*Marvel: One of Marvel’s most enduring mavericks, Hawkeye has been a hero and a villain, and has frequently ended up doing good things for bad reasons – or vice-versa – but his roguish charm and eye for the ladies have earned him generations of fans no matter which side of the moral fence he’s jumped over to. He made his debut as a villain here in Tales Of Suspense #57, lured over to the dark side by slinky Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, and became a half-hearted antagonist of Iron Man for a few issues before reforming and becoming one the Avengers’ most long-serving members and a cornerstone of both the Marvel Universe and the MCU. This nice cents copy is approaching mid-grade, with an unmarked cover with good colour and decent white background. Corners are a little blunted and there is minor wear at spine and edges. There are a couple of faint creases, barely breaking colour except gently at the spine and across the very edge of bottom right (Hawkeye’s foot). Staples are firm at spine and centrefold and the pages are a supple off-white. The most significant defect is a small piece of tape centre inner front cover sealing a 1 cm vertical tear which can barely be seen from the front.
PICTURED: TALES OF SUSPENSE #57 VG- £300

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week: 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 to Venom, who eclipsed most longer-established villains to become Spidey’s crucial nemesis for ensuing decades, and eventually the star of his own hit film franchise – without Spidey! Although the first appearance of the symbiote in internal continuity was Secret Wars #8, its debut in real time was this very issue. An outstanding copy with great colour and gloss, flat and tight with white pages. Only a small spine tick at lower spine prevents a NM grade. Also in this update: issues #253-256. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #252 VF/NM £165 SOLD
ALSO IN THIS UPDATE:
#253 NM- £36
#254 VF/NM £34
#255 FN £6
#256 VF/NM £28

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Crack Comics from Quality was an anthology title of the type prevalent at the time, with a mixture of genre content, including Captain Triumph, Molly (not Millie) the Model and many others. This copy has a subscription crease, slight spine roll, 3.5 cm lower spine split. Firm staples. Wear and tear at spine and right edge. Decent off-white to cream pages. 
PICTURED: CRACK COMICS #42 GD £75

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: In the early 1950s, a small number of horror comics (around 40) were produced by a variety of UK publishers reprinting US pre-code horror stories in black and white. Just as in the USA, these became notorious and subject to censorship which led to their discontinuation. There’s a lot of information online about the banning of UK horror comics if you want to know more, and I particularly recommend a youtube video by Canadian Dave Dustin on the subject (see the Links page in our Extras section for more information). These UK horror comics have become both extremely rare and much sought after in recent years, and we’re delighted to have a complete five issue run of Arnold’s Frankenstein from 1953/54 available, reprinting Dick Brifer’s Frankensterin stories from American publishers Prize plus other material (since these were thicker than the Prize originals).
PICTURED: FRANKENSTEIN
#1 GD/VG £220 Reprints Prize Frankenstein plus Airboy. Cover creases, edge and spine wear, but nothing horrible. Spine nearly intact, some deterioration at bottom.
#2 FA/GD £55 Reprints Prize Frankenstein plus Airboy, Atlas Astonishing. Spine taped, but otherwise okay; edge wear with minor chipping to right edge.
#3 GD £60 Reprints Prize Frankenstein plus Airboy, Atlas Astonishing. Upper spine split 4 cm, some chipping and small tears at right cover edge. Small chips out back cover. Some cover creases.
#4 VG/FN £155 Reprints Prize Frankenstein plus Airboy, Atlas Mystic & Young Men. Solid copy with intact spine. Glossy colour cover. Just minor edge and spine wear.
#5 VG+ £140 Reprints Prize Frankenstein plus Airboy, Atlas Astonishing & War Comics, EC Crime Suspenstories. Bright copy with small holes at spine and just minor edge and spine wear.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: 12 issues of the long-lived Boys’ weekly Tiger, all tabloid-sized from the less common year of 1958, fresh in this week, including one duplicate #205. Throughout its history, Tiger (original home to Roy of the Rovers) always had strong sporting associations and indeed in later decades, virtually became a comic of sport-related strips, but here in 1958, Roy and other sporting stars rubbed shoulders with war and adventure strips. This selection runs between #198 and #220 (June to November). A mix of grades between Poor and Good/Very Good; see our catalogue for details, including specific faults on some issues.

We’ve added a new link on the Links page of our Extras section. Dave Dustin is a Canadian comics historian with a great expertise in the history of rare comics, which he has documented in a series of youtube videos. For those interested in the British Comics of the 1950s that reprinted American pre-code horror comics, and the campaign against them, we particularly recommend his video on that topic. You’ll find the link to Dave’s youtube channel here, used with his permission.

*DC: If there are better comics than the six Silver Age Hawkman try-outs in Brave & Bold, I’ve yet to find them (although issues #1-21 of the following Hawkman series are just as great). With ingenious stories by Gardner Fox and superlative moody artwork by Joe Kubert, these are really unsurpassed. Spectacular covers, none better than #44 with its greytone imagery. These lowish graded copies are a very affordable treat.
IN THIS UPDATE: BRAVE & BOLD
#35 FA p £15.50 2nd Hawkman. Cover creases, bottom 2/3 spine split. SOLD
#42 GD- p £13.50 Small spine split top, long split bottom. SOLD
#43 FA/GD p £12.75 Restapled at top staple.SOLD
#44 VG+ p £35 (PICTURED) Greytone cover.

*Marvel: From the Bute Collection this week: Crossovers of one character into another’s series have become such a staple of the Marvel Universe that it’s hard to recall a time when they were a novelty – but there was such a time, and we have a copy of the first example, in Fantastic Four #12, where the Hulk clashed with the FF for the first time! Contemporary with Amazing Spider-Man #1 (in which the FF also made a brief appearance), this is the first full-on Marvel crossover. Fantastic Four #12 is an unusually rare issue; this is a thin, worn pence printed copy; cover colours are okay but a little dulled. There are quite a few creases, particularly near the spine, with some breaking colour, but not generally too heavily. Staples are reasonable, if placed (as printed, we believe) a little in from the true spine. Page quality is cream/light tan, and the pages are tired, with a couple of small tears at page edges without loss. So, not a great copy but complete and not an issue we see turning up very often.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #12 GD- p £400

*EC: We’re very pleased to have another original EC from the Bute Collection this week. Vault of Horror #28 features a cover by Johnny Craig, the stories within are drawn by Craig, Jack Davis, George Evans and Graham Ingels, thus maintaining EC’s high standards. A reasonable copy with unmarked cover, firm, tight staples and creamy pages with just a suspicion of margin foxing. Minor edge wear with creasing at bottom right extremity and tiny chips out centre top edge and top spine. Some corner blunting and a long piece of tape attached along the right edge of the back cover. Presents pretty well.
PICTURED: VAULT OF HORROR #28 GD+ £150 SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: Also from the Bute Collection this week, another helping of Atlas pre-code horror in the shape of Adventures Into Terror. From 1954, two of the last few issues of this uncommon title. #27 has art by Gene Colan, Ben Benulis, Jim Mooney, Paul Reinman and others. #29 has a great vampire cover by Joe Maneely, with art inside by Gene Colan, Werner Roth, Myron Fass and others. 
PICTURED: ADVENTURES INTO TERROR
#27 FA £45 Pre-code. 5 cm tear from spine horizontal across cover below logo with small area of loss at tear start. Spine split from top to below top staple; cover off top staple. Small chips out lower spine. Cover image okay; good pages. Wear along top edge. SOLD
#29 GD+ £125 Pre-code. Edge and spine wear with small creases that break colour. Front cover off top staple. Cover image okay. Small chips out edge back cover with what looks like rodent or insect damage (small).

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: This title started out in 1950 as Cowboy Comics, originally published by Amalgamated until Fleetway took over and the name changed to Cowboy Picture Library. It lasted a very respectable 468 issues until 1962. We have almost all issues between #51-100 freshly available this week plus a few post #100, when the feature was still mostly alternating between Buck Jones & Kit Carson (although the Cisco Kid also snuck in). Low to mid-grade but rarely seen, one or two have taped or torn spines with varying degrees of rust stain at the staple and migration to match, but are all complete. Grades are FA to GD/VG.
PICTURED: COWBOY COMICS #65 GD £8

*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 James Hadley Chase. Chase was one of several pen names used by René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, a highly successful author, writing more than 90 novels as Chase, and with more than 50 made into films, it’s no wonder he was dubbed the king of thriller writers in Europe. He started out in 1939 with No Orchids For Miss Blandish, an American gangster thriller of the type so popular in the UK during the 40s and 50s. After a lot of success in the sub-genre, Chase became a more mainstream crime/thriller writer. In our selections this week, we have half a dozen of his novels, five paperbacks and one hardcover, with cover illustrations by John Pollack, a name frequently seen on 1940s/1950s British gangster pulp fiction digests, although most of these are particularly hard to come by these days; he was a local artist (like the more (in)famous Reginald Heade) and lived in Clapham, South West London. Pollack’s women were gorgeous and glamorous and his men were chiselled tough guys. A nice uniform look therefore to these Robert Hale/Thriller Book Club editions, which make a very appealing selection.
PICTURED: All by JAMES HADLEY CHASE
HIT & RUN Robert Hale 1959 1st UK PB VG £8 (also available in GD £6)
NOT SAFE TO BE FREE Robert Hale 1959 1st UK PB VG £8
SAFER DEAD Robert Hale 1956 UK PB GD/VG £6
YOU FIND HIM – I’LL FIX HIM Robert Hale 1959 UK PB GD £5
YOU’VE GOT IT COMING Thriller Book Club 1955? UK HC VG £10 With DJ (VG)

*Clearance Corner: Very occasionally, a lot comes our way which does not justify its place in our catalogue but is too good to discard. These lots are offered here on our What’s New page, but are no longer listed in our catalogue. Lots listed under Clearance Corner will be available for a short time only.  Clearance Corner lots are offered post free to UK buyers only. They are not bagged or boarded.
This lot consists of five Golden Age American comics, either missing their covers or ‘returned’ copies where the top part of the cover has been removed. In all cases, story pages are complete. They are: 
Thrilling Comics #51 1945
My Intimate Affair #2 1950
My Story (unidentified issue) circa 1949
Ha-Ha #71 1950
Gabby Hayes Western #17 1950
PRICE: £30 SOLD

*DC: An assortment of popular DC Silver Age titles this week as follows:
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
BLACKHAWK #136 VG £16.25
BLACKHAWK #138 FA £4.50
CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN #18 FA p £4.75
SEA DEVILS #7 VG- p £12.75
SEA DEVILS #23 FN p £13.25
SECRET SIX #3 VG/FN P £7.50

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week: As the premier series of the Marvel Universe, the Fantastic Four did seem to spend a lot of time incubating the stars of tomorrow, as their guests frequently spun off into their own titles. One of the most popular ‘break-out’ stars was the Silver Surfer, and in issue #50 the former Norrin Radd, having been introduced two issues previously as the minion of the planet-devouring Galactus, breaks away from his master and defends the threatened planet Earth. Cosmic menace, epic grandeur and college hi-jinks, as the Human Torch commences his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it struggle with higher education. The latter subplot introduces Johnny’s fellow student, Wyatt Wingfoot, soon a staunch ally of the FF. (As well as She-Hulk’s favourite squeeze-toy, but that was a couple of decades later…). This defining issue for the Surfer is a reasonable lower grade cents copy, with a reading crease that breaks colour towards the spine and several spidery creases at the spine itself. There is some edge wear, with a couple of small nicks along the right side. Staples are secure and page quality is a nice off-white. In the lower half of the right cover, between the Surfer’s knee and the Johnny Storm inset panel, there are a number of faint impressions that look like someone was drawing pencil lines on paper and using the comic to rest on, but these are quite difficult to spot. 
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #50 GD/VG £175

*Marvel: Sometimes classed as Mutants, sometimes not, there’s no doubting that Cloak and Dagger have left their mark on the Marvel Universe, both as guest stars and in a variety of series of their own title, as well as their own TV series and frequent guest appearances in the MCU. The dark/light duo first appeared here in Spectacular Spider-Man, and their mantra was a war on drugs. This is a nice high grade copy, tight, flat and glossy, good staples, supple white to off-white pages. A few short spine ticks do not break colour. There is a faint vestige of a soft crease across 3 cm of the bottom right cover corner, but this does not break colour and can barely be seen.
PICTURED: SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #64 VF £50

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: CORRECTION! An obscure bunch of characters in this anthology title from Bell in this Canadian original from 1946. This was the first issue, not to be confused with the Slam-Bang published by Fawcett in 1940 with a different cover and content. Blue Raven, the Brain, Polka-Dot Pirate, Nitro and many others. Covers detached from contents, with tears and splits at spine. Small amounts of margin foxing/mottling on some pages. Staples firm at centrefold. Back cover torn and stained.
PICTURED: SLAM-BANG COMICS #7 FA+ £100 SOLD

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: In the early 1950s, a small number of horror comics (around 40) were produced by a variety of UK publishers reprinting US pre-code horror stories in black and white. Just as in the USA, these became notorious and subject to censorship which led to their discontinuation. There’s a lot of information online about the banning of UK horror comics if you want to know more, and I particularly recommend a youtube video by Canadian Dave Dustin on the subject. These UK horror comics have become both extremely rare and much sought after in recent years, and we’re delighted to have one new in this week. This is from the obscure Scottish publisher Cartoon Art Productions, titled Spellbound Magazine, although it’s a thick normal comic-sized issue. There’s no issue number, although recently the existence of a #2 has come to light, so this can truly be called #1. Beneath what is believed to be an original British painted cover, the contents comprise stories from Ghost Rider #11, Nightmare #12, Monster #1 and Ghost #8. Not in the best of shape, the cover is held on by tape, with the spine split and shredded, although the cover image is intact, marred by a ‘9d’ pen price on the ghost figure, multiple long creases which break colour and heavy edge wear. Some of the pages have ink bleed through, but all remain perfectly readable. You’ll probably wait a long time before you see another. 
PICTURED: SPELLBOUND MAGAZINE NN (#1) FA £75 SOLD

*Humour Comics: The first series of Knockout comics started in 1939 and ran until 1963. In different stages it focused on humour and/or adventure, and we have listed the title in our Humour category for consistency. Three war-time issues freshly added to our inventory, featuring Billy Bunter, Treasure Island and Sexton Blake, among loads of other strips and text stories.
IN THIS UPDATE:
KNOCKOUT 1944
276 FA £6
1945
335 FA/GD £7
338 GD £8

*TV/Film Tie-Ins: Normally, we only place books in this category where they spin-off from a film or TV show rather than the other way round, but these two Batman gems are obviously so heavily derived from the iconic Batman TV show and film from 1966-1968 that we felt they belonged here. Batman Vs The Fearsome Foursome from 1967 is the novelization of the Batman ’66 film (yes, you know, the one with the shark repellant Bat-Spray), and Batman Vs The 3 Villains of Doom (Joker, Penguin and Catwoman), came a year earlier in the same format by the same author, Winston Lyon. Both have wonderful photo covers and both are UK 1sts.
PICTURED: by WINSTON LYON BOTH SOLD
BATMAN VS THE FEARSOME FOURSOME Four Square 1967 1st UK PB VG £35
Lovely glossy copy with vibrant colour cover. small tear top of spine and a couple of minor cover creases
BATMAN VS 3 VILLAINS OF DOOM Four Square 1966 1st UK PB VG £12
Inspired by the classic 1960s TV series. Nice copy with small creases and small spine tear.

*DC: Six excellent issues of Strange Adventures, DC’s longest running science fiction series of the Golden, Silver & Bronze Ages. Between #120 & #134; three recurring features alternate in the spotlight each issue: Star Hawkins, Interplanetary Detective and his robot secretary Ilda, Space Museum, with tales of exhibits and Atomic Knights, post-apocalyptic adventures of Earth’s last armoured defenders. Take it from me, all wonderful stuff backed up by lovely little stories from DC’s best creators. All three features will be found in these low grade issues, plus the 1st Faceless Creature, who occasionally recurred too.
IN THIS UPDATE: STRANGE ADVENTURES ALL SOLD
#120 PR p £4.50 2nd Atomic Knights. Taped spine, cover scuffs, book shop stamps, small corner off top left cover, creases and graffiti.
#121 PR p £2.50 Taped spine, heavy roll, book shop stamps.
#123 FA p £5.50 3rd Atomic Knights. Covers detached.
#124 GD- p £10.25 1st Faceless Creature. Book shop stamp.
#130 GD/VG p £12.25 (PICTURED)
#134 GD p £8.25

*Marvel: From the Bute Collection this week, we’re delighted to bring you the first complete Inhumans saga from Fantastic Four #44-47. Hitherto, only Medusa had appeared (as part of the Frightful Four), but in #44 we learned that she was one of a hidden race, and the second member of the Inhuman Royal Family, Gorgon, turned up to play the heavy. He was swiftly followed by the rest of the family in #45: Crystal, Karnak, Triton, Lockjaw and in a last page cameo Black Bolt, who got his full debut in #46. #47 featured the debut of Black Bolt’s nasty brother Maximus. The Inhumans have intrigued and enchanted us for decades as a very established part of the Marvel Universe, and their debut story in these four issues is something rather special. (As a sidebar, the cover of #45, with its deep purple background, close-ups of our heroes and the lurking threat of the mysterious Inhumans above is a strong contender for my favourite FF cover).
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR
#44 VG p £50 A Marvel Pop Art Production. Pence printed, solid, clean copy with nice off-white to white pages and tight firm staples. A couple of minor spine ticks and some edge wear, particularly due to abrasion along the right side of bottom cover edge.
#45 VG+ p £155 A Marvel Pop Art Production. Pence printed, solid, clean copy with nice off-white to white pages and tight firm staples. Minor edge wear, with a couple of very small colour-breaking creases across the bottom right corner
#46 VG £140 Solid copy with nice off-white pages and tight firm staples. Soft diagonal crease extends from Black Bolt’s left bicep to cover edge, faintly breaking colour. Minor edge wear with slight grubbiness to bottom edge.
#47 FN- £65 Solid clean copy with nice off-white pages and tight firm staples. Square corners, only minor edge wear.

*Marvel: No matter that Hulk #182 features the debut of the villainous duo Hammer & Anvil and the debut (and death!) of Crackerjack Jackson, it’s the first page for which this issue is prized, with the exit of Wolverine following his cameo and full debut in #180 and #181. ND in the UK, this is of course a cents copy, with a nice glossy cover with rich colours, firm, tight staples and supple off-white pages. Tiny bits of edge wear, one or two pressure marks at the spine and a miniscule scuff mark below the comics code box. A nice-looking copy.
PICTURED: HULK #182 FN £130 SOLD

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: A small update to this popular category. Two low grade issues of Planet of the Apes (#19 & #20) from Marvel, four issues of Castle of Frankenstein, the famous monster mag from the early 1960s (starting with #2), and Major’s Web Of Horror #3 with the first published cover by Berni Wrightson. The last two will be found in the ‘Other Publishers’ sub-category of this file, where full details of all may be found.

*Alan Class Reprints: For many years now, we’ve been scouring the personal archives of legendary publisher Alan Class 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. 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’re approaching the very end of these sets now, with just a few more to be listed. Three new sets this week as follows:
CREEPY WORLDS #3 £100 Comic FA/GD  (Spine and first few pages split 2/3 down; otherwise decent condition); Reprints Atlas. A very early Alan Class comic. SOLD
CREEPY WORLDS #123 £150
Comic GD Reprints Avengers #71 plus cover (1st Invaders), Charlton, ACG
SUSPENSE  #103 £90 Comic FN; Reprints  Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #12 inc cover (Barry Smith art), Charlton, inc 1 Ditko. Extra: Colour cover proof, taped and stained. SOLD