Here’s a reminder of relevant dates for our trading during the festive period.

Saturday 9th December: Last day for orders for UK pre-Christmas delivery. You need to place your order no later than 4 pm. Orders placed after this deadline will not be posted until the New Year. This is also the day we shall be issuing our last Newsletter before Christmas.
Wednesday 13th December: Last posting before Christmas for all orders placed by 4 pm on Saturday 9th and paid for by 4 pm on Tuesday 12th December.
Saturday 30th December: Newsletter resumes. All orders placed after 4 pm on 9th December (up to 4 pm on 30th) will be filled this weekend and bills issued on 31st December 2023.
Wednesday 3rd January 2024: Posting for all paid orders outstanding.

*DC: After Julius Schwartz moved away from the editorship of Strange Adventures, the torch was passed to Jack Schiff with his brand of horror/mystery mostly replacing the title’s traditional science fiction. There were still plenty of recurring characters though: Star Hawkins and his robot secretary Ilda still had a few adventures left over from the Schwartz era, plus there were new heroes such as the Enchantress, Animal Man and Immortal Man. Nine issues new in from this period this week as follows:
IN THIS UPDATE: STRANGE ADVENTURES ALL SOLD
#165 GD/VG p £9 Restapled
#179 VG+ p £13.25 Star Hawkins story
#181 VG p £9 Upper restapled
#182 VG/FN p £11 Star Hawkins story
#190 GD p £11 Animal Man & Immortal Man stories
#191 VG+ p £10 Enchantress story
#192 VG+ p £10
#193 VG+ p £10
#217 GD p £2.50 Reprints 1st Adam Strange and Atomic Knights stories. Book shop stamps

*Marvel: 16 consecutive issues of the Amazing Spider-Man from the Good Doctor Collection this week from #103 to #118. A mixture of cents and pence printed copies, nearly all in very decent shape. Spidey faces up to Gog, Kraven the Hunter, the Spider Slayer, the Gibbon, Dr Octopus, Hammerhead, the Smasher, the Disruptor and more. Highlights below.
PICTURED:
#109 VF £41 Guest-starring Dr Strange
#110 VF+ £60 1st Gibbon
#112 VF £41
#116 VF/NM p £70

*Marvel: Two more Marvel Treasury Editions round off our Tabloid Headlines feature for the time being. The Howard the Duck Treasury reprints the earliest adventures of the fabulous fowl, and includes a brand new 27 page adventure with the Defenders, leading us appropriately enough into the Defenders Treasury, which reprints their most famous adventures. Both in beautiful high grade.
PICTURED: MARVEL TREASURY EDITION BOTH SOLD
#12 VF p £20 Howard The Duck
#16 VF/NM p £25 The Defenders

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints Of US Material: An assortment of vintage adventure reprints new in this week as follows:
IN THIS UPDATE:
BUCCANEERS NN FA/GD £10 (PICTURED) (Boardman/Popular) Reprints Quality title of the same name. The only copy of this we’ve ever seen.
DIAMOND ADVENTURE COMIC (Atlas) Reprints Fiction House jungle stories
#15 VG/FN £4.50
#19 VG/FN £4.50
#22 VG £4
#26 VG £4
FOUR ACES (Miller) Reprints Flash Gordon, Tim Tyler, Johnny Hazard, Secret Agent X-9, Big Ben Bolt, Phantom, Mandrake.
#2 VG £12 (PICTURED)
#3 GD/VG £10

*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 and authors/editors alphabetically from Clement to Conklin. Of particular note is the hardcover anthology Invaders Of Earth, edited by Groff Conklin, stories of Earth invasion (duh!) by science fiction masters including the complete and infamous Orson Welles broadcast Invasion From Mars; a handsome first US edition from 1952 in a nice clean dust jacket.
PICTURED:
HAL CLEMENT: THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE Ballantine 1978 1st US PB  GD/VG £5
MARK CLIFTON: EIGHT KEYS TO EDEN Pan 1965 1st UK PB VG £3
HUNT COLLINS: TOMORROW AND TOMORROW Pyramid 1965 3rd US PB VF £5
HUNT COLLINS: TOMORROW AND TOMORROW Pyramid 1970 US PB VG £4
GROFF CONKLIN (Ed): INVADERS OF EARTH Vanguard 1952 1st US HC FN £50

*Pulp Fiction: Something rather special this week: a copy of the classic pulp magazine, the Spider, from March 1935. Great Spider vs werewolf cover painted by John Howitt. Interior illustrations by J Fleming Gould. Feature length novel The Flame Master by Grant Stockbridge plus two shorter stories. Decent copy with intact spine, short damage at top and bottom spine; some edge wear. Cover creases break colour at edges only; central image unspoilt.
PICTURED: THE SPIDER Vol 5 #2 March 1935 GD/VG £125 SOLD

*DC: Two bondage cover issues of Wonder Woman new in this week. Always popular and in nice shape! Both are from Diana’s ‘Emma Peel’ years where she lost her powers and costume, a period particularly rich in this sort of thing. The covers speak for themselves.
PICTURED: WONDER WOMAN
#188 VF/NM £85 An outstanding copy with brilliant cover and full gloss, tight, firm staples and supple white to off-white pages. Virtually no wear; just the merest hint of corner blunting at base of spine.
#196 FN £35 Nice copy with good colour and gloss, minor edge wear and corner blunting. Good staples, although the cover has a tiny tear around the bottom staple, but firmly attached. Nice white to off-white pages. 

*Marvel: Our special Hulk feature continues this week with a favourite issue. Sentinel of Galactus, Norrin Radd, aka the Silver Surfer, became a hugely popular guest character following his early appearances in the Fantastic Four, and one of his most sought-after guest-shots – still prior to the premier issue of his ongoing series – is Tales to Astonish #93, in which the Surfer and the Incredible Hulk face off, courtesy of Stan Lee and Marie Severin. Cosmic power and epic action with a poignant ending – and a Sub-Mariner story, too! Even though it’s the Surfer’s twelfth appearance, it’s his first crossover with the wider Marvel Universe, outside of the Fantastic Four series. This is a decent pence printed mid-grade copy with good colour and some residual gloss. Staples are tight and firm at spine and centrefold and pages are a nice off-white. Minor edge wear; a couple of spine ticks in the masthead box area extend across it in creases which only break colour at the very spine itself. The centre right edge and bottom right corner have small patches where the colour has eroded, but these barely affect the overall appearance of the cover image. Corner blunting is minor. To Be Hulkinued…
PICTURED: TALES TO ASTONISH #93 VG p £90

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week, three classic issues of Journey Into Mystery with Thor; all are nice clean mid-grade issues. Listed in our catalogue under ‘J’.
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY
#105 VG+ p £48 Pence printed. The Cobra and Mr Hyde. Bright copy with just minor edge wear. Beautiful unmarked and unspoilt cover.
#106 VG- p £33 Pence printed. The Cobra and Mr Hyde. Small amount of edge wear and corner blunting. Name in ink on ‘Mystery’ in logo. SOLD
#108 VG p £42 Pence printed. Loki and Dr Strange. Minor edge and handling wear. Tiny bit of rust on top staple. Beautiful unmaerked and unspoilt cover.

*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. Star took over the venerable title Blue Bolt in 1949 (previously it had been a classic anthology title starring the titular character, with much work by Simon & Kirby, Everett etc, lasting throughout the war years and beyond). The title on the cover changed to Blue Bolt Weird Tales with this issue, #111, although the indicia remained as Blue Bolt. #111 was the last to feature Blue Bolt himself regularly, and the emphasis of the series had changed to horror, according to the zeitgeist of the time. Indeed, the title was rebranded as Ghostly Weird Stories from #120 onwards. In #111, with the usual mix of new and reprint material, the stories are either horror or science fiction with strong horror overtones. But of course it’s the wonderful L B Cole cover for which these issues are prized, here a face of horror surrounded by ghouls, skulls, guttering candles, a snake, a demon and clutching hands emerging from dark water. This is a very decent copy, with just very minor spine ticks and a couple of creases in the top right corner which do not break colour. The vivid colours pop out from the solid black background. The spine has a lower cover split of less than 3 cm. Staples are tight at the spine, but the centrefold is detached. Pages are a supple off-white to cream. High resolution images are available on request. PICTURED: BLUE BOLT WEIRD TALES #111 VG £900 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Now at a reduced price: Hurricane #1, complete with its Free Gift, one of the rarest of all accompanying gifts. In February 1964 Fleetway/IPC released Hurricane, a companion to their highly successful Valiant. Featuring in the lead a lightly comedic bruiser – ‘Typhoon Tracy, as opposed to ‘captain hurricane’ in the lead slot, Hurricane ploughed the expected row of adventure, war, sports and historical strips, but allocating several of them a longer run (5 pages, rather than the two or three that were the weekly standard), and with its slightly larger size, seemed to be aiming a little higher age-wise. The most famous alumnus of Hurricane, apart from Tracy himself, was ace racing driver ‘Skid Solo’, who had a decades-long career after Hurricane’s eventual absorption into Tiger. Because it had a regrettably short run, a mere 63 issues, Hurricane is highly sought after today, and this first issue, in a gleaming Fine condition, is made extra precious by the presence of the Free Gift which originally accompanied it – a punch-out cardboard model of the TSR2 fighter plane, not punched out (in this instance), but still in its original ‘flat’ form, albeit with the card having sustained a light horizontal fold at some time; the original rubber band used to launch it is missing (but easily replaced). 
PICTURED: HURRICANE #1 FN WITH FREE GIFT VG £150 SOLD

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: This week’s featured books need no introduction from me. Ian Fleming’s iconic creation is known worldwide thanks to the hugely successful movie franchise, but James Bond got his start in novels, so it is in this category that these books belong. And let me tell you, the books are darker and deeper than the films, less gadgety and more visceral. We have nine of the thirteen Fleming books in our listings, all in a superb Pan uniform livery, which is the edition from the 1960s that I grew up with.
PICTURED: ALL BY IAN FLEMING ALL SOLD
JAMES BOND: CASINO ROYALE Pan 1964 17th UK PB VG/FN £6
JAMES BOND: DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER Pan 1963 13th UK PB FN £7
JAMES BOND: DR NO Pan 1965 18th UK PB FN £7
JAMES BOND: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY Pan 1964 12th UK PB VG £6
JAMES BOND: FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE Pan 1966 21st UK PB FN £7
JAMES BOND: LIVE AND LET DIE Pan 1965 18th UK PB GD £4
JAMES BOND: THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN Pan 1967 2nd UK PB VG £6
JAMES BOND: THE SPY WHO LOVED ME Pan 1968 2nd UK PB VG/FN £6
JAMES BOND: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE Pan 1966 3rd UK PB VG £6

*Children’s Books: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Children’s Books category to conclude our Re-Working exercise (including one new addition). Bessie Bunter At Cliff House School is the only novel of Billy’s sister written by Frank Richards (as Hilda Richards in this instance). although there are other Bessie novels under his name written by others). Terry’s Only Term by Ethel Talbot is a girls’ school story: two sisters, two schools, mystery and adventure. The Sword In The Stone by T H White (new in) is the first of his Arthurian novels published as a stand-alone: the boyhood of Arthur, the Once and Future King. From now on, all further listings in this category will be for books that are new in.
PICTURED:
HILDA RICHARDS (FRANK RICHARDS): BESSIE BUNTER OF CLIFF HOUSE SCHOOL Hawk 1991 UK HC VF £6
ETHEL TALBOT:  TERRY’S ONLY TERM Blackie Undated circa 1940 1st UK HC FN £10
T H WHITE:  THE SWORD IN THE STONE Armada 1971 2nd UK PB GD/VG £4

*DC: You’ve heard of the Rumble in the Jungle? You’ve heard of the Thriller in Manila? Now, get ready for the Uproarium in the Emporium as we bring you Superman Vs Muhammad Ali in the Treasury-sized All New Collectors’ Edition C56. Highly sought after by both comic and boxing enthusiasts, this one-off issue is gorgeously illustrated by the incomparable Neal Adams, whose art looks amazing at this size. This is a nice mid-grade copy, with moderate spine wear and corner blunting, solid, tight staples and supple off-white to cream pages. Presents well with great colour. Small creases at top edge (front and back) do not break colour. It’s been a while since we last had one of these, but it won’t be here long, so float like a butterfly and get your order in, or you’ll be stung by a bee.
PICTURED: ALL NEW COLLECTORS’ EDITION C56 VG/FN £150 SOLD

*DC: Six quality issues of the Atom this week, from towards the end of his Silver Age run, with highly imaginative stories by Gardner Fox and stylish artwork from Gil Kane and Sid Greene. Guest appearances by the Golden Age Atom and Hawkman (2 issues each) with a cameo from Hawkgirl.
IN THIS UPDATE: AtOM ALL SOLD
#29 VG p £17.50 Golden Age Atom guest stars.
#30 GD/VG p £6.75 Small cover scuff
#31 VG £8.25 Hawkman guest stars
#35 VG+ p £7.50
#36 VG- p £9 Golden Age Atom guest stars.
#37 VG- p £6.50 Hawkman guest stars

*Marvel: Four splendid consecutive cents issues of Captain America by Lee & Kirby this week, the last releases from the Good Doctor Collection for this title. All four are beautiful copies with high gloss, great colour, staples and pages, no significant defects and grade determined by the amount of minimal wear present. Part of Kirby’s wonderful run on this title after Cap acquired it to himself with #100. 
PICTURED: CAPTAIN AMERICA
#105 FN/VF £35
#106 VF+ £65
#107 FN/VF £50
#108 FN/VF £40 Unverified signature by Kirby on lower splash margin SOLD

*Marvel: In 1976, the House Of Ideas came up with Nova, designed originally to be an ‘everyman’ character like Peter Parker/Spider-Man, but quickly developing into a cosmic ‘soldier’ more akin to DC’s Green Lantern – luckily, DC’s lawyers didn’t notice the parallels! Although the original run lasted a mere 25 issues, Nova has returned many times to the Marvel Universe, and where he shines is in the protracted cosmic crossovers of which Marvel is so fond. Every issue from #1 to #25 fresh into stock this week, so you can fill your gaps, or, if you’re quick, scoop up the entire run. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: NOVA #1 FN/VF p £50 Nice glossy pence printed copy with firm staples and supple off-white pages. Very minor spine and corner wear with a tiny colour-breaking crease across the very extremity of the bottom right corner. The top edge has been dinked at some point in its history, resulting in a narrow colour-breaking crease of approx 2-3 cm on an otherwise quite lovely copy.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: Six issues of various Charlton horror/mystery series from the 1960s and 1970s. Lots of Ditko in most of these, including an Atom Bomb cover.
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
BEYOND THE GRAVE #5 VG p £4.75
BEYOND THE GRAVE #6 FN p £6.75
CREEPY THINGS #6 FN p £4.75
HAUNTED LOVE #4 FN p £6.75
MANY GHOSTS OF DR GRAVES #35 VG p £4.75
STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #2 (1968) VF £16.75 (PICTURED) Ditko Atom Bomb Cover

*Marvel UK:  Following his original 39 issue weekly run and his stint as a perennial guest of the Black Knight in Hulk Weekly, the good Captain was brought back from limbo in 1981 by Dave Thorpe and Alan Davis, the latter of whom redesigned Captain Britain for his ‘second chance’. Davis gave the Captain the Union Jack inspired outfit he wears today, and replaced CB’s lithe physique with a hyper-muscularity based on the comic-strip hero Garth, an exaggerated superhuman ideal. The political analogies by writer Thorpe proved unpalatable to Marvel UK management, and he was later replaced by then-neophyte Alan Moore, whom the powers-that-be thought might be less controversial (Good luck with that…). This run introduced the Crazy Gang, Opal Luna Saturnyne, Gentleman Jim Jaspers and other characters who would prove instrumental to the Captain’s legend. This debut issue of the new Captain Britain is Marvel Super-Heroes Monthly #377, a splendid high grade glossy issue with virtually no flaws but for a few short spine ticks which do not break colour.
PICTURED: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #377 VF £50 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: If you’re looking to fill gaps in your Battle Picture Library collection, this update’s for you, with more than 30 issues newly added from 1964 between #143 and #183. Nearly all these issues were missing from our listings, and nearly all are in pretty nice shape, clean, bright and unmarked, with just degrees of staple rust defining grade. Full details as always in our catalogue.

*TV/Film Tie-Ins: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our TV/Film Tie-Ins Category and the Star Trek Fotonovels. This includes some new additions to this range. Each volume features a classic Star Trek episode presented as a series of 300 stills with word balloons. Included is the first of the series The City On The Edge Of  Forever, arguably the most famous episode of them all written by Harlan Ellison. Published by Bantam in the US in the late 1970s; some were distributed in the UK by Corgi and bear their brand. All in fabulous condition; many are as good as new. Author’s details are given in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ALL SOLD
STAR TREK FOTNOVELS
#1: THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER Corgi 1977 1st UK PB VG/FN £12
#4: A TASTE OF ARMAGEDDON Bantam 1978 1st US PB VF/NM £10
#5: METAMORPHOSIS Bantam 1978 1st UB PB VF/NM £10
#6: ALL OUR YESTERDAYS Bantam 1978 1st US PB FN £7
#7: THE GALILEO 7 Bantam 1978 1st US PB VF/NM £10
#9: THE DEVIL IN THE DARK Bantam 1978 1st US PB FN £7

*DC: Leading this week’s selections from the Bute Collection is World’s Finest #25, 1946. An amusing Jack Burnley cover typical of the period, featuring Superman, Batman & Robin. In these early days for the title, Superman and Batman appeared in separate stories and had a variety of back-ups, in this case Green Arrow, Zatara, the Boy Commandos and others in its 76 squarebound pages. This well-worn copy is a lower grade example; the spine is split and taped from the top down around 7cm. This split applies also to several of the opening pages. The rest of the spine is okay, as is the cover image, apart from a little grubbiness and a quite faint book store stamp at the centre. Wear around the edges, and page edges are a little tanned. Pages otherwise solid enough. A big package for a relatively small price. 
PICTURED: WORLD’S FINEST #25 FA/GD £75 SOLD

*Marvel: By the time of Spider-Man’s 50th issue, ‘new’ artist John Romita had made the series his own, and this milestone number was marked with the debut of a new villain, the Kingpin – so long associated with Daredevil, in the post-Miller years, that younger readers are unaware that he originated in Spider-Man’s Rogues’ Gallery! The cover of #50, with Peter temporarily abandoning his Spider-Man identity, has become etched in the minds of a generation, endlessly imitated and ‘homaged’, in comics and other media. The Good Doctor Collection copy is towards mid-grade, pence printed, with a strong cover image, great colour and some residual gloss. The staples are firm at spine and centrefold, and the pages are a nice off-white. There is some corner blunting, including a tiny colour-breaking crease at the extremity of the bottom right cover corner. Edge wear is minor except for a tiny chip out central top. Some signs of reading and handling wear, but nothing too serious.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #50 VG p £375 SOLD

*Marvel: Following her guest appearances in Conan the Barbarian, demand for a Red Sonja solo series mounted, and after a trial run in Marvel Feature (second series) the ‘revised’ version as redesigned by Frank Thorne gained her own series in 1977, notorious chain-mail bikini and all (that’s gotta chafe, hon). Despite the skimpier clothing, Thorne’s Sonja was often more scary than sexy, as Thorne often drew her with intense expressions that bordered on the deranged, for a very mixed message indeed. This is a lovely pence printed copy of #1, flat, tight and glossy, with just the most minimal handling wear at spine.
PICTURED: RED SONJA #1 VF+ p £55 SOLD