*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week, five consecutive issues of the Fantastic Four, featuring the threat of the made-over Sandman, and the debuts of Blastaar, the Living Bomb-Burst, the Sentry Sinister and Ronan, the Accuser. 
IN THIS UPDATE: FANTASTIC FOUR
#61 FN+ p £35
#62 VG+ p £18.25 1st Blastaar
#63 VF p £60 (PICTURED) A superior copy with clean black background. Good staples and near white pages. Only very minimal wear at top edge. 
#64 GD+ p £14 SOLD 1st Sentry
#65 VG/FN p £60 (PICTURED) 1st Ronan the Accuser. Decent copy with nice colours; centrefold off lower staple. Near white pages. Faint crease across bottom right edge. 

*Gold Key/Whitman: Space Ghost is a superhero created by Hanna-Barbera Productions in the 1960s for TV network CBS. He was designed by Alex Toth. In his original incarnation, he was a superhero who, with his teen sidekicks, Jan and Jace, and Blip the monkey, fought supervillains in outer space. If this was ever shown in the UK at the time, I don’t remember seeing it. There was just one contemporary comic spin-off from Gold Key in 1967, with art by Dan Spiegle, which has become something of a cult collectable and is quite uncommon. This copy is very nice – tight, flat, glossy and clean, with good staples and supple white to off-white pages. Just a little corner blunting, a couple of spine stress marks and a tiny crease at base of spine breaking colour. There is a very tiny imperfection mark central front cover, partially hidden by text, but a lovely item. 
PICTURED: SPACE GHOST #1 FN- £285

*Horror 1940-1959: From the Bute Collection this week, three pre-code issues of Astonishing from Atlas, whose material in this genre was always of a consistently high standard of story and art.
PICTURED: ASTONISHING
#34 VG- £130 SOLD Cover by Maneely, interior art by Reinman, Fass and many others. Solid copy with notorious cover, small marks and edge wear, plus tiny split at top spine. Good staples and pages, very slight colour fade at lower edge of cover towards spine. 
#36 VG- £130 Cover by Burgos, interior art by Berg, Winiarski, Reinman and others. Nice solid copy with some corner blunting, good colours, staples and pages. Minor edge wear with small splits at both end of spine. 
#37 GD/VG £115 Cover by Brodsky, interior art by Andru, Everett, Ayers and others. Clean copy with short upper spine split and tiny corner of bottom left worn away, but very little loss in extreme margins. Good colours, staples and pages. Nice colours. 

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Around 1966/67, John Spencer published four series of limited lifespan, containing black and white stories of the supernatural under colour covers, several stories each issue. All material was original, with Mick Anglo at the artistic helm; some covers were repurposed from Badger Books, by the same publisher. Here is a complete set of one of those series, Strange Stories #1-5. Hey, we know it was scary ‘cos they used the words ‘unknown’, ‘supernatural’, ‘weird’ and ‘eerie’ on the covers just in case you were in any doubt. These turn up occasionally, but are not  common.
PICTURED: STRANGE STORIES Complete Set #1-5 £60 SOLD
#1 GD
#2 VG
#3 GD
#4 GD/VG
#5 FN/VF

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for this books category, with an image for each book. This week, we list authors Murray Leinster, Stanislaw Lem, Rex Dean Levie, Jack London & Frank Belknap Long. A real mixed bag of period and sci-fi themes. More details as always in our catalogue. 
PICTURED:
MURRAY LEINSTER: PLANET EXPLORER Bart 1989 1st US PB thus FN £4
STANISLAW LEM: THE CYBERIAD Orbit 1977 1st UK PB GD £8
REX DEAN LEVIE: THE INSECT WARRIORS Ace 1965 1st US PB GD £4 SOLD
JACK LONDON: THE STAR ROVER Corgi 1976 1st UK PB GD £5 
FRANK BELKNAP LONG: IT WAS THE DAY OF THE ROBOT Belmont 1963 1st US PB VG/FN £5

*DC: We celebrate the Midas Collection this week with the historic 2nd issue of Batman from 1940. Appropriately enough, this 2nd issue features the 2nd appearances of both the Joker and the Cat-Woman (sic), the latter out of costume. Dynamic cover by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson. All stories by Bill Finger, with pencils by Bob Kane and inks by Jerry Robinson and George Roussos. In the lead story, featuring a fabulous Joker splash page (see below), learning the Joker is hospitalised with wounds, the members of the Crime Syndicate make plans to rescue him to lead their mob again. But the Joker has planned a double-cross and the appearance of the Cat-Woman complicates matters. In the second story, the Dynamic Duo encounter a Jekyll & Hyde character who changes at night. The third story revolves around a mystery concerning a strange will and the fourth involves a prehistoric man brought back from Africa and a criminal circus. 
This is a reasonable copy. The cover image has well preserved colour and is unspoilt apart from a 3.5 cm tear (without loss) near the base of the spine across the wording in the bottom left corner. There is a 6.5 cm split at the top of the spine and a 2 cm split at the bottom. The cover is off at the top staple and at the bottom staple, off at the front only. The staples bind the pages together strongly. Inside covers are slightly tanned at edges only. Page quality is excellent, with bright or moody colours as appropriate and a consistent off-white. 
A rare opportunity to acquire a cornerstone of comics’ history. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: BATMAN #2 GD £4,000 SOLD

*DC: Three pairs of fan favourite 1960s humour titles from DC in this update: Angel & The Ape, Inferior Five and the Maniaks. 
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
ANGEL AND THE APE #1 VG+ p £10 (PICTURED) Loose centrefold 
ANGEL AND THE APE #2 GD £3.50
SHOWCASE #62 GD+ £10.50 (PICTURED) 1st Inferior Five; off lower staple
INFERIOR FIVE #2 GD/VG p £3.50 Book shop stamps
SHOWCASE #68 GD- p £3.50 1st Maniaks
SHOWCASE #69 GD £4 (PICTURED) Maniaks

*Marvel: Two years after Amazing Spider-Man #16, Spidey returned the ‘favour’, guest-starring in the 16th issue of Daredevil (and spilling over to #17 in a two-parter). These two issues from the Bute Collection featured the debut of John Romita art on Spider-Man, a title he would shortly inherit following the departure of Steve Ditko. 
PICTURED: DAREDEVIL BOTH SOLD
#16 VF £360 A really nice clean copy, with bright colours and good gloss. The cover is totally unmarked, the staples are tight and firm at spine and centrefold, and the supple pages are a very attractive white to off-white. There is just a suggestion of corner blunting and one or two slight marks at spine. 
#17 FN £60 A very decent clean copy, with good colours and gloss. Minor handling wear at spine and edges, with some corner blunting. Firm staples and the supple pages are a very attractive white to off-white. 

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week, five consecutive issues of the Mighty Thor by Lee & Kirby, in which the God of Thunder battles Ulik as the trolls invade Asgard, encounters the omniscient Orikal, faces Kang and his Growing Man, as well as Replicus and the Super-Skrull. All the pomp and grandeur you’d expect of this title at its finest.
IN THIS UPDATE: THOR
#138 VF+ £70 (PICTURED) SOLD
#139 VG/FN £18
#140 VF- £40 (PICTURED) SOLD
#141 FN/VF £28
#142 FN/VF £28

*Charlton: After debuting in Steve Ditko’s Blue Beetle in 1967, the Question, Ditko’s own creation, went on to star in his only Silver Age solo comic, Mysterious Suspense #1, a full length story by Ditko of his urban vigilante. It’s a great shame that Charlton cancelled their ‘Action Hero’ line at this stage, robbing us a possibly a whole universe of heroes drawn by Ditko. This is a very nice copy of the Question’s only solo outing, with vivid colour and an unspoilt cover image. There is some corner blunting and very minor wear along the right edge with faint colour-breaking marks. Tight, firm staples and supple off-white pages.  
PICTURED: MYSTERIOUS SUSPENSE #1 FN £70 SOLD

*Western: 10 issues of Marvel’s Western anthology series from 1960-1963, the dawn of the Marvel Age of Comics. Each issue features Kid Colt; the earliest three here also feature the original Two-Gun Kid. Plus a whole horde of tales from the Old West, with art by Kirby, Heck and other stars of the Marvel Bullpen. Grades are mixed, but mostly towards mid-grade. 
IN THIS UPDATE: GUNSMOKE WESTERN ALL SOLD
#59 VG+ p £23 (PICTURED)
#62 GD+ £8.25
#63 GD £6.75 Cover tear
#65 VG+ £14.75 (PICTURED)
#66 VG p £11.75
#67 VG p £11.75
#69 VG p £11.75
#70 VG p £10.25
#73 GD/VG p £7.75 Book shop stamps
#77 VG p £10.25 

*Humour Comics: Gerald G Swan was a very prolific British publisher active between the late 1930s and the early 1960s. He produced works in virtually every fiction genre and in every format – comics and story papers, annuals, pulps, magazines, books etc. He started out just before WWII, and because he had bought up significant paper stocks before the war, was able to produce a good quantity throughout the conflict and beyond. This update, we have four issues of Swan’s Cute Fun, a series published from 1946-1953. Part humorous picture strips and part illustrated text stories, Cute Fun was described by Swan as “Eight pages of laughter-producing comic strips and 5,000 words of short, complete, illustrated stories of College life as well as adventure”. We have four issues, all in nice shape. Special thanks to friend of 30th Century Nigel Fletcher, whose wonderful website Publications of Gerald G. Swan provides a wealth of information on this publisher.
IN THIS UPDATE: CUTE FUN
#5 FN £10 (PICTURED)
#9 VG £8
#24 FN £10
#25 VG/FN £9

*Pulp Fiction:
SCIENCE FICTION MONTHLY (UK)
COMPLETE RUN £300 SOLD
VOL 1 #1-12
VOL 2 #1-12
VOL 3 #1-4
PLUS SF DIGEST #1
All 28 issues of this tabloid-sized magazine published from 1974-1976 plus the one and only issue of its successor. A UK publication from New English Library. 
All flat and unfolded with all centrefolds present. Condition is really nice, mostly FN/VF; a few have specific defects as follows:
Vol 1 #1 Small tear with small chip missing upper centre back cover
Vol 1 #7 Cover scuffs and small tear with loss bottom centre front cover
Vol 1 #12 Spine scuffs and tears
Vol 2 #4 Spine scuffs
Vol 2 #5 Coupon out, affects one page of art, not story.
Vol 2 #6 Back cover crease
Vol 2 #7 Small cover scuff
Vol 2 #8 Cover half split with chips out
Sample covers below, #1 issues of all three volumes plus SF Digest 

If, like me, you were a fan of the fabulous artwork being produced for science fiction paperbacks in the early 1970s, this is the mag for you. Launched in response to demand from readers for posters of the cover art of New English Library’s science fiction paperbacks, it reprinted artwork in large tabloid format by Chris Foss, Jim Burns, Bruce Pennington, Roger Dean, Josh Kirby, David Pelham and many others, usually without the word copy that appeared on the book covers. Stories and features/articles on science fiction books and film/TV also appeared. Well-known writers who appeared in its pages included Brian Aldiss, Christopher Priest, Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Bob Shaw, Robert Silverberg, Anne McCaffrey, Arthur C Clarke, Ray Bradbury, John Wyndham, E E Doc Smith, Olaf Stapleton, John W Campbell, Eric Frank Russell, Edmund Cooper, Thomas M Disch, Stanley G Weinbaum, Harlan Ellison, Stanislaw Lem, J G Ballard, Harry Harrison, Keith Roberts, Jack Williamson and many others. 

*DC: From the Midas Collection this week, three consecutive issues of Batman from 1959, leading up to regular UK distribution of the title later in the year. 
PICTURED: BATMAN
#122 FA/GD £40 Cover features the marriage of Batman & Batwoman, plus a pirate story and an encounter with the costumed villain Hijack. A lower-graded copy, with some water damage and wear at edges. Off bottom staple.  
#123 FA/GD £40 A Joker story, an adventure in the Everglades and The Fugitive Batman, featuring Ace, the Bat-Hound. Lots of wear with many colour-breaking creases of various sizes. 
#124 FA £25 SOLD Batman turns invisible, the return of the Signalman and a cover-featured science fiction story. Very worn at spine and all edges, with many colour breaking creases; tired and thin. 

*DC: Six issues spanning the DC Silver/Bronze Ages as follows:
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
ADVENTURE COMICS #358 FA p £3 1st Hunter
ATOM #5 GD- p £9
BRAVE & BOLD #88 GD/VG p £4.75 Batman & Wildcat
JIMMY OLSEN #141 GD+ p £4 Jack Kirby
PLASTIC MAN #5 GD p £4
SUPERMAN #164 GD+ p £11.25

*Marvel: After 82 issues of pre and post code horror, science fiction and Big Panty Monsters, the venerable Journey Into Mystery title bowed to the inevitable Marvel Age Of Comics with #83 and introduced the Mighty Thor, God of Thunder, and eventually, the entire pantheon of Norse Gods. You can see it all developing in these three earlyish issues.
IN THIS UPDATE: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY WITH THOR
#101 GD+ p £45 (PICTURED) 1st Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man; 2nd Avengers crossover. Worn but solid pence printed copy with good staples and pages.  
#102 FA p £25 1st Sif, 1st Balder, 1st Hela. Low grade pence printed copy with book shop stamp, tear at lower spine with thumbnail size loss and small cover graffiti. 
#108 GD £30 (PICTURED) SOLD Vs Loki. Guest-starring the Avengers and Dr Strange. Worn but structurally intact pence printed copy with minor spine roll, a few corner cover creases breaking colour, decent pages with small corners off some top right margins (stories not affected).  

*Marvel: The Claremont & Cockrum New X-Men was already a critical hit when #101 turned up, and in a dramatic turn of events, Jean Grey, former weak sister of the team, was elevated into a powerhouse when a cosmic ray storm seemed to transform her into the entity known as Phoenix – and a major, ultimately tragic, story arc for the X-Men began. The legend was somewhat tarnished in later years by Marvel’s back & forth position on whether Jean actually was the Phoenix, or whether the Phoenix force just manifested itself in her form (with a swingin’ new costume), but nevertheless, this remains a key and highly sought after issue. The Good Doctor Collection copy is mid-grade pence printed, suffers from some handling wear and creasing which does not break colour, plus a tiny nick out at the bottom edge. It retains vibrant colours and high glass, as well as firm staples and lovely white to off-white pages. 
PICTURED: X-MEN #101 VG+ p £150 SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: Journey Into Mystery started life in 1952 as part of Atlas’s horror line in the days before the Comics Code Authority. This Bute Collection issue #10 from 1953 features a Carl Burgos cover (probably) with interior art by Jerry Robinson, Ben Benulis and others. This is a reasonable lower-graded copy with rich colour cover and gloss. The cover has some wear and creasing, with small nicks and a larger tear on back cover. Very tip of top right front cover corner missing. Small split upper spine. Staples are reasonably firm at spine and centrefold. Pages are a nice off-white to cream with a short tear from right edge across first few pages without loss. 
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #10 GD £150

*Romance: Also from the Midas Collection this week, we feature three more early issues of Girls’ Love Stories, one of DC’s longest running romance titles, which started in 1949 and finished in 1973. 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 (in particular #31 here). All worn but in solid, decent mid-grade condition without significant defects. Seldom seen, particularly over here in the UK, the Midas Collection is quite rich in this genre. ‘True To Life!’ as the covers proclaimed. 
PICTURED: GIRLS’ LOVE STORIES
#26 VG+ £28
#31 GD/VG £19 Off top staple
#33 VG £24

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for this books category, with an image for each book. This week, we reach the second and concluding part of the works of that very versatile and stylish American author Fritz Leiber, who was equally at home in science fiction, fantasy and horror. Here we concentrate on his work in the fantasy/sword and sorcery sub-genre, with his Swords series featuring the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Fafhrd is a very tall and strong northern barbarian, skilled at both swordsmanship and singing. The Mouser is a small mercurial thief, gifted and deadly at swordsmanship  as well as a former wizard’s apprentice who retains some skill at magic. Fafhrd talks like a romantic, but his strength and practicality usually wins through, while the cynical-sounding Mouser is prone to showing strains of sentiment at unexpected times. Both are rogues, living in a decadent world where only the ruthless and cynical survive. They spend a lot of time drinking, feasting, wenching, brawling, stealing, and gambling, and are seldom fussy about who hires their swords. Still, they are humane and—most of all—relish true adventure. A nice uniform paperback edition of the first six books in the series was published in the UK by Mayflower in 1979 (several years before the final seventh volume was published), and we have volumes 2-6 in really nice shape. NB all volumes are short stories, except The Swords Of Lankhmar, which is the only Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser novel. (Dr Evilla, our web and post mistress, has pointed out that the characters were lampooned by Terry Pratchett in The Colour Of Magic, the first of his Dicsworld novels as Bravd the Hublander and the Weasel).  
PICTURED: ALL BY FRITZ LEIBER
SWORDS 2: SWORDS AGAINST DEATH Mayflower 1979 UK PB VF/NM £10
SWORDS 3: SWORDS IN THE MIST Mayflower 1979 UK PB VF/NM £10
SWORDS 4: SWORDS AGAINST WIZARDRY Mayflower 1979 UK PB VF/NM £10
SWORDS 5: THE SWORDS OF LANKHMAR Mayflower 1979 2nd UK PB VF/NM £10 SOLD
SWORDS 6: SWORDS AND ICE MAGIC Mayflower 1979 1st UK PB VF/NM £10

*DC: From the Midas Collection this week, a fabulous issue of Batman from 1950, featuring the debut of a character who would later go on to become famous in the DCU, and an iconic science fiction cover. Deadshot first appeared as an apparent rival to Batman, before his true motivations were revealed. It was 27 years before he would again appear in 1977, but from there went on to become a regular in Suicide Squad and elsewhere. The second story has horror overtones and the third is the cover feature, ‘Batman Of The Future‘, where Batman and Robin travel 100 years into the future (as you do) and meet the Joker’s descendant Rokej who is a police chief, and help him stop space pirates and a space-ship saboteur. Wonderful outer space cover with the Batship. Stories by David Vern and Bill Finger, art by Bob Kane, Lew Sayre Schwartz and Jim Mooney. Nice cover image with good colours, with a corner chunk out at top spine (see scan). Off lower staple; tears around upper staple which remains in place. The centrefold is off at both staples. Wear at edges, with colour-breaking creases; tiny chips out at bottom corners, with a 3 cm tear at bottom spine sealed by tape on inside cover. Another short tear at right centre edge, also sealed on the inside. Page quality is a supple off-white. An acceptable and relatively affordable copy of this key issue. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: BATMAN #59 GD £650

*DC: From the Midas Collection, a squarebound issue of World’s Finest Comics with Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, Zatara, Boy Commandos and more. A lowish grade copy with severe spine damage, although the comic holds together well. Small front cover edge tears and a longer tear on back cover. Top of spine missing, cover seems glued in place. Decent cover image and okay pages.
PICTURED: WORLD’S FINEST #39 FA/GD £125

*Marvel: In the second issue of Daredevil, the sightless swashbuckler comes up against Spidey’s foe Electro in the villain’s second appearance (with a cameo from the bashful Thing). Daredevil #1 was drawn by Bill Everett, whereas the pages of this issue were graced by another Golden Age great Joe Orlando. This is a very superior copy from the Bute Collection, with strong cover colours and reflective gloss. Flat and firm with staples tight at spine and centrefold and beautiful white to off-white pages. Very minimal wear at some corners and edges, and a narrow band of marking central top edge rear cover (see scan), but an outstanding example. High resolution images are available on request.   
PICTURED: DAREDEVIL #2 FN/VF £600 SOLD

*Marvel: The Big Panty Monster sub-genre was still developing by the time of Tales To Astonish #6, but the cover-featured Stone Men certainly qualified and are regarded as a prototype for the creatures featured in Thor’s later debut. By the time of #14, we are in Full Panty mode, when ‘You’ll Never Forget Krang!’ (Who?) 
IN THIS UPDATE: TALES TO ASTONISH
#6 GD/VG £130 (PICTURED) Kirby cover. Lead story by Ditko, also featured on interior art are Sinnott, Kirby, Reinman & Forte. Nice solid copy with good colours, black skyline, tight, firm staples and supple white to off-white pages. Marred slightly by some Marvel chipping to right edge, but not too bad. Otherwise only minor edge wear and corner blunting, with a couple of very faint colour-breaking lines near the ‘A’ in ‘Astonish’. SOLD
#14 FA/GD £18 SOLD Kirby cover and lead story. Other stories by Ditko and Heck. Krang is a giant intelligent ant (of course). This is a low grade copy with much wear. A narrow strip is missing from the top left cover, cutting off the letters ‘T’ and ‘A’ from the word ‘Tales’ in the logo. Cover detached from staples, and spine with long splits. Much wear, including long colour-breaking creases. Chips out and nicks. Off-white to cream pages are okay. 

*Miscellaneous 1960 Onwards: One of the benefits of running your own comics business is that you’re able to play favourites. In the 1980s, there were a number of series produced by the smaller independent publishers that I followed avidly and which still remain firm favourites. An example of such is Aztec Ace by writer Doug Moench and usual artist Dan Day. A heady mix of time travel, aviation, ancient Mexico, Hollywood, gangsters, Cleopatra, aliens, crocodiles, a disembodied head and a very unusual cat makes this one of the most intriguing tales in comicdom, even if you have to read it a few times to figure out what’s going on. The stylised art by Dan Day is almost Steranko-like in layout, and the series maintains a unified look despite occasional fill-in artists. Moench’s finest work, in my humble. We have the complete set of the 15 issue run new into stock in great shape. Highly recommended. (And I got all the way through this without mentioning Dr Who!)
IN THIS UPDATE: AZTEC ACE COMPLETE SET #1-15 Av VF/NM £50; #1 PICTURED. SOLD