*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. Issue #36 of Amazing Spider-Man is one of Ditko’s last issues, where he introduces a typically stylish Ditko villain Meteor Man (who later rebranded himself as the Looter) in an action-packed epic. This is a beautiful clean white background copy where the colours pop, unmarked cover, very minor corner blunting, virtually no wear, near white pages and tight, firm staples. A very small dink at the base of the spine restricts the grade to VF.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #36 VF £150 SOLD

*Marvel: Five excellent Lee & Kirby Fantastic Fours from the Bute Collection this week: Sandman, Blastaar, Ben’s betrayal, the Mad Thinker and more.
IN THIS UPDATE: FANTASTIC FOUR
#61 FN £29
#63 FN p £23 SOLD
#68 FN+ p £27
#69 FN+ £26
#70 FN/VF £36

*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 have the complete three volume set of Century, a graphic novella trilogy in three different time zones: 1910, 1969 & 2009. All in pristine condition, from an original owner collection.
PICTURED: LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: CENTURY 1969 NM; COMPLETE SET OF 3 £15 SOLD

*Alan Class Reprints: Less often seen is this short run of one of Alan Class’s more obscure titles Tales From The Underworld. Starting in 1961 and lasting just 10 issues, this series reprinted Charlton crime comics, with many recurring features and characters. We have a rare chance to purchase a complete run of #1-10, sold as a set, with a very nice average grade of VG/FN.
PICTURED: TALES FROM THE UNDERWORLD #1 FN; COMPLETE SET #1-10 Av VG/FN £130 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 where we find the terribly British adventurer Bulldog Drummond in the middle of three pretty sleazy offerings. The first of these, Bewitched, features a particularly noteworthy art nouveau cover by David Wright, one of the greatest book cover artists of the 20th Century.
PICTURED:
LOUIS-CHARLES ROYER: BEWITCHED Harborough 1952 1st UK PB FA £15
DAVID ST GEORGE: DIAMOND DOLL Bedtime 1960 1st US PB VG £8
‘SAPPER’: THE BLACK GANG Everyman 1983 1st UK PB VG £5 Bulldog Drummond SOLD
TIM SELMARD: NAKED TALES Bell 1964 1st US PB GD £5

*DC: Week 2 of the Midas Collection leads off with another absolute gem. Worthy of being a cornerstone of any vintage Golden Age Batman collection, Batman #11 features the first time the Joker appeared on the cover in this title, in an iconic and classic playing card design by Fred Ray and Jerry Robinson. The Joker appears in the lead story, and in the final story, the Penguin features. Stories by Bill Finger and Edmond Hamilton; art by Bob Kane with Jerry Robinson and George Roussos on inks. 
PICTURED: BATMAN #11 CGC 2.5 (GD+) £4,800. Universal blue label (unrestored). Case perfect. Off-white to white pages. CGC Code: 0111934003. A high resolution image is available on request.

*DC: Six issues of the Silver Age Flash in his prime, with Kid Flash, the Elongated Man, Abra-Kadabra (debut), Captain Boomerang, the Mirror Master and a Green Lantern crossover.
IN THIS UPDATE: FLASH
#124 GD/VG p £30
#125 GD- p £17.25 Off upper staple
#126 GD p £19.75 Restapled
#128 GD p £19.75 1st Abra Kadabra
#130 VG- p £34 Classic whodunnit super-villains cover. SOLD
#131 GD+ p £16.75 (PICTURED) Green Lantern crossover. Off lower staple.

*Marvel: From the Bute Collection this week, the first appearances of two women vital to the story of Marvel’s First Family, the Fantastic Four. Medusa (then Madam Medusa) was the first of the Inhumans to appear in Marvel continuity, as a member of the Wizard’s Frightful Four in Fantastic Four #36; later she became an ally (and indeed member) of our heroic team, although her heart has always remained with her kinfolk. Agatha Harkness has long been a staunch ally of the Fantastic Four and a mentor to the Scarlet Witch, but has occasionally shown darker tendencies and a mordant sense of humour. In her debut in Fantastic Four #94, she’s hired by Reed and Sue to look after ‘Little Franklin’, but her role develops into more than just a baby-sitter, particularly when the Frightful Four make the scene.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR
#36 VF- £250 An outstanding clean, bright copy, with no marks or creases, glossy and vibrant. Off-white to white pages and firm, tight staples. Just very minor edge and corner wear, but in highly desirable condition.
#94 VF- p £120 A pence printed copy with great colour and gloss. Near white pages and firm, tight staples. No marks or creases, just very minor edge and corner wear. 

*IW/Super: We continue with our series of updates from that most esoteric publisher IW/Super. IW Publications was a short-lived comic book publisher in the late 1950s and early 1960s, named for the company’s owner Israel Waldman. Comics were published under both the IW and Super imprints and were notable for publishing unauthorised Golden Age reprints of other company’s properties. Usually these companies were out of business, but not always. Basically, it seemed to be whatever they could get their hands on that determined the esoteric nature of their output. Thus you get super-heroes, war, romance, western, funny animals, crime, horror, science fiction and just about every genre within their pages. Full details of what was reprinted in what are listed in our website catalogue. NB usually with newly-drawn covers. Over the next few months, we’ll be presenting a series of issues from this publisher; this week, a complete run of the 7 issues of Danger, with each issue reprinting a different series of a 1940s/50s crime and adventure title with the odd bit of super-hero thrown in. Of particular note is #16, which features a previously unpublished issue of Yankee Comics, starring Yankee Girl. NB, the issue numbers shown form the complete series (as we always say, IW’s numbering system was esoteric, to put it mildly).
IN THIS UPDATE: DANGER ALL SOLD
10 VG/FN £6.25 Reprints Great Comics #1 (Novack 1945). New cover by John Severin.
11 VG+ £5.75 Reprints Danger #1 (Toby 1954). New cover by Ross Andru.
12 VG/FN £6.25 Reprints Red Seal #13 (Chesler 1945). New cover by Ross Andru.
15 FN- £7 Reprints Spy Cases #26 (Marvel Atlas 1950) New cover by Ross Andru.
16 VG £10 (PICTURED) Not reprinted, but unpublished/undistributed; probably intended for Yankee Comics (Dynamic 1941 series) #5. New cover by Ross Andru.
17 VG £5 Reprints Scoop #8 (Chesler 1944). New Ross Andru cover.
18 GD/VG £4 Reprints Guns Against Gangsters V1#5 (Novelty 1948). New Ross Andru cover.

*Western: Also from the Midas Collection this week, five issues of DC’s All-American Western from 1948-1952. Continuing numbering from All American Comics, #103 (featured here) was the first issue under this title; #126 (also featured here) was the last, when another genre change with #127 saw it rebranded as All American Men Of War. A great artistic line-up, with Johnny Thunder by Alex Toth, Overland Coach by Irwin Hansen, Minstrel Maverick by Bernie Krigstein and Foley of the Fighting 5th by Joe Kubert. NB Krigstein only in #103 of issues here, Gil Kane in #108 & 117, Frank Giacoia in #117 & #126, no Toth in #126, replaced by Carmine Infantino.
PICTURED: ALL AMERICAN WESTERN
#103 FA #40 1st issue. Extra staple; covers almost off. SOLD
#106 GD+ £38
#108 VG- £42 Name in biro on cover background.
#117 VG £36
#126 GD £18 Final issue. Spine roll SOLD

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Category for the first part of our Robert A Heinlein re-listing. Heinlein was a Grand Master of science fiction, and alongside Asimov and Clarke, considered to be one of the ‘Big Three’ of the genre. His works were innovative in terms of the science, the perspective on social mores and political themes, and in them he speculated how progress in science and engineering might shape the future of politics, race, religion and sex. On our first visit to his books this week, we feature long and short time travel stories in the Assignment In Eernity volumes, a typical extrapolation of science and technology in Beyond This Horizon, a post-disaster tour de force in The Day After Tomorrow, classic space opera in Double Star and breath-taking adventure in Glory Road. More details may be found in our catalogue. 
PICTURED: ALL BY ROBERT A HEINLEIN
ASSIGNMENT IN ETERNITY Digit 1962 1st UK PB VG £5
ASSIGNMENT IN ETERNITY VOL 2 NEL 1978 UK PB VG £5
BEYOND THIS HORIZON Panther 1975 3th UK PB FN £5
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW NEL 1974 UK PB VG £4 SOLD
DOUBLE STAR Panther 1974 UK PB VG £6
GLORY ROAD NEL 1976 UK PB GD £4

In our Extras section (found in the Menu Bar on the left), you’ll now find the following:

Over the decades we’ve been trading, we’ve been very fortunate, among the hundreds of thousands of vintage items we’ve had through our hands, to have had many prestigious collections that are famed for their quality, rarity and value and have something very distinctive about them. Several of these are still current for us and being worked on as of October 2024 when this piece was written. We thought it prudent to give the run-down on these collections which you’ll see referenced on our What’s New page and throughout our online catalogue. 

The Midas Collection (for a Touch of Gold). October 2024. The Midas Collection is so named because it is all American Golden Age (or pre-distribution early Silver) comics from the 1930s (yes!), 40s and 50s. All DC; a comprehensive collection of Batman and Superman, but a substantial amount of other DC titles in many genres: super-hero (of course), but also science fiction, war, western, horror, adventure, romance, crime and humour. A mixture of grades, with dozens of slabbed copies among them. Simply the best pure DC collection that’s ever passed through our hands. Starting in October 2024, and continuing weekly, we’ll be releasing a selection of these as fast as we can manage. Fasten your seat-belts, fellow panelologists – thrills ahead! Sign up for our newsletter, and/or keep an eye on our What’s New Page every Saturday morning to see what’s available each week. 

The Arch Collection. September 2024. A new prestige collection of vintage American comics from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. This collection contains a wide variety of material from different publishers and will include plenty of comics that we don’t have in stock (or in some cases, never have had), with an emphasis on the esoteric. At the owner’s request, we’re calling it the Arch Collection, and you’ll find comics from it marked with a distinctive branding on our labels, on our What’s New page and referenced in our listings.

The Bute Collection. April 2022. 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. 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.

The Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection. January 2022. This is devoted exclusively to Amazing Spider-Man and covers almost every issue of Amazing. The notable feature of the TASM Collection is that all issues are high grade, averaging VF/VF+. If you’re looking for really nice copies of Amazing Spider-Man for your collection, then look no further than this Collection. No duds here, and nearly all cents copies.

The Good Doctor Collection. September 2021. This is a comprehensive collection representing a lifetime’s hobby by one of the UK’s most dedicated collectors. It is a mixture of original owner copies and copies sourced from the UK’s most significant dealers (including ourselves); the Good Doctor was very meticulous and patient in collecting nice copies where available and that is reflected throughout this 1500+ collection of Silver and early Bronze Age Marvel titles. All of the important Marvel titles are included and in virtually complete runs from early numbers upwards. 

The Alan Class Private Collection. For over 20 years, Alan Class has chosen us to market both the file copies from his Archives and the printing plate sets used to produce them. You can read more about these here. Even today, Alan is still unearthing the odd gem from his vaults for us.

The Square Mile Collection: December 2019. You’ll still find a few of these in our listings, although the vast majority of this prestigious collection has now sold; we completed listing them in 2020. You can read about it here: https://30thcenturycomics.co.uk/extras/the-square-mile

We’ve been blessed over the years with some wonderful prestige collections which have come our way, and our latest is quite sensational. The Midas Collection is so named because it is all American Golden Age (or pre-distribution early Silver) comics from the 1930s (yes!), 40s and 50s. All DC; a comprehensive collection of Batman and Superman, but a substantial amount of other DC titles in many genres: super-hero (of course), but also science fiction, war, western, horror, adventure, romance, crime and humour. A mixture of grades, with dozens of slabbed copies among them. Simply the best pure DC collection that’s ever passed through our hands. Starting this week, and continuing weekly, we’ll be releasing a selection of these as fast as we can manage. Fasten your seat-belts, fellow panelologists – thrills ahead! Sign up for our newsletter, and/or keep an eye on our What’s New Page every Saturday morning to see what’s available each week.   

*DC: A real gem to ‘open our account’ of Golden Age Batman from the Midas Collection. The lead story in the much sought after Batman #62 is The Secret Life of the Catwoman, in which Selina Kyle saves Batman’s life and reforms; along the way we learn something of her past. Catwoman’s ambiguity has been a major feature of her role in the DCU ever since. There’s also a superb Batman in England story, where he and Robin encounter the Knight and the Squire, their English equivalents and a third story, a Millionaire Island mystery. Cover by Win Mortimer; art by Bob Kane and Dick Sprang; mostly written by Bill Finger. A decent copy with strong colour cover (an effective graduated red to orange background). Wear is minimal with some corner blunting. Miniscule chip out at centre right edge. Staples are well attached throughout, although there is a little looseness at the top staple, below which there is a tiny hole in the spine. Supple pages are towards off-white. An excellent copy with great eye appeal. High resolution images are available on request. Tune in next week for more Golden Age Batman – same Bat-Time, same Bat-Website.
PICTURED: BATMAN #62 VG- £700

*Marvel: The Master Planner trilogy, appearing in Amazing Spider-Man #31-33 is one of the greatest storylines from the Lee & Ditko formative years on one of the world’s most iconic comic characters. The Master Planner himself of course turns out to be one of Spidey’s most infamous foes, but we don’t want to reveal that on the slim off-chance that you don’t already know. Within this compelling storyline, we are first introduced to Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn and Professor Warren in #31, and #33 features the classic cover with Spidey imprisoned under heavy machinery with water flooding down. Many people (self included) cite the moment inside when he breaks free as their all-time favourite moment in Spider-Man’s history.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#31 GD/VG p £150 Pence printed, a ‘Marvel Pop Art Production’. Structurally sound with good cover colour; supple off-white to cream (at the edges) pages and tight, firm staples. Some edge wear with short colour-breaking creases across bottom right corner and at top between mast-head and logo. There are also two longer colour-breaking creases (about 5-6 cm) up from the bottom edge. The cover was folded off-centre in production so that 0.5 cm of the cover image is over the fold on the back cover. Edges of inside covers are tanned but not brittle.
#32 GD/VG p £55 Pence printed with good cover colour and gloss. Minor edge wear with tiny chip out centre right edge and small flake off bottom right cover corner (see scan). Tight, firm staples and decent off-white pages. Dust shadow along cover right edge. Edges of inside covers are tanned but not brittle.
#33 VG p £110 Pence printed with excellent cover colour and gloss. Tiny chips out top, right  and bottom edges (1 each) and a colour-breaking crease of about 2 cm across bottom right corner. Other than that, no notable other wear except for slight corner blunting. Staples are tight and firm; pages are supple and white to off-white. Edges of inside covers are a little tanned but not brittle.

*Marvel: Sometimes in a collection we buy in, there are one or two low grade examples. Whilst we prefer to deal in more collectable graded copies, we have gathered together a small number of these for those of you who are happy with reading copies; all tatty but complete.
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
AVENGERS
#41 GD- £6
#43 FA £4 1st Red Guardian; cover graffiti.
IRON MAN ANNUAL #1 FA/GD p £4.75
TALES OF SUSPENSE
#88 FA £3.25
#89 FA p £3
TALES TO ASTONISH
#91 GD p £13.75 (PICTURED) 1st Abomination cover 
#100 GD- p £6.50 Full length Sub-Mariner/Hulk story

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: From the Bute Collection this week, some true vintage from Quality Comics from 1946 & 1949 in the shape of Police Comics #51 & #86 in contrasting grades. Police Comics was the title in which Plastic Man first appeared (from #1) and although I don’t see many police involved, this bumper-sized anthology title contained a whole wealth of detective, mystery and super-hero strips, as well as a fair sprinkling of humour. In these issues you get Plastic Man by Jack Cole and the Spirit, funny girl Candy, Manhunter, the Human Bomb (in #51) and a number of comedy shorts.
PICTURED: POLICE COMICS BOTH SOLD
#51 GD £25 Some spine wear with small stain at lower right corner cover. A couple of fingernail+ size chips out at top towards the right edge. Otherwise decent copy with good colour.
#86 FN+ £80 Nice copy with good colour and gloss, white to off-white pages and tight staples. Small printed arrival date. 

*Romance: For our final update of this inaugural Midas Collection release, we feature five issues of Girl’s Romances, one of DC’s longest running romance titles, which started in 1950. Our update features #4, #6 and #8-10. Although mostly drawn by unknown artists, DC’s romance comics from this period featured a good standard of appealing art, and often very well composed and executed covers. Here, #4 & #6 are photo covers, as was common with romance back then, but by #8 had changed to line-drawn art. Seldom seen, particularly over here in the UK, the Midas Collection is quite rich in this genre, with many more to follow.
PICTURED: GIRLS’ ROMANCES
#4 GD £22 Both staples neatly off.
#6 VG £44
#8 VG- £38 Off top staple SOLD
#9 VG- £38 Extra central staple
#10 GD- £19 Off top and centre staples; upper spine split

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: 20 issues of Battle Picture Library newly added from 1968-1969 between #364 and #386. All are in nearly uniform nice shape, FN/VF with a couple slightly lower, clean, bright and unmarked, with virtually no staple rust. Full details as always in our catalogue.

*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 for the novels of Sax Rohmer and his most famous creations. Rohmer (real name Arthur Ward) was writing for most of the first half of the 20th Century up to his death in 1959. He was the creator of Dr Fu Manchu, the oriental criminal mastermind who shot to fame across the media; in the 1950s, he followed up with Sumuru, a female variation of his main character. He also wrote many novels of supernatural and mystery fiction in a long and illustrious career. We have just one of the Fu Manchu novels in stock (but it does have the distinction of being our only (non-pictorial board) hardcover without a dustjacket, and also the oldest book we have!) plus three of the five Sumuru novels. More information, including condition notes, in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ALL BY SAX ROHMER ALL SOLD
THE RETURN OF DR FU-MANCHU McBride 1916 1st US HC GD £15
SINISTER MADONNA Four Square 1963 UK PB VG £8 A Sumuru Novel
THE SINS OF SUMURU Digit 1964 UK PB GD £5
THE SLAVES OF SUMURU Panther 1960 GD £15

*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 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 time we’re offering 25 issues of Gerry Anderson’s Candy between #55 and #143 plus the Candy & Andy Annual from 1967 (pictured). The comics are mostly VG (with a few GD and a few FN) and the annual is a splendid VF. By issue #55 the stills from this TV show that never was had run out and the title offered more traditional younger readers’ fare, but the annual has those creepy pandas (enough to put the Halloween heebie-jeebies up the most stalwart of children – or even adults) and even a couple of Thunderbirds strips. Just right for your little ones this Halloween, although whether this lot is a trick or treat, we’ll leave up to them! £20 for the batch including free p&p (UK only). SOLD

*DC: From 1988, the other ground-breaking series by Alan Moore, V For Vendetta — a seminal story of rebellion in an all too familiar dystopian Britain — a story for its time and, unfortunately, still very much with us. With wonderfully subtle art by David Lloyd and muted colour palettes by our late friend Steve Whitaker (among others), the series looks as good as it reads. It spawned an okay film, but more significantly, the V mask has been adopted by the ‘Occupy’ movement and is now internationally famous. This is the Complete Set, #1-10, all but one in pristine NM condition (#1 is VF+ due to tiny amount of handling wear at top edge).
PICTURED: V FOR VENDETTA #1; COMPLETE SET #1-10 £85 SOLD

*Marvel: From the Bute Collection this week, the Fabulous FF ‘Walk Like Egyptians’, as they face off against Rama-Tut, an ancient dictator who is so much more than he seems. Possessing power and technology far beyond his apparent means, Rama-Tut’s saga unfolded over the course of ensuing decades to disclose a multitude of alternate identities, including a close familial connection with one of the FF themselves – but ssh! spoilers! This is a pence printed, worn and slightly dingy lower-graded copy, but structurally integral with very few cover flaws but for tiny wear and creasing at edges and corners and a small tear around the lower staple, although both staples are still well attached. Off-white to cream pages are okay. 
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #19 GD p £85

*IW/Super: We continue with our series of updates from that most esoteric publisher IW/Super. IW Publications was a short-lived comic book publisher in the late 1950s and early 1960s, named for the company’s owner Israel Waldman. Comics were published under both the IW and Super imprints and were notable for publishing unauthorised Golden Age reprints of other company’s properties. Usually these companies were out of business, but not always. Basically, it seemed to be whatever they could get their hands on that determined the esoteric nature of their output. Thus you get super-heroes, war, romance, western, funny animals, crime, horror, science fiction and just about every genre within their pages. Full details of what was reprinted in what are listed in our website catalogue. NB usually with newly-drawn covers. Over the next few months, we’ll be presenting a series of issues from this publisher; this week, both issues of Space Detective, #1 and #8 (as we always say, IW’s numbering system was esoteric, to put it mildly). Unusually, both issues feature reprints of original Space Detective covers from 1951 by Wally Wood and Joe Orlando. #1 actually has content (mostly by those same artistic luminaries) from the original series (and the cover to #2); #8 has the cover from #1, but peculiarly, the content from Famous Funnies #191, featuring a different Space Detective. Got that?
PICTURED: SPACE DETECTIVE
#1 GD £25 Reprints cover and content from Space Detective #2 (Avon 1951). Okay copy with short upper spine split, small label mark by logo and book shop stamp with handwritten price. SOLD
#8 VG £60 Reprints cover: Space Detective #1 (Avon 1951); content: Famous Funnies #191 (Eastern Color 1950). Nice enough copy with mild wear, the worst being a short crease across bottom right corner which just breaks colour.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: Half a dozen more distinctive gems from Charlton’s 1970s output in this vein.
IN THIS UPDATE:  ALL SOLD
GHOSTLY TALES
#99 VG p £6
#107 VG p £4.50
#132 VF p £8
GHOST MANOR
#39 GD p £2
#77 VF p £6.75 Final issue
SCARY TALES
#37 FN p £4.75