*TV/Film Tie-Ins: This week, more of Gerry Anderson’s iconic creations. These have fired the imagination of generations of children and still remain high in the nostalgia ratings of many an adult collector. Many books originated soon after the TV series in the 1960s, mostly written by John Theydon. More information, including condition notes, is given in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ALL SOLD
ANGELS: THE CREEPING ENEMY by JOHN THEYDON Armada 1968 1st UK PB GD £15
CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE SILENT SABOTEUR by JOHN THEYDON Armada 1967 1st UK PB FA £7
THUNDERBIRDS by JOHN THEYDON Armada 1966 1st UK PB FA £7
THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO by ALLAN/G & S ANDERSON Armada 1966 1st UK PB VG £12

*DC: More this week from the Legion of Super-Heroes in their inaugural run in Adventure Comics in the 1960s. These are the comics after which we were named, taking place of course in the 30th Century. And this is a real rich stream, with the debuts of many major villains (and one new Legionnaire), plus Neal Adams covers between #365 & #369. Outstanding grades on most of these; all cents copies.
IN THIS UPDATE: ADVENTURE COMICS
#361 VF+ £40 (PICTURED) 1st Dominators
#362 FN £12 1st Mantis Morlo
#363 VF+ £40 (PICTURED)
#364 FN £12
#365 VF/NM £55 (PICTURED) 1st Shadow Lass SOLD
#366 FN £12.25
#367 VF £39 1st Dark Circle
#369 NM- £50 (PICTURED) 1st Mordru SOLD
#370 VF+ £40 (PICTURED)

*Marvel: A landmark issue. Strange Tales #110, already the showcase title for the Fantastic Four’s junior member, the Human Torch, presented a mystery back-up strip starring a supernatural champion named Doctor Strange. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, already the creators of hugely popular twist-ending tales in a plethora of Big Panty Monster comics, turned their talents to an eldritch hero, and Doctor Strange was born! Essentially a retread of Marvel’s previous Dr. Droom character, where this Doctor had the advantage was in Steve Ditko’s powerful and gripping artwork, quite unlike anything else in the field, which catapulted the good Doctor from an interesting novelty into the Marvel Universe’s Master of the Mystic Arts. Unheralded on the cover – honestly, is anyone really bothered if Paste-Pot Pete’s Invincible Paste-Gun does finish the Torch off? – the stylish back-up story introduced the Sorceror Supreme to the Marvel Universe, commencing a lengthy career which has crossed over very successfully into the MCU. Here he faces the recurring threat of Nightmare for obviously the first time.

This is a lowish grade pence-printed copy, but therefore relatively affordable. The cover colours are strong and the staples are tight and firm if a little rusty (with no rust migration). There are very short tears at the lower staple, but these are without any loss. There is also some corner blunting with wear at top and bottom spine. The spine itself is a little worn, but other edge wear is minimal. The cover image is very attractive with just a couple of short colour-breaking creases in the bottom right corner and a barely noticeable 10 com crease vertically down from the top edge; you can only see any faint colour-break in this for a few cms. Pages are a supple and very respectable off-white to cream. There are two or three very short tears on interior pages without loss (including pages 2/3 of the Dr Strange story). All in all, not a bad copy. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #110 GD+ p £1,000

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week: Tales of Asgard, the back-up feature showcasing the pomp and grandeur of the Norse pantheon, began in Journey Into Mystery #97, and by the time we got over issue #100, had gushed in ever-increasing leaps and bounds into the main storylines. No more so than in #104, the wonderfully titled Giants Walk the Earth, wherein Thor encounters Surtur the fire demon and Skagg the storm giant. Plenty of Asgard too in #111 and #113 also included in this update.
IN THIS UPDATE: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY
#104 VG+ £47 (PICTURED) Nice clean, unmarked copy with just minor edge wear and some corner blunting; no specific faults.
#111 VG- p £24 Pence-stamped. A touch of rust at upper staple, without migration and staples both firm. Minor wear and corner blunting. SOLD
#113 VG/FN £38 Lovely clean copy with bright colours, good staples and minimal wear at top edge, including a couple of short, soft creases that do not break colour. SOLD

*Marvel: Six more packed issues of the X-Men this week, from #172-177, during which the artistic reins passed from Paul Smith to John Romita Jr. Features Wolverine’s truncated wedding to Mariko, Cyclops’ completed wedding to Madelyne Pryor, the return of Phoenix in the 20th Anniversary special and lots more.
IN THIS UPDATE: X-MEN ALL SOLD
#172 VF £6.75 (PICTURED)
#173 VG/FN £5
#174 FN/VF £6
#175 FN+ £8.50 20th Anniversary special; Phoenix returns
#176 VF £6.75
#177 VF+ £7.50

*Horror 1940-1959: In our Pre-Code Horror slot and Bute Collection release this week, we present issue #12 of Fawcett’s This Magazine Is Haunted, a title famous for its horrific covers. Hosted by Dr. Death in a shameless bit of nominative determinism, the series went on to be published by Charlton from #15 onwards.
PICTURED: THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED #12 GD £110 Wall of Flesh story with art by Bob Powell. Cover by Sheldon Moldoff (?). Decent copy with nice page quality and firm staples. Tiny colour breaking crease across bottom right; cover colours are good. Cover is unmarked except for three faint-sh) book shop stamps (two also on back cover, where a tiny piece is missing from the bottom edge close to the spine). The comic is slightly mis-cut so that there is a narrow white spine and a narrow white border along the bottom edge. For all that, presents pretty well.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: This digest-sized comics series, most famous under its later title of Thriller Picture Library, ran for 450 issues until 1963, and while it featured a plethora of characters during its lengthy run, the trend for the early years was for historical swashbucklers based on fictional (but serendipitously copyright-free) characters, but also featuring crime, war, western and science-fiction adventures and sometimes (almost) real people! The artists were all accomplished Fleetway professionals, and readers thrived on these beautifully-illustrated pocket adventures. Issues #31-50 (missing just #42), fresh in this week, mostly centre on adaptations of historical novels. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: THRILLER COMICS/PICTURE LIBRARY
#44 GD £15 King Of Sherwood.
#45 GD £15 The Count Of Monte Cristo
#49 GD £15 Guy Fawkes
#50 GD £15 Captain Blood

*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 Philip K Dick, one of our best-selling authors; many would consider him the finest exponent of science-fiction of the late 20th century. I guess his themes of religion, drugs, counter culture and destructive relationships hold wide appeal. We are blessed with an excellent stock of his works, the enhanced re-listing of which we’ve been spreading over several updates. This fifth part features seven novels or short story collections. We’ll be spotting more Dick soon…
PICTURED: ALL BY PHILIP K DICK
THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER Granada 1983 1st UK PB GD/VG £8
THE TURNING WHEEL AND OTHER STORIES Coronet 1977 1st UK PB VG/FN £10
THE VARIABLE MAN Sphere 1977 UK PB VG £6
VULCAN’S HAMMER Arrow 1976 1st UK PB GD £6 SOLD
WE CAN BUILD YOU Fontana 1977 1st UK PB FN £15
THE WORLD JONES MADE NEL/Sidgwick & Jackson 1976 UK PB FN £15
THE ZAP GUN Panther 1975 1st UK PB FN £7

*Books About Books: We’re pleased to add two more books on H P Lovecraft to this small but growing category. Sometimes it seems that Lovecraft has had more books written about him than any other writer in his genre. Both of these do what they say on the tin and were issued without dustjackets.
PICTURED: ABOUT H P LOVECRAFT
DONALD R BURLESON: A CRITICAL STUDY Greenwood 1983 1st US HC VF £40
BARTON LEVI ST. ARMAND: THE ROOTS OF HORROR IN THE FICTION OF H P LOVECRAFT Dragon Press 1977 1st US HC VG £40

*DC: Amazingly, given their lengthy careers, 1967’s Superman #199 was the first time Superman and the Flash had ever raced competitively, and writer Jim Shooter and artist Curt Swan drew every ounce of drama out of the situation, throwing tricks, traps and dilemmas as the Man of Steel and the Crimson Comet battle their way to the finish line, with the ostensibly benign agenda, needless to say, being subverted for fiendish purposes. An historic issue, and great fun into the bargain! This is a worn, pence stamped copy. The staples are fine at spine but the centrefold is detached. Lots of wear and creasing at corners and edges, which show significantly on black and dark background. There is a long 13 cm colour-breaking crease across the top right hand corner. Pages are a bit creamy, but okay.
PICTURED: SUPERMAN #199 GD- p £50 SOLD

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week, we present the first appearance of one of Spider-Man’s most nefarious foes, Electro, the master of electricity, in Amazing Spider-Man #9. From this original clash with Spidey, Electro has gone on to appear throughout the Marvel Universe across many decades. This is a lower graded pence printed copy, with the front cover off the bottom staple; otherwise the staples are firm throughout. Edge and corner wear aren’t heavy, with a few fine creases just breaking colour at bottom right corner. There is a long diagonal crease faintly breaking colour from centre bottom logo down across the text to level with Electro’s shoulders. The cover colours are a little muted. Pages are a supple, decent off-white to cream.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #9 GD+ p £350

*Marvel: Continuing our special Warlock event from last week, we move on to Strange Tales #178-181, where Jim Starlin expanded the Warlock franchise into the whole universe, introducing new cosmic characters and setting the path on which the character was destined to tread in his future in the MU. The story continued into Warlock #9-15 (see below).
IN THIS UPDATE: STRANGE TALES (all pence printed)
#178 VF+ p £50 (PICTURED) 1st Magus
#179 VF+ p £35 1st Pip the Troll
#180 VF/NM p £100 (PICTURED) Intro Gamora
#181 VF+ p £30 1st full Gamora

*Marvel: A lovely run of mostly high grade issues of Fantastic Four #80-93 from the Bute Collection, every consecutive issue, from the last months of Lee & Kirby on Marvel’s flagship title. Kirby was at his most grandiose with many spectacular full page spreads throughout. Some memorable storylines from the less common #80 with Tomazooma, Crystal joining leading to an Inhumans epic (#81-83), one of the best Dr Doom sagas in Latveria (#84-87), a Mole Man two-parter (#88-89) and Ben as a Skrull slave on a gangster-led world in the fight game (#90-93). 
IN THIS UPDATE: FANTASTIC FOUR
#80 VF £45 (PICTURED)
#81 FN/VF p £29
#82 VF- £40 (PICTURED)
#83 VF p £42 (PICTURED)
#84 FN/VF £32
#85 FN+ £26
#86 VF £44 (PICTURED)
#87 VF p £30 SOLD
#88 VG p £11.75 SOLD
#89 FN- p £12.25 SOLD
#90 VF p £36
#91 VF p £36
#92 VF p £25
#93 VF p £36

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: Formerly Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love (#1-4), this title changed its name to Forbidden Tales Of Dark Mansion with #5 (obviously, someone thought it might sell better without the word ‘love’ in the title). But the series retained something of the gothic splendour of its first four issues in the remainder of the run up to #15, the final issue. We have all issues under this new title from #5-15 in a variety of grades. This series is less often seen than many.
IN THIS UPDATE: FORBIDDEN TALES OF DARK MANSION ALL SOLD
#5 VG- £8.75 (PICTURED)
#6  FN+ £9
#7 VG £5
#8 FN/VF £10.75
#9 FN £7.50
#10 FN/VF £10.75
#11VF- £12.25
#12 VF- £12.25
#13 VG/FN £6.25
#14 VG/FN £6.25
#15 VG £5

*Annuals: 3 nice annuals from the 1950s this week, including Kit Carson from 1956 & 1957 and Sharp-Shooter Western Album. The Kit Carsons feature many colour pages/strips as well as black and white plus several colour plates. The Sharp-Shooter (softcover album) has many UK Western stories including some Buffalo Bill stories by the excellent Dennis McLaughlin, who also contributed the cover. 
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
KIT CARSON’S COWBOY ANNUAL
1956 VG £10
1957 FN £15
SHARP-SHOOTER WESTERN ALBUM VG £15 (PICTURED)

*Mad Books: This week, reinforcements for our Mad Books category, celebrating those fondly remembered paperback books featuring the best of Mad. Wit, sarcasm, parody and irony never go out of style. Eight volumes new in (including some devoted to specific creators) as follows (NB condition notes in our catalogue):
PICTURED:
SERGIO ARAGONES: MAD ABOUT MAD Signet 1970 1st US PB GD £3
DAVE BERG: MAD’S DAVE BERG LOOKS AT THE NEIGHBORHOOD Warner 1984 1st US PB VG £6
THE IDES OF MAD Signet 14th US PB GD £4
AL JAFFEE: GHOULISH BOOK OF WEIRD RECORDS Signet 1979 1st US PB VG/FN £8
AL JAFFEE: AL JAFFEE MEETS HIS END Signet 1979 1st US PB GD/VG £7
MAD FOR BETTER OR VERSE Signet 1968 1st US PB GD £3
DON MARTIN: THE MAD ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KLUTZ Signet 1967 1st US PB FA/GD £4
THE SOUND OF MAD Warner 1980 1st UK PB GD £4

*DC: Now we’re straying dangerously close here to my all-time favourite comics! Absolutely delighted to bring you all 6 parts of the Zatanna’s Search storyline – a crossover story arc before there were such things — commonplace now but unheard of in 1964!  Zatanna is the daughter of DC’s Golden Age magician Zatara, first appearing in Hawkman #4 and taking her search for her missing father through the pages of Green Lantern, Atom, Detective Comics and the Justice League of America. This copy of Hawkman #4 is a lowish graded cents copy, with an unspoilt cover image. Decent staples, firmly attached, and reasonable off-white pages with minor page edge wear. Some corner blunting, with minimal colour-breaking creases to the bottom right edge. The spine is worn, but more or less complete. One or two small grubby logo marks and minor edge wear. Presents pretty well. The remaining five parts are shown below in order (completists should note that Zatanna only appears in disguise in Detective Comics #336, retconned into the Batman story, as we found out in JLA #51, in order to get Batman into that issue).
PICTURED:
HAWKMAN #4 GD £235 1 of 6
DETECTIVE COMICS #336 GD/VG £18.50 2 of 6
ATOM #19 FN p £105 3 of 6
GREEN LANTERN #42 FN- p £25 4 of 6
DETECTIVE COMICS #355 GD p £12 5 of 6
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #51 FN/VF p £85 6 of 6

*Marvel: We begin a special Warlock two week event right here. As befits its status as the premier series of the Marvel Universe, the Fantastic Four has launched many secondary careers of the FF’s foes and friends who first appeared as guest-stars, then graduated to their own series. The Silver Surfer, the Inhumans, the Black Panther and many others have debuted this way, and in Fantastic Four #66, we were introduced to a mysterious cocooned figure who emerged the following issue as ‘Him’, a being of almost godlike power. Later, he would be named Warlock and would enjoy a chequered career of critical acclaim, but haphazard commercial success, coming into his own with Jim Starlin’s controversial series of the 1970s. These two issues see the first appearance and origin of the character, though he was not fully revealed until the second half of the two-part story.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR
#66 GD- p £35 A nice enough pence-printed copy with some edge wear which would grade higher but for a small corner off top right cover (see scan).
#67 FN £100 A sound copy with residual gloss, good colour and an unmarked cover. Excellent pages are off-white to white and staples are tight and firm. A handful of tiny creases at spine, only one of which breaks colour by about 1 mm.
 

*Marvel: In 1963, the second Strange Tales Annual was not only a crossover between Spider-Man and the Human Torch, but it was also a crossover between their signature artists as well, as you get to sample the unique and quirky experience of Steve Ditko inks over Jack Kirby pencils, making this a very special issue. There’s plenty of reprint shorts in the science-fiction/fantasy genre to back up the main story as well. An uncommon issue.
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES ANNUAL #2 GD/VG p £175 A reasonable pence-stamped copy with the squarebound spine more or less intact; there is a small nick at the top and 1.5 cm tear at the bottom with no loss. Some short-ish colour-breaking creases on the cover, most noticeably partially over the bodies of Spidey and the Torch, but these are not too bad. Minor wear to edges with corner blunting. Staples and binding are good and tight. Off-white to cream pages are supple and decent.

*Horror 1940-1959: From the Bute Collection this week, six issues of one of Atlas’s prominent horror titles, Spellbound, 1 pre and 5 post code. Atlas always provided a consistent standard of thrills and chills!
IN THIS UPDATE: SPELLBOUND
#19 FA £30 Pre-Code. Cover detached with long spine splts. Everett cover. Massey, Powell, Fujitani and others. SOLD
#30 PR £10 Covers detached and separated. Everett cover. Wildey, Reinman and others.
#31 VG £60 (PICTURED) Maneely cover. Roussos, Williamson, Sale, Ecerett, Forte and others.
#32 GD/VG £45 (PICTURED) Burgos cover. Powell, Torres, Tartaglione, Forte, Pakula and others.
#33 VG+ £70 (PICTURED) Burgos cover. Forte, Torres, Sale, Maneely, Tartaglione and others. SOLD
#34 VG+ £70 (PICTURED) Burgos cover? Williamson, Roussos, Sale, Bolle, Forte and others.

*Alan Class Reprints: In Sinister Tales #38, Alan Class reprinted Amazing Spider-Man #5, in which Spidey tackles Dr. Doom, the earliest Spidey story cover featured in his publications. This above average copy, despite some back cover creasing and a tiny nick at the top of the spine, presents very well, with great unmarked cover colour including the white background and firmly attached nice quality pages.
PICTURED: SINISTER TALES #38 FN- £100

*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 Philip K Dick, one of our best-selling authors; many would consider him the finest exponent of science-fiction of the late 20th century. I guess his themes of religion, drugs, counter culture and destructive relationships hold wide appeal. We are blessed with an excellent stock of his works, the enhanced re-listing of which will be spread over several updates. This fourth part, like its predecessors, features a choice of edition for many novels, including The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch, where Dick explores all his signature themes, and Radio Free Albemuth, his final novel. We’ll be spotting more Dick soon…
PICTURED: ALL BY PHILIP K DICK
RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH Avon 1987 1st US PB VG £4
THE SIMULACRA Magnum 1977 1st UK PB VG/FN £8
THE SIMULACRA Methuen 1987 UK PB VG £6
SOLAR LOTTERY Arrow 1972 1st UK PB GD £8
SOLAR LOTTERY Arrow 1979 2nd UK PB VG/FN £8
THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH MacFadden-Bartell 1966 1st US PB VG £17 SOLD
THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH Gollancz 2003 UK PB VF £7
TIME OUT OF JOINT Belmont 1965 1st US PB FN £12 SOLD

*Children’s Books: This week, we return to the adventures of Biggles. Written by Captain W E Johns, the wartime (and later) stories of James Bigglesworth gave us an iconic British hero, a highly competent fighter pilot with a characteristic gentlemanly air, who has gone on to represent an archetypal figure. Nearly 100 Biggles books were written and published and reprinted many times over, and we have a new selection now available, all hardcovers with dust jackets And I wish Biggles, Algy, Ginger and Smyth were still up there now, looking out for us – we could do with them and their wizard prangs. And if they aren’t enough, there’s Worrals too! Joan Worralson and her sidekick Betty ‘Frecks; Lovell, presenting the distaff side of aviation adventure; note the dust jacket illustration by Reginald Heade on our single Worrals addition.
PICTURED: ALL BY W E JOHNS ALL SOLD
BIGGLES DELIVERS THE GOODS Hodder & Stoughton 1952 5th UK HC FN £6 With DJ VG
BIGGLES FAILS TO RETURN Hodder & Stoughton 1951 3TH UK HC FN £5 With DJ GD
BIGGLES FLIES SOUTH Oxford University Press 1951 7th UK HC VG/FN £7 With DJ GD
BIGGLES FLIES TO WORK Dean & Son 1963 6th UK HC VG £4 With DJ GD
BIGGLES IN THE ORIENT Hodder & Stoughton 1949 3rd UK HC VG £8 With DJ VG
BIGGLES’ SECOND CASE Hodder & Stoughton 1950 3rd UK HC VG/FN £9 With DJ GD/VG
WORRALS GOES AFOOT Lutterworth Press 1949 1st UK HC GD £10 With DJ PR

*DC: We know, it sounds a bit weird, but two decades after the publication of this 1965 issue, DC linked it retroactively to their blockbuster crossover ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’, by declaring the major events therein (no, we’re not going to tell you what they were – spoilers!) as the retconned kick-off to Crisis. This nifty team-up between the Green Lanterns of Earths One and Two has therefore acquired an historic value beyond that seemingly justified by its (admittedly considerable) merits. And it’s a great read too! This is a reasonable pence-stamped copy with good cover colour and gloss, marred by some spine creasing and a faint-ish bookshop stamp over Alan Scott’s legs. If you can live with that, this is a copy which would otherwise grade higher. 
PICTURED: GREEN LANTERN #40 VG- p £49 SOLD

*DC: Like many long-running titles, Tales Of The Unexpected went through many changes in its lifetime. Starting out in 1956 with horror/mystery/sci-fi stories, the Space Ranger feature was added between #40 and #82, replaced in due course by other features such as Automan and the Green Glob, before changing title to The Unexpected with #105 and joining DC’s 1970s horror line-up. Six issues this week from the recurring feature period.
IN THIS UPDATE: TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED ALL SOLD
#75 VG- p £12.75 (PICTURED)
#77 FA/GD p £3.25
#81 GD p £4.25
#89 VG p £8.75
#90 VG p £7.50
#97 GD+ £6.25