*Marvel: Was Namor or was he not an Evil Mutant? Well, he joined them briefly in this issue as a result of Magneto’s machinations, but after a tussle with the X-Men, involving the BEM, he soon realised the error of his ways and returned to Atlantis. In a running theme here, I must remark on the cover colourist’s continuing faux pas. Although he got the Scarlet Witch in scarlet this time round (following the mysterious Emerald Witch on #4 & #5 covers), Subby is sporting a pair of red pants rather than the customary green he wears inside. A decent copy, with the pence printed price blacked out, some edge wear and corner blunting and a faint subscription-like crease down the middle which just breaks colour for a few cms. Reasonable pages and firmly-attached staples.
PICTURED: X-MEN #6 GD+ p £90 SOLD

*Marvel: Among the more popular of Spidey’s allies debuting in one of his titles are Cloak and Dagger, the light/darkness team who first appeared in Spectacular Spider-Man #64. They went on to star across the Marvel Universe, in their own strip and own titles, eventually getting their own TV series in 2018/19. We have a lovely high grade copy of their first appearance fresh into stock.
PICTURED: SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #64 VF/NM £65

*Horror 1940-1959: Superior was a Canadian publisher active from 1945-1956 who mostly reprinted American comics from the same time period. They also published a number of original series that were distributed in the United States. Among these were three horror titles famous for their hallucinogenic covers and accomplished Fiction House style interior art. When you see a lot of these together, they have an almost hypnotic and uncomfortable effect. Our focus this week is on issues #1-3 of one of those titles: Strange Mysteries; mixed grade copies, with specific defects listed below.
PICTURED: STRANGE MYSTERIES
#1 GD/VG £300 Spine roll
#2 VG £230 Taped sealed small tears near both rear staples and right edge of cover SOLD
#3 FA £55 Spine has glue repairs; small piece of tape inside front cover RESERVED

*Memorabilia & Esoterica: A whole load of Dan Dare/Eagle ephemera available this week in a bumper batch of goodness. You get:
1) The Horlicks Spaceman’s Handbook, from the early 1950s; 80+ pages of biographies of Dan and his friends and foes, a guide to his equipment, the ships and Space Fleet, the Planets and more with copious illustrations.
2) Eagle Passport with supplements enclosed from the comics on World Transport, Space, The Real Wild west and Underwater World
3) Dan Dare at 50  from 2000; a glossy illustrated guide to Dan Dare comics, artwork, toys and ephemera, introduction by Terry Jones (yes, that Terry Jones); 40 pages.
4) Eagle Convention Booklet from 1980; 44 pages of original sketches by Eagle artists and other info.
5) 2 Christie’s Auction Catalogues from 1993, the first on Book, Comic and Magazine artwork including Dan Dare (also comes with Christie’s catalogue alterations and auction results), the second totally devoted to Dan Dare.
6) A flyer for the Manchester Dan Dare Exhibition circa 1990
7) A booking form for the Eagle 1980 Convention
8) A print of a Dan Dare sketch by Frank Hampson
9) A poster for the 1980 Eagle convention
All this can be yours for the princely sum of £50. SOLD

*Collected Editions: From our friends at the Book Palace, new stocks of the Fleetway Picture Library Classics series. We have restocked on the earlier volumes: Larrigan and Jet-Ace Logan, and added two new volumes: Air War Stories (classics from Air Ace & War with art by Ferdinando Tacconi) and John Steel (from Thriller Picture Library with art by Luis Bermejo & Reg Bunn). Four classic tales in each volume.
PICTURED:
AIR WAR STORIES NEW/MINT £25
JET-ACE LOGAN NEW/MINT £25
JOHN STEEL VF £20
LARRIGAN NEW/MINT £25

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Like the other Fleetway Super Library series, the Secret Agent series focuses on two alternating features, in this case Barracuda and Johnny Nero. This update exclusively features Barracuda issues, five new in between #2 and #24. They’re in reasonable shape, but four of them have the previous owner’s name in biro on the cover (see an example with #10 pictured here).
PICTURED: FLEETWAY SUPER LIBRARY SECRET AGENT SERIES
#2 GD/VG £12 SOLD
#10 VG £10

*Girls’ Comics: A glossy big sister to Romeo aimed at a slightly trendier demographic, Jackie helped delight and inform (or brainwash, depending on your viewpoint) a generation of teenage girls and young women, with pop features and pin-ups, fashion and makeup tips, the ever-popular Problem Page, and scores of often beautifully illustrated romance comics stories. Free Gift issues of Jackie are uncommon, as the gifts were usually eagerly ripped away and consulted or applied in the hopes of snagging the Dream Boy, but these four are from a Newsagent’s uncirculated stock, and remain ‘gifted’.  #523 has the Jackie Diary 1974 (pristine and unused), #634 has the Leap Year Love Brooch (still in unopened envelope), #667 has the Bluejean Bangles (still in original envelope) and #668 has an unused and near mint sheet of Starstickers. No more Free Gift Jackies on the horizon, so this will be your last chance for a while to grab some goodies! 
PICTURED: JACKIE
#523 VG WITH FREE GIFT NM £30
#634 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £30 SOLD
#667 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £30 SOLD
#668 VG WITH FREE GIFT NM £30

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: Dozens of issues of the hugely popular Schoolgirls’ Picture Library newly listed this week between #23 and #299. Most (though not all) are alternative copies of already listed issues in different grades, so if you were looking either for a nicer copy or a cheaper copy than what was already listed, there may be something for you!
PICTURED: SCHOOLGIRLS’ PICTURE LIBRARY
#143 VG £10
#178 FN £15

*Clearance Corner: It’s been a funny year for holidays, hasn’t it? As the summer fades, we want to help prolong it for you with a selection of later Beano & Dandy Summer Specials. There’s 14 in this batch: 6 Beano (1991, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002), 7 Dandy (1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 #1) and, as a bonus, 1 Bash Street Kids from 1994. All in VF with one or two FN or VG. That’s about £100 value, yours for just £25 inc. free (UK only) postage to keep your summer rolling just a little bit longer! SOLD

*DC: A high grade for such a vintage Batman this week, a great-looking CGC 7.5 (VF-) copy of Batman #94 from 1955, Universal grade, blue label unrestored. With a dynamic Win Mortimer cover and three mystery stories (including one where Alfred plays Batman), this lovely item also has the distinction of being the earliest issue of Batman we have in stock at time of writing. 
PICTURED: BATMAN #94 CGC 7.5 £350

*DC: A consecutive run of 100 Page Batman Giants between #254 & #261 new in this week. An excellent period this for the Caped Crusader: not only do you get a brand new story each issue, many of them featuring a classic villain such as the Joker, Penguin, Two-Face and Catwoman, plus the debut of Arkham Asylum and a guest shot by the Shadow, but you also get a whole load of classic Batman reprints from the 1940s to the 1960s, including many classic and favourite stories. A wealth of great reading at bargainaceous prices! See our catalogue for full details.

*Marvel: Following his 1976 return to Marvel, the legendary Jack Kirby was anxious not to get trapped in the cycle of just illustrating super-heroes again, and one of his conditions was that he would be allowed to write and draw his own concepts. How much of the Eternals concept was his is, politely, open to debate; reminiscent of the then-popular Erich Von Daniken paperbacks, which asserted that mankind’s historical ‘Gods’ were alien visitors, Kirby’s Eternals postulated the return of ancient immortal extraterrestrials and the cataclysmic repercussions for humanity. Originally intended to stand apart from the Marvel Universe, it was shoehorned in at editorial insistence, which resulted in Kirby eventually abandoning the strip mid-story, but with the confirmation of an Eternals movie – with Angelina Jolie, Selma Hayek and Game of Thrones star Richard Madden, among others – this series is heating up! This is a lovely high grade copy of their debut issue.
PICTURED: ETERNALS #1 VF+ p £75 SOLD

*Marvel: Strange Tales from the 1960s is sought after for myriad reasons, most often because of the dynamic, cinematic artwork of Jim Steranko, who brought a freshness to spy saga Nick Fury and The Agents of SHIELD which tapped perfectly into the zeitgeist of the era. But that doesn’t apply in this instance. No, the hoo and the hah this time is for the Marie Severin illustrated Doctor Strange co-feature, and more specifically for the Living Tribunal, a cosmic entity whose power outstrips the Watcher and may even match that of Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet! For years a relatively small part of Marvel’s cosmic tapestry, the Tribunal’s prominence has increased with his (its?) greater involvement in sundry cosmic sagas, to the point where interest in his early appearances is at its keenest. Strange Tales #158, with the first full Tribunal and his first cover appearance is a nice mid-grade copy, with deep colour cover, nice page quality and tight, firmly attached staples. There is some creasing along the spine and a couple of colour-breaking creases across the bottom right corner. (Only) in the right light, you can see a vestigial remnant of a circular mark at the bottom of the logo.
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #158 VG+ p £50 SOLD

*Marvel: Another of our very popular round-ups of Marvel #1 issues from the 1970s and later. This time we have Marvel Two-In-One #1, Moon Knight #1, Quasar #1, Shanna the She-Devil #1, Super-Villain Team-Up #1 and Wolverine #1 (ongoing 1988). Full grading and pricing information, as always, in our catalogue.
PICTURED:
SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #1 VF £35
WOLVERINE #1 FN/VF £23

*Marvel: A consecutive run of Amazing Spider-Man Annuals this week, from #3 to #10. #3-5 & #10 feature new material (#5 is a second printing), while #6-9 have classic reprints of early Spideys (NB #6 reprints Annual #1 with the debut of the Sinister Six) and are less commonly seen in the UK.

*Western: The Two-Gun Kid’s career had been running successfully at Atlas/Marvel, in his own title and others, for a considerable time as a blond, guitar-wielding peripatetic troubadour, but Lee & Kirby, apparently having a spare afternoon one day, decided to reinvent the character. With issue #60 of Two-Gun Kid, the old version was gone, and in his place was Matt Hawk, mild-mannered Western lawyer, who when he couldn’t achieve justice in the courtroom, donned a mask and fought the good fight as the Two-Gun Kid! The adventures of the former TGK were hand-waved away as pulp stories which ‘inspired’ Matt Hawk, and the new version, with his secret identity, supporting cast and fixed locale, fit much more into the Marvel Comics template than his dated predecessor. Matt Hawk went on to a lengthy career and thanks to the magic of comics science, even made brief sojourns to the present day, joining the Avengers for a time (but then who hasn’t?). Presumably owing to a production error (perhaps there was some pre-production debate as to whether the ‘new’ version should be #60 or #1, undecided until virtually the last minute?) there are two known versions of this issue’s cover. One is printed with an evidently handwritten issue number and one with a mechanically-generated issue number. This is the scarcer version, with the handwritten number printed on the cover. This copy of the New Two-Gun Kid’s debut is a superior FN- p copy, with rich colour cover, white to off-white pages and tight, firmly attached staples. There are a few stress marks at the spine and soft creases at the top left, bottom right and across the lower cover, but these are almost all non-colour breaking; a copy with great eye appeal that presents well. We also have #61 & #62, the Kid’s 2nd and 3rd issues, new in and listed in our catalogue. 
PICTURED: TWO-GUN KID #60 FN- p £325 SOLD

*Marvel UK: In 1976, Marvel UK’s first attempt to generate a British-based super-hero was placed into the hands of Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, whose comic-opera interpretation of the UK has become a source of hilarity for generations. But after a shaky start, CB became inextricably linked with the mainstream Marvel Universe, not least because of his psychic sister, Betsy, who – years later and after many, many changes – turned Japanese and became the X-Men’s scantily-clad ninja mind-warrior Psylocke. As you do. This is Betsy’s first appearance in Captain Britain Weekly #8, a copy in VF condition; the rather flimsy stock of the Marvel UK weeklies has endured well in this instance, with no creases or marks, tight and flat with an excellent staple (it’s never had an upper staple), no delivery name or address or any other writing, and the puzzle page (often completed, to the later chagrin of collectors) is pristine and untouched. Beautiful white to off-white pages and sharp corners. The only (tiny) blemish is a minute nick at the bottom edge about 10 mm in from the spine, but you have to look really hard to see it. You don’t see as many copies of this surviving so well.
PICTURED: CAPTAIN BRITAIN #8 VF £200 SOLD

*Boy’s Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A chunky update to this popular category this week, featuring a wide range of titles and material, including several less often seen series: Attack Picture Library Holiday Specials, Battleground, Conflict, Cowboy Picture Library, Gemini 2000 Picture Library (#2), Lion Picture Library, Pecos Bill Western Picture Library, Pocket War Library, Pocket Western Library, Private-Eye Picture Stories, Sabre Library, Thriller Picture Library and Western Library Holiday Special. Mostly pre-decimal issues. 

*Girls’ Comics: To add to the fun, Fleetway not only published Holiday Specials for June & School Friend, but in 1968-1970, they published Special Extra issues as well in the same format: 96 pages of stories, features, fun and adventure with Bessie Bunter and many of the regular strips from the comic. Vanishingly rare, we almost never see these and fortunately, the conditions of all three here are more than reasonable. 1968 is FN, with slight front cover edge fading (margins only), 1969 is VG, with a back cover tear (nothing missing) and slight looseness at staples, 1970 is FN.
PICTURED: JUNE & SCHOOL FRIEND SPECIAL EXTRA
1968 FN £90
1969 VG £75 SOLD
1970 FN £90 SOLD

*Clearance Corner: Fans of Good Girl Art need look no further, provided that the girl is a dog, of course. Lassie, first appearing in the 1940s, is the star of radio, television, film, toys, comic books, animated series, juvenile novels and other media. Hugely popular in the 1940s to the 1960s, the famous Collie had long-running comic series, first from Dell and then Gold Key, mostly with wonderfully painted covers and often accomplished interior art, including 2 issues in this selection by Matt Baker. This lot consists of 21 issues (19 Dell, 2 Gold key) between #6 (1952) and #68. Condition averages VG+, with many better and no dogs (if you pardon the pun). Overstreet Price Guide value on these is in excess of £160 — on offer here for just £35 including free (UK only) postage. 

*DC: The House Of Mystery entry into DC’s tabloid range is a wonderful package; not only do you get seven superb stories by the very best of 1940s horror artists: Neal Adams, Bernie Wrighson, Gil Kane, Alex Toth, Jack Sparling and Segio Aragones (!), with their art on wonderful display in this tabloid size, but it’s also chock-full of games, cartoons, a 3D mystery cut-out, features and pin-ups. This VG+ copy has some spine wear and stress marks (black background) and some tanning on the inside covers, the odd crease and small scuff or two, but isn’t at all in bad shape. An uncommon item.
PICTURED: LIMITED COLLECTORS’ EDITION C23 VG+ £25 SOLD

*Marvel: Flush with success at the dawn of the Marvel Universe, Stan Lee had an epiphany: if Iron Man, Thor and company were successful on their own – how much better would they be together? Thus was born the Avengers, in which Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp were brought together by the fiendish machinations of Loki and an heroic dynasty began which continues to this day! The Avengers has lasted myriad issues, with a plethora of spin-offs, and a veritable regiment of members (not to mention an extremely lucrative movie franchise), but this is the comic in which it all began! Make no mistake — this copy is a wreck: extreme spine roll, cover fading, browning, heavy edge wear, off top staple light interior staining; the right and bottom edges in particular are very heavily worn and creased. We don’t have a grade lower than poor, but otherwise this might qualify. And now the good news — it’s all complete! High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #1 PR p £500

*Marvel: Well, everyone at Marvel gets their own movie, eh? Even being dead doesn’t appear to have stopped the clairvoyant precog Madame Web from having a film in development, and thus her first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #210 has piqued in interest and accumulated value in the last year. We have a VF+ copy, with just a few minor stress marks preventing an even higher grade. Tight, flat and glossy and now an amazing 40 years old!
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #210 VF+ £75

*Marvel: X-Men #5 marked the very swift return of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (now, there’s a slick bit of nominative determinism for you), following their debut in the previous issue. The Scarlet Witch however was still suffering from the same bout of colour blindness that afflicted her on the cover of #4, where she was also dressed in emerald. You’d have thought that the clue was in her name… Anyway, a merry romp ensues between Prof X’s mutant band and Magneto’s misfits. Not a great copy, pence priced with slightly more than moderate wear and some corner creasing and blunting; staples are okay and page quality isn’t bad. One page has a small strip out of the margin which doesn’t affect the story.
PICTURED: X-MEN #5 GD- p £85

*Miscellaneous 1960 Onwards: I’ve waxed lyrical about Mike Barr’s wonderful fair play whodunnit series the Maze Agency during our lockdown interlude and you can read my thoughts at this link: The Maze Agency: Detective Fiction In Comic Form (with Adam Hughes) Suffice it for now to say that we have three issues new in, all with Adam Hughes covers, including possibly the most sought after, #13, with Jennifer as Justice Girl.
PICTURED: THE MAZE AGENCY ALL SOLD
#7 VG+ £5
#10 NM £7.50
#13 FN £10