, missing its back cover and with the front cover fully detached. Notable edge wear on front cover, previous owner’s name written on leading ‘M’ of logo, considerable edge and corner wear on page margins, but all present and stories untouched. 
PICTURED: MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #24 PR £400 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.) A pair of early fantasy/mystery issues with Kirby & Ditko this week, as follows: BOTH SOLD
ASTOUNDING #10  £50 Comic FN;  Reprints ACG, Charlton, 1 Ditko plus cover, 1 Captain Midnight
SINISTER TALES #10 £65 Comic FA/GD; Reprints Atlas, pre-hero Marvel, 2 Everett, 1 Ditko, 2 Kirby. Extras: Post decimal copy of #191 with same content; 2 cover colour proofs for that issue,  2 interior black and white proofs.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In the 1960s, IPC/Fleetway launched not one, but two weekly adventure comics that were heavily promoted as “Companion papers to Valiant”, neither of which, peculiarly, ended up merging with Valiant; one such was Hurricane, which merged with Tiger and the other was Champion. 1966’s Champion #1 looked a bit odd to contemporary audiences, because more than half its content (though the readers had no way of knowing it at the time) was reprinted from European sources. Among the new material, though, was some imaginative stuff, including ‘Return of the Stormtroopers’, ‘School for Spacemen’, and a bona-fide superhero, ‘The Phantom Viking’. Readers didn’t take to the imports, though and after only fifteen issues, the title folded into Lion, with ‘Phantom Viking’, ‘Stormtroopers’ and a couple of humour strips making the leap across. This debut issue of a now-collectable short run, sadly lacking its Free Gift, is a very respectable VG, slightly misfolded at spine (as from new), but with clean, attractive pages and no markings.
PICTURED: CHAMPION #1 VG £40 SOLD

*DC: After more than a decade of anticipation and demand, DC revived All-Star Comics, home of the Justice Society of America, in 1976 with #58 – continuing the numbering from the Golden Age. The veteran heroes were joined by three (relative) youngsters in the ill-named and short-lived ‘Super Squad’. One new addition was Power Girl, cousin of the Earth-2 Superman, who was a very different proposition from Earth-1’s Supergirl, and became the breakout star of the series, not just because of her zaftig appearance (though that didn’t hurt, especially as designed and illustrated by Wally Wood), but also because of her forthright, take-no-prisoners personality. This is a nice cents copy, bright with some gloss and great colour, staples tight and firm at spine and centrefold, supple off-white to cream pages and just a little corner blunting and handling wear at the spine and right edge.
PICTURED: ALL STAR COMICS #58 FN/VF £100 SOLD

*DC: Almost every issue of Superboy added to our stock this week from #101 all the way up to #196 (the series changing its name to Superboy & The Legion Of Super-Heroes from #197). Lots of memorable moments in this long run, including the first appearances of Swifty, Insect Queen, Kid Psycho, the Space Canine Patrol Agents and Wildfire, as well as 80 Page Giants celebrating the best of Superboy stories from even further back. Lots of Legion appearances, both in reprint and in brand new stories which were to eventually take over the title. See our catalogue for the most comprehensive selection of Superboy we’ve ever offered.

*Marvel: Also from the Good Doctor this week, five issues of Tales To Astonish before the Hulk joined the title, so starring first Ant-Man, later joined by the Wasp, and later evolving into Giant-Man. Debuting several denizens of Hank Pym’s rogues’ gallery, some who would achieve infamy, others who didn’t quite make it…
IN THIS UPDATE: TALES TO ASTONISH
#42 VG+ p £75 (PICTURED) 1st Jason Cragg (who?). Pence printed, strong colour, good staples, a few small chips out at edges, but otherwise solid. SOLD
#48 GD/VG p £35 1st Porcupine. Pence printed, reading wear at spine, small corner off back cover. SOLD
#50 FA p £7.25 1st Human Top. Pence printed, spine roll, heavily taped spine.
#57 GD- p £39 Guest-starring Spider-Man, featuring Egghead. Wasp solo story. Pence printed, cover tears at spine, spine frail at staples, tiny scuff mark, crayon mark above logo.
#58 VF p £95 (PICTURED) 1st Colossus (no, not the X-Man!). Wasp solo story. Pence printed; beautiful high grade copy with great cover colour and gloss, tight staples, off-white to white pages, just minor handling wear and narrow wear along top edge.

*Marvel: We conclude our Steranko A Go-Go feature this week, which has showcased the Silver Age Marvel super-hero work of Jim Steranko, one of our favourite artists and one of the most innovative. His storytelling, both words and pictures, sums up the spirit of the late 1960s, and his all too brief body of work has always left his fans clamouring for more. Steranko depicted the Hulk on two covers (here and Captain America #110) and, in my opinion, defined the character with those two illustrations. 1968 saw first-ever Hulk Annual, a 50 page extravaganza by Gary Friedrich and the talented Marie Severin in which our favourite not-so-jolly green giant travelled to Attilan and fell out with Black Bolt, leader of the reclusive race of super-beings known as the Inhumans. Needless to say – spoiler alert – wannabe usurper Maximus is behind the hostilities, and has assembled his own band of rebel Inhumans to further bedevil our hero. This superior cents copy has vibrant colour and gloss, totally unmarked, a solid squarebound spine, firm staples and nice off-white pages. Wear is minimal at edges, with minor corner blunting and virtually no creasing. The back cover has a tiny nick centre right edge.
PICTURED: HULK ANNUAL #1 FN+ £285 SOLD

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: We turn our attention to this week’s selections from the Bute Collection. The super-hero revival by Atlas of their Timely characters in the 1950s attracts great demand and the issues are not at all common, particularly here in the UK. Men’s Adventures was an Atlas title that went through lots of changes, starting out as sci-fi mystery, switching to war and then full-bodied horror. It ended its life as a home for the super-hero revival, and all in 28 issues. Just the final two issues were super-hero issues, and it is the last one, #28 that concerns us here. Beneath a Human Torch cover, three stories await, all drawn by artists who would become cornerstones of the later Marvel universe: Human Torch & Toro by Dick Ayers, Captain America & Bucky by John Romita and Sub-Mariner by Bill Everett. This is a reasonable copy from 1954, with a good cover scene, and although there is some erosion to the upper and lower right edges throughout, this doesn’t impinge on the stories. Good solid staples and a shiny cover. 
PICTURED: MEN’S ADVENTURES #28 GD- £180 SOLD

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Vampirella is a fictional vampire superheroine created by Forrest J Ackerman and designed by comic book artist Trina Robbins in Warren Publishing’s black and white horror comics magazine of the same name, which began publication in 1969 as a sister publication of Creepy and Eerie. Originally a horror story hostess, albeit with a lead story each issue, she evolved into a horror/drama leading character and the Warren magazine was published continuously until 1983, when Warren ceased publishing and Vampi passed to other hands – she’s pretty much been in print ever since and has starred in her own movie and other media. Her debut issue sports a memorable Frank Frazetta cover and a veritable Who’s Who of 1970s horror artists adorn her pages. We have nice copies of the first two issues from the Bute Collection this week to tempt you…
PICTURED: VAMPIRELLA
#1 FN £1,175 (Below) Lovely glossy, vibrant copy, tight and flat with good staples and page quality and very minimal edge wear, marred only by a series of small colour-breaking spine stress marks. High resolution images are available on request.
#2 FN+ £200 (Above) Glossy and vibrant, tight and flat with good staples and page quality and very minimal edge wear. Minor stress marks at spine and a couple of vertical colour-breaking creases near the right edge of the cover.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: 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. We’re always selling lots of Eagles, and we’re delighted to have added a fair few issues from Volumes 6, 7 and 9 this week, nearly all in FN grade, and the majority of them filling gaps in the listings. Consult our catalogue to fill your gaps!

*Girls’ Comics: More issues of Bunty from her first year of 1958 this week, issues between #21 and #49. A mixture of grades, some nice, some not so nice. A few, as listed, have small amounts of cover graffiti, but this is not too obtrusive in most cases. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: BUNTY #24 VG £20

This week, we commence releases from the Bute Collection, the prestige vintage collection we trailed last week.

Named after a favourite place of the owner (Bute is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland), this is the personal reference collection of a working comics artist and author who wishes to remain anonymous. Derived from a multiplicity of sources over decades, but characterised by an astonishing depth, breadth and diversity of American and British items from the 1930s onwards, including many seldom seen on these shores, in a variety of grades.

Most categories in our catalogue will be covered, and we will be branding comics from the Bute Collection with special labels and a logo on our What’s New page. If you’re a lover of vintage comics, you’ll enjoy the ride, and you’re certain to find many comics you’d love to add to your collection.

*DC: 7 issues of DC’s Magnificent 7: the Blackhawks, the adventurous aviators who, having fought in WW2 and the Cold War, found themselves in the 60s up against aliens, monsters and weird super-villains. Such is the fare on offer in this update in an evocative melange of action and adventure. 
IN THIS UPDATE: BLACKHAWK ALL SOLD
#144 (PICTURED) VG p £11.75
#147 VG- p £10.25 Off top staple; Lady Blackhawk story
#157 VG p £11.75
#159 VG p £11.75
#164 GD/VG p £10
#167 VG p £9
#176 VG p £9

*Marvel: Also from the Good Doctor Collection this week, a nice selection of Avengers, from when the title was at its absolute best by my reckoning. Magneto, Hercules, the Collector, the Black Panther, the Grim Reaper, the X-Men, Bucky and more! With a lot of the art by John Buscema at the height of his powers.
IN THIS UPDATE: AVENGERS
#49 VG p £25 Book shop stamp. SOLD
#50 App FN p £11.50 Colour touches SOLD
#51 FN- p £25 SOLD
#52 (PICTURED) FN- p £65 1st Grim Reaper; Black Panther joins. Nice copy, great colour gloss and staples and pages. Some minor shallow creasing, breaking colour for only about 1-2 cms.
#53 (PICTURED) VG £40 Vs X-Men. Bright and attractive copy with minor wear and creasing. SOLD
#56 (PICTURED) VF p £50 Excellent copy with just minor reading wear at spine.

*Marvel: Forget the Frank Thorne drawn daft ha’p’orth in the chainmail bikini – the proper Red Sonja, who, you know, wore clothes and had a brain, made her first appearance in issue #23 of Conan’s title (Marvel rather dropping the ball by not having her on the cover, but we promise you, she’s in there) and co-starring in #24’s epic ‘The Song of Red Sonja!’ – though our heroine does a great deal more than just sing, proving herself Conan’s equal, if not superior. Sadly, the popularity of Sonja’s appearances in these two issues led Marvel to produce a more sexualised and less competent version of the character for her solo series – but these two issues, by Roy Thomas and superbly drawn by Barry Smith, remain as good as ever! 
PICTURED: CONAN
#23 FN/VF p £140 Pence printed, shiny and glossy, tight, firm staples and off-white pages. Short vertical crease below logo (left) just breaks colour for about 1-2 cm; slight corner blunting. 
#24 FN- p £55 Pence printed, glossy with great colour, tight, firm staples and off-white pages. A touch of white spine (see scan). 1-2 cm spine split upper plus minor upper corner creasing.

*EC: We return to the Bute Collection for four examples of EC’s Crime Suspenstories. While technically, generally not strictly horror comics, EC’s Crime SuspenStories was certainly horrific, featuring as it often did gruesome deaths of betrayed spouses or untrustworthy friends, and this selection definitely belongs in the ‘horror zone’, including #17, the infamous ‘bullet in the head cover’.  Containing tightly-plotted twist-ending shockers illustrated by Frazetta, Williamson, Craig, Kamen, Wood, Ingels, Crandall and others, these are outstanding examples of their genre. Somehow, without the supernatural elements of EC’s more famous horror titles, these seem all the more scary!
PICTURED: CRIME SUSPENSTORIES ALL SOLD
#16 GD/VG £245 Pre-code. Nice unmarked cover with strong colour. Small upper spine split (about 3.5 cm), small chip out base of spine, tight, firm staples, nice creamy pages. Only minor edge irregularities.
#17 GD £275 Pre-code. Infamous ‘bullet in the head’ cover. Nice unmarked cover with strong colour. Small upper spine split (about 4 cm), lower spine split of about 2 cm. Front cover off bottom staple (staples otherwise tight and firm). Small chips out top and bottom right corners and bottom edge. Presents well.
#24 GD £90 Pre-code. Spine neatly taped with magic tape. Otherwise a perfectly decent copy without other significant defects.
#26 VG+ £175 Pre-code. Solid mid-grade copy with strong, unmarked cover image, tight, firm staples and nice white to off-white pages. Only minor edge and corner wear and very soft creasing to the spine from the back with no colour breaks.

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: Not so much a British update this time, but an Australian one. Published by Larry Cleland PTY Ltd, Space Adventures #1 reprints in black and white stories from the original American Charlton title of the same name, including one by Steve Ditko. This comic dates from the 1950s, we believe, and must have been printed soon after the originals. The cover is an Australian original, as far as we know. A bit dingy and dirty, with some staining to cover and foxing to interior pages, and a small tear at centre spine throughout, this retro sci-fi example is nevertheless a fascinating curiosity in our #1 slot this week.
PICTURED: SPACE ADVENTURES #1 GD £20 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: 10 issues of Cowboy Picture Library added this week, later issues when Cowboy Comics had changed its name. Starring Buck Jones, Kit Carson, Kansas Kid & Davy Crockett, these range from #254 to #378. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: COWBOY PICTURE LIBRARY #378 VG £4.50

*DC: Just like Superman & Batman, Wonder Woman didn’t start out in her own title. Her first appearance came in All-Star Comics #8, with her story continuing into the anthology series Sensation Comics from #1-106. Sightings of Sensation Comics in the UK are not common, so we’re very pleased to be able to present issue #78 (June 1948) this update, with a Wonder Woman cover and lead, backed up by Wildcat, Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys and other features. Wonder Woman comes up against Furiosa, the ‘Mistress of Masquerade’. This is a reasonable copy, with a strong, unmarked cover image, virtually no creasing, minor edge wear (notably a tiny corner off top right cover above the DC logo) and nice, supple creamy pages. 52 pages inc covers. The staples are firm at centrefold and appear to be well attached at cover spine, but nevertheless the lower staple has been protected by a small piece of magic tape. Other small unobtrusive pieces have been used to protect the spine at centre and bottom. A robust enough copy of a true vintage item.
PICTURED: SENSATION COMICS #78 GD/VG £100 SOLD

*Marvel: The first two appearances of the Scorpion this week in Amazing Spider-Man #20 and #29, two issues which seem to turn up a bit less often than those around them for some reason. They feature the debut and second appearance of the Scorpion, one of Spidey’s most enduring foes. And both drawn by Sturdy Steve Ditko, of course.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#20 GD/VG p £400 1st Scorpion. Pence stamped, solid and firm, with nice colour cover and gloss, tight and firmly attached staples. Pages are supple, creamy to slightly tan. Faint central vertical crease on lower half of cover, which only slightly breaks colour on bottom couple of cms. Relatively minor wear at spine just breaks colour with an insignificant short reading crease. The right edge of the cover has a dust shadow (see scan). Interior covers are moderately tanned at edges, but there is no suggestion of brittleness. The grade has been assigned to recognise these defects.
#29 VG p £140 ‘Marvel Pop Art Productions’. Pence printed, more than reasonable copy, with good cover colour and gloss, firm and tight staples, and creamy supple to slightly tan pages. A little corner blunting, but very little edge wear except for a very narrow chip out top right cover. There are a couple of diagonal creases across the centre of the cover which do not show strongly, and only very slightly break colour for a small part of their extent. The right edge of the cover has a dust shadow (see scan). Interior covers are tanned at edges, but there is no suggestion of brittleness. The grade has been assigned to recognise these defects.

*Western: It’s not often you’ll find an entry for our Pre-Code Horror Fest in this category, but here’s a great exception. In issue #10 of the Magazine Enterprises series of Ghost Rider from 1952 (yes, he wasn’t originally a Marvel character, folks!), our titular character (already something of a horror character in his own right) encountered Frankenstein’s monster (unquestionably in the horror genre!).  Other stores entitled ‘The Devil and Jed Gunner’, ‘The Spirit Spurs’, ‘My Friend, the Hangman’, and ‘The Devil Tiger’ firmly place this issue in the horror as well as the western genre. Art by later Marvel stalwart Dick Ayers. A stunning cover with rich, deep purple background. Great cover colour overall and a lot of gloss. Just tiny creases at the spine which do not break colour, slightly blunt corners and a faint crease across the top right corner above the logo. There is a small felt tip pen line over the ME logo and a faint 50 Ore price stamped on the moon (a Scandanavian currency — what stories this issue could have to tell!). Firmly attached staples and supple off-white to white pages. A vibrant, stunning example from the Golden Age.
PICTURED: GHOST RIDER #10 FN+ £330