*DC: In 1987, spinning out from the ‘Legends’ event, DC repurposed the name Suicide Squad (first used in the Silver Age), this time in the form of a gang of (mostly) super-villains on suicide missions for a quasi-governmental agency led by Amanda Waller. Writer John Ostrander made this concept into a quality series which has always remained popular, for all that Suicide Squad has been used since in the DC cinematic universe in movies that got, shall we say, mixed reviews. Just a handful of issues fresh in to top up our stock. 

*Marvel: If you’re looking for really nice copies of Amazing Spider-Man for your collection, then look no further than the Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection. All high grade; even the few that fall below VF (and most are above) are really good-looking copies – no duds here, and nearly all cents copies. From July 1970, we have a beautiful copy of Amazing Spider-Man #86, in which the Black Widow, having previously worn a cute-but-retro fishnets & cape outfit, remade her image into the sleek, leather-clad redhead that we know her as today. Taking on Spidey in a story by noted feminist (ahem ahem) Stan Lee, she delivers immortal lines such as “Don’t think I’m helpless just because I’m soft and cuddly.” Ah, they don’t write them like that anymore; aren’t we lucky? We have this first appearance of the Widow as today’s movie-goers would recognise her in a lovely high grade cents copy, with a brilliant white cover background, plenty of gloss, square corners, supple white to off-white pages, staples tight and firm at spine and centrefold. Just a couple of short, soft non-colour breaking creases at the spine prevent a higher grade.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #86 VF+ £350 SOLD

*Marvel: We conclude the Good Doctor run of Iron Man with issues #7-10, mostly very presentable copies. Iron Man duels with the Gladiator and the Mandarin, including a tussle with a (spoiler) Hulk android in #9. 
IN THIS UPDATE: IRON MAN
#7 FN+ £40 (PICTURED)
#8 VG- p £18
#9 FN+ £60 (PICTURED)
#10 VG/FN £40 (PICTURED) SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: Whilst it’s fair to say that the introduction of the Comics Code saw the ‘teeth pulled’ from the horror titles that survived, with horrific elements toned down, it’s also true that such titles as Atlas’s Mystery Tales continued showcasing excellent stories of mystery and imagination from the cream of Atlas’s creative talent at the time. Six post-code issues from the Bute Collection this week, as follows:
IN THIS UPDATE: MYSTERY TALES (ALL PICTURED EXCEPT #32)
#29 GD/VG £58 Burgos, Everett, Powell, Forte & others. Reasonable copy with good colour. Spine a little weak with small upper split; lower right corner a little dog-eared.
#30 VG- £67 Brodsky, Burgos, Ayers, Heck, Forte, Greene & others. Nice solid copy with spine ticks. Long diagonal crease across lower right breaks colour.
#31 VG £77 Burgos, John Severin, Forte, Sale & others. Very decent copy with good colour and gloss. Square corners, little edge wear; some small horizontal creases from spine only break colour at tiniest edge.
#32 PR £11 Burgos, Greene, Reinman & others. An awful copy; the cover and leading pages are torn in half down the middle and detached. 
#33 FN- £105 Burgos, Forte, Greene, Sale, Everett & others. Nice flat copy with good staples and pages; only a little corner blunting and minor reading wear at spine. 
#35 VG+ £87 Burgos, Stallman, Colan, Benulis, Everett & others. Solid copy with only colour-breaking reading wear at spine.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: This digest-sized comics series, most famous under its later title of Thriller Picture Library, ran for 450 issues until 1963, and while it featured a plethora of characters during its lengthy run, the trend for the early years was for historical swashbucklers based on fictional (but serendipitously copyright-free) characters, but also featuring crime, war, western and science-fiction adventures. The artists were all accomplished Fleetway professionals, and readers thrived on these beautifully-illustrated pocket adventures. Six early issues new in this week, as follows:
PICTURED: THRILLER
#21 FA Black Hood
#24 GD £15 Kevin The Bold
#29 FA £12 Ivanhoe
#30 FA/GD £13.50 The Strange Affair Of The Lyons Mail
#31 GD £15 Jane Eyre
#33 GD/VG £17.50 Tom Brown’s Schooldays

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Who are the Queens Of Crime? By my count, six authors who rose to fame in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction between the wars, and leave behind a legacy in crime writing that will never be matched. The most famous of course is Agatha Christie, also Dorothy L Sayers, Gladys Mitchell, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey and Margery Allingham, the latter of whom concerns us here. They all 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 fresh in this week featuring Campion in typically clever murder mysteries, including his very first outing in The Crime At Black Dudley. (NB: We’re improving the layout of our book listings, including adding an image for every book, and have started this file by completing ‘A’ authors; large files such as this will take a long time to complete). 
PICTURED: All by MARGERY ALLINGHAM ALL SOLD
THE BECKONING LADY Penguin UK PB VG £4.50
THE CHINA GOVERNESS Penguin UK PB GD £3.50
THE CRIME AT BLACK DUDLEY Penguin 1967 7th UK PB GD/VG £4
SWEET DANGER Penguin 1968 9th UK PB FN £6

*DC: The complete set of all 4 Deluxe format editions of Stardust from 1997, the fantasy with text by Neil Gaiman and beautifully painted illustrations by Charles Vess. Adapted in 2007 into a very successful and star-studded film. All four lavish issues in NM condition.
PICTURED: STARDUST #1 NM; Complete Set #1-4 £25

*Marvel: If you’re looking for really nice copies of Amazing Spider-Man for your collection, then look no further than the Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection. All high grade; even the few that fall below VF (and most are above) are really good-looking copies – no duds here, and nearly all cents copies. This week, an exceptional copy of Amazing Spider-Man #19, featuring the Sandman and the Enforcers and guest-starring the Human Torch. This cents copy has a brilliant white background (rare to see this as rich as on this copy) and great cover gloss and reflectivity. Virtually no wear at all (just a handful of tiny indentations at the bottom edge). Staples are tight and firm at spine and centrefold; supple pages are off-white to cream. Flat with square corners. The best copy of this issue we’ve ever seen. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #19 VF+ £675 SOLD

*Marvel: Also from the Good Doctor Collection this week, issues #2-4 of the Silver Age Sub-Mariner series. Wonderful art by John Buscema at the height of his powers, as exemplified on the dramatic covers.
PICTURED: SUB-MARINER
#2 FN/VF £60 Glossy with great colour. Tight, firm staples and supple off-white pages. Minor edge wear and a few soft non-colour breaking creases near the spine. SOLD
#3 FN/VF £55 Glossy with great colour. Tight, firm staples and supple off-white pages. Small pressure mark on Triton’s ankle near spine. 1 cm tear at top edge masthead box.
#4 FN+ £50 Glossy with great colour. Tight, firm staples and supple off-white pages. Some cover creasing at spine, top and bottom edges and top right edge, just breaking colour.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Just one comic from the Bute Collection this week, but it’s a Timely! USA #7 (February 1943), is an anthology title featuring Captain America (by Syd Shores, Mike Sekowsky, Ernie Hart), Marvel Boy (by Bob Oksner), Captain Daring (by Alex Schomburg), Disk-Eyes the Detective (by Basil Wolverton), the Secret Stamp (By Stan Lee & Bob Oksner), Jeep Jones (by Chic Stone) and Jap-Buster Johnson (just in case you didn’t know there was a war on!) by Mickey Spillane (allegedly) and Dennis Neville. Lots of Nazis, lots of pages. Interested potential buyers should note that this is a COVERLESS copy (but otherwise complete). The pages are not too bad at all, a little towards tan but not brittle and all attached by the central staple. There is a little wear around this as well as smallish splits at top and bottom of outer wrap. We only sell coverless comics if it’s something really special, and I think you’ll agree this qualifies. 
PICTURED: USA #7 COVERLESS £375 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.) Three new sets this week as follows:
ALL SOLD
CREEPY WORLDS #114 £70 Comic GD; Reprints Daredevil  #48 (inc cover), ACG, Charlton SF. Extra: Colour cover proof, taped
CREEPY WORLDS #117 £60 Comic FA; Reprints Daredevil #51 (inc cover,), #52, Charlton. NB Comic creased and stained.  
SECRETS OF THE UNKNOWN #2 £100 Comic VG; Reprints Atlas, 1 Williamson. The third Alan Class comic ever published! 2 plates partially covered in small pieces of paper used in the printing process

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Small updates to three of Fleetway’s longest-running war-themed titles: Air Ace (#60, #65, #68, #90, #91, #92, #288, #301, #302, #361, #367), Battle (#415, #417) & War (#20, #22). Nearly all in VG grade; full details as always in our catalogue.

*Book Art Books: This brand new category in our Books section is devoted to books about cover (and interior) art on books in the genres we cover. Very often, the cover and art on a book can be highly celebrated and the focus of collecting for some enthusiasts. Books shown here will be lavishly illustrated and often over-sized and pay tribute to this aspect of book collecting. We start this week with two separate volumes on the subject of Science Fiction illustration in the classic pulps, both British and American. Both are replete with full colour and black and white evocative imagery.
PICTURED:
100 YEARS OF SCIENCE FICTION ILLUSTRATION by Anthony Frewin Granada/Panther 1975 2nd UK softcover VG £6
SCIENCE FICTION ART by Brian Aldiss New English Library 1971 1st UK softcover GD £15

*DC: Our celebration of the Legion of Super-Heroes continues this week with some digest-sized issues. #491 of Adventure comics saw the long-running series convert to digest-sized format, and begin reprinting two early Legion stories per issue (alongside a new feature with one of DCs huge cast per issue and other classic reprints. #491 itself showcased the first two Legion stories from Adventure #247 & #267. Other issues are included in this update, plus the Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #1 (100 pages), starring Superman in classic reprints, including the Legion again in the reprint of Superman #149. Big, brilliant stuff in small packages, and very uncommon.
IN THIS UPDATE: ADVENTURE COMICS ALL SOLD
#491 VF £10 (PICTURED)
#495 VF p £6.75
#498 VF £7.50
BEST OF DC BLUE RIBBON DIGEST #1 VF+ £14 (PICTURED) SOLD

*Marvel: This week’s Good Doctor selections! In the early Marvel Age – when, you must recall, the halcyon days of the Golden Age were a mere 10-15 years in the past – Marvel received a lot of requests to revive their 1940s stars. They tested the waters with the Human Torch’s solo story in Strange Tales #114, wherein Johnny Storm appeared to meet and battle Captain America, legendary hero of World War II! Needless to say – oh, don’t give me ‘Spoilers’, it was more than half a century ago – it turned out to be a villain appropriating Cap’s costume, but the issue sold so well that it triggered the revival of the actual Captain America in Avengers #4, and the rest is history. In the following issue, #115, although Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts had premiered some issues earlier, it was here which explained how dissolute and egotistical surgeon Stephen Strange had sought help from mystical sources and been drawn on to the path of heroism following a life-altering accident. This, however, was a secret well-kept by Marvel, who were still plugging the Human Torch as a solo star at this point, and as such gave his match-up with Spidey foe the Sandman all the cover space, without even mentioning the Doctor was In! Nevertheless, this is the first telling of Strange’s origin, as greatly expanded upon in the widely-acclaimed cinematic blockbuster.
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES
#114 VG/FN p £210 Nice glossy, solid, pence-printed copy with bright colours and staples firm at spine and centrefold. Soft central crease and small crease across bottom right, neither of which break colour. A few spine ticks. Supple white to off-white pages. 
#115 VG p £215 Good colour and gloss. pence printed. Some soft cover creasing which does not break colour, one long colour breaking (but not hard) crease along the Sandman’s body. Minor spine and top edge wear. Staples firm at spine and centrefold. Supple white to off-white pages.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: From the Bute Collection this week, a look at three doyennes of the Golden Age. From 1946, the second of two issues of Debbie Dean, Career Girl, featuring newspaper strip reprints by Bert Whitman. From 1950, issue #2 (1st issue, formerly Jungle Lil), of Fox’s Dorothy Lamour, Jungle Princess, in which the real-life model and film star is cast as a jungle girl, with (early and rather primitive) art by Wally Wood and a photo cover. And from 1949, in Fast Fiction #3, She, H Rider Haggard’s famous lost queen, gloriously depicted by Vincent Napoli under an H C Keifer cover. All three are in pretty good shape, despite being older than me!
PICTURED:
DEBBIE DEAN, CAREER GIRL #2 VG- £80 Nice clean copy with good page quality. Wear and small tears at corners, small tear right edge. Good staples. SOLD
DOROTHY LAMOUR, JUNGLE PRINCESS #2 VG+ £80 Solid copy with some spine ticks; centrefold off top staple; remarkably little wear.
FAST FICTION #3: SHE VG+ £80 Good-looking copy with a little non colour-breaking creasing. Staples tight at spine and centrefold, good pages. great cover image.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In 1963, Odhams, the publishers of Eagle, decided to expand their line with a new adventure comic, Boys’ World, with a classy line-up of creators including acclaimed novelist Harry Harrison (who created Merlo the Magician for the series) and Ron Embleton, whose illustrations on the mythological fantasy Wrath of the Gods are still well-remembered. Harrison’s own novel ‘Death World’ was adapted into ‘The Angry Planet’, by excising all female characters (well, this was a boys’ comic…), and other notable strips included Dr. Who parody ‘Doctor What’, ‘Ghost World’, ‘Billy Binns’, whose magic spectacles conferred temporary amazing abilities) and ‘Iron Man’ – no relation to the Marvel character, but a story of a humanoid robot finding his way in the world. Both Billy Binns and Iron Man went on to longer careers when the title merged with Eagle after 89 issues. This all started here in issues #1 & #2, offered in nice condition (free gifts sadly not included).
PICTURED: BOYS’ WORLD BOTH SOLD
Vol 1 #1 VG £50
Vol 1 #2 VG/FN £30

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: From 1962-64, when the Beatles were rising to fame and London was just beginning to swing, 30 issues of True Life Library added to our catalogue in the above number range. The standard of art by mainly European illustrators is very accomplished. These are lovely items, their appeal enhanced by the fact that they are from a newsagent’s reserve stock, never sold or circulated, with white pages, bright covers and not too much rust in the staple areas; mostly nice grades, many towards VF, variations due to the amount of rust. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: TRUE LIFE LIBRARY #405 FN £6 SOLD

*DC: A mix of sundry DC issues mostly from the Bronze Age this week. Titles include: Action Comics (#533), Brave & Bold (#119 & #122), Claw (#1 x2), Jack Kirby’s Demon #5, #9, #12 & #14), Jimmy Olsen #135 (3rd Darkseid cameo by Kirby), Rima the Jungle Girl (#3), Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (#73), Shadow (#3), Shazam (#1 VG p £30), Strange Adventures (#211 with Adams’ Deadman) & Sword of Sorcery (#1). Full details as always in our catalogue.

*Marvel: The first and second appearances of one of Spidey’s perennial foes in Amazing Spider-Man #28 and #35.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#28 VG- p £125 1st Molten Man. Iconic but notoriously infamous black background cover which traditionally shows up every imperfection. In that respect, this copy isn’t too bad. There is only minor wear at top, bottom and right edges, and although the spine has some reading wear where the black colour is broken, this is fairly unobtrusive. There is also a 4 cm fairly soft crease across bottom right cover edge which only slightly breaks colour. Staples are good and tight. Pages are off-white, turning slightly cream at the margin edges. The inside covers have tanned edges but are not brittle.
#35 GD/VG p £48 2nd Molten Man. Some imprecise finishing on this one, with a slightly wonky spine, with the result that the left edge of the cover image is wrapped around the back of the cover at an angle, although you wouldn’t really spot that just from the front cover. It may appear trimmed at the right edge, but we’re sure it hasn’t been, just folded wrong in production. Bright colours, little wear other than a couple of tiny nicks at right edge. Staples are good and tight. Small tear at centrefold in margin. Pages are off-white, turning slightly cream at the margin edges. The inside covers have tanned edges but are not brittle. SOLD

*Marvel: From a passing appearance as an antagonist in Werewolf By Night, the character of Moon Knight, a.k.a. Marc Spector, eccentric billionaire, compulsive role-player and nocturnal crimefighter (Hmm… where’ve we heard that description before?) wormed his way rapidly into the readers’ hearts, and the clamour triggered his first solo foray, a two-parter in Marvel Spotlight #28 & #29, by his WBN co-creators Doug Moench and Don Perlin. It’s every bit as good as you’d expect.
PICTURED: MARVEL SPOTLIGHT
#28 VF- p £120 Flat, tight and glossy with firm staples and supple off-white pages. Very minor reading wear at spine and very slight creasing at extreme bottom right corner, where the small marks barely break colour.
#29 VF p £50 Flat, tight and glossy with firm staples and supple white pages. Square corners, just very minor wear at spine.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Leading off this week’s selections from the prestigious Bute Collection, the final two issues of the Atlas 1950s revival of the Human Torch, #37 and #38 from 1954. As well as three Human Torch & Toro stories per issue, many with a horror edge to them, you also get a Sub-Mariner story, drawn by Bill Everett, no less, with Namora also appearing in #37. As with all Timelys and 1950s super-hero Atlases, these are pretty rare, particularly in the UK. 
PICTURED: HUMAN TORCH
#37 VG £300 A solid copy with good spine, some minor edge and corner wear and a back cover crease. Partial bookshop stamp over logo. A couple of short sealed tears at top and right edges. Tight staples and off-white pages. There is some ballast ink-type marking along the top pages edge and down the first few cms of the pages, but this intrudes only into the margins on a few pages. There is about a 6 cm tear to the right edge of the Sub-Mariner story splash. SOLD
#38 VG+ £400 Nice bright copy with good colours and gloss. Solid spine with minor edge and corner wear. Great staples and excellent off-white pages. Short crease that only very faintly breaks colour across first ‘H’ in logo. SOLD

*Modern Reprints: A complete set of all seven issues of the deluxe reprints of the classic sequence of Green Lantern/Green Arrow by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams from Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76-89.  Widely regarded as the series that defined the Bronze Age of comics with its ‘relevant’ storylines, including the Speedy drugs issues and the 1st appearance of John Stewart. Beautifully presented in glorious colour stiff covers and thick stock paper. All in NM and a nice bargain complete set.
PICTURED: GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW #1 NM; Complete Set #1-7 NM £25

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A dozen issues of the long-lived Boys’ weekly Tiger, all from 1968, including the Christmas issue. 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 1968, Roy, Johnny Cougar, The Slogger From Down Under, Men Of Steel, Runaway Reb and Skid Solo were joined by such adventure & comedy strips as Typhoon Tracy, Peg-Leg’s Flying Penguins, Saber King of the Jungle and more. Most issues average VG/FN grade; full details in our catalogue.
PICTURED: TIGER 21/12/69 FN £8 Christmas issue SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A small selection of pre and post decimal war and western themed Picture Libraries this week, all at very affordable prices from the following titles: Conflict (#172 & #308), Cowboy (#271), Cowboy Adventure (#306), Lion (#39 & #105), Pocket War (#156) & Sabre (#157, #160 & #164). Full details as always in our catalogue.