*DC: This week’s complete set comes from the Bute Collection and comprises the full run of Beware the Creeper from Steve Ditko. After leaving Marvel, Ditko took his talents to the opposition, and one of his earliest creations for DC was the Creeper, the manic anti-hero who was secretly controversial broadcaster Jack Ryder. Obviously revelling in his liberation, Ditko’s art showed great vitality and energy, perfectly suiting the skewed viewpoint of his protagonist. Following his debut in Showcase #73, the Creeper was granted his own title, which ran for six issues. All six issues presented here together, all in superior grades with an average of FN+. All pencils by Ditko, except for the cover of #6 (Gil Kane) and the second half of the story in #6 (Jack Sparling). 
IN THIS UPDATE: CREEPER, BEWARE THE: Complete Set #1-6 Av FN+ £100; #1 (FN/VF) pictured. Nothing lower than FN. All pence stamped copies. SOLD

*Marvel: Following the relaxation of distribution regulations in 1968, Marvel expanded by cancelling its double-featured books Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense, giving each hero space to breathe in his own comic. Three, however, continued the numbering of their parent titles, and one such was Doctor Strange, former star of Strange Tales, whose first solo issue was numbered #169. This opening issue of Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme was a book-length retelling of his origins, scripted by Roy Thomas and lavishly illustrated by Dan Adkins, often regarded only as an inker but here supplying full and excellent artwork. This is a high grade cents copy, with beautiful gloss and colour to the cover. It’s flat with tight staples and white to off-white pages. Just the merest suggestions of edge wear and spine stress, which are extremely minor. 
PICTURED: DR STRANGE #169 VF £280

*Marvel: Six consecutive issues of Amazing Spider-Man from #110-115, featuring the first appearances of the Gibbon (#110) and Hammerhead (#113), as well as Doctor Octopus and Kraven the Hunter. 
IN THIS UPDATE: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 
#110 VG+ p £11.75 Pence printed. SOLD
#111 VG/FN p £29 Pence printed
#112 VG+ p £25 Pence printed
#113 FN/VF p £32 (PICTURED) Pence printed
#114 GD/VG p £8 Pence printed SOLD
#115 VG/FN p £29 Pence printed

*Teen Humour/Funny Girls: Along with Patsy Walker, Millie the Model was one of two Marvel primary funny girls and had numerous spin-off titles. One of these, A Date With Millie, had in fact two short series in the 1950s. This update has the first issue of the second series dating from 1959 and features, as the cover proclaims, comics, fashions, gags, games and romance. Starring Millie and her rival Chili, this standard size comic crams in loads of stories of varying length, fashion pages, gags, modelling tips (handy for all our readers) and more. This is a nice copy, with good colours, page quality and tight, firm staples. There is a tiny chip out right edge, and the remnants of a dink at the bottom spine with a little bit of non-colour breaking creasing. An uncommon item from the Bute Collection. 
PICTURED: A DATE WITH MILLIE #1 VG/FN £150

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: From 1961, Fleetway’s Battle Picture Library was one of their three long-running flagship titles in this genre (along with War and Air Ace). This week, we have the first five issues of this series fresh in, generally in low to low-mid grades.
PICTURED: BATTLE PICTURE LIBRARY
#1 PR £20 Back cover missing. Front cover taped to first page at spine. Spine mostly absent but remaining parts ragged. Rusty staple. Otherwise complete and perfectly readable.
#2 FA/GD £13.50 Bookshop stamp on cover and first page. Upper spine split and ragged spine.  
#3 FA £12 Spine mostly split. Rusty staple. Central cover crease.
#4 GD/VG £17.50 Structurally nice but rusty staple. 
#5 GD/VG £17.50 Okay, if a little worn. Slightly rusty staple. 

*Comic Strip Books: In 1966, tying in with the seminal Batman TV show starring Adam West, Four Square released a series of paperback books reprinting some of the greatest Batman stories from the comics of the Golden Age (and beyond) in black and white. We have two of these treasured publications fresh in this week:
PICTURED: BOTH SOLD
BATMAN Four Square 1966 1st UK PB FA/GD £10
Reprints classic Batman stories from the comic inc origin plus the Joker 
Rippled due to water damage, but intact
BATMAN VS THE PENGUIN Four Square 1966 1st UK PB VG £15
Reprints classic Penguin stories from the Batman comic plus a Catwoman bonus
Nice copy with minor wear.

*DC: Four more issues of Superman from 1956/57 from the Midas Collection, before distribution started in  the UK, when the classic Silver Age mythos of the character and his cast was just developing.  
PICTURED: SUPERMAN
#107 GD £50 In the cover story, Superman over exerts himself and falls into a coma, awakening 1,000 years into the future. Reasonable copy with some wear and tear, including small corners off cover at top and bottom right edges. 
#109 FN- £140 An excellent copy with great colour and gloss, marred only by a couple of small creases towards bottom right edge. 
#113 GD+ £55 Great ‘3 part novel’ by Bill Finger and Wayne Boring starring Jor-El as a Superman on Krypton, with the present day Superman resolving his father’s adventures. Creasing with some chips out bottom right corner and edge, upper staple off front cover. 
#117 GD/VG £65 Includes Lex Luthor story. Okay copy, a bit worn and creased, small tear without loss top edge. 

*Marvel: This is it! Right here, right now, the ultimate Spider-Mania/Mighty Marvel Firsts event — the first appearance of the Amazing Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15!

In the final issue of the mystery anthology Amazing Adult Fantasy, dated September 1962 and renamed Amazing Fantasy for that one issue, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created a character who was destined to change the then-nascent Marvel Comics’ fortunes, and the face of the comics industry. Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man, became Marvel Comics’ solo super-star, wisecracking his way through all the slings and arrows a capricious fate (and the imaginative writers) could throw at him, and, decades later, following thousands of comic books and multiple multi-million media adaptations, he remains one of the most recognized characters worldwide. His first appearance, pre-dating his own series, is one of the most sought-after comics ever, THE comic of the Silver Age, and on more wants lists than I’ve had hot dinners. 

This is the first copy we’ve had through our hands since 2018 (when on one historic day, we were staggered to acquire TWO copies!). Just the one this time. This is a worn and lower-graded copy, pence printed, with an intact and largely undamaged cover image. There is a faint vertical crease that extends across Spidey’s left arm and leg, breaking colour faintly, like a subscription crease, but I don’t think it is one. A central spine tear of about 5 cm reaches from the spine across the lower word balloon, but there is no loss and it is hard to see. Corners are blunted, with a tiny diagonal loss where top spine is split (less than 1 cm). All edges have wear with small colour-breaking creases, the right edge more so. The spine is a little ragged, with stress wear around the staples with a 2 cm x 1 cm split centre spine which extends to the back cover (but not the front). The front cover has no graffiti, pen or pencil marks of any kind; small previous owner’s name in top margin of back cover. Despite stress around staples on front cover, these remain firmly attached there and at centrefold. Pages are a very decent and supple off-white to cream, with no defacements but one or two margin foxing spots. Inner covers are tanned at the edges, but are not brittle. The comic is a little tired, but complete, intact and unrestored. 

We have included copious imagery below. High resolution images are available on request. 

PICTURED: AMAZING FANTASY #15 GD- £12,500

*Marvel: 8 issues of Captain America from 1971/72 when the title was not distributed here in the UK. Issues range from #143-156. Cap and the Falcon up against the Red Skull, Hydra and a fake Cap (?).
IN THIS UPDATE: CAPTAIN AMERICA ALL SOLD
#143 VG £8.25 Double size
#146 VG+ £5.75
#147 FA+ £1.75
#148 VG/FN £6.25 Extra staples
#153 VG- £7.25
#154 VG+ £9.25 with the Avengers
#155 VG+ £10.25 (PICTURED) Secret origin.
#156 FN £10  

*Miscellaneous 1960 Onwards: In the mid-1970s, Power Records launched the Book and Record Set, in which a comic book was reprinted (sometimes with some heavy editing, to remove continuity and references to other issues), along with a 45 RPM record in which the comic’s story was voiced-over with staggering ineptitude! This example from the Bute Collection features the Monster of Frankenstein, reprinted from the Marvel original, complete with record. 
PICTURED: POWER BOOK & RECORD SET PR14 THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN VG/FN £25

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Right then, it doesn’t get much rarer and more esoteric than this. The one and only issue of Prang Comic, published in 1948 by Hotspur. It has the dimensions of an American comic and features three strips in its eight pages: Maxwell the Mighty, the 1000 HP Human, super-hero with flight, super strength, super speed and invulnerability; Daredevil Kent Carew, Crime-Breaker of the Air – test pilot and ‘tec; Peter Puck and the Wishing Ring, a boy whose wishes come true with the aid of a magic ring, all illustrated in red, white and navy blue. I’ve not been able to track down any details of writers or artists. This is a lovely copy, virtually as good as you would want or expect, with clean near white pages, little wear and no markings; just a tiny nick at the very margin edge of one internal page. You may not see another!
PICTURED: PRANG COMIC VG/FN £75 SOLD

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: The Golden Age Of Detective Fiction was surely between the 1920s and the 1950s, and in this period several women dominated the genre. Agatha Christie remains the most famous, but several of her contemporaries produced equally absorbing work. Like all her fellow ‘Queens’, Dorothy L Sayers moved detective fiction away from pure puzzles and towards works of characterisation and depth. Between 1923 and 1939, Sayers wrote 11 novels featuring the upper-class amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. In 1930, she introduced a leading female character, Harriet Vane, the object of Wimsey’s love. Just one new Sayers in this week, but it’s a good one. From 1936, the classic Penguin paperback edition of The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, one of Wimsey’s most memorable cases. It says something of the popularity of this novel that it was first published in 1928, then published in Penguin in 1935; by the time of this seventh impression, it was still only 1936. For those of you who collect Penguins by numbers, this is in fact Number 5, the fifth Penguin book. 
PICTURED: DOROTHY L SAYERS: THE UNPLEASANTNESS AT THE BELLONA CLUB Penguin 1936 7th UK PB thus GD £30 SOLD Lord Peter Wimsey. Some small stains and discolorations. Top cm of spine missing. Small spine split at bottom. Minor creasing bottom right corner.

*DC: Leading this week’s releases from the Midas Collection come two adjacent issues of Batman from 1947, cover featuring Catwoman (#42) and the Penguin (#43). 
PICTURED: BATMAN 
#42 VG- £750 SOLD Classic trompe l’oeil cover by Jack Burnley with Batman pulling back the corner to reveal Catwoman within. This is the first cover in the Batman title to feature Catwoman, and only the second anywhere. Three long Batman stories written by Bill Finger with art by Charles Paris. Catwoman performs crimes inspired by fictitious felines, Batman is blinded for 72 hours and a scientist provides robot robbers to take the place of aged criminals. This is a very nice copy with rich cover colours. There is a reading crease and other small creases at spine breaking colour, which do not intrude. Slight wear along right edge and some spine roll, visible on the back. Small wear around staples at spine, but they are firmly attached there and at centrefold. Flexible pages are a nice off-white. High resolution images are available on request. 
#43 GD- £200 Nice ‘Pirate Penguin’ cover by Jim Mooney. Three long Batman stories written by Bill Finger with art by Mooney. The Penguin commits crimes inspired by birds in literature, murder stalks the Gotham subway and Batman & Robin come up against The Four Horsemen of Crime (Captain Kidd, Jesse James, John Dillinger and Genghis Khan) or do they? Nice cover colour, spoilt by a rat or insect chew at the right edge (see scan) which carries on into the first few pages, where it only impacts on the margin. Some spine wear with small holes and a small piece of tape below the bottom staple and a further piece around the top of the spine. An extra central staple has been inserted. Small pencilled writing at logo. Lower staple off at front cover only. Pages are okay (except as noted above) and off-white. 

*DC: Following on from his short-lived Golden Age run, which is itself rare and highly collectable, the Phantom Stranger joined the Silver Age relatively late in 1969 in Showcase #80. Under a spectacular Neal Adams cover, a new Phantom Stranger story lurks by Mike Friedrich/Jerry Grandenetti, mashing into a reprint from the first series by Broome and Infantino and a reprint of the first Dr Thirteen story by Leonard Starr. A tremendous package. This is a nice pence stamped copy with great colour, some gloss and a small amount of handling wear with a few tiny creases and corner blunting. Excellent near white pages and tight, firm staples. 
PICTURED: SHOWCASE #80 FN p £65 SOLD

*Marvel: This seldom seen Marvel Annual from 1964 boasts ‘Six big, thrilling, uncut origin tales of your Mighty Marvel Super-Heroes!’ plus ‘An actual unretouched photo of virtually every member of our Merry Marvel Bullpen!” This is fine as long as you can get your head round their definition of uncut and bear in mind that there’s no photo of Steve Ditko! The origins of Spider-Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man/Giant-Man & the Wasp, Thor, Sgt Fury and his Howling Doo-dads and Iron Man are all featured, with the full stories or sometimes the relevant pages from their origin tales. As far as I know, this is the first reprint of these stories. This is a reasonable pence stamped copy with a small upper spine split, edge wear with small, unobtrusive creasing and a small strip off the top of the last page, which affects mostly the margin and encroaches into one word in the Thor story, which appears to be ‘the’. We haven’t had a copy of this through our hands for many years. 
PICTURED: MARVEL TALES ANNUAL #1 GD p £40 SOLD

*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. NB usually with newly-drawn covers. Three comics with very different subject matters this week.
IN THIS UPDATE: 
DANGER IS OUR BUSINESS #9 VG- £12.50 SOLD Reprints Danger Is Our Business #1 Toby 1953. Reprint Kintsler cover. Includes Williamson/Frazetta Captain Comet story (not DC). 
DARING ADVENTURES #17 VG £6.75 SOLD Reprints Green Lama #3 Spark 1945. New cover by Ross Andru. Includes Green Lama story by Mac Raboy
FANTASTIC TALES #1 GD/VG £40 (PICTURED) Reprints City of the Living Dead Avon 1952. New cover by Bernard Baily does not reflect the pre-code horror content. 

*Western: Six bargain basement priced Wild West goodies from various publishers this week.
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
CHEYENNE (Dell) #20 PR/FA £2.25
GUNFIGHTERS (Charlton) #85 FN £3.25 Final issue. Reprints Bulls Eye by Simon & Kirby
KID COLT (Marvel) #153 GD+ £3.25
TEXAS RANGERS IN ACTION (Charlton) #40 GD- p £1.50
TEXAS RANGERS IN ACTION (Charlton) #79 VG £2.75 Final issue
TWO-GUN KID (Marvel) #90 GD p £4 

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Over 80 newly-listed issues of War Picture Library between #549 and #807, averaging Fine condition. These are from a newsagent’s unsold inventory, never read or circulated, and while some have a tinge of staple rust or minor edge and corner shelf wear from long-term storage, the vast majority are bright copies with firm, undamaged spines and no exterior markings. Superior examples of the vintage. An example below. 
PICTURED: WAR PICTURE LIBRARY #549 FN £2

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Reginald Heade was certainly just the right artist for the gangster pulp era. His dynamic covers captured the mood and menace of the tough, uncompromising content as dished out by authors such as Hank Janson and Spike Morelli, featured here. Unusually, one of this week’s Jansons is more of an Arabian adventure, but is no less hard-hitting for it. The remaining three books in the update offer the more familiar fare of the American underworld. All four are first editions, two UK and two US. More information, including condition notes, may as always be found in our catalogue. 
PICTURED: 
HANK JANSON: AUCTIONED New Fiction 1950s 1st UK PB VG £60
HANK JANSON: KILL HER IF YOU CAN New Fiction 1950s 1st UK PB FA £15
SPIKE MORELLI: DEATH FOR A DOLL Leisure Library 1952 1st US PB FA/GD £15
SPIKE MORELLI: YOU’LL NEVER GET ME Archer/Kaywin 1952 1st US PB GD/VG £25

*DC: In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there arose a craze for ‘Gothic Romances’, the covers of which depicted diaphanously-clad lovelies fleeing a darkened mansion/castle/palace at night, frequently pursued by beasts. Writer Denny O’Neil paid tribute to the genre in Batman #227’s ‘Demon of Gothos Mansion!’, casting Alfred’s niece Daphne as the ingenue and arranging a beautiful Neal Adams cover, which became one of the most sought-after iconic covers of the Silver Age – not least because it also ‘homaged’ a Golden Age cover, Detective #31. This is a beautiful condition copy from the Bute Collection, tight, flat, glossy and with strong colours. Staples are firm at spine and centrefold, and the supple pages are an excellent near-white. there is just the merest suggestion of handling wear at the top left edge and a hint of wear towards the bottom of the spine that preclude a NM or higher grade. A fairly unobtrusive small pence stamp is on the ‘N’ of the logo. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: BATMAN #227 VF £1,075  

*Marvel: Lorna Dane had met up with the X-Men in the previous issue, rescued by Iceman after being caught up in one of the bouts of anti-mutant hysteria which sweep Marvel-Earth twice a week, but it wasn’t until issue #50 that she had her Big Reveal: she was the daughter of Magneto, Master of Evil Mutants and the heir to all his power! To say that Lorna’s history has been convoluted is an understatement – the ‘official’ position as to whether she’s Magneto’s offspring or not has changed many times, but – except when she’s had psychotic breaks and become a villain, as you do – she’s been a stalwart member of the X-Men and/or X-Factor for decades now. Fortuitously, this issue was one of a handful drawn by Jim Steranko, and his innovative layouts, cinematic storytelling and nifty costume design for Lorna (who, though generally known as Polaris, didn’t formally adopt that codename until years later) made this story a gripping read with stunning visuals. And that iconic Steranko green cover, one of the classics of the Marvel Age. This is a nice cents copy, with great colours, good gloss and only very slight handling wear. There is a 6 cm crease across the bottom right corner breaking colour. Tight, firm staples and white to off-white pages. 
PICTURED: X-MEN #50 VG/FN £140

*Marvel: Five very varied comics from the House of Ideas this time.
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
DAREDEVIL #257 FN £10 Daredevil Vs the Punisher
KULL #7 FN p £4.75 Art by the Severins
INDIANA JONES, FURTHER ADVENTURES OF #1 FN £7.50 by Byrne and Austin
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #158 VG £6.75 with Doc Ock
TALES TO ASTONISH #95 GD/VG p £7.75 Subby & Hulk 

*Horror 1940-1959: L B Cole was one of the most famous of Golden/Atomic Age cover artists. He drew in a variety of genres, and was artistic director at Star, illustrating 95% of the company’s covers; his lurid, feverish style, almost hallucinogenic, graced horror, science-fiction, jungle and romance alike. The title Startling Terror Tales has a confusing history: starting at #10 in 1952, issues were published up to #14 in 1953, after which it started again at #4 later in 1953 and lasted until #11 in 1954. Thus the issue at hand here is #5 from the second run. Inside is a selection of Fox reprints from 1948, all crime-based with strong horror overtones. But, as with virtually all Star’s output, it’s the wonderful L B Cole cover for which this issue is prized, this one with a sinister leering demon surrounded by flames and skulls, tormenting several humans with its many limbs. This is quite a reasonable copy with strong colours and an unmarked cover image. There is very slight spine roll just to the bottom half and minor handling wear, with a faint reading crease at the spine, which just breaks colour. The most significant defect is a small chip out towards the top of the spine (see scan). This chip is present on the end of a small loose corner of the top back cover which is still hanging on to the comic. The staples are firmly attached and the page quality is a flexible off-white to cream. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: STARTLING TERROR TALES #5 GD+ £500 SOLD

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for this books category, with an image for each book. Michael Moorcock is certainly one of the most productive and versatile Science Fiction and Fantasy authors around. I can fondly remember reading much of his output during my formative years. His characters, landscapes and scenarios are eccentric; haunting and memorable. Most of his work can be considered part of his Eternal Champion mythos (although I suspect some of it was retrospectively so declared). In this final part of a substantial re-working of our listing, we include the stories of Oswald Bastable, the complete trilogy of that Nomad of the Time Streams (and another aspect of the Eternal Champion), plus the stand alone science fiction novel, The Shores Of Death, a short story collection The Time Dweller and one of the anthologies edited by Moorcock collected from the pages of the UK’s most famous science fiction publication, New Worlds, which under his guidance, ushered in the New Wave of science fiction in the 1960s. 
PICTURED: ALL BY MICHAEL MOORCOCK
OSWALD BASTABLE 1: THE WARLORD OF THE AIR Quartet 1976 UK PB FN £6
OSWALD BASTABLE 2: THE LAND LEVIATHAN Quartet 1974 1st UK PB VG £4
OSWALD BASTABLE 3: THE STEEL TSAR Mayflower 1982 UK PB VG £4
THE SHORES OF DEATH Mayflower 1974 1st UK PB thus GD £3 SOLD
THE TIME DWELLER Mayflower 1979 4th UK PB VG £4
(Ed) BEST SF STORIES FROM NEW WORLDS 7 Panther 1971 1st UK PB GD £6

*DC: We visit the Midas Collection this week for three Golden Age issues of Superman that have all seen better days: #28, #31 & #48. All have significant faults, which keeps their prices affordable for comics of this vintage. Useful only perhaps to fill gaps in your collection until you can get something better. 
PICTURED: SUPERMAN ALL SOLD
#28 FA £90 Four stories, including Superman apparently accomplishing the twelve labours of Hercules and a Lois Lane solo. This would actually be in much better shape were it not for the fact that the statue of Hercules figure on the cover has been cut off and crudely reattached with tape on the inside cover. Small bottom corner of cover missing. Otherwise around VG with decent staples and nice pages.  
#31 PR £40 Four stories, one featuring Lex Luthor, a Lois Lane solo and another where Lois’s dog discovers Superman’s secret identity (!). A pretty awful example, with covers detached and separated, with chunks missing from their edges. Pages are browning and brittle at spine and edges, but complete apart from two ad pages. 
#48 PR £35 Three stories, including one Lex Luthor story. Covers detached and all but separated, Grubby cover, chipping to right edge with small losses. Most of spine and back cover edges missing. Complete with pages not too bad.