*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: A real curiosity; at first glance, a coverless US Comic, but in reality a reprint of the US Red Circle Comics #1 from  Rural Home 1944. Printed in Canada by Century Pub. Co in full colour, intended for export to the UK, where it was distributed by Streamlined (sic) Books. One in a series of such ventures. It was printed and published without an outer cover; the first page bears the 6d cover price. Features adventurers, detectives, masked heroes, funny animals (inc Stenchy the Skunk in Hitler parody!) etc. Very rare and virtually unknown.
PICTURED: JACK BRADLEY COMICS VG £50 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: 12 issues of the long-lived Boys’ weekly Tiger, all tabloid-sized from the less common year of 1958, fresh in this week. Throughout its history, Tiger (original home to Roy of the Rovers) always had strong sporting associations and indeed in later decades, virtually became a comic of sport-related strips, but here in 1958, Roy and other sporting stars rubbed shoulders with war and adventure strips. This selection that runs between #174 and #196 (January to June). A mix of grades between Poor and Very Good; see our catalogue for details, including specific faults on some issues. ALL SOLD

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Crime, Spies & Sleaze category. Cherry Delight: The Sexecuitioner was a series from the 1970s that managed to combine all three of our sub-sets in this category. Riding on the pop art coat-tails of the spy organisation phenomenon started by James Bond, Cherry worked for the New York Mafia Prosecution and Harassment Organization (try the acronym), and I really don’t need to tell you much else. Written under the house name of Glen Chase, the vast majority of this 29 book series was written by Gardner F Fox, a consummate professional famous for his work at DC Comics, but who could turn his hand to anything. At least with him there is some skill with words and story-telling in this otherwise formulaic series. Best summed up as ‘meet bad guy – have sex with bad guy – kill bad guy’. We have three books from the series:
PICTURED: ALL BY GLEN CHASE: CHERRY DELIGHT, THE SEXECUTIONER ALL SOLD
#2 TONG IN CHEEK Leisure Books 1972 1st US PB VG £15
#4 UP YOUR ANTE Leisure Books 1973 1st US PB VG £15
#28 THE MOORLAND MONSTER Leisure Books 1977 1st US PB GD/VG £15

*DC: The Silver Age Hawkman stories (six try-outs in Brave & Bold and the first 21 issues of his own series that followed) are, in my opinion, perfect comics. Reimagined for the Silver Age as interplanetary police officers, Hawkman and Hawkgirl were exquisitely illustrated in Brave & Bold by Joe Kubert, and equally so (albeit in a different style) by Murphy Anderson in the Hawkman title. All penned of course by Gardner Fox, my favourite comics writer. Highly imaginative super-villains, space and fantasy settings and one of the best married relationships in comics between the leads. Two stores in this fabulous first issue, including the cover feature where the Winged Wonders come up against an ancient Mayan with super-weapons. A very nice copy, pence-stamped, with vibrant, rich colour glossy covers (including the deep blue sky background that DC did so well), white to (just) off-white pages, tiny split at bottom of spine, some corner rounding and minor edge wear. It’s such a shame that the cover is off lower staple, and that the previous owner has (skilfully) restapled it; otherwise it would grade significantly higher. From an original owner collection and new to the marketplace. 
PICTURED: HAWKMAN #1 GD/VG p £80 SOLD

*Marvel: Spidey’s second encounter with the Lizard had to wait until Amazing Spider-Man #44 & 45 with Jazzy John Romita at the artistic helm. Superb covers on this two-parter, with taut story-telling by Stan the Man.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#44 VG+ p £75 Pence printed, clean fresh cover with some short colour-breaking creasing at the spine area. Flat with firm, tight staples and supple off-white pages.
#45 GD/VG p £50 Pence printed, bright colours, but some cover creasing which occasionally breaks colour, Edge wear is minor, except for a 1 cm chip out at right cover edge. Staples are tight and firm, pages supple off-white. Moderate to heavy tanning to inside covers, but not brittle.

*Gold Key/Whitman: From the Bute Collection, six of the eight issues of My Favourite Martian from 1964. A big hit at the time, the TV series on which this comic was based is probably not well remembered now, but at the time, the adventures of Tim O’Hara and his ‘uncle’ from Mars was one of those whimsical sitcoms the Americans made so well. The spin-off comic is a fond reminder of that series.
IN THIS UPDATE: MY FAVOURITE MARTIAN
#1 VG £20 (Pictured) Russ Manning art SOLD
#2 VG £10
#3 FA/GD £3.25 SOLD
#5 GD/VG £6.25 SOLD
#6 VG- £7.25 SOLD
#8 GD/VG £6.25 SOLD
 

*Horror 1940-1959: Also from the Bute Collection this week, another dip of the toe in the water of the high quality Atlas 1950s horror line, with four Pre-Code and two Post-Code issues of Uncanny Tales, all in fairly nice shape, and featuring both a Spider-Man prototype story and one issue with a prized double cover. 
PICTURED: UNCANNY TALES
#15 VG/FN £135 Pre-Code. Brodsky, Sinnott, Andru, Fass and others. Nice black background unmarked cover, tight, firm staples and off-white pages. Faint reading crease at spine, very minor edge wear and a couple of short spine ticks and that’s it. SOLD
#18 VG+ £125 Pre-Code. Heath, Forte, Colletta, Powell and others. Solid and intact copy with tight, firm staples and off-white pages. Unmarked cover, minor edge wear and corner rounding; some colour bleed through on to inside covers. SOLD
#25 VG- £80 Pre-Code. Benulis, Colletta, Tartaglione, Sekowsky and others. Nice dark background cover, tight, firm staples and off-white pages. Faint horizontal crease across middle of cover just breaks colour; also several colour-breaking creases in bottom eight corner, but a solid copy. 
#26 GD £110 Pre-Code. Spider-Man prototype story. Maneely, Benulis, Ayers, Greene and others. Cover off bottom staple, staples rusty. Water damage has caused a ripple effect to the bottom half, but intact and colourful enough. 
#37 Double cover. Outer VG/FN Inner: FN/VF £195 Burgos, Forgione, Ayers, Drucker, Sinnott and others. Beautifully preserved due to double cover. Both covers have rich colour with a few soft creases which don’t break colour (less on inner), some minor spine wear on outer, fresh gloss on inner. Tight, firm staples and supple off-white pages. SOLD
#41 VG+ £70 Burgos, Ayers, Andru, John Severin, Forte, Wildey and others. Solid copy with tight, firm staples and off-white pages. Minor spine and edge wear; slight foxing towards bottom edge. 

*Boys; Adventure & War Comics: Swift, from the publishers of Eagle, was like a junior version of that illustrious comic, aimed at a slightly younger readership (but not as young as their kiddies’ title Robin). Our good friend Win Wiacek describes Swift more fully in our Extras section here.  We have not one, but two very similar copies of Swift Volume 1 #1 available for your consideration this week as follows:
PICTURED: SWIFT
Volume 1 #1 March 1954 GD/VG £40 Copy A. Solid unfolded copy with small edge tears and a bit of spine wear.
Volume 1 #1 March 1954 GD/VG £40 Copy B. Solid copy that has been folded with minor spine wear. 

*TV/Film Tie-Ins: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our TV/Film Tie-Ins category, where the TV show or film pre-dated the book. Some TV shows of varying fame this week: The Expert (BBC 1968-1976) was possibly the first of many TV series based on the work of a forensic pathologist; as far as we know, there is only one novelisation. Get Smart featured the comedy spy adventures of Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) and Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), in a hit US TV series co-created by Mel Brooks; there were nine novelisations published, with two in our listings. The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. was a popular spin-off from ‘Man From’ with Stephanie Powers and Noel Harrison; just two US paperbacks, but four UK (inc one reprinted from the US); we have two of those as well.
PICTURED:
THE EXPERT by BERNARD PICTON Sphere 1976 1st UK PB VG £3
GET SMART: GET SMART ONCE AGAIN (#3) by WILLIAM JOHNSTON Tempo 1966 1st US PB, 2nd printing GD £5
GET SMART: MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH! (#5) by WILLIAM JOHNSTON Tempo 1967 1st US PB
VG £8
THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E.: THE BIRDS OF A FEATHER AFFAIR (#2) by MICHAEL AVALLONE Souvenir Press/Four Square 1967 1st UK PB, 2nd printing GD £5
THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E.: THE GOLDEN BOATS OF TARADATA AFFAIR (#3) by SIMON LATTER Souvenir Press/Four Square 1967 1st UK PB GD £15

We now have a new search facility on the site, shown at the bottom of the menu bar on the left of each page. If you’re not sure which of the categories in our Catalogue Index to look in for the comic title you want, just use the search facility in the menu bar to the left. Type in the title of the comic you’re looking for and you’ll be given a list of categories that contain references to that title. For books, type in the name of the author or title of the book you’re looking for and you’ll be shown the categories that contain that. Please note that we are in the process of converting our book categories to a new layout featuring an image for each book. Some categories are not yet complete, and the search facility only works on books in the new layout. 

*DC: We continue our Legion of Super-Heroes spotlight with six more classic early stories from Adventure Comics, just after the Legion started their own feature there and, by this time, had more or less taken over lead feature and cover billing. Full of Legion lore: the Legion of Substitute Heroes, Satan Girl, Hitler, Nero & Dillinger (!), the outlaw Ultra Boy (including the first major role for Phantom Girl), Mutiny and Dev-Em. All from a mostly high-grade collection, some really nice-looking copies of these beloved adventures.
IN THIS UPDATE: ADVENTURE COMICS
#311 FN £24
#313 FN/VF p £34
#314 VF p £46 (PICTURED)
#316 VF- £45 (PICTURED)
#318 FN+ £32
#320 FN- £22.50

*Marvel: From the prestigious Bute Collection. In the second ever appearance of the Fantastic Four, we met the race of shifty shapeshifters who were to become one of the FF’s, and the Marvel Universe’s, greatest nemeses: the ‘Skrulls From Outer Space!’, as the cover had it. (In case readers got them confused with the Skrulls from Penge West…) Still a half-way house between proper super-heroics and the ‘Big Panty Monsters’ that had been a staple of the company, the non-costumed FF looked at this stage almost as bizarre as their extra-terrestrial opposition. This historic issue is a low grade pence printed copy. The cover is plagued by colour-breaking creases, particularly in the lower half, although the cover image remains pretty good. The spine is heavily worn with many splits and the staples are off the front cover. There is an old piece of tape inside the front cover up from the bottom edge which attempts to repair a small tear. There are small amounts of tape also on the bottom right corner of 1 interior page. The comic is complete, although it should be noted that the Thing pin-up page has, at some time, been torn out and replaced fixed by tape that is now old and rotting so that the page is now loose. The comic is well worn and feels old and thin; .the pages are unmarked, if a little grubby and beset by nicks and small tears. The second ever ‘proper’ Marvel Comic with the debut of a major antagonist, this copy represents the chance to pick up a major key issue at a price that won’t require a mortgage. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #2 PR/FA £650 SOLD

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week, two nicely-graded copies of classic Sub-Mariner issues featuring the artwork of John Buscema at his very best. The villainous Tiger Shark debuted in #5 and his story played out into #6 (with its dynamic cover). Many copies of #5 we’ve seen have faded colour on the interior pages (presumably the ink was running low at the printers!), but not this one.  These early issues of the Silver Age Namor’s series are something really special. 
PICTURED: SUB-MARINER BOTH SOLD
#5 FN/VF £100 Glossy and vibrant, with rich colours. Square corners with only very minor edge wear. Staples firm at spine and centrefold. Pages are supple off-white. There is what appears to be a vertical reading crease near the spine between the staples which very faintly breaks colour.
#6 VF £90 Glossy and vibrant, with rich colours. Staples firm at spine and centrefold. Pages are supple off-white. Only the tinest signs of wear, mainly minor rounding at top and bottom spine.

*Marvel: A further instalment of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, as it was then known, featuring every issue from #51-63. Full details as always in our catalogue.

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: In the early 1950s, a small number of horror comics (around 40) were produced by a variety of UK publishers reprinting US pre-code horror stories in black and white. Just as in the USA, these became notorious and subject to censorship which led to their discontinuation. There’s a lot of information online about the banning of UK horror comics if you want to know more, and I particularly recommend a youtube video by Canadian Dave Dustin (Hi Dave!) on the subject. These UK horror comics have become both extremely rare and much sought after in recent years, and we’re delighted to have one new in this week. Adventures Into Weird Worlds #1 was published by Heritage Productions and distributed by Thorpe & Porter; it’s undated but believed to be 1952. (There’s rumoured to be a #2, but we have no proof of this). It features the content and cover of the US Adventures Into Weird Worlds #8 from Atlas, as well as content from #6, Spellbound #5 and Astonishing #15. Artists include Dick Ayers, Jim Mooney and Jack Keller, with a Bill Everett cover. Close to impossible to find, this is the only copy in the CGC census. (NB Annoyingly, CGC refer to this as #8, since it reprints the cover to the US #8, but it’s not that — it’s clearly #1). Blue label unrestored Universal Grade, cream to off-white pages, case perfect. 
PICTURED: ADVENTURES INTO WEIRD WORLDS #1 CGC 4.5 (VG+) £250 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Not one but three Picture Library #1 issues for your consideration this week, all Westerns and all uncommon.
PICTURED:
PICTURE STORY POCKET LIBRARY #1 VG £20 World Distributors. Gunlaw: Man Without A Gun. Featuring Matt Dillon from the TV series Gunsmoke with James Arness photo cover. Decent copy with relatively minor wear. Rusty staple with minimal migration.
WESTERN ADVENTURE LIBRARY #1 GD/VG £25 A rarity from Micron – we’ve never seen this before. Features the story Secret Witness. Reasonable copy with small crescent-shaped tear out of bottom rear cover.
WESTERN PICTURE LIBRARY #1 FN £30 Pearson. Fetauring Mustang Gray and the Texas Rangers in Comanche War Drums. From 1958, a really nice copy in great shape.

*Children’s Books: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Children’s Books category, and the works of one of the most evocative children’s authors, Monica Edwards. She wrote her children’s novels between 1947-1969 and produced just over a novel per year, so there is a substantial body of work, divided between two series: Romney Marsh (Kent/East Sussex) and Punchbowl Farm (Surrey). Children’s adventures in nostalgic settings with a lot of horsey themes, these are superbly crafted gems which appeal to women of a Certain Age (those I know are fervently passionate about them). We are delighted to have such a good representation of her books on our shelves, mainly hardcovers (all with dustjackets protected by removable archival film) plus a few vintage paperbacks. Not the easiest author to collect (they are rare and highly prized), but those so inclined will find tracking them down most rewarding. Some examples are shown here; please check our catalogue for our full stock listing:
PICTURED: ALL BY MONICA EDWARDS
THE COWNAPPERS Collins Children’s Book Club 1960 UK HC FN £45 With DJ (VG)
DOLPHIN SUMMER Collins Children’s Book Club 1963 UK HC FN £40 With DJ (FN)
THE HOODWINKERS Collins Children’s Book Club 1962 UK HC  VG £35 With DJ (VG)
THE NIGHTBIRD Armada 1963 1st UK PB GD £20
NO GOING BACK Collins 1960 1st UK HC FN/VF £95 With DJ (VG/FN) in archival cover (taped on inside)
OPERATION SEABIRD Collins 1957 1st UK HC FN £75 With DJ (VG)
SPIRIT OF PUNCHBOWL FARM Collins 1956 UK HC FN/VF £70 With DJ (VG/FN)

We’re taking a short break next week, after filling orders received up to 4 pm today (11th) and posting them next Wednesday. There will not be a Newsletter next Saturday, but it will be back on 25th Feb. After this Sunday 12th, we’ll next be filling orders on 26th. You may of course continue to place orders at any time; we will acknowledge them and reserve items for you wherever possible.

*DC: The sequel to the classic ‘Flash Of Two Worlds’ from Flash #123, which established the existence of Earth-Two, where the heroes of the Golden Age lived on, and co-starred the Jay Garrick Flash alongside the Silver Age Barry Allen, #129 elaborated on this legendary premise. Barry and Jay teamed up again to take on the threat of the Trickster and Captain Cold, and we saw, in flashback, the first Silver Age appearances of many of the JSA members. Comics don’t come much better than this. A gleaming pence-printed copy, unmarked with bright, glossy colours, firm staples and nice supple off-white to cream pages. Edge wear and corner blunting are minimal with tiny nick at top of spine. From an original owner collection new to the market.
PICTURED: FLASH #129 VG/FN p £95

*Marvel: The final Hulk item from the Good Doctor Collection is the classic Hulk Annual #1. 1968 saw Jade-Jaws’ first-ever 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. Featuring a striking Steranko cover (arguably the most iconic Hulk image ever), this is a pretty good copy. The spine, so often a problem with these squarebound issues, is totally intact, the cover colours are vibrant and the staples firm. Pence stamped. The pages are supple and off-white. There is just a hint of a reading crease at the spine and a tiny amount of wear along the centre right edge and bottom right corner.
PICTURED: HULK ANNUAL #1 FN- p £195 SOLD

*Marvel: Robert E Howard’s second great male barbarian hero, Kull the Conqueror, was granted his own series in 1971, and benefitted from great art by Andru and Wood initially, then John and Marie Severin, then Mike Ploog. Six issues fresh in, including #1.
IN THIS UPDATE: KULL THE CONQUEROR ALL SOLD
#1 VG p £10
#7 VF p £7.50
#8 FN/VF p £6
#9 VF p £7.50
#10 FN+ p £5.25
#11 VF p £6

*Western: By the time DC’s All Star Western reached its final issue, #119 1961, Johnny Thunder was headlining, but sharing his strip with Outlaw Queen Madame .44. Ostensibly a criminal, the lady in white was in reality a goodie  and heading for the long term with Thunder when this series ended. As a back-up, Super-Chief, the native American with super-powers, takes on aliens in the Old West, as you do. Lots of secret identity shenanigans in both stories. Exquisitely crafted by Gardner Fox, Gil Kane and Carmine Infantino, and edited by Julius Schwartz, so you knew you were getting a great package.  A lovely bright copy with great colour and beautiful pages, cover is only slightly marred by some numbers written lower left near the spine, not impinging on the image.
PICTURED: ALL STAR-WESTERN #119 VG/FN £30 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Something of a rarity in this week’s #1 slot. Courage and Pluck were two monthly story papers launched by the publisher L Miller in 1956. Both lasted just three issues, their lack of popularity due to their infrequency and/or their 6d price tag. Rarely seen and virtually forgotten today, we have a Courage #1 for sale this week in very nice condition, with just some minor age marking to the spine and cover margin. Sporting a great sci-fi full colour cover believed to be by Mick Anglo, this contains illustrated text stories with western, sports, sci-fi and adventure themes with one short comedy picture strip. There can’t be many of these around — we’ve never seen one before!
PICTURED: COURAGE #1 VG/FN £40 SOLD

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Crime, Spies & Sleaze category, and the Saint by Leslie Charteris. Immortalised by Roger Moore on TV in the 1960s, Simon Templar is a smooth international adventurer/detective, getting involved in cases all over the world. Our paperback selection is published by both Pan and Hodder, and consists of short (and longer) stories in each volume.
PICTURED: THE SAINT by LESLIE CHARTERIS ALL SOLD
THE BRIGHTER BUCCANEER Pan 1969 3rd UK PB FN £6
FOLLOW THE SAINT Hodder 1959 UK PB GD/VG £5
THE SAINT GOES WEST Hodder 1968 UK PB GD £3
THE SAINT SEES IT THROUGH Pan 1963 UK PB GD £4
SENOR SAINT Pan 1966 UK PB VG/FN £4
TRUST THE SAINT Hodder 1964 UK PB VG £5

*Marvel: The Bute Collection brings us a quirky oddity this week. Perhaps one of the most infamous printing errors occured with Fantastic Four #110. Two of the 4 ink colours (magenta, cyan, yellow and black) used to create all the colours on the cover (they are mixed at various percentages) were applied to the wrong plates before printing. It appears that a relatively small number of these ‘green printing variants’ were circulated before the error was corrected on the majority of the print run. Some copies must even been exported, since our example here bears a pence stamp. The copy shown on the left here is the corrected ‘regular’ version. Below is the error version. Perhaps a great acquisition for the FF fan who has it all. The story, by the way, is a real doozy featuring Agatha Harkness, Annihilus and the Negative Zone. Both regular and variant are available; high resolution images for the green error variant are available on request.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR
#110 (above) FN+ p £23 Regular edition. Pence stamped. SOLD
#110 (below) FN- p £575 Green Printing Error Variant. Pence stamped. Nice copy with good (if odd!) colours and gloss. Firmly attached staples, supple off-white pages. Minor edge wear and very slight corner blunting, with a small dink at the spine bottom where a tiny crease across the very edge just breaks colour.