In 2017 we reported on the sad loss of Alan, a mainstay of the comic and book dealing worlds. Alan (AKA the Guv’nor) was one of the most respected figures in UK comic book fandom who did much to inspire and enthuse many others in the field.

He was the first full-time comics dealer in the UK, and published many fanzines about American comic books throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, including Fantasy Unlimited (later Comics Unlimited), the first Comic Book Price Guide for Great Britain, the Golden Age fanzine and the DC and Marvel Comics Indexes.

It fell to his friend Nigel Brown to edit and publish two of his works, firstly a book about comics (Comics Unlimited: My life as a Comic Collector and Dealer) and secondly a collection of short stories (The Adventures of Bernie Burrows, Bookseller) loosely based on his own book dealing experiences.

Both are now available as paperbacks or ebooks from Amazon. We’ve included the synopsis of each book below.

Comics Unlimited: My life as a Comic Collector and Dealer

This book details Alan’s life in comics, and his experiences as a comic collector and dealer from the early days of comic book fandom, beginning in the 1960s.

Alan later became a respected book dealer.

The Adventures of Bernie Burrows, Bookseller

Bernie Burrows is a reader, collector, and seller of books.

His world is populated by people struggling through the calamities of life, as is Bernie himself. But Bernie doggedly pursues his vocation despite growing competition from other bookdealers and websites, and an increasingly difficult public.

Join Bernie as he risks a late night opening of his bookshop in the hope of ‘the big sale’, encounters the phantom book-leaver, faces a life-or-death locked room mystery he has to solve, sets off on an expedition across the streets of Chicago in search of dust-jacketed treasure, and many more adventures.

We can heartily recommend both books. Alan was an entertaining writer and his acerbic wit shines through in everything he did. These serve as a testament to his memory and a reminder of how much the comic and book worlds miss him. 

*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, in particular the depictions of his domain. We have a decent enough copy new in; this is pence stamped (twice, as a bonus!), but neither over the cover central image; the upper stamp has a small label-size discolouration patch over it where a label has been removed (see scan). Other than that, the spine is intact but for a 1 cm split at base, the cover colour and gloss are good, the staples excellent and the page quality very nice. Edge wear is fairly minimal apart from two colour-breaking creases across the bottom right corner. These Surfer giants have certainly shot up in value of late, and show no signs of slowing.
PICTURED: SILVER SURFER #3 VG- p £270 SOLD

*Marvel: The Black Panther’s series in Jungle Action, which attracted a lot of acclaim at the time, was known for being verbose, introspective, reflective and philosophical. When the character’s co-creator, Jack Kirby, took over as writer and artist on T’Challa’s follow-up solo series, the results were… a considerable contrast. Shouting! Explosions! Aliens! Time-Travel! Implausibly-muscled ladies with black lipstick! Cosmic critters! All were here, and all playing at full volume all the time, in the crazed kinetic frenzy that Kirby was renowned for. Since the major movie hit, the King of Wakanda’s star is ever-ascendant, and this issue especially always sells very briskly because of its – frankly – high loopiness quotient. So, if you want this tale of ‘King Solomon’s Frog’, you’d better hop to it (sorry…) A nice high grade pence printed copy, with great colour cover and gloss, nice white to off-white pages and tight staples; just minor signs of reading wear at edges and corners.
PICTURED: BLACK PANTHER #1 VF+ p £90 SOLD

*Marvel: Let’s All Gang Up On The Hulk! Spidey joins the fray in this first part of a two-part adventure set in Canada, with art by John Romita. A nice high grade pence printed copy, flat, tight and glossy with firm staples and off-white pages. No specific defects, just a little corner blunting and a tiny amount of edge wear.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #119 VF- p £90

*Marvel: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. It’s Iron Man’s turn in ‘Let’s All Gang Up On The Hulk!’. In issue #9 of his own series, Iron Man faces off against the Hulk (or does he? You’ll have to read it to find out) as arranged by the Mandarin. George Tuska’s art, as inked here by EC alumnus Jonny Craig, has seldom looked better. This is a lovely Square Mile specimen, tight, flat, sharp, glossy and reflective, with just the tiniest nick to the right edge preventing an even higher grade. White pages and firm staples.
PICTURED: IRON MAN #9 VF p £130

*Alan Class Reprints: something a little more unusual in our Alan Class update this week, the short-lived crime series Tales Of The Underworld, running to only ten issues in all. We have five of these newly added to our regular stock section, all Charlton/Fawcett reprints, featuring the following recurring characters: Public Defender In Action, Judy Jones Powderpuff Reporter, Rookie Cop, Mike Danger, Johnny Adventure and Inspector Farnsworth of Scotland Yard. A thematic Alan Class rarity! Full details in our catalogue. 

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: In our close-on 30 years of trading, I don’t think we’ve ever had a copy of Super-Detective Library #1 through our hands before, so we’re particularly pleased to have such a nice copy as this new in this week. Starring Simon Templar AKA the Saint in ‘The Case of the Contraband People’, this flat and unmarked copy has good colour and an intact, solid spine, with great pages and little more than a hint of rust at the staple. Fairly sharp corners and just a trace of a soft crease on the back cover. This historic issue is worthy of any collection. 
PICTURED: SUPER-DETECTIVE LIBRARY #1 VG/FN £60 SOLD

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: From 1966, ten more issues of True Life Library (All In Pictures), between #511-524. Released right in the middle of ‘Swingin’ London’, the usual nurses, models and actresses are bolstered by somewhat more liberated heroines, including aviatrixes, monarchs and spies – oh my! With very accomplished art from mainly European illustrators, these are lovely items, their appeal enhanced by the fact that they are from a newsagent’s reserve stock, never sold or circulated, with white pages, bright covers and minimal or no discolouration in the staple areas, averaging VG/FN. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: TRUE LIFE LIBRARY #517 FN £6 SOLD

*DC: Three excellent Batman stories await you inside this colourful sci-fi cover from Curt Swan; two are pencilled by Sheldon Moldoff (one co-starring Batwoman and Bat-Hound) and the third (cover story) by Dick Sprang, my favourite Batman artist of the period. This is a decent, pre-distribution copy with some edge wear and creasing, good colour, nice page quality and firm staples. There are faint vestiges of pencil marks (now erased) over the letters of the cover logo. Note that we also have a VG copy in stock, which is only slightly higher in price.
PICTURED: BATMAN #125 VG- £75 SOLD

*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. All fours issues are presented here as a set: #1 is a splendid VF+, #2 & #4 both very respectable VF grades, #3 structurally sound but let down a bit by some white marks (possibly stacking ink?) at the edges of the cover, VG/FN.
PICTURED: WOLVERINE #1 VF+; COMPLETE SET 1-4 £190 SOLD

*Marvel: Apart from a shared name and attribute of being ‘Lord of the Jungle’, there was little similarity between the Ka-Zar of Marvel’s Golden Age and the character introduced in X-Men #10. Unlike his predecessor, this Ka-Zar ruled over the Savage Land and had Zabu, a big pussycat of a sabre-tooth, as his companion. Ka-Zar has, of course, gone on to become a fixture of the Marvel Universe, with several of his own series under his belt; the long association of Marvel’s Merry Mutants with the Savage Land also started right here. This is an honest pence stamped copy, with good staples, decent pages and just average edge wear and corner blunting, nothing horrible.
PICTURED: X-MEN #10 VG+ p £200

*Marvel: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. A John Romita gem this update, a superior copy of Amazing Spider-Man #45, the second part of Spidey’s second clash with the Lizard. This is a bright, glossy copy with just minimal wear including a couple of small faint creases at bottom corners. A brilliant cover image which the quality of this copy brings to life.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #45 VF- p £95

*Marvel: Rumour has it that the Time Variance Authority (timeline monitors) will have a major part to play in the upcoming Loki TV series. What better time then to invest in their first appearance in Thor #372, part of the acclaimed Walt Simonson run on Thor? We present a nice copy, with just a few non-colour breaking creases at the spine and right edge.
PICTURED: THOR #372 FN/VF £40 SOLD

*Alan Class Reprints: For many years now, we’ve been scouring the personal archives of legendary publisher Alan Class (who is still very much with us) and with his full co-operation, releasing for sale sets of the original printing plates that were used to print the covers of his comics from 1959-1989. We have now reached the final phase of these plate set releases, which will last us through 2021 and probably into 2022. These sets are time-consuming to prepare, so our release schedule will be staggered. But the good news is that all the sets we have left are among the best, either featuring a classic Marvel comic reprint, or else a very early fantasy/mystery issue. So, this final phase represents your last opportunity to add one or more of these unique pieces to your collection. Each set comprises the lead printing plates used in the original comic’s colour printing, a copy of the comic printed with these plates and a signed certificate of authenticity signed by Alan Class himself. These are packaged in a special protective presentation case. Several sets (as noted) have additional historical artefacts such as colour proofs, interior page plates, printers’ photostats etc. (Please be aware that these weigh a lot and postage will be expensive. Also note that due to the onerous paperwork required for customs declarations following Brexit, we can no longer post these Plate Sets outside the UK.) We continue this week with four more sets, details as follows:
PICTURED:
ASTOUNDING STORIES #9 £50 Comic FN Reprints  ACG, Charlton 
SECRETS OF THE UNKNOWN #108 £60 Comic GD/VG Reprints Daredevil #45 & #46 with Statue of Liberty photo cover, plus Charlton inc 2 Ditko. SOLD
SINISTER TALES #106 £75 Comic VG Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #72 inc cover & ACG. SOLD
UNCANNY TALES #29 £80 Comic GD Reprints Thor & Kirby Tales of Asgard from Journey Into Mystery #98 inc cover, a Tale of the Wasp, Pre-hero Marvel, Charlton, Atlas, 2 Ditko, 1 Ditko/Kirby. Extra: 2 interior plates, inc Thor splash page SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Following on from previous releases of earlier numbers, we now have many issues between #101 & #149 of Commando War Stories In Pictures from the same source. A previous owner at some point decided to place two to four reinforcing staples through the spine, quite skilfully so as to not hamper the opening of the item nor hide any of the content; there is minimal bleed from these staples and the page quality is really rather nice. As we move up the numbers, the overall condition quality improves, so in most cases, the grade is assigned through wear rather than specific defects. Please consult our catalogue for full details.
PICTURED: COMMANDO
#101 VG £15
#132 VG £15

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: A further update for this title, with 13 issues added between #231 and #250.  Attractive and stylish art covers on these, with interiors to match. In lovely condition, with great page quality and not a rusty staple in sight. See our catalogue for details.
PICTURED: PICTURE ROMANCE LIBRARY
#241 FN/VF £9
#244 FN/VF £9

*DC: In 2001, DC let Stan Lee loose on its most famous characters to see what might have happened if the creator of the Marvel Universe had in fact created the DCU. Under the generic title of ‘Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating…’ he teamed up with the cream of modern and classic artists in a series of prestige format one-offs, and back cover art on each issue was by none other than Adam Hughes. We have six issues of this series new in stock: Green Lantern, with art by Dave Gibbons, JLA (Jerry Ordway), Robin (John Byrne), Sandman (Walter Simonson), Shazam (Gary Frank) and Superman (John Buscema, no less!). All in a spiffy NM condition at £10 each.
PICTURED: JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE CREATING…
JLA NM £10
SUPERMAN NM £10

*Marvel: Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four as a response to DC’s success with the Justice League of America, but it was the later Avengers concept that more properly copies the JLA format, with all Marvel’s nascent super-heroes banding together to fight common threats. The nature of the Avengers ever-changing roster was there almost from the start, since the Hulk left the team in this second issue, which also featured the menace of the Space Phantom in his debut appearance, and reflected the recent change of Ant-Man into Giant-Man. We have a nice mid-grade pence copy available, with strong colour, nice pages and tight, firmly-attached staples. There is minor edge and handling wear, and a small 1 cm tear at the right cover edge. Very small creases break colour at the edge of the bottom right cover. There is also a fairly faint UK book shop stamp below the upper cover blurb (above Thor’s head); fortunately, this is not too prominent and does not cover any of the characters. Some corner blunting but nothing too bad.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #2 VG+ p £375 SOLD

*Marvel: The Kingpin makes his cover debut on Amazing Spider-Man #51, towering menacingly over a fallen Spidey with his gang gathered round in one of John Romita’s most memorable covers. I remember thinking what a visually striking figure was cut by the Kingpin, a testament to Romita’s design skills. This issue also features the debut of Daily Bugle man Robbie Robertson, who, if memory serves, was the first black recurring character to play an important role in Peter Parker’s life. This is a superior pence printed copy, difficult to find in high grade due to the black background. It is tight and flat with firmly attached staples and nice off-white pages. The cover colour is great, unmarked and retains some gloss. Corners are fairly sharp. There are a couple of small spine ‘ticks’ and very minor wear along the top edge. A very nice prize for your collection.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #51 FN/VF p £250

*Marvel: Amazing Spider-Man #252, like many Secret Wars ‘epilogue’ issues, featured a major ‘twist’ only explained retroactively. In Spidey’s case, it was a dramatic black & white costume which would eventually be revealed as an alien symbiote, which in turn would evolve into Venom, who eclipsed most longer-established villains to become Spidey’s crucial nemesis for the modern era. Although the first appearance of the symbiote in internal continuity was Secret Wars #8, its joint debut in real time was this very issue. But please take note — this is a low grade cheap copy, with some crumpling, blunt corners, lots of spine ticks and colour-breaking creases across the top and bottom right corners, including a small chip out at the bottom right. Nice as a gap filler, but not an investment collectable copy.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #252 FA/GD £20 SOLD

*Marvel: For those who like their Marvel Universe with a huge dollop of Cosmic thrown in, we present Silver Surfer #34 (1990), featuring the return of both Thanos (as the ultimate nemesis) and Jim Starlin (on scripts). Also featuring Death (the character, that is). A nice glossy, flat copy with just very minor reading wear at the spine.
PICTURED: SILVER SURFER #34 VF/NM £30 SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: In our regular pre-code horror feature this week, we present four issues of Fawcett’s This Magazine Is Haunted, 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. These issues are all low grade, with the faults being described below for each issue.
PICTURED: THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED
#1 FA £50 Taped spine. Corners off lower and upper right front cover.
#2 GD+ £75 Mis-cut. Small pieces out interior margins (only) 3 pages.
#4 PR £32 Off lower staple. Lower spine split. Brown and brittle.
#7 PR/FA £30 Extreme upper edge wear with piece out. Colour touches.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: From 1976, the second issue of the notorious British Boys’ weekly, Action, home of Hookjaw the cuddly man-eating shark and several other strips of unprecedented violence and controversy. This is a decent copy, with reasonable pages, a cover unmarked except for a faint small ‘2’ in pencil to the left of the logo and a small split at the base of the spine. The Free Gift, a delightful Hookjaw transfer to iron on to your T-shirt comes unused with its original backing and has one or two small signs of wear only. 
PICTURED: ACTION 21/2/76 (#2) VG WITH FREE GIFT FN/VF £90

*Humour Comics: Continuing our policy of providing more information for Beano and Dandy, we have a new batch of Dandy in this week from the first half of 1958, annotated with details of strip debuts and other significant events. Unfortunately, no strip debuts in these new issues, except for the first strip appearance of Quick Nick, who had first appeared years earlier as a prose feature; however, we do have both the New Year issue, the April Fool issue and #847, which includes a rather splendid flyer for Rover, advertising the Free Gift ‘Dazzle Rocket’. Full details in our catalogue.
PICTURED: DANDY #847 VG £16 with Rover promo flyer SOLD

*Childrens’ Books: A further update from this quirky sidebar in publishing history this week. ‘Blitz Books’ is a generic name for various publishers’ series of miniature books (approx 8.5 x 12 cm, around 16 pages, and published 1940-1944), these booklets helped distract children in air-raid shelters and Underground stations during bombing raids over London. They became known as ‘Blitz Books’, and, like many publications from the years of World War II, are quite scarce, particularly in as nice condition as the examples we have here. Six from the Little Marvels Series, illustrated text stories with colourful, evocative covers. None of these have ever passed through our hands before.
PICTURED: BLITZ BOOKS: LITTLE MARVELS ALL SOLD
#17 BOMBS ON BERCHTESGADEN VG/FN £7
#18 ACE V ACE FN £8
#21 SCOUTS OF DOOM FN £8
#33 THE MAN WITH THREE EYES FN £8
#39 THE RECAPTURE OF SINGAPORE VG/FN £7
#41 FORCED LANDING VG/FN £7