*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

*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 Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze. Doc Savage first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a polymathic scientist, explorer, detective, and warrior. He was raised by scientists to become the perfect human, righting wrongs worldwide with the aid of his five associates – and a sixth, if you included Doc’s shapely cousin Pat Savage, an Amazonian lady with a deft line in snappy patter. The series’ main writer, was Lester Dent. Doc Savage stories were published under the Kenneth Robeson name, as were the paperback series of novels published from the 1960s to the 1990s, which reprinted the 181 stories from the pulp magazine. You can start, or add to, your collection right here with 8 of these novels, well presented with attractive painted covers.
PICTURED: ALL DOC SAVAGE BY KENNETH ROBESON ALL SOLD
THE AWFUL EGG Bantam 1978 US PB VG £5
THE GREEN EAGLE Bantam 1968 1st US PB GD £4
LAND OF ALWAYS NIGHT Bantam 1966 1st US PB GD £4
THE MAGIC ISLAND Bantam 1977 US PB VG/FN £6
METEOR MENACE Corgi 1975 1st UK PB GD £4
PIRATE OF THE PACIFIC Bantam 1977 US PB VG/FN £6
THE SARGASSO OGRE Bantam 1967 1st US PB VG £5
TUNNEL TERROR Bantam 1979 US PB VG/FN £6

*DC: In 1958, DC Comics presented a new science fiction hero, the latest in a line that stretched back to John Carter of Mars and Flash Gordon. Like his famous predecessors, Adam Strange was a contemporary Earthman transported through space for adventures on an alien world. Indeed, the banner heading for Adam’s first appearance in Showcase #17 was ‘Adventures On Other Worlds’ (it wasn’t until #19 that it changed to ‘Adam Strange’, the one and only time in the classic Silver Age that his name appeared at the masthead on a comic cover, since all subsequent appearances came in Mystery In Space).

Adam Strange was created by editor Julius Schwartz and (visually) Murphy Anderson. It was Schwartz (himself a veteran of science fiction magazines) who conceived the idea of an Earthman repeatedly traveling to a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system using a ‘Zeta-Beam’.  Since Adam Strange was the first Earthman on another planet, he named his character Adam after the Biblical first man. Schwartz assigned the scripts to Gardner Fox (although the plots were dreamed up between them) and the artistic duties to Mike Sekowsky. Schwartz, being a science major, gave Fox scientific pointers which lent the series a plausibility far greater than other science fiction comics of the time.

In Showcase #17, Adam Strange is presented as an archaeologist, an Indiana Jones-type figure searching for a lost city of the Incas in the Andes. Pursued by natives, he risks a twenty-five foot leap across a chasm, but never lands. Instead he is struck by a mysterious beam from space and transported to the planet Rann of the star system Alpha Centauri 25 trillion miles from Earth. There he meets the lovely Alanna and her scientist father Sardath in the city of Ranagar. They explain that their ‘Zeta-Beam’ was a communication device sent to Earth four years previously in an attempt to establish contact; due to some unnamed ‘space radiation’, they postulated that the beam had somehow been converted into a teleportation beam. No sooner is Adam starting to settle in than Rann is invaded by a race called the Eternals (!) who are after a rare metal for their home world. Using his spacecraft piloting skills (where did he get those from?) and his wits, Adam is able to trap the Eternals permanently in the fourth dimension, as you do. Just as he succeeds, however, the Zeta-Beam charge wears off and he is teleported back to Earth.

Never fear though because Sardath had previously been able to advise where and when all subsequent Zeta-Beams would strike the Earth (they took four years, but he’d already sent loads!), so Adam was able to beam back to Rann in time for his second adventure and the second alien invasion in the second story in Showcase #17, wherein Adam got the spacesuit, rocket jets and ray-gun by which we came to recognise him.

We’re delighted to present, from the Bute Collection, all three of Adam Strange’s adventures in Showcase.

PICTURED: SHOWCASE
#17 GD/VG £500 Cover has excellent colour and gloss and is virtually unmarked. It’s off the lower staple and the spine is cleanly split to slightly above that. Remainder of spine is attached, but a little weak with a few small holes. There is some corner blunting and edge wear, but little of note except for a 3 cm crease top centre which breaks colour. There is a slight puckering along a few cms of the right edge. Both staples are firm at centrefold, and the top firm at cover as well. Supple pages are a very clean white to off-white. High resolution images are available on request. SOLD
#18 VG+ £160 Nice unspoilt cover image with just reading wear, corner blunting and a couple of diagonal creases across bottom right, one of which faintly breaks colour. Solid spine with staples firmly attached, and at centrefold. Supple pages are a very clean white to off-white.
#19 VG+ £170 Nice unspoilt cover image with just reading wear, corner blunting and a short 2 cm crease across bottom right, which just breaks colour. Solid spine with staples firmly attached, and at centrefold. Supple pages are a very clean white to off-white.

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week, X-Men #64-66 were the last three issues of the original series to feature new material (issues #67-93 were all reprint), but each of these three issues has great significance. #64 featured the debut of short-lived X-Man but recurring character Sunfire; #65 (the last issue drawn by Neal Adams) featured the return of Professor X back from the dead and #66 guest-starred the Hulk, who Marvel always seemed to wheel out for the final issue of a series. 
PICTURED: X-MEN
#64 VF- £175 Nice clean glossy copy with vibrant colours, tight, firm staples and white to off-white pages. Minor wear at spine and very slight handling wear.
#65 FN/VF £65 Nice clean glossy copy with vibrant colours, tight, firm staples and near white pages. A very narrow 4.5 cm crease at top right corner breaks colour.
#66 VF- p £150 Pence-printed. Glossy and vibrant, with tight, firm staples and near white pages. Just minor handling edge wear.

*Marvel: Ms Marvel, spinning out of Captain Marvel, former background character Carol Danvers got her own set of super-powers and a whole new supporting cast (including new boss J. Jonah Jameson) as she attempted to discover the mystery behind her own origins. Although moderately successful, the series was attacked by critics who derided Carol’s derivative costume, which made her look like Captain Marvel’s sidekick, and the fact that Marvel were offering a ‘powerful, confident’ heroine who suffered from blackouts and amnesia. Despite these jibes, Ms Marvel has been a prominent member of the Marvel Universe for nearly fifty years in one guise or another – whether as Ms Marvel, Binary, Warbird, or an incarnation of Captain Marvel, her chequered history has provided many intriguing plotlines. This is a nice cents copy with great cover colour and gloss and just minor handling wear at edges, with a very soft non colour-breaking crease across the edge of the top right corner. Supple off-white pages and tight, firm staples.
PICTURED: MS MARVEL #1 VF- £35 SOLD

*Miscellaneous 1960 Onwards: Frank Miller’s Sin City burst on to the comics scene in 1991, firmly establishing the neo-noir mood he had built on in his earlier classic run on Daredevil and the seminal Dark Knight Returns. The original Sin City series (later entitled The Hard Goodbye) originally appeared in serial form in Dark Horse Presents, and The Big Fat Kill (a five part mini-series) was the third instalment of these stories of Basin City and its denizens. It continues the story of photographer Dwight McCarthy from the previous A Dame To Kill For. It’s chock-full of the dark, seedy characters that inhabit the city and the locations that form it. The film noir influence on the series’ artwork is seen in its use of shadow and stark backgrounds. Black and white are the sole colours most of the time, with other colour used sparingly to highlight certain characters. The writing style also draws heavily on detective and crime pulp fiction. We’re delighted to present all five parts of The Big Fat Kill in pristine condition from an original owner collection.
PICTURED: SIN CITY: THE BIG FAT KILL #1; COMPLETE SERIES #1-5 All NM £25 SOLD

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: This week’s release of Love Story Picture Library, the longest running romance picture library from Fleetway, comprises 10 consecutive issues from 1967, between #622 to #631. The series always maintained a high standard and the very accomplished art reflected the fashions and mood of the times. Virtually no touch of rust on the staples of these nice copies, with just a little creasing or puckering in some cases.
IN THIS UPDATE: LOVE STORY PICTURE LIBRARY
#622 VF £7
#623 FN/VF £6
#624 FN £5
#625 FN £5
#626 FN/VF £6
#627 FN/VF £6
#628 FN/VF £6
#629 FN/VF £6
#630 VF £7
#631 FN/VF £6

*Books About Books: You’ll find a couple of items listed under ‘About H P Lovecraft’ added to this category this week, although these are in fact essays and letters by the man himself, two sturdy and learned volumes.
PICTURED:
ABOUT H P LOVECRAFT
H P LOVECRAFT (Ed by S T JOSHI)
COLLECTED ESSAYS VOLUME 5: PHILOSOPHY, AUTOBIOGRAPHY & MISCELLANY
Hippocampus Press NY 2006 1st US PB, 1st printing VF £18
H P LOVECRAFT (Ed by S T JOSHI & DAVID E SCHULTZ)
LETTERS TO JAMES F MORTON
Hippocampus Press 2011 1st US PB FN £15

*DC: A significant milestone in the history of the Legion of Super-Heroes is a decent copy of Adventure Comics #300, in which Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes replaced Tales of the Bizarro World as the regular back-up feature to Superboy and starred on the cover. Although the Legion had been around as supporting characters for a few years, it was really here and in the 80 issue run that followed that the lore of the Legion, so beloved by its fans (of which I’m one) really started. A nice cents copy with good colour and minor edge wear, okay staples and pages, marred only by a short spine split between the staples.
PICTURED: ADVENTURE #300 VG- £70 SOLD

*Marvel: Key issues don’t come much more key these days than Iron Man #55, wherein the cosmic arch-villain Thanos, nemesis of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, made his first appearance, the brainchild of fan favourite writer/artist Jim Starlin. Thanos has of course gone on to plague Marvel’s heroes in comics and movies ever since, but here is where it all started. This landmark issue also features the debuts of Drax the Destroyer, Mentor, Eros (later Starfox of the Avengers) and Kronos. This is a beautiful pence printed copy, clean and bright with reflective cover colour. Firm, tight staples and supple white to off-white pages. No cover marks except for a faint and tiny soft dink at base of spine and a couple of minor stress marks centrally at spine; none of these break colour. High grade images are available on request.
PICTURED: IRON MAN #55 VF+ p £600

*Marvel: From the Bute Collection this week, three issues of Fantastic Four, linked only by being in the same grade. In #24, the FF come up against an alien child. In #40, guest-starring daredevil, the powerless FF encounter Dr Doom in a battle royale. And in #66, we learn something of the background to the origin of Him, later Warlock.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR
#24 VG+ p £50 Pence printed. Nice solid copy with only minor edge wear and very slight chipping. 
#40 VG+ p £40 Pence stamped. Nice solid copy with some corner blunting and spine ticks. SOLD
#66 VG+ £50 Fresh copy with minor wear at right corners.