*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: Our special Halloween 2016 event continues with the cream of vintage UK pre-code horror reprints. This week, another extremely rare item, the one-off Black Magic Album featuring 160 pages of pre-code horror, some of it from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, founders of the imprint, but also including Atlas and other publishers. There had already been a successful run of squarebound reprints of Black Magic in the UK (contributing to the furore about ‘horror comics’ which we commented on earlier), and this compilation edition, of a lower print run than the ongoing series, is seldom seen – we’ve had maybe three through our hands during our years of trading. This is a respectable VG-, with the card cover lightly creased at the corners and spine as one might expect, but the cover scene is unimpaired, the interior pages clean and off-white, and most critically for this extra-thick ‘whopper’, the spine is in very good shape, with only minimal wear at the very top & bottom. Yours for £75.

*Marvel: Frank Miller’s interpretation of the Daredevil villain, Bullseye, made such an impact that, to this day, many people still don’t realise he wasn’t, in fact, a Miller creation, but had premiered a while earlier, under the auspices of writer Marv Wolfman, and artists Bob Brown and Klaus Janson. In Daredevil #131, March 1976, the Man Without Fear met the Man Who Never Misses for the first time, with the latter’s origin and secret identity then unrevealed (hint: It wasn’t Jim Bowen…). This is a Fine+ copy, but that grade belies its eye-appeal, as it would easily make VF or better except for the fact that some enterprising soul has in the past written ’15-‘ (neatly, but still…) in black magic marker in the upper right cover corner — see the picture. Ratbag. In every other respect, as noted, it’s a superior copy, and at £55, a more affordable one than most you’ll find on sale.

*Alan Class Reprints: As our regular customers will know, we have an exclusive arrangement with Alan Class to market the contents of his personal archives, and he has now released to us the final instalment of his file copies and Printing Plate sets, several hundred of the former and several dozen of the latter. Cataloguing these is a gargantuan task, which we shall be tackling in instalments over the months ahead. For the inaugural salvo of this procedure, which we’re terming ‘Alan Class Reprints Redux’, we have the publisher’s original file copies of a selection of short-run series – Tales of the Underworld (crime stories), Amazing Stories and Outer Space (classic sci-fi including some Ditko stories), and Just Dennis (the American ‘Dennis the Menace’, strategically renamed for the UK market). These are enhanced by a number of one-off publications – Astonishing Stories, Eerie Tales, Race Into Space, and Space Trip To The Moon, some of which were ‘pilot’ issues for later ongoing series (‘Astonishing’, for example, became the long-running ‘Astounding Stories’.). Each of these comes with a hand-signed Certificate of Authenticity from Mr. Class himself, affirming its provenance as part of the publisher’s original archives, as shown below with some sample issues.

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: We’re very pleased to have acquired possibly the best collection of vintage Boys’ & Girls’ Picture Libraries that we’ve ever seen, close on a thousand items, characterised both by high grade and rarity. We’ll be sharing these with you in the months to come as fast as we can process them in our new feature we’ve called CSD: Putney, since the vast majority of these fall into the category of either Cowboy, Schoolgirls or Detectives.
We’re commencing this week with part of the Schoolgirls element to this collection. From Autumn 1963, Micron, a small publisher of picture libraries and story magazines, put out Schoolgirls’ Adventure Library, the content, format, title and even logo of which were strikingly familiar to readers of Fleetway’s popular series, Schoolgirls’ Picture Library. We are, of course, sure this resemblance was entirely coincidental and in no way intended to mislead hasty consumers. Ahem. We don’t know when S.A.L. (as it was abbreviated to in its own advertising) finished, as we’ve only ever seen a handful previously in our almost quarter-century of trading – but now, we know it ran to at least 61 issues, thanks to our recent acquisition! This selection commences with the very first issue, and ends with #61, in between supplying 25+ unique issues to our inventory, and a scattering of duplicated numbers. With titles like “Joyce and the Golden Medallion”, “Adventure In Amsterdam”, “Cave of Secrets”, “Tom and the Big Top” (what’s he doing there?), and “Elissa and the Shaft of Silence”, the familiar themes of sports, school comradeship, mystery and travel in exotic foreign climes are well represented. This selection is characterised by phenomenally high grades for the vintage, with many VF/NM and even a couple that are legitimately NM – even issues with the back cover missing, but the story intact (of which there are just a few) achieve a Fair grade, because of their remarkable preservation in every other aspect. Don’t expect too much of the ‘Magazine Supplement’ trailed across several covers, though – it’s a bodged-up four pages of the usual cooking, pets, and fashion tips. The appeal here is of the rarity and high grade of these seldom-seen items. Picture Libraries from 1963 never turn up in as nice condition as these! Pictured below: #1 VF/NM £75, #3 VF/NM £30, #24 VF/NM £25
Look out for much more from CSD: Putney in the coming weeks!

*EC: We’re always glad to receive new EC issues into stock, no more so than Weird Fantasy, being big fans of EC’s science-fiction line ourselves. Three consecutive issues of this title new in: #10 (FA £23), #11 (a nice sound FN £110 as pictured), and #12 (GD £36). As you would expect, outstanding art from the likes of Wood, Williamson, Orlando & Kamen.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Small updates to a variety of these favourite Boys’ titles from the years shown: Action (1977), Battle (1975, 1980, 1986), Crunch (1979), Lion (1971/72), Tiger (1974) & Valiant (1973).

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: For this year’s Halloween celebration, in the vanguard of our latest variation on the Pre-Code Horror theme, we are proud to present three 1950’s British reprints of the American EC horror comics, which caused such a furore (along with their legion of imitators), that they actually resulted in a specific Act of Parliament limiting the sale of ‘Horror Comics’! These three are the UK Haunt of Fear #1, VG+ £85, Tales From The Crypt #1 GD- £60 and Tales From the Crypt #2 FN/VF £125, the only three EC reprint issues. The subject of much controversy at the time, and destroyed in their droves, these seldom appear at all on the retail market, let alone in such attractive conditions as this trinity of terror! More from these 1950’s UK horror reprints, the ‘Evil Twin’ of their American originals, in the coming weeks…

*Marvel: From our new Avengers Very Finest collection, vintage issues characterised by unusually high grades, we present the first two appearances of the Vision, from Avengers #57 and #58. Those of us old enough to remember this the first time around have indelible memories of the impact Vizh made on his debut, as something genuinely out of the ordinary in the field of super-heroics, and these two issues, his debut and then his and induction into the Avengers, represent the work of Roy Thomas and John Buscema at their peak. With the increasing prominence of the Vision in Marvel’s cinematic universe, demand for his earlier appearances has spiked – and if you’re going to have two, these are the two to get! Both are cents copies, and both graded at VF+; the #57 is £375, and the #58, £100.

*Girls’ Comics: The extra-thick Holiday editions of Jinty weekly are new to our lists this week, 80-page compilations of “Dora Dogsbody”, “The Jinx From St. Jonah’s”, “The Snobs and the Scruffs”, “Bird-Girl Brenda”, and many other favourites. 1974’s Summer Special is GD/VG at £30, generally in very nice shape, but with a small (and insignificant) upper corner missing from 16 interior pages, otherwise it would be graded Fine; the 1975 Holiday Special has no such flaw, and is an unabashed VG at £35.

*Classics Illustrated: Our latest instalment of our updated information to the UK versions of this famous series runs from #76-100, now readily identifiable (to the best of our knowledge) by edition. We’ve also added many issues new in, including #79 (Cyrano De Bergerac – line drawn cover), #94 (David Balfour) & #98 (The Red Badge Of Courage). A further update soon.

*Annuals: Eight annuals fresh in related to cult TV from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Gerry Anderson material includes Captain Scarlet & UFO, as well as Countdown, which in addition to UFO, Captain Scarlet & Thunderbirds also features Dr Who, who may also be found in his very first annual from 1965. The ever-popular Planet Of The Apes is featured in a 1975 annual, but stars of this show are two Danger Man less common items from 1965. First up is the World Distributors Danger Man Annual in a very respectable VG/FN at £30, and secondly the TOP TV Series publication Danger Man Against the Mafia (a worn but not bad GD/VG at £20), which we’ve never seen before.

*Marvel: Fans rave about the Giant-Size issues of the first run of the Silver Surfer from 1968 and a lot of attention is paid in particular to #1 & #4. For our money, John Buscema’s wonderful art has never looked more sumptuous than in #3, the debut of Mephisto, Marvel’s devil-like netherworld overlord. We have a nice FN+ pence copy new in at £50, with a solid spine, good cover gloss and excellent page quality, only minor edge wear and a fine reading crease to the right of the spine precluding a higher grade. Eminently collectable!

*Humour Comics: One of the curious things about the run of Cracker just added is that earlier issues offer readers £2 for each joke published, but later dropped the figure to £1. Another curious thing is how they thought they could get away with the jokes on the front pages (sample: How do you get rid of a boomerang? Throw it up a one-way street!). We’ve added issues from #60 through to #87, the final issue. All in grades of GD or VG.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A huge update to our stocks of the venerable and long-lived Boy’s weekly, Hotspur, with first series issues from 1946-1958 and second series (‘New’ Hotspur) from 1962-1974. Well over 100 issues new in, many with lovely evocative covers such as the example shown here.

On a regular cycle, we sweep through our entire stock to delete sold items and keep our listing as up to date as possible. We’ve just finished deleting sold items from the following file in our British section:
*Girls’ Picture Libraries
As of the time of writing, this category is bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Power Comics: The first Holiday Special for Smash after it became an IPC/Fleetway weekly, this 96-page edition is less commonplace than its contemporaries, offering a stellar line-up with new adventures of ‘The Swots and the Blots’, ‘His Sporting Lordship’, ‘Grimly Feendish’, ‘Cursitor Doom’ and ‘Janus Stark’. This Fair/Good copy, whose only major drawback is page misalignment caused by loose staples, plus small tears at top and bottom spine, is offered at £20.

*Marvel: Yet another collection of premiere issues from Marvel’s Bronze Age era! This time, a captivating quintet, consistimg of: Micronauts (superlative Mike Golden artwork), Nova, Rom Space Knight (a near-flawless NM/M at £65, pictured), the spin-off Spider-Man title, Peter Parker Spider-Man, and last but far from least, Bruce Banner’s cousin, the Emerald Empress herself, the Savage She-Hulk! Full details in our catalogue.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In excess of 50 new copies of the popular IPC weekly, Tiger, added to our lists this update. Always possessing a heavier than usual dose of sporting strips, with the venerable “Roy of the Rovers”, wrestling ace “Johnny Cougar” and boy racer “Skid Solo”, this was the period Tiger transitioned from a general adventure weekly to a sports specialist, as new strips came in including Scorcher-import “Billy’s Boots”, “Martin’s Marvelous Mini” (the car, not the skirt), and, most controversial of all, “Tallon of the Track”, the mysterious masked biker whose secret turned out to be – gasp – ovaries! Averaging VG/FN grade, this offers an opportunity to fill those elusive gaps in your collection.

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: More for Marvel’s Magazines, with three popular titles. Howard the Duck got his second solo series in magazine form, with top-notch artists including Gene Colan, Mike Golden and Marshall Rogers: issues #1, #3-5, #7-9 new in this update. Savage Sword of Conan featured Cimmeria’s favourite son in bloodier adventures than the Comics Code would permit, and we have a nice consecutive run (#61-69) in high grades added to our rapidly-diminishing stock. And Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, Marvel’s ‘comic pulp’ experiment adapting famous SF authors with occasional new material, is refreshed with issues #4-6. All three of these series remain in high demand, so grab them while the grabbing’s good!

*DC: Another nice Flash update this week, from #119 to #122, bracketed at the far end by the premier appearance of the Top, one of the more popular members of the Flash’s Rogue’s Gallery, and at the nearer end by the first appearance of Sue Dearborn Dibny, spouse of the ever-exasperating Elongated Man! Before his long career as a backup in detective Comics, Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man, was a supporting character in the Flash, and with this issue he took the very rare step, at that time, of becoming a married superhero, with Sue as his partner in light-hearted adventures for many happy decades. The Trickster and a Kid Flash team-up also adorn this update, for a cross-section of the Flash’s Crooks n’ Chums. For the most part nice copies, all cents, with the star turn being #121 in a sparkling VF at £140. See our catalogue listings for full details.

*DC: The latest run in our Batmania Max event features Detective Comics from the early 200’s – issues from the range #216 to #238 – in which the theme seems to be ‘doubles and twins’, as the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder are plagued by a series of alternate versions of themselves, in “The Batman of Tomorrow!”,”The Mystery of the Second Batman and Robin Team”, “The Batman Machine”, “Batman Junior!”, “The Outlaw Who Played Batman!”, “The First Batman!”, “The Search For A New Robin!”, and many variations on the Dynamic Duo’s encountering doppelgangers. In a variety of conditions from the affordable mid-grade upwards, this cross-section of the Gotham Guardians’ adventures is backed-up by Captain Compass, Roy Raymond, and, in later issues, the Martian Manhunter for additional adventure. See our catalogue listings for full details.

*Marvel: Several issues of the classic 1970’s Iron Fist series fresh into stock, mostly in high grade, between #2 & #12. Now the star of his own TV series, this character has never been more popular. Kung Fu action in the mighty Marvel manner!

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: It’s time to saddle up and ride the range once again with our latest influx of Amalgamated Press/Fleetway Cowboy Comics/Picture Library alongside Tim Holt, Kit Carson, Buck Jones, the Kansas Kid & Davy Crockett. This batch of a couple of dozen starts as early as #12, and finishes with #445, but are mostly within the #100-300 range. Collectors should note that they are mostly low grade reading copies, Poors, Fairs and a few Goods, but they’ll do to plug a gap until a better copy comes along (and these don’t come along too often!)

Dr Evilla’s inspiration for this window came from listening to Bowie’s classic ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’, with its mention of Homo sapiens outgrowing its use. Pondering what the next level of evolution might be, she came up with this window, describing it as depicting her best guess for the future. We’ll leave it to our discerning customers to decide  whether she’s right……