*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 
#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. 

*DC: After the departure of Julius Schwartz from editorial duties, the emphasis in Strange Adventures changed to more monster/horror related stories, although there was still for some recurring characters as often featured in this title. Star Hawkins (now drawn by Gil Kane) still featured and there were new characters such as Immortal Man, Animal Man and that Switcheroo-Witcheroo the Enchantress. Ten mostly Go-Go checked DCs!
IN THIS UPDATE: STRANGE ADVENTURES
#182 VG+ p £10 Star Hawkins
#183 GD/VG £6.75
#185 GD+ p £5.75 Star Hawkins & Immortal Man
#186 VG £9.75 (PICTURED)
#188 GD- £4.50
#189 GD- p £4
#194 VG p £9
#195 GD £6.75 Animal Man
#196 GD £5
#200 GD £5 The Enchantress 

*Marvel: Although Steve Ditko was a tough act to follow on the artistic chores on Amazing Spider-Man, John Romita soon settled in as his replacement and made the title his own. This update features his second assignment, with the downfall of the Green Goblin in #40, plus a classic adventure with Kraven the Hunter in #47 and a return engagement with the Spider Slayer in #58.
IN THIS UPDATE: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 
#40 GD/VG p £75 (PICTURED) Pence printed. A copy with some wear and indentations, but nothing horrible. Great colours, firm staples and supple off-white to cream pages. 
#47 VG+ p £48 (PICTURED) Pence printed. A very serviceable copy with good colour and residual gloss, no markings, edge wear and corner blunting, good staples (lower slightly loose), nice off-white pages. MJ and Gwen go-go dancing!
#58 VG £25 Solid copy with some edge and handling wear. Firm staples and off-white pages. 

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Two war-time issues of Nedor’s anthology title Thrilling Comics from the Bute Collection this week, both graced with the era-defining covers of Alex Schomburg. As can be expected of this type of comic, many genres were covered in each issue: war, adventure, crime, super-hero, supernatural, detective, mystery etc. 
PICTURED: THRILLING COMICS
#36 VG £450 Great Doc Strange, girl and gorilla cover. Stars super-hero Doc Strange, the debut of the Commando Cubs (think Boy Commandos) and many more. Nice glossy cover with strong colour and no markings. Printed with one central staple, which is slightly pulled but firmly attached. Some corner blunting, with minor wear at spine, tiny specks which break colour. Tiny crease across bottom right corner does not break colour. Decent page quality
#43 GD- £140 Commando Cubs cover inside Nazi sub. Stars Doc Strange, the Cubs and many more. Nice clean cover. Spine worn with small upper and lower splits and small holes. Front cover detached at central staple, but rear attached. Minor staining on spine margin on splash page (attempted repair?), otherwise decent page quality. Corner blunting and slight spine roll. Small piece of tape secures staple at centrefold. 

*Modesty Blaise: We’re re-launching our catalogue page dedicated to Modesty Blaise with most of the run of The Official Modesty Blaise comic. We’re often listing British reprints of American stuff (we even have a category devoted to it), so it’s nice to turn that round and feature an American reprint series of British material. In the late 1980s, Pioneer had a crack at Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise, featuring the earliest Modesty stories from the London Evening Standard and reformatting them into an American comic style. All the art is by Jim Holdaway, the first regular Modesty artist, and many peoples’ favourite. Stories featured are La Machine, The Long Lever and The Gabriel Set-Up (partly in this update), familiar ground for die-hard Modesty fans, but interesting to see the attempt to reformat them with different panel sizes and layouts, sometimes more successfully than others. And if you’re not already a die-hard fan, a great place to start the adventures of Modesty, so much more than just a female James Bond. Issues #1-7 of the ten issue series available in high grade. And don’t forget to check out our Modesty Blaise page for more goodies. 
IN THIS UPDATE: THE OFFICIAL MODESTY BLAISE
#1 VF/NM £5 (PICTURED)
#2 VF £4
#3 NM £4
#4 NM £4
#5 VF/NM £4
#6 VF/NM £4
#7 NM £4

*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 third and penultimate part of a substantial re-working of our listing, we include the stories of Jerry Cornelius and Michael Kane. Moorcock hints in many places that Cornelius may be an aspect of the Eternal Champion. Characters from the Cornelius novels show up in much of Moorcock’s other fiction. Cornelius himself is an urban adventurer, a hipster of ambiguous and occasionally polymorphous gender; certainly the most unorthodox of Moorcock’s heroes, starring in a quartet of books. Michael Kane is an Earthman who adventures on ancient Mars, in the manner of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter, whose stories are the source material to which Moorcock pays tribute. The Kane Martian trilogy was originally published under the pseudonym Edward P Bradbury. More information, including condition notes, can be found in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ALL BY MICHAEL MOORCOCK
JERRY CORNELIUS 2: A CURE FOR CANCER Penguin 1974 2nd UK PB VG £6
JERRY CORNELIUS 3: THE ENGLISH ASSASSIN Fontana 1979 1st UK PB thus VG £5 
JERRY CORNELIUS 4: THE CONDITION OF MUZAK Fontana 1980 2nd UK PB thus VG £5 
MICHAEL KANE 2: LORD OF THE SPIDERS NEL 1971 1st UK PB thus FN £4
MICHAEL KANE 3: MASTERS OF THE PIT NEL 1971 1st UK PB thus VG/FN £4

*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 not listed in our catalogue. Lots listed under Clearance Corner will be available for a short time only, and are offered post free to GB buyers only (i.e. England, Scotland, Wales). They are not normally 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, eight Collections/Graphic Novels from the pages of 2000 AD featuring many favourite characters/strips. All are in tip top condition, mostly pristine and unread. Previously on sale for over £125. 
The whole lot below for £30 With free GB Postage & Packing
INVASION 1984 (Rebellion) Softcover Like New
JUDGE ANDERSON PSI DIVISION (Titan) Softcover Vol 1 VF
JUDGE ANDERSON PSI DIVISION (Titan) Softcover Vol 5 VF
JUDGE DREDD (Titan) JUDGEMENT DAY Softcover Like New 1995
JUDGE DREDD (Titan) THE PIT Softcover Like New (PICTURED)
SLAINE THE HORNED GOD Softcover Like New (PICTURED)
ZENITH PHASE ONE Hardcover Like New (PICTURED)
ZENITH PHASE TWO Hardcover Like New

*DC: Next in our Batmania event, from the Midas Collection at the dawn of the Silver Age in 1957/58, four noteworthy consecutive issues of the Caped Crusader, all in reasonable shape.
PICTURED: BATMAN
#112 VG £120 SOLD Features the 1st appearance of the Signalman, a time travel story in ancient Rome (Batmanus!) and a psychological cover-featured thriller. Decent copy with some spine and handling wear and minor creasing. Firm staples and off-white pages. 
#113 GD/VG £95 SOLD The first and only vintage appearance of False Face, probably best remembered from the Batman TV show of the mid 1960s, a circus clown parodies Batman (Fatman), Batman is transported to an alien world where he gains super-powers (as you do) and meets the Batman of that world. Subscription crease and other edge and handling wear. Firm staples and off-white pages. 
#114 VG+ £140 An adventure in Mechanical City, an encounter with the villainous Mirage Maker and Batman engages an ape as a cowled assistant. Nice copy with only minor edge wear and a non-colour breaking crease across bottom right corner. a few small white spots at lower left cover. Firm staples and white to off-white pages. 
#115 FN £185 Batman receives clues to bobby-trapped stolen gems, Batman opens a private detective agency and sent back in time again by Professor Nichols, Batman combats a race of giants. Lovely glossy copy with very minor handling wear and a faint reading crease. Faint pencil arrival date under logo. Tight staples and near-white pages. 

*DC: We finish off our Batmania event with a special bargain. From 1975, a tabloid-sized DC Limited Collectors’ Edition, with the Caped Crusader up against some of his most famous foes in oversized Golden Age reprints: the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman, the Scarecrow and Two-Face. Creasing along the spine and a couple of blobs of water damage on the cover, but bright colours and good structural integrity. A snip at the price and sure to be quickly gobbled up.
PICTURED: LIMITED COLLECTOR’S EDITION C37 VG £10 SOLD

*Marvel: In my opinion, the team of Roy Thomas and Barry Smith produced the finest ever sword and sorcery adventures in comics in (most of) the first couple of dozen issues of Conan the Barbarian. Six examples from this run new in this week between #3 and #22; you should note that #18 is by guest artist Gil Kane (not too shabby a pinch-hitter, I’m sure you’ll agree) and issue #22 is a deadline doom reprint of Smith’s landmark #1 issue. Roy and Bazza certainly did Robert E Howard proud.
IN THIS UPDATE: CONAN 
#3 VG/FN £30
#5 GD p £5.25 Pence stamped SOLD
#18 FN p £8.25 Gil Kane art. Pence printed SOLD
#19 VF p £24 Pence printed
#20 FN/VF p £17.50 Pence printed
#22 FN p £9 Reprints #1, with new cover.  Pence printed SOLD

*Miscellaneous 1960 Onwards: Those of us lamenting that the superb THUNDER Agents series from the 1960s lasted only 19 original issues can take some comfort from the existence of the Dynamo and Noman series, spotlighting the two leading THUNDER Agents in Tower’s bid to extend their line. Featuring original stories from the same stellar creators as the main title, these sadly lasted only 4 and 2 issues, but at least they give us THUNDER Agents fans a very nice extra. We have complete sets of both titles available. 
IN THIS UPDATE: 
DYNAMO #1-4 Complete set Av VG £40 #2 Pictured SOLD
NOMAN #1-2 Complete Set Av VG/FN £27 #1 Pictured SOLD

*Alan Class Reprints: From the Alan Class Personal Archive, we’re delighted to present ten post decimal issues of Creepy Worlds this week, most in very high grade, never read or circulated, and each with a certificate signed by Alan Class. Super-Heroes (Fly and Fly Girl, THUNDER agents, Blue Beetle) Big Panty Monsters, plenty of Kirby and Ditko, ACG fantasy/supernatural. For more detail on the content, please use our Alan Class Rough Guide.  
IN THIS UPDATE: CREEPY WORLDS
#184 VF £5 (PICTURED)
#195 VF- £6.25
#201 VF- £4.50
#202 VF- £4.25
#203 VF- £4.75
#204 FN/VF £4
#206 VF- £4.25
#209 FN- £3.75
#210 FN £4.50
#215 FN+ £3.75

*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 second part of a substantial re-working of our listing, we include the first two volumes of the Eternal Champion series, the complete first Hawkmoon series (the four part History Of The Runestaff – my personal favourite of his Eternal Champion tales), as well as the first part of the sequel Chronicles Of Castle Brass, and finally the one-off Ice Schooner, another variation on the Eternal Champion saga. 
PICTURED: ALL BY MICHAEL MOORCOCK
THE ETERNAL CHAMPION Mayflower 1970 1st UK PB VG/FN £5
ETERNAL CHAMPION: PHOENIX IN OBSIDIAN Mayflower 1970 1st UK PB VG/FN £4
HAWKMOON: THE HISTORY OF THE RUNESTAFF 1: THE JEWEL IN THE SKULL Grafton 1985 UK PB VG £4 SOLD
HAWKMOON: THE HISTORY OF THE RUNESTAFF 2: THE MAD GOD’S AMULET Mayflower 1977 UK PB GD £3 SOLD
HAWKMOON: THE HISTORY OF THE RUNESTAFF 3: THE SWORD OF THE DAWN Mayflower 1969 1st UK PB GD/VG £4 SOLD
HAWKMOON: THE HISTORY OF THE RUNESTAFF 4: THE RUNESTAFF Granada 1980 UK PB GD/VG £3 SOLD
HAWKMOON: THE CHRONICLES OF CASTLE BRASS 1: COUNT BRASS Mayflower 1977 4th UK PB GD/VG £3
THE ICE SCHOONER Sphere 1974 3rd UK PB GD £3

*TV/Film Tie-ins: From 1965, this is it! Fresh from both small and large screens, ‘this is the first encyclopaedic guide to the Daleks and their secrets. The only reference book to deal with a Dalek, which also includes the complete authentic space-travellers’ guide’ (for all of you about to blast-off into space). By arrangement with the BBC, compiled and presented by Dalek creator Terry Nation. Normal-sized paperback, profusely illustrated. Uncommon. Minor edge rubbing and minor grubbiness, but a very presentable copy. 
PICTURED: THE DALEK POCKETBOOK AND SPACE-TRAVELLERS GUIDE: TERRY NATION Souvenir Press/Panther 1965 1st UK PB VG £40 SOLD

*DC: Leading our Bute Collection selections this week is the debut of the Dominoed Daredoll. After the original Bat-Girl was swept away out of continuity with her aunt Batwoman following a change of direction for Batman in the 1960s, a new Batgirl was introduced, co-created by DC and the producers of the hit Batman TV show, as a boost to the third series of that iconic show. Barbara Gordon proved a hit as Batgirl both in comics and TV. Her comic debut came in Detective Comics #359 (1967) where she tangled with Killer Moth, just as she did in the pilot for her debut on TV. Barbara Gordon, amidst a history of adventure and misfortune, has gone on to become a mainstay of the DCU. Story by Gardner Fox; art by Carmine Infantino and Sid Greene, with a superb Elongated Man back-up by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson. This copy of Batgirl’s first appearance looks like it has been removed from a bound volume. It’s a little shorter and narrower than it ought to be, tell-tale signs of trimming to fit; there’s also a very thin strip of tape inside the covers at the spine.  But the colours are good, the staples tight and the pages near-white. If you can live with the trimming (which doesn’t touch the stories but which has been taken into account in setting the price), a great chance to get a relatively affordable copy of a classic issue. 
PICTURED: DETECTIVE COMICS #359 Apparent VG £130

*Marvel: We’re delighted to offer another single digit Spidey this week in the shape of Amazing Spider-Man #8. In this special ‘Tribute To Teenagers’ issue, your friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler tackles the Human Torch, the Living Brain and Flash Thompson (poor Peter just wasn’t getting along with anyone that month!). This is a CGC copy, Universal Grade unrestored, graded at 6.0 (FN). Cream to off-white pages, case perfect. CGC serial number 3954525004
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8 CGC 6.0 FN £475

*Marvel: Five classic issues of Strange Tales from 1966/67, featuring the transition on Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD to the unique talents of Jim Steranko, and fabulous art on Dr Strange by Bill Everett and Marie Severin. Truly a great period for this title.
IN THIS UPDATE: STRANGE TALES ALL SOLD
#148 FN/VF £36 (PICTURED) Origin of the Ancient One
#150 VG+ p £19.75 1st Marvel art by John Buscema
#152 GD p £5.25 Steranko art
#153 GD/VG p £8 Steranko art
#154 VG/FN p £12.75 Steranko art

*EC: Extra! was one of the new EC titles launched in the wake of the Comics Code coming in. Although the material was not as lurid or sensational as their Pre-Code fare, the quality of story and art was well maintained. The title was dedicated to stories about the international adventures of various journalists, who alternated as protagonists, with art by Johnny Craig, Reed Crandall and John Severin, as in #2 listed here. A decent enough copy, with an unmarked cover, moderate edge wear with a small chip out at bottom spine and some small tears without loss bottom edge back cover. Staples are good, pages off-white to cream. 
PICTURED: EXTRA! #2 GD/VG £25 SOLD

*Romance: Also from the Midas Collection this week: Secret Hearts was a long-running DC romance title, lasting 153 issues until 1971. Four issues newly listed between #42 & #46 from 1957/58, the final offerings for this title from Midas. 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. Seldom seen, particularly over here in the UK, the Midas Collection is quite rich in this genre. 
IN THIS UPDATE: SECRET HEARTS
#42 GD+ £8
#44 VG £12 (PICTURED)
#45 GD £6
#46 FA/GD £5

*Humour Comics: Seven issues of vintage Beano fresh in from 1958, details follow:
IN THIS UPDATE: BEANO 1958
#810 FA/GD £6.25
#811 GD/VG £8.75
#812 VG/FN £11
#815 GD/VG £8.75
#826 GD £7.50
#849 VG £12 (PICTURED) 1st Blinding Shield; Dennis the Menace guests on cover.
#851 GD/VG £8.75

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: A mix of crime and sleaze this week in vintage American editions, often in the same novels! Private eyes, powerful and ruthless businessmen, curvaceous dames with insatiable sexual appetites, risque magazines etc. Notable cover artists include Robert McGinnis and Harry Barton. As always, further information is given in our catalogue. 
PICTURED: ALL SOLD
JOHN D MACDONALD: ON THE RUN Fawcett Gold Medal 1963 1st US PB VG/FN £8
RON SAXON: THE SWEET SMELL OF SIN Lancer Domino 1964 1st US PB VG £5
DAOMA WINSTON: GOLDEN TRAMP Beacon 1959 1st US PB GD/VG £7
WILLIAM WOOLFOLK: WAY OF THE WICKED Monarch 1959 1st US PB VG/FN £8

*DC: The star of the Midas Collection this week is Batman #92 from 1955, featuring the debut of Ace, the Bat-Hound, Batman’s canine companion. Ace was a German Shepherd dog who was found by Batman & Robin after his original owner was kidnapped. Later, when ‘adopted’ by Bruce Wayne, Batman improvised a hood-like mask for the dog that incorporated the bat-emblem as a dog tag, thus giving Ace a secret identity when he went into action as Bat-Hound. In 1964, when Julius Schwartz took over the Batman titles, Ace and several of the ‘sillier’ Batman family characters were written out. But you can’t keep a good dog down and post-Crisis, Ace has returned many times in comics and other media. This lovely looking copy has a great colour cover, with that fabulous blue sky night time background colour that seemed exclusive to the DC palette. The cover is unmarked, except for some faint reading creases which break colour at the spine and very minor wear at corners and edges, including a faint thumbprint near the Bat-Signal.  The staples are a little rusty with minimal rust migration (top staple a little loose), page quality a supple white to off-white. High resolution images are available on request.  
PICTURED: BATMAN #92 VG- £600 

*DC: My Greatest Adventure was one of a series of science fiction/weird mystery adventure titles from DC, which presented a consistent standard of story and art. At the time of the issues in this update (1959/60) it was edited by Jack Schiff. Six issues here, mostly in lowish grade. 
IN THIS UPDATE: MY GREATEST ADVENTURE
#30 GD+ £18.50 Spine splits
#33 GD- £10.75 Upper spine split; arrival date SOLD
#34 GD £12.25 Cover corner crease; minor water damage, small upper spine split SOLD
#35 GD- £10.75 Cover crease, spine heavily worn.
#37 VG- £22.25 (PICTURED) Solid copy with some spine wear
#43 GD+ p £14 Lower spine split; some staining at lower edge. 

*Marvel: Four excellent issues of the Fantastic Four from the Good Doctor Collection this week. #35 features the debut of Dragon Man; there’s an outer space adventure with the Skrulls in #37; the FF are defeated by the evil FF (the Frightful Four) in #38; and the concluding part of the first Inhumans saga in #47. 
IN THIS UPDATE: FANTASTIC FOUR 
#35 VG+ p £65  (PICTURED) Pence stamped. Nice solid copy with corner blunting and reading creases at spine. 
#37 FN+ p £90 (PICTURED) Pence stamped. Superior copy with just minor edge and handling wear. 
#38 VG+ p £29 Pence stamped
#47 VG+ p £38 Pence printed

*Horror 1940-1959: Charlton’s title the Thing was one of their leading entries in the pre-code horror movement of the early 1950s, lasting 17 issues from 1952-1954. Particularly famous for the work by Steve Ditko from #12 upwards, the earlier issues certainly pulled no punches either. #9 features madness, dismemberment, murder, magic and lots more. Moody cover and interior art by Bob Forgione (3 stories) and John Belfi (1 story). A lower-graded copy with much cover wear, including blunted corners, creases at top left spine and mild water damage at top right, with stains on back cover. More than moderate spine wear, with top staple off cover, but both staples firm at centrefold. Fingernail size chip slightly loose at bottom cover centre. Small chip off back cover at spine. Pages mostly a decent off-white. A tired copy, more or less intact and perfectly readable. 
PICTURED: THE THING #9 FA/GD £130