*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Also from the Bute Collection this week, a rare issue of Golfing/McCombs Crown Comics from 1945, an anthology title of adventure, humour and jungle. Two stories drawn by Matt Baker (the master of Good Girl art) are included with Clue Kelly and Voodah. Overstreet refers to the cover as ‘racist’. A very nice copy, with some cover gloss and relatively minor wear. A previous owner’s name is in two places on the cover (handwritten and printed, but not over the cover figures) and a small piece of tape central on the spine reinforces the one staple, which is tight at centrefold. Short 1.5 cm spine split at top. Great quality off-white pages, and a lovely fresh copy, particularly for its age.
PICTURED: CROWN COMICS #3 VG £250

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints Of US Material: Perhaps often overlooked in the annals of UK horror reprints (probably because these weren’t published until the 1960s), it should not be forgotten that Len Miller’s Spellbound reprinted quite a bit of Atlas Pre-Code horror stories (as well as Post Code and pre-hero Marvel Big Panty Monsters, and work from many other publishers as well). A treasure trove of delights await within these (mostly) 68 page volumes, including plenty of work by Kirby and Ditko. 8 issues new in, in nice grades, between #11 and #58. Full details in our catalogue.
PICTURED: SPELLBOUND #57 VF £35

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: This week, two copies of Thriller Comics #1 from 1951. 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 such as Robin Hood, Rob Roy, and so on. One such was the Three Musketeers, who were chosen to lead off the series in this volume. The artists were all accomplished Fleetway professionals, and readers thrived on these beautifully-illustrated pocket adventures. Both copies are low grade, but it’s a delight to have not just one but two copies of this rarity.
PICTURED: THRILLER COMICS
#1 FA/GD £60 Structurally sound but with considerable spine wear, including long splits at top and bottom and the habitual rusty staples, which haven’t bled too badly; interior pages clean and flexible.
#1 FA £50 Taped spine, rusty staples, decent clean pages.

*Comic Strip Books: These paperback editions reprinting vintage famous comic stories are always very popular. Two Batman examples this week: the first features the Joker in five Golden Age stories (small spine splits, small back cover scuff); the second features the Penguin plus a famous Catwoman story (small spine split and cover creases). While not in the best of shape, these vintage paperbacks are perfectly readable and highly collectable. 
PICTURED: BOTH SOLD
BATMAN VS THE JOKER Four Square 1966 1st UK PB GD £10
BATMAN VS THE PENGUIN Four Square 1966 2nd UK PB GD £10

*DC: The classic Silver Age Green Lantern series was always every bit as much a science fiction title as it was a super-hero one, if not more so, as evidenced by these early issues, a run from #5 to #11 (excluding #7), mostly reading copies in very low grade, but including a solid mid-grade copy of the award-winning #8 with its iconic cover. Many character defining concepts are featured here. 
IN THIS UPDATE: GREEN LANTERN
5 GD p £28 1st Hector Hammond.
6 PR p £8.75 1st Tomar-Re; restapled
8 VG p £70 (PICTURED) Iconic greytone cover.
9 FA p £33 2nd Sinestro, 1st cover app. Very worn spine; felt tip pen price on logo.
10 PR p £7.50 Taped spine; bookshop stamps.
11 PR p £4.50 Restapled; no back cover.

*Marvel: The landmark 98th and antepenultimate issue of New Mutants featured the premier of not only everyone’s favourite Merc-With-A-Mouth and blockbuster movie star, Deadpool, but also the very first appearance of the probability-manipulating assassin Domino and, for good measure, Gideon. Since Domino also co-starred in the smash-hit ‘Deadpool 2’ movie, her presence has enhanced the desirability of this already hot collectable issue. Although Deadpool as presented in this issue is very different in tone from his later more popular appearances, this is where it all began, and no modern comic collection is truly complete without this cornerstone. This is a lovely high grade copy, and a rarer newstand variant, flat, tight and glossy with vibrant colour, firm shiny staples and white pages. Being strict graders, we have avoided an even higher grade due to the tiniest suggestions of edge handling wear, but for many people this copy would be NM or even better.
PICTURED: NEW MUTANTS #98 VF/NM £300 Newstand Variant SOLD

*Marvel: Four consecutive Steve Ditko issues of Amazing Spider-Man from the Good Doctor Collection this week. In #21, Spidey and the Human Torch team-up against the Torch’s old foe the Beetle. #22 features a classic cover as Spidey takes on The Clown and His Masters of Menace (formerly the Circus of Crime), including the debut of Princess Python. In #23 there’s a rematch with the Green Goblin and Mysterio lurks in #24. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#21 VG- p £100 Pence stamped. Some handling wear and minor creasing, both colour and non-colour breaking. Slight raggedness to some page edges on the right where the fold of the comic is not quite central and the second half slightly overlaps the first. Bright colours, some gloss, good staples and nice pages. 
#22 VG+ p £105 Pence stamped. Nice glossy copy with strong colour, pages and staples. A few spine ticks barely break colour, but there is a firm 13 cm crease across the top right corner which does break colour.
#23 App GD/VG p £45 Pence stamped. Solid copy with faint subscription crease. Apparent grade due to ad page missing; story complete. SOLD
#24 VG p £100 Pence stamped. Nice copy with gloss and strong colour. Supple off-white pages and tight, firm staples. 2-3 colour breaking creases across bottom right cover corner.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Five issues of Atlas crime from the 1950s this time out, three pre-code dark and gritty issues of Justice, one equally so Men’s Adventures (with sci-fi cover) and a post code Tales Of Justice, continuing the numbering from Justice. Atlas’s high standards throughout.
IN THIS UPDATE:
JUSTICE #25 FN- £34
JUSTICE #44 VG £22.75
JUSTICE #47 VG £22.75
MEN’S ADVENTURES #8 VG+ £45 (PICTURED)
TALES OF JUSTICE #60 GD £11.50

*Horror 1940-1959: Also from the Bute Collection this week, from Ziff-Davis 1952, issue #3 of Weird Thrillers, featuring a gorgeous painted cover by Allen Anderson of mermaid and monster. Interior art is by Dan Barry, George Tuska, Everett Kintsler, Bob Powell and others. Stories involve fantasy, monsters, a lot of supernatural crime happenings, just desserts and death. The cover image is unspoilt, with just an arrival date on the ‘w’ of ‘weird’. The contents are off covers, with the spine being taped. There are small chips out round the edges of the cover and a small corner off the top of the back cover. Cover colours are rich, pages off-white and staples tight at centrefold.
PICTURED: WEIRD THRILLERS #3 GD- £115 Pre-code.

*Alan Class Reprints: From the personal archives of Alan Class, we’re delighted to present another selection of copies certificated by Alan himself. Secrets Of The Unknown was the (joint) first of his publications along with Creepy Worlds. More than a dozen copies between #19 and #184, nearly all in nice shape are available in the certificated section of this category. This selection prominently features many famous characters from different original publishers including plenty of Kirby and Ditko stories. A reminder that you can view some detail of the contents in our Rough Guide to Alan Class Reprints. 

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: This week’s release of Love Story Picture Library, the longest running romance picture library from Fleetway, comprises more than 20 issues from 1969-1972, between #731-983, with some duplicates. The series always maintained a high standard and the very accomplished art reflected the fashions and mood of the times. These new additions are in excellent condition, with little wear or creasing, mostly FN to VF. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: LOVE STORY PICTURE LIBRARY #733 VF £7

*Children’s Books: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Childrens’ Books category and 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 small selection available, including hardcovers with dust jackets or pictorial boards, a paperback and one hardcover first edition. 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. 
PICTURED: ALL BY W E JOHNS
BIGGLES: AIR DETECTIVE Dean & Son 1970s UK HC with Pictorial Boards FN £6 Short stories
BIGGLES AND THE BLACK PERIL Dean & Son circa 1971 UK HC VG/FN £8 With DJ (VG) SOLD
BIGGLES IN THE CRUISE OF THE CONDOR Dean & Son 1970s UK HC with Pictorial Boards FN £6
BIGGLES FLIES AGAIN Dean & Son 1970s UK HC with Pictorial Boards FN £6 Short stories
NO REST FOR BIGGLES Armada 1963 UK PB GD £3 SOLD
BIGGLES AND THE PLOT THAT FAILED Brockhampton Press 1965 1st UK HC FN £125 With DJ (VG)

*DC: One of the most well-received articles posted here during lockdown was the one I wrote on Adam Strange, the interplanetary adventurer, my favourite DC science-fiction hero. So, we’re delighted to present half a dozen of his earliest adventures in Mystery In Space, starting with #54 (his second appearance in title) and running patchily up to #61. The finest examples of this sort of thing ever produced, IMHO, and with the best creators. These are mostly lower graded reading copies, providing excellent budget entertainment.
IN THIS UPDATE: MYSTERY IN SPACE
#54 App VG- £32 (PICTURED) 2nd Adam Strange in title. Restored. Approx 6 x 3 cm corner off bottom right, reconstructed.
#56 FA p £9.25 Spine heavily taped; cover creases and tears.
#58 GD p £17.50 Bookshop stamps.
#59 FA/GD £14.75 Pieces of tape at spine; cover creases
#60 GD- p £15.25 Two pence stamps
#61 GD p £14 Subscription crease; other cover creases

*Marvel: If you’re looking for really nice copies of Amazing Spider-Man for your collection, then look no further than the Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection. All high grade; even the few that fall below VF (and most are above) are really good-looking copies – no duds here, and nearly all cents copies. Two very different females star on the covers of these two issues: #61 features the first cover appearance of Gwen Stacy, as Spidey battles the Kingpin, while #62 features an encounter with the Inhuman Medusa, as snazzily re-designed by John Romita on the cover.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#61 VF+ £175 Brilliant cover colour and high gloss, square corners, firm, tight staples, nice white to off-white pages. Just virtually indiscernible,  and very minor handling wear in bottom right corner prevents a NM.
#62 FN/VF £125 Classic Romita cover. Great colour, square corners, firm, tight staples, nice white to off-white pages. Minor handling wear only.

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week, some of the earliest adventures of the ‘New’ X-Men, following their relaunch in Giant-Size #1 and X-Men #94. In this update, a consecutive run from #96-100, involving Havok, the Sentinels, the New X-Men vs the Old X-Men (?) and the stylish art of the much missed Dave Cockrum (plus a stray reprint issue #90).
IN THIS UPDATE: X-MEN
#90 GD- p £5.25
#96 VG+ p £55 (PICTURED)
#97 VG/FN £45 (PICTURED)
#97 VG+ p £45
#98 VG p £37
#99 VG p £26
#100 VG p £60 (PICTURED)

*IW/Super: I.W. Publications was a short-lived comic book publisher in the late 1950s and early 1960s, named for the company’s owner Israel Waldman. Comics were published under both the IW and Super imprints and were notable for publishing unauthorised Golden Age reprints of other company’s properties. Usually these companies were out of business, but not always. Basically, it seemed to be whatever they could get their hands on that determined the esoteric nature of their output. Thus you get super-heroes, war, romance, western, funny animals, crime, horror, science fiction and just about every genre within their pages — and we’ve got five of ’em this update as detailed below, with info on the originals they reprint. NB usually with newly-drawn covers.
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
FANTASTIC ADVENTURES #17 FN+ £12 Seven Seas Comics #5 Universal 1956; Baker art
JUNGLE ADVENTURES #10 VG £5 Terrors Of The Jungle #4 & 10 Star (partial)
STRANGE MYSTERIES #18 VG- £4.50 Witchcraft #1 Avon; Kubert art
STRANGE PLANETS #10 GD+ £7.25 Space Detective #1 Avon 1951; Wood art
STRANGE PLANETS #11 VG £13 (PICTURED) An Earthman On Venus Avon 1951. Bookshop stamp.

*Marvel UK: In addition to the debut and origin of Brian Braddock and his costumed alter ego by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, 1976’s first two issues of Captain Britain, in the grand tradition of British weekly comics, featured giveaways – a Captain Britain mask with issue #1, and a Captain Britain Boomerang (pardon?) with #2. Our latest copies are both decent with high grade Free Gifts.
PICTURED: CAPTAIN BRITAIN BOTH SOLD
#1 VG WITH FREE GIFT VF £150 Puzzle page not filled in. Decent copy. Many of the pages are married at top right edge, but could be separated by new owner if required. Free Gift mask is perfect with eyeholes not pressed out; original elastic band in place, but looks perished. 
#2 FN WITH FREE GIFT VF £60 Puzzle page not filled in. Solid copy. Free Gift boomerang is perfect and not pressed out of backing sheet. 

*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 and the works of John Brunner. Brunner was a very prolific writer from the late 1950s into the 1990s (he died in 1995) and wrote on many themes in different styles. He started out with conventional space opera, and developed into ‘hard sci-fi’, fantasy and dystopian futures; overpopulation was a subject often re-visited. Our stock is extensive enough to split into two parts – the second features the famous Squares Of The City, another hardback edition and, a particular favourite of mine, The Traveller in Black. among many others. Some of this update’s books are featured here; full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ALL BY JOHN BRUNNER
SQUARES OF THE CITY Ballantine 1965 1st US PB VG £5
THE STONE THAT NEVER CAME DOWN Book Club Edition 1977 UK HC FN in VG/FN DJ £4
TELEPATHIST Penguin 1968 UK PB VG £3
THE TRAVELLER IN BLACK Methuen 1985 UK PB FN £4
THE WHOLE MAN Ballantine 1973 US PB VG £5

*DC: This issue has a double-feature of debuts, of one of Barry Allen’s closest allies and one of his most relentless nemeses. The cover devotes itself to the meteorological shenanigans of the Weather Wizard, making the first of many appearances, but lurking unheralded within is the debut and origin of Wally West, aka Kid Flash, who shared Barry’s adventures (and became an integral part of the Teen Titans) for decades before assuming the mantle of the Flash himself. This early issue of the Silver Age Flash (which relaunched with #105, following the numbering of the Golden Age Flash Comics) is a low grade pence-stamped copy, superficially nice with good colour and an unmarked cover. However, there is a jagged v-shaped tear of approx. 8 cm at the lower spine, with a split from its beginning to the bottom of the spine, thus the front cover is off bottom staple. The spine is worn with a small upper split as well, and there is also edge wear and some chipping at bottom right corner. Top staple is well-attached and both staples are firm at centrefold. Pages are a decent off-white to cream. Despite the faults, this presents quite well. From an original owner collection and new to the marketplace.
PICTURED: FLASH #110 FA/GD p £225

*DC: Two phases towards the end of the run of one of DC’s most venerable titles, Adventure Comics. First up, issues #459-466 (continuous) when it was a 68 page giant title with multiple features including Flash, Green Lantern, the Justice Society, Wonder Woman and others. Includes #462 (FN £30) chronicling the death of the Golden Age Batman. Secondly, issues from #481-485 with the Dial H For Hero revival. Full details as always in our catalogue.

*Marvel: If you’re looking for very low grade single digit issues of Fantastic Four, the Bute Collection’s got ’em this week! #7, with the threat of Kurrgo, Master Of Planet X has a hefty chunk out of the right side of the cover (see scan) and plenty of creasing, wear and staining; still attached at upper staple. Pages are creamy but not too bad. #8, with the debut of the Puppet Master and Alicia, pence printed, has the covers detached and separated, but the cover image is still pretty strong; staples are strong on the body of the book and the pages are a nice off-white to cream; other wear is fairly minimal and cover image is great. #9, with the Sub-Mariner, pence printed, is very worn, grubby and faded, with lots of tears and creasing, including an ugly tear on back cover. Rusty staples, bottom off; spine split halfway from bottom up; some page grubbiness. Great as gap fillers or reading copies, and at least all complete, except where noted.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR ALL SOLD
#7 PR £30
#8 PR/FA p £65 1st Puppet Master & Alicia
#9 PR p £50

 

*Marvel: A complete run of the Savage She-Hulk, the first series for Jen, fresh in this week from the second issue to #25, the final issue. Shulkie is a great favourite of ours here at 30th Century. In her first series, we were presented with competent if somewhat standard Marvel fare of the time, where Jen was little more than a female equivalent of her illustrious cousin and a lot of fans asked: ‘What’s next? Hulk Hound?’ But this series laid the foundation for what was to follow when She-Hulk was developed by John Byrne into a clever and sassy cornerstone of the MU. Full details of all these cents copies in our catalogue.

*Miscellaneous 1960 onwards: From ACG in 1962, a quirky little series that didn’t make it beyond three issues. John Force, Magic Agent seemed like a cross between Nick Fury (he had the eye-patch) and John Constantine (he had the trenchcoat) although of course he pre-dated both. He investigated psychic mysteries for the American Security Group, and the first issue ‘guest-stars’ Hitler and JFK among others. A unique little backwater in comics history, and the only time this has crossed our path!
IN THIS UPDATE: MAGIC AGENT ALL SOLD
#1 GD/VG p £5.75 (PICTURED)
#2 GD/VG p £3.50
#3 FN p £6.75

*Marvel UK: We hop across the Pond for this week’s dose of Spider-Mania, with the very first issue of Spider-Man Comics weekly from 1973, the second series from Marvel UK. The early issues of Amazing Spidey were reprinted in Mighty World Of Marvel, so the reprints in this series start with #9. Spidey’s co-star, the Mighty Thor, starts here from the very first story from Journey Into Mystery #83. This is the nicest copy of this Marvel UK key we’ve ever seen, with no creases, tears or marks; you never see this with white pages, but the slight creamy pages are, we believe, as nice as when the issue was printed.   Carefully read once by the original owner and then stored away for 50 years; sadly he used the Free Gift so this is not present.
PICTURED: SPIDER-MAN WEEKLY #1 VF £80 SOLD

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Crime, Spies & Sleaze category and the thrillers of English author Peter Cheyney, who flourished between 1936 and 1951. Cheyney’s works can be divided into three main series: Lemmy Caution, ersatz American detective mysteries, Slim Callaghan, a British detective based in London, and the Dark series, espionage fiction, with a more realistic approach to casual brutality and general grubbiness, these seem to have foreshadowed much of the Cold War fiction of the mid to late 1960s. All three series will be featured in our Cheyney listings (alongside non-series novels), where our stock is extensive enough to split into two parts. This is the second part, mostly Fontana paperbacks. I’m pleased to say that after the re-listing of the first part a couple of weeks ago, our stock is no longer so extensive! Full details as always in our catalogue.

PICTURED: ALL BY PETER CHEYNEY
I’LL SAY SHE DOES Fontana 1960 UK PB GD/VG £4
LADIES WON’T WAIT Fontana 1954 UK PB GD £4
ONE OF THOSE THINGS Fontana 1953 UK PB GD £4
THE STARS ARE DARK Fontana 1657 UK PB GD £4
THIS MAN IS DANGEROUS Fontana 1954 UK PB GD £6
THE URGENT HANGMAN Fontana 1955 UK PB VG £8
YOU CAN ALWAYS DUCK Fontana 1959 UK PB VG £8
YOU’D BE SURPRISED Pan 1956 UK PB GD £4
YOUR DEAL, MY LOVELY Fontana 1957 1st UK PB VG £5