*Children’s Books: One of the most evocative children’s authors, Monica Edwards wrote her children’s novels between 1947-1969 and produced just over a novel per year, so there is a substantial body of work, divided between two series: Romney Marsh (Kent/East Sussex) and Punchbowl Farm (Surrey). Children’s adventures in nostalgic settings with a lot of horsey themes, these are superbly crafted gems which appeal to women of a Certain Age (those I know are fervently passionate about them). Not the easiest author to collect (they are rare and highly prized), but those so inclined will find tracking them down most rewarding. This week we’re adding a paperback version of The White Riders, from her Romney Marsh series, a face-paced adventure of life on the marshes with the marsh horses.
PICTURED:
MONICA EDWARDS: THE WHITE RIDERS Puffin 1961 2nd UK PB VG £15
Geoffrey Whittam illustrations. Slight edge rubbing, small crease at bottom right corner cover

*DC: This initial release from the Arch Collection comprises three very significant issues from the Silver Age, Showcase #22-24, the first appearances of Hal Jordan as he adopts the role of Green Lantern. In 1959, editor Julius Schwartz followed up on the introduction of Barry Allen as the Silver Age Flash, with the revival of another classic Golden Age super-hero, Green Lantern. John Broome writer and Gil Kane artist were tasked with bringing the character to life. As with the Flash, the Silver Age version was invented with a change of origin and secret identity to his Golden Age predecessor.
PICTURED: SHOWCASE
#22 GD- £1,300 1st Hal Jordan Green Lantern, 1st Abin Sur (alien Green Lantern), 1st Carol Ferris, debut of power ring and power battery. A lower grade copy, with two chips of 4 cm each out of top cover/right corner, and a further chip of 2 cm out bottom cover. There is a small, faint watermark to the right of the logo. The spine is more or less solid, with wear and small gaps around the staples. Colour-breaking creases are restricted to edges and corners and are mostly quite small and do not detract from the cover scene. Small amount of chipping to right edge. Staples are reasonably tight at spine and centrefold. Page quality is a very nice off-white. A relatively affordable example of a major Silver Age key issue. Front and back covers and splash pictured  below. High resolution images are available on request. SOLD
#23 GD £125 Atomic explosion cover. GL against the Invisible Destroyer. Bright colour cover, but lots of spidery colour-breaking creases all along the spine. Small tear without loss at bottom edge. Other creases faintly breaking colour across logo and central lower vertical. Short back cover tear with minor staining. Staples are firm at spine and centrefold; some corner blunting. Good off-white pages. 
#24 VG- p £180 Great BEM cover. Nice solid copy, pence stamped. Only the tiniest creases in very few places at edges. Solid spine and tight, firm staples. Supple off-white pages. Cover colours (particularly green) are a little muted on this copy, but look okay.  

*Marvel: Perhaps surprisingly, Wolverine had been around quite few years before he starred in his own title. (Even after this 1982 mini-series, it would be a further 6 years before Logan got his own ongoing solo title). You can’t say that Marvel were milking the character’s popularity – a phrase I thought I’d never write. But they did pull out all the stops with this mini, combining X-Men scribe Chris Claremont with super-star artist Frank Miller in this tale of the Yakuza and Wolverine’s doomed love Mariko Yashida. A splendid copy of the #1 issue here, tight and flat with a glossy cover and white to off-white pages. Very minor edge and corner wear. NB This listing is for #1, not the entire series.
PICTURED: WOLVERINE #1 (1982) VF £125 SOLD

*Marvel: Three classic issues of the Silver Age Avengers from the Good Doctor Collection, with excellent art from John Buscema and Don Heck. #41 features the menaces of Diablo and the Dragon Man; #44 is an adventure behind the Iron Curtain with the Black Widow and the Red Guardian, #45 sees the team tackling the Super Adaptoid in Central Park. 
IN THIS UPDATE: AVENGERS
#41 FN- p £20
#44 VG £15
#45 VF £55 (PICTURED) Great copy with glossy cover, near white pages, tight, firm staples and only minimal edge and corner wear.

*Marvel: Six more consecutive issues of the X-Men, as we continue John Romita Jr’s run on Marvel’s Merry Mutants. There’s a lot going on in these six issues: Rachel & Nathan Summers (the latter as a baby who would become Cable), Dr Doom, Magneto in the double-sized #200, and the Life-Death sequel by Barry Windor-Smith in #198.
IN THIS UPDATE: X-MEN ALL SOLD
#196 VF+ £7.50
#197 VG+ £3.75
#198 VF+ £7.50
#199 VF+ £7.50
#200 FN £7.50 Double-sized
#201 VF £17 1st Nathan Summers as baby, later Cable

*Alan Class Reprints: Alan Class put together quite a comic with Suspense #94, selecting Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #4 with one of the best psychedelic pop art covers by Jim Steranko (NB SHIELD origin story within is not by Steranko). There’s also the Human Torch story from Strange Tales #102 (2nd solo Torch with the Wizard by Kirby), a Web story from Mighty Comics and a Steve Ditko sci-fi short plus more. All this in a decent mid-grade copy with a solid spine with glue puckering. This is a pre-decimal copy, but there is no price printed on the cover. Someone, presumably Alan, has handwritten 1/- in the top right corner. Complete with signed certificate from Alan Class.
PICTURED: SUSPENSE #94 VG+ £25 SOLD

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Category for Part 1 of the works of Harry Harrison. A very prolific writer, Harrison was an American long resident in both Ireland and the UK. His most famous works are probably the Stainless Steel Rat novels (a series of 11 books), the novel of overpopulation Make Room, Make Room (the basis of the film Soylent Green) and Deathworld (which started out being serialised in the UK Eagle comic and ended up with later volumes co-written with Eastern European authors and only published there; Harrison was apparently something of a cultural icon in Russia). Although known for his satire and humour, Harrison was equally adept at serious stuff. Before his writing career, Harrison was a comics illustrator for EC comics, where he worked on their science fiction titles with Wally Wood. Later he became a close friend of Brian Aldiss, and they jointly produced a series of SF anthologies under the title The Year’s Best Science Fiction. We’ve split our Harrison inventory into two parts for up to date presentation. Part 1 follows: 
PICTURED: ALL BY HARRY HARRISON
CAPTIVE UNIVERSE Sphere 1972 1st UK PB VG/FN £5
DEATHWORLD 2 Sphere 1974 2nd UK PB GD £3
DEATHWORLD 2 Sphere 1977 3rd UK PB VG £3
DEATHWORLD 3 Sphere 1981 5th UK PB VF £3
THE JUPITER LEGACY Sphere 1972 1st UK PB GD/VG £3
PLANET OF NO RETURN Sphere 1985 3rd UK PB VG £3
PLANET OF THE DAMNED Bantam 1962 1st US PB VG £3

*Comic Strip Books: Classic Lee & Kirby issues of the Fantastic Four reprinted in black and white paperback format this week. Fantastic Four (featuring the Silver Surfer) reprints FF #55 (Thing vs Surfer), and #66/67 (debut and origin of Him, later Warlock). Fantastic Four Collector’s album reprints #6 (Dr Doom & Sub-Mariner), the Impossible Man story from #11 and #31 (Mole Man). Handy pocket-sized versions of some of their greatest adventures, and collectable in their own right. Condition notes may be found in our catalogue. 
PICTURED: BOTH SOLD
FANTASTIC FOUR (FEATURING THE SILVER SURFER) Marvel Illustrated 1982 1st US PB VG £7
FANTASTIC FOUR COLLECTOR’S ALBUM Lancer 1966 1st US PB VG £9

*DC: One of the stories which redefined the concepts of comics narrative and super-heroic iconography in the 1980s, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen has been constantly in print since its 1986 debut, with myriad editions, collections and archives, but these are the original comics which set comics fandom and the industry alight. At first intended to be a ‘grim and gritty’ reinvention of the Charlton Comics heroes, who had only recently then come into DC’s possession, Dick Giordano convinced Moore to come up with original characters instead. Often imitated – frequently to the detriment of the medium – but never equalled, the 12-issue series is on sale in its entirety as a complete set, each issue from an original owner collection and all in pristine Near Mint condition. We don’t need to say much about the content of this most famous of later comics titles; any collection of classic comics deserves a set.
PICTURED: WATCHMEN #1; COMPLETE SET #1-12 All NM £150 SOLD

*Marvel: One of the more tragic entries in Spider-Man’s Rogue’s Gallery is the Lizard, aka Dr Curt Connors, a dedicated scientist and devoted husband and father whose research into a regenerative serum, to help himself and other amputees, went horribly wrong when the lizard-like properties of tissue regeneration ran rampant, turning him into a humanoid reptile. The Lizard debuted in the sixth issue of Spider-Man, and we have a nice pence printed copy new in approaching mid-grade. A clean cover, apart from the previous owner’s small monogram below the issue number box, with good colours. There is some wear, particularly at the spine, but the spine is intact and the staples are tight and firm there and at centrefold. A miniscule corner is off bottom right and a slightly larger corner off top right (a much smaller extension of this carries through the comic, affecting just the tiniest edge of the top right margins). Off-white page quality is otherwise quite reasonable. There is a near-vertical central crease up from the bottom edge towards Spidey’s figure that only faintly breaks colour. The back cover has minor corner and edge creasing. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #6 GD/VG p £575

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor this week, four significant issues of the X-Men from the classic Claremont/Byrne run.
IN THIS UPDATE: X-MEN
#127 VF/NM p £45
#128 FN/VF p £18
#129 VG/FN p £80 (PICTURED) 1st Kitty Pryde, 1st White Queen. Lovely condition copy but for long soft vertical crease unobtrusively along left side of cover, which does not break colour. SOLD
#130 FN+ p £60 (PICTURED) 1st Dazzler. Nice clean copy with just minimal edge wear. SOLD

*Archie: It’s time for a visit to the Archie-verse, that unique corner of the comics cosmos inhabited mostly by teenagers who never grow old. This update, we have Reggie & Me (the ‘Me’ being Archie), That Wilkin Boy (Bingo Wilkin, featuring his garage band), funny girl Suzie (an issue from 1950) and super-star Sabrina the Teenage Witch (including the Giant Size #1 issue).  
IN THIS UPDATE:
REGGIE AND ME #37 VG/FN £5.75
SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH
#1 GD- £19.75 (PICTURED) Giant; scribble on back cover SOLD
#20 GD £2.75
#52 GD £2
SUZIE #76 FA £10 (PICTURED)
THAT WILKIN BOY #21 VG £5

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: Six examples of Charlton’s distinctive brand of horror from the 1970s this week:
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
GHOSTLY TALES #70 VF £18
GHOSTLY TALES #167 VG p £3.25
MANY GHOSTS OF DR GRAVES #46 FN p £4
MIDNIGHT TALES #11 FN+ p £5
MIDNIGHT TALES #18 FN p £4.75 (PICTURED)
SCARY TALES #37 VG p £3.25

*Humour Comics: Continuing our policy of providing more information for Beano and Dandy, we have an overhaul of the year 1950. Just one issue new in (#465), but we have added details of a whole host of first appearances from this year rich in debuts. Deep breath: Jammy Jimmy Johnson, Quick Nick, Black Magic Bongo the Schoolboy from the Congo, Barney’s Bear,  Granpa Gallant Rides Again, Peggy & Her Pop’s Peg-Leg, Long Tom’s Treasure & Fergus of the Forty Faces. Sound intriguing? We also have the Easter and Christmas issues for this busy year for the Dandy. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: DANDY
#437 VG £50 Easter issue
#465 FN £45

*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 authors whose surnames begin with ‘P’ and ‘Q’. A nice mix of sleaze (from Emory Paine), hard-boiled US detectives (from the delightfully named Jonny Porkpie, Richard S Prather & Ellery Queen), and an English detective thriller from the celebrated author and playwright J B Priestley. The Jonny Porkpie entry is a modern novel from the Hard Case Crime imprint, which matches vintage novels and new material with vintage 1950s style covers. The Richard S Prather entries feature his detective Shell Scott. Ellery Queen is of course a pseudonym for originators Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, but since the 1960s, the name has been used by a wide variety of crime writers. More information, including condition notes, is included in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ALL SOLD
EMORY PAINE: THE BEAUTY GAME Midwood 1965 1st US PB VG £20
JONNY PORKPIE: THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES Hard Case Crime 2009 1st US PB FN £7 (New in)
RICHARD S PRATHER: EVERYBODY HAD A GUN Gold Medal 1958 5th US PB VG £6
RICHARD S PRATHER: THE KUBLA KHAN CAPER Four Square 1967 UK PB VG £4
J B PRIESTLEY: SALT IS LEAVING Pan 1966 2nd UK PB VG £5
ELLERY QUEEN: THE DEVIL TO PAY Great Pan 1960 UK PB GD £3

*DC: Six issues of the Silver Age Flash in his prime, with Kid Flash, the Elongated Man, Abra-Kadabra, Captain Cold, the Mirror Master and the Pied Piper.
IN THIS UPDATE: FLASH
#132 GD/VG p £19.75
#133 GD+ p £15
#134 FA/GD p £10
#135 GD p £18 New Kid Flash costume; loose centrefold
#136 VG+ p £30 (PICTURED)
#138 PR p £3.75 Cover almost detached; loose centrefold

*Marvel: Spider-Woman, like She-Hulk, was created as a last-minute copyright defence by Marvel when a TV company planned a “Spiderwoman” TV series. Rushed into production, the origin of the arachnid avenger was intended as a one-off to ‘guard’ the name, and it was to everyone’s astonishment when sales spiked to the extent that a rapid return for Spider-Woman – first in a Marvel Two-In-One story arc, then in her own series, with a more ‘sympathetic’ origin rewrite – was required. Jessica Drew (as she eventually became) lasted 50 issues in her first run, and became prominent in the MU – not bad for a bodged-together legal ploy! This copy of Marvel Spotlight #32 is a desirable VF, obviously cents as it was never distributed in the UK. Bright colours, tight and flat with tight staples and white to off-white pages. Tiny suggestions of wear in a couple of corners and bottom right edge, but very minor indeed. A miniscule crease of about 0.5 cm across bottom right corner is barely visible, but faintly breaks colour. From an original owner collection, bought new in 1977 in New York, and carefully preserved ever since.
PICTURED: MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #32 VF £75

*Marvel: Six Lee & Kirby Fantastic Four classics from the Bute Collection this week, all previously missing from our listings.
IN THIS UPDATE: FANTASTIC FOUR
#62 VG+ p £18.25
#64 VG+ p £24.75 1st Kree Sentry
#65 VG- p £40 (PICTURED) 1st Ronan, 1st Kree Supreme Intelligence
#71 VG+ £29
#78 FN+ £28 SOLD
#79 FN/VF p £31

*Horror 1940-1959: Two lower grade post code issues of Marvel Tales from Atlas this week.
PICTURED: MARVEL TALES
#145 GD- £32 Art by Brodsky, Reinman, Hartley, Forte, Ayers & Mooney. Glued spine, edge wear.
#155 GD- £29 Art by Everett (cover and stor), Mooney, Roussos, Forgione, Colan and more. Glued spine, edge wear with small chips.

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: This week’s release of Love Story Picture Library, the longest running romance picture library from Fleetway, comprises 10 issues from 1967, between #611 to #621. The series always maintained a high standard and the very accomplished art reflected the fashions and mood of the times. This selection is a little more mixed in grades than most of our recent releases, varying from GD to VF with some wear in some cases.
IN THIS UPDATE: LOVE STORY PICTURE LIBRARY ALL SOLD
#611 FN £5
#612 FN/VF£6
#614 FN £5
#615 FN £5
#616 FN/VF £6
#617 VG £4
#618 FN £5
#619 VG £4
#620 GD £3
#621 VF £7

*TV/Film Tie-Ins: Spinning off from the hugely successful Six Million Dollar Man, the Bionic Woman was another cyborg enhanced human rebuilt after a tragic accident and thus enhanced with super-human skills. The TV series starred Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Somers, and we present two novels here adapted from TV episodes.
PICTURED: THE BIONIC WOMAN
DOUBLE IDENTITY: MAUD WILLIS Star 1976 1st UK PB VG £10
A QUESTION OF LIFE: MAUD WILLIS Star 1977 1st UK PB VG £10

*DC: Along with Strange Adventures, Mystery In Space was DC’s premier science-fiction title founded in the Atomic Age. Issues #7, #8 and #10 date from 1952. The earliest of the title’s regular features, Knights of the Galaxy, had its last outing in #8. Full of science fiction shorts by the finest artists of their time on DC’s books.
PICTURED: MYSTERY IN SPACE
 #7 FA+ £35 Cover detached with small spine splits. Wear to all edges including chipping to right. Some cover staining, but not a bad image. Interiors are a little mis-cut with wonky margins; Bottom staple loose at centrefold.
#8 VG- £85 Nice colour to cover, decent spine with some wear marks. Small white stain (looks like label residue) at cover centre. Long colour-breaking crease across bottom right corner is not too prominent. Excellent supple pages and good staples. 
#10 FA/GD £40 Spine split lower 3/4 of comic plus small split at top. Edge wear but decent pages.

*Marvel:  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 nice pence-printed mid-grade copy, with strong cover colour, free of cover marks (except as stated below) and free of cover creasing except a couple of faint, tiny creases across bottom right cover which do not break colour.  Edge wear is minimal; there is some corner blunting. The right edge has a vertical sun shadow, very slightly tan. This is more pronounced on the inside covers which have tanned edges but are nor brittle. Pages are creamy white, slightly darker at margin edges. Staples are firm at spine and centrefold. An attractive example which would grade higher without the sun shadow. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8 VG+ p £240

*Marvel: Three issues of Captain America from early in the run this week. First up, Cap faces off against the Trapster with art by Kirby in #108. Secondly, in #111, Cap and ‘Bucky’ take on Madam Hydra and her hordes, written and drawn by Steranko, and finally, Kirby’s final issue, #112, is a celebration of the character. 
IN  THIS UPDATE: CAPTAIN AMERICA
#108 VF+ p £45 (PICTURED) Great high grade copy.
#111 GD/VG £23 Cover a little dingy with small felt tip price over CCA box.
#112 VG- p £15 Wear around upper staple area. SOLD

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: From the Bute Collection this week, some true vintage from Quality Comics from 1945/46 in the shape of Police Comics #45 & #50. 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 by Will Eisner, funny girl Candy, Manhunter, the Human Bomb and a number of comedy shorts. Exceptional condition on these two copies; I’ve hardly ever seen anything this old in such good shape!
PICTURED: POLICE COMICS
#45 VF £180 Tight, flat and unmarked but for a very faint arrival date on the cover, a beautiful high grade example, with firm staples and lovely white to off-white pages. The cover has great colour and the corners are virtually square. Like it just came off the newsstand!
#50 FN/VF £135 (Misnumbered #49 inside) Tight, flat and virtually unmarked except for the suggestion of a faint dust shadow along the edges. Firm staples and lovely white to off-white pages. The cover has great colour and the corners are virtually square.