*Marvel: Perhaps the greatest of Iron Man’s many enemies is the Mandarin, a master of science, martial arts, and controller of an international network of operatives, whose ruthlessness is outmatched only by his ingenuity. And he’s got the bling, too! Famously, each of Mandy’s digits carries a ring (“More than Zsa Zsa Gabor”, as Ben Grimm once remarked) with its own unique powers, at their master’s deadly disposal. The definitive Iron Man arch-foe. This copy of the Mandarin’s first appearance from the Square Mile Collection is in superior shape, tight and flat with good staples, unmarred cover image and great colour cover with some gloss. Off-white to white pages and minimal edge wear; tiny crease across bottom 1 cm of right cover corner, but almost indiscernable. A pence copy, labelled rather than the usual stamp or overprint, as peculiarly seems to be the case with every copy of this we’ve seen. 
PICTURED: TALES OF SUSPENSE #50 FN+ p £350

*DC: There’s a lot to say about Forever People #1. Not only is it the debut of the Forever People themselves and the pivotal Fourth World character Infinity Man, but it’s also the first full appearance of Darkseid (third anywhere). That is to say, although it’s listed as such in the Overstreet Price Guide and widely regarded as the first full appearance of the classic DC arch-villain, we’re not convinced that just three panels of the Big Bad (and on video screens at that) really constitutes his first full appearance. Still, you pays yer money and you takes yer choice. This is a nice presentable copy with minor wear at the right cover edge, but nice pages, good staples and clean, unimpaired cover image; just a tad dingy — not unusual on a white background cover. One of the more entertaining aspects of this issue is seeing guest star Superman rendered by Al Pastino alongside Kirby’s characteristic style — a strange experience.
PICTURED: FOREVER PEOPLE #1 FN- p £65

*DC/Marvel: I can remember when this much-hyped series came out in 1996; customer excitement was rife. There’d been a few crossovers by the two big companies before this, but this was the main event: heroes from both companies slogging it out against each other — who would win? (Well, you don’t think I’m going to spoil that here for you, do you?) You can read all four issues of this epic encounter in glorious NM just by snapping up the whole set at a snip of a price — if you’re quick! 
PICTURED: DC VS MARVEL #1; SET 1-4 NM £35

*Marvel: 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. This is a low grade copy with chipping at the lower cover edge, edge wear, corner blunting, off-white pages, good staples. Given Iron Man’s pivotal status in the Marvel Universe, both Comic and Cinematic, this is a very affordable key issue.
PICTURED: IRON MAN #1 FA/GD p £100

*Marvel: Jack Kirby illustrates the first of this week’s Avengers twosome, #7 where our heroes come up against Zemo, the Enchantress and the Executioner and Don Heck is on hand to illustrate the second, #12, a tussle with the Mole Man. #7 is a presentable copy with some spine wear (particularly around the staples) and a couple of colour breaking creases across the bottom right cover corner. #12 is a little nicer, with some corner blunting. 
PICTURED: AVENGERS
#7 VG- p £65
#12 VG+ £65

*Marvel: The Venom: Sinner Takes All 5 issue mini-series from 1995 introduced She-Venom aka the Bride of Venom aka Anne Weying, former wife of Eddie (Venom) Brock. Although she had appeared before in her human guise, this is the first time she was inhabited by the symbiote and became She-Venom (cameo in #2, 1st full appearance in #3). All 5 issues of this mini are now available in sparkling NM for those of you who just can’t get enough symbiote in your comic diet!
PICTURED: VENOM: SINNER TAKES ALL #3 NM £70

*Marvel: A nice run of the Giant Marvel Treasury Editions added this week, which remain constantly popular due to their unique size. A consecutive run from #2 to #11 new in, almost all FN/VF pence copies. Characters featured include Fantastic Four, Thor, Conan, Hulk, Dr. Strange, Avengers and more. Always a hugely popular title for us; consult our catalogue for full details.

*Modern Reprints: Three of the silver-bordered Silver Age editions of Marvel’s flagship reprint volumes new in this week: Avengers Vol 2 & Vol 4, reprinting issues 11-20 and 31-40, some of the team’s finest adventures, plus Sgt Fury Vol 1, reprinting issues 1-13 of Marvel’s premier war title, with Nick Fury and the gang, guest starring Reed Richards, Captain America, Dr Zemo and, um, Hitler (remember him?).
PICTURED: MARVEL MASTERWORKS SGT FURY VOL 1 VF/NM £60

*Power Comics: A small update to our stock of Smash! from 1968, towards the end of its Odhams run. Copies between #118 & #134 fresh in, cover featuring the Swots & the Blots, mostly in nice shape.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A small addition to our stock of the most long-lived UK war-themed weekly, Victor from 1975, with a few issues previously missing from our listings, including the New Year issue for that year.

*Humour Comics: Although we list Knockout in our Humour Comics category, because it started out as fundamentally a ‘funnies’ title, it is more of a hybrid with Boy’s Adventure & War. By the time of the comics featured in this update (1958), it had more or less transitioned into a Boy’s Adventure weekly, with the humour reduced to Billy Bunter and a couple of shorts, and starred famous strips such as Sexton Blake, Davy Crockett, Hopalong Cassidy and many others. Free Gift issues from the 1950s are usually much rarer than their later counterparts, so we are particularly pleased to have three issues in sequence with their gifts, all part of the same series. #1007 (a slightly rumpled VG) includes its Free Gift (also in VG with slightly rusted staple and some edge wear): 3D picture album, including unused 3D glasses and first 8 pictures for the album, with original rubber band unperished. #1008 (a little more worn with minor rust stains) has the next 8 3D pictures (rusty staple) and #1009 is in identical condition with the next 8 3D pictures.
PICTURED: KNOCKOUT
#1007 VG WITH FREE GIFT VG £60
#1008 GD WITH FREE GIFT GD £30
#1009 GD WITH FREE GIFT GD £30

Since we’re now trading by mail order only, it gives us the chance to maintain our catalogue even more accurately. All items sold since lockdown are now being deleted within a few days of sale. We are also working through our entire catalogue to delete those items that sold pre-lockdown since files were last updated. This means that as we finish updating a file, you can rely on the catalogue for that category being (and staying) as close to 100% accurate as it is possible to get, with virtually everything available, apart from items sold in the last few days (and just a tiny amount of human error). We have now completed this exercise for the following category:
*Marvel
All categories down to this point in our Catalogue Index have now been Super-Housekept! We will continue to post here as we make progress.

*Marvel: Two of the last few releases from the Square Mile Collection this week. When Stan Lee was charged with creating a comic to rival DC’s success with the Justice League of America, although the Fantastic Four were very different, he did take a leaf out of Gardner Fox’s JL book by reinventing a classic Golden Age character in a new guise. Johnny Storm, the Silver Age Human Torch, was popular enough to graduate to his own series in Strange Tales, where he came up against some of the most bizarre (and, let’s face it, lame) villains of the Marvel Age of Comics. Not so much the Wizard, here in #105, who went on to menace the FF and lead the Frighful Four, but definitely the Painter of a Thousand Perils in #108. #105 has some spine wear and a hint of Marvel chipping at right edge, but is clean with great page quality and tight staples. #108 has a little more chipping, but tight and flat, very minor edge wear and great page quality and staples. 
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES
#105 FN p £85 SOLD
#108 VG+ p £50 SOLD

*DC: One of the most influential one-shots of the 1980s, themselves a transformative decade for the comics medium is in our Batmania spotlight this week. The Killing Joke had humbler beginnings, having been intended originally just to be a regular Batman Annual. As the months crept on and it became evident illustrator Brian Bolland wasn’t going to get the job done in time, (shocked face), plans were altered and it became one of the earliest Prestige Format one-shots – and in so doing, gained a place in comics history. Alan Moore’s script explored and redefined the origin of the Joker, and kicked off a chain of controversial events which transformed Barbara Gordon, the then-retired Batgirl, into the covert intelmeister Oracle, a pivotal figure in the DC Universe. Bolland’s illustrations are superb; Alan Moore’s script is generally highly acclaimed, and the whole package is acknowledged as hugely significant in the ‘maturing’ of comics. This first printing copy is a superb NM-, with very little sign of age or having been read.
PICTURED: BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE NM- £60

*DC: A small update to Action Comics and Adventure Comics from the 1950s, all low grade copies with defects, but complete. Action #214 & #217, Adventure #193, #194 and #196 in this update; full details in our catalogue.

*Marvel: In just Thor’s third appearance, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby began to lay the groundwork for the rich story-telling based on Norse mythology which was to follow. This landmark issue, Journey Into Mystery #85, has a cover featuring the debut of Loki, Thor’s half-brother, arch-nemesis and god of mischief, but also introduces Heimdall, the Rainbow Bridge he guards, Asgard itself and (in a cameo appearance) Odin, Thor’s and Loki’s father. Loki of course has gone on to great fame, both in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and in many of his own series, as much an anti-hero as a villain. This copy is CGC 5.5 (blue label, unrestored) and has off-white to white pages; it’s a UK price variant, as they say in the colonies.
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #85 CGC 5.5 FN- p £1,375 SOLD

*Marvel: All through Spidey’s life, he seems to have been plagued by goblins in various hues and guises. One of the most notorious was the Hobgoblin, who debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #238 and was menacing Spidey for a long, mysterious adventure before his identity was eventually revealed. This copy of his debut is in great condition, with just the tiniest spine ticks and faint pressure marks from the enclosure of the Lakeside Tattooz which, yes kids, are here and waiting for you.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #238 VF/NM £175 SOLD

*Marvel: From 1963 and 1964, the first two classic Fantastic Four Annuals in mid-grade. In the lead story in #1, 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 copy with some spine wear and a slightly grubby cover, but the squarebound spine is almost intact but for a split of just 1.5 cm at the bottom; good staples and decent page quality. There are a couple of very minor colour-breaking creases across the bottom right cover corner. Annual #2 features as its lead the origin of Dr. Doom, as well as a 25 page all-new tussle with the monarch of Latveria and a reprint of his first appearance from FF #5, as well as another rogues’ gallery and pin-ups. This copy is a bit brighter, with the same size lower spine split, but much less spine wear; excellent staples and decent page quality. One minor colour-breaking crease across the bottom right cover corner. Both these Annuals are less common.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL
#1 VG- p £125 SOLD
#2 VG p £140 SOLD

*Charlton: From 1954, three classic consecutive issues of Space Adventures, Charlton’s sci-fi anthology title with Ditko covers, highly prized items. #10 has a robot rampage cover with lurid colour that jumps out at you, and one short Ditko story inside among many others. A nice solid copy with some edge wear, a colour-breaking crease across bottom right cover corner, but tight, firmly attached staples and nice page quality. #11 has an intriguing alien squid-like thing menacing underwater astronauts as its cover, with two Ditko stories inside, both featuring slinky femme fatales as only sturdy Steve could depict them. A low grade copy, off both staples and water-staining throughout the top of the comic, but better than it sounds. #12 is the iconic astronaut girl about to be the prey of BEM cover (no Ditko content inside, but what a cover!). Creasing at edges, and small tears at spine, particularly around the bottom staple through the comic, but the cover image is unspoilt and the page quality not bad.  
PICTURED: SPACE ADVENTURES
#10 VG- £235 RESERVED
#11 FA £40 SOLD
#12 GD- £135 SOLD

*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: More Pages! More Glamor! So proclaImed this one-off Queen-Size Annual from 1966, chock full of Patsy and her friends. Over 200 heavenly hair styles! More than 250 fabulous fashions! Plus a dazzling display of beauty tips, quizzes and special bonus features! It all adds up to the greatest collection of good grooming ideas ever assembled in one magazine! And it’s all for you! We even have more than one copy available as listed in our catalogue — the higher grade is shown here. 
PICTURED: PATSY WALKER’S FASHION PARADE #1 VF- £40 

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: At the beginning of 1977, around the onset of punk music, a comic was launched that captured the zeitgeist of the times, more anarchic and anti-establishment than anything that had come before it in British comics, no more so than in the persona of Judge Dredd, the iconic anti-hero who has gone on to become legendary after debuting in issue #2. This update we’re featuring the first two issues of 2000 AD. #1 (1st Flesh, Mach-1, Invasion, Harlem’s Heroes, new Dan Dare) is a GD copy, with some spine and edge wear, minor tears to back cover with very small piece of margin missing, plus the usual residue where the Free Gift was taped to the cover; there are4 minor ink stains to the bottom of the front cover (margin only).  #2 (1st Judge Dredd) is VG, a solid copy with minor creasing but decent pages and staples. Please note there are no Free Gifts with these copies.
PICTURED: 2000 AD
#1 GD £60 SOLD
#2 VG £150 SOLD

*Girls’ Comics: Twinkle, ‘the new picture paper specially for little girls’ launched in 1968, with the star power of Nurse Nancy, Betty Bright, Sally Sweet, Patsy the Panda and lots more. The age of its target audience has meant that relatively few of the #1 issues of this title have survived, let alone a FN unread copy as here, complete with its Free Gift, a St Christopher Charm Bracelet. And as if that’s not enough, we also have #2 in FN complete with ‘pretty pink ring’; both gifts come in their original envelopes. The prices for these items reflect their rarity.
PICTURED: TWINKLE
#1 FN WITH FREE GIFT VF £200
#2 FN WITH FREE GIFT VF £80 SOLD

‘Joltin’’ Joe Sinnott, comics artist and inker and one of the last remaining figures of the classic Marvel Bullpen, passed away peacefully of natural causes at the age of 93 on the 25^th June 2020. His family commented on Facebook that:

“He went peacefully with the knowledge that his family, friends and fans adored him. He enjoyed life and was drawing up until the end. He always loved hearing from all of you and having your comments read to him. Each and every one of you were special to him.” 

Sinnott was born in 1926 in Saugerties, New York, and began his career as an illustrator in 1950, the same year he wed his spouse Betty (nee Kirlauski), the pair being inseparable until her death in 2006.

Sinnott’s work in the field was overwhelmingly for the company which in the 1960s would become known as Marvel Comics, but which in the 1950s produced a huge amount of material in the genres of War, Western, Science-Fiction, Horror, Crime and Romance, all of which Sinnott drew with equal skill and professionalism. Although he is primarily remembered as an inker, Sinnott was also an accomplished illustrator, providing full artwork for a multitude of these genre stories in Two-Gun Western, Battlefield, Journey into Mystery and Strange Tales.

Beginning in 1965, he began inking Jack Kirby’s pencils on Fantastic Four, and what seemed at first a routine assignment became a long-time association, providing what many consider the definitive look for the company’s flagship title. Following Kirby’s departure in 1970, Sinnott remained at Marvel, working with other artists such as Rich Buckler, John Buscema and George Perez on Fantastic Four, as well as embellishing other artists on Spider-Man, Avengers, Defenders, Thor and Captain America.

He officially retired in 1992, but continued to work on the Amazing Spider-Man newspaper strip until early last year. One of the most welcome of convention guests, always self-effacing and appreciative of his fans at personal appearances, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Inkwell Awards in 2008, and the Eisner Awards’ Hall of Fame in 2013, in recognition of his contributions to the field.

Since we’re now trading by mail order only, it gives us the chance to maintain our catalogue even more accurately. All items sold since lockdown are now being deleted within a few days of sale. We are also working through our entire catalogue to delete those items that sold pre-lockdown since files were last updated. This means that as we finish updating a file, you can rely on the catalogue for that category being (and staying) as close to 100% accurate as it is possible to get, with virtually everything available, apart from items sold in the last few days (and just a tiny amount of human error). We have now completed this exercise for the following category:
*DC/Marvel
We will continue to post here as we make progress.

*Marvel: Although Subby debuted (Silver Age-wise) and was a frequent guest star/villain in early issues of the Fantastic Four, it was much less common to see Dr. Strange turn up in these pages. Here they both are in FF #27, giving you the chance to see how Jolly Jack Kirby handled the Master of the Mystic Arts. This is a lovely copy, typical of the Square Mile Collection, tight and flat with good, firmly attached staples, nice off-white pages, no chipping and great cover colour and gloss. Just very minor edge wear, but a lovely item for any collection.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #27 VF- p £225 SOLD