*Horror 1940-1959: From the Bute Collection, three pre-code issues of the venerable title Journey Into Mystery from 1953/54. Details below:
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY
#13 VG £230 Pre-Code. Cover by Carl Burgos. Art by Burgos, George Roussos, John Forte, Myron Fass and others. Reasonable copy with unblemished cover scene. Good staples, nice off-white to cream pages. Minimal edge and spine wear (some chipping to right edge back cover). Small spine ticks, slight reading crease between staples faintly breaks colour, crease at very top right corner cover with tiny loss at extreme.  
#15 GD+ £150 Pre-Code. Cover by Sol Brodsky. Art by Paul Reinman and others. Okay copy with reasonably unblemished cover scene with great image. Good staples, nice off-white to cream pages. 3 cm upper spine split. Some handling wear with minor creasing that breaks colour, particularly along the top edge and logo area. Small spine ticks and minor creasing along right edge and bottom right corner. SOLD
#17 VG+ £275 Pre-Code. Cover by Sol Brodsky. Art by Sid Check, Robert Q Sale and others. Nice copy with some gloss. Tight, firm staples and nice off-white to white pages. Very little edge wear, lies flat. Spine ticks are almost imperceptible. A very presentable copy.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Humbug was a short-lived title in the late 1950s in the same satirical parody vein as Mad, with many of the same creators at work. Founded by Harvey Kurzmann, #3 of the series on offer here features art by Bill Elder, Jack Davis and Al Jaffee. Graded 5.5 (FN-) by CGC, this copy is blue label (unrestored), off-white to white pages, case perfect. The cover features a (small) photo of Marilyn Monroe.
PICTURED: HUMBUG #3 CGC 5.5 FN- £40 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: War Picture Library was the earliest and longest-running of the classic war-themed picture libraries. Published by Amalgamated Press/Fleetway, this first issue, Fight Back To Dunkirk, was published in 1958, and the title continued for 2103 issues until 1984. Our latest copy of #1 is a decent copy with unblemished cover image and nice pages. The single staple has the inevitable rust stains, but migration to the pages isn’t too bad. There is a tiny jagged chip out at top right cover (see scan).
PICTURED: WAR PICTURE LIBRARY #1 VG £75 SOLD

*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 first features among others the award-winning Jagged Orbit and a later hardcover first A Maze of Stars signed by the author, as well as a mix of other novels and short story collections. Some of this update’s books are featured here; full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ALL BY JOHN BRUNNER
THE DREAMING EARTH Pyramid 1963 1st US PB GD/VG £4
THE JAGGED ORBIT Ace 1972 2nd US PB GD/VG £4
A MAZE OF STARS Del Rey 1991 1st US HC FN in VG DJ £30 Signed by author
NOW THEN Mayflower 1965 UK PB VG £5
OUT OF MY MIND Four Square 1968 1st UK PB VG £3

*DC: The villainous Star Sapphire was originally a foe of the Golden Age Flash, but as with so many Golden Age DC characters, was reinvented for the Silver Age. This time she was a nemesis of Green Lantern and her alter ego was Hal’s love interest (and boss) Carol Ferris. Carol was brainwashed into the role by the Zamarons, a race of warrior women out to prove men inferior (‘well, we all know that’ – Dr Evilla). The Star Sapphire concept has been much broadened by DC over the years, but never bettered, in my opinion, than these original appearances in the classic Silver Age Green Lantern series, particularly as depicted by Gil Kane. Star Sapphire debuted in #16; this pence stamped copy is reasonable with bright colours and nice clean off-white pages. The cover is off at the bottom staple and centrefold; top staple is good. Some edge wear and corner blunting, and some faint creasing over the logo, just breaking colour. The main defect which brings the grade down is that the price in the pence stamp has been covered in felt-tip pen, which has also been used to create a price in a penny-sized circle to the right of the logo.
PICTURED: GREEN LANTERN #16 GD- p £90

*Marvel: Occasionally, we will feature an item in this What’s Old slot if we think it’s been overlooked or if, as in this case, prices have fallen from a peak and we’ve re-priced it. Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four added to its many innovations in 1966’s FF #52, when they introduced the first black super-hero in comics. Previously, the vanishingly rare heroic black characters in comics had been either embarrassing sidekicks or ‘noble savages’, but the Black Panther was the monarch of a highly sophisticated and technologically advanced African nation, Wakanda, and was to become not only one of the FF’s greatest allies, but a mainstay of their fellow heroes, the Avengers. This copy is CGC 5.0, unrestored blue label, a pence printed copy, off-white to white pages and a totally undamaged case.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #52 CGC 5.0 VG/FN p £550 SOLD

*Marvel: Following his debut in the previous issue, Dr. Strange returned for his second outing in Strange Tales #111, where for the first time he came up against his arch nemesis-is, Baron Mordo. In just five pages, Lee & Ditko manage to create an eerie tale of atmospheric mystic adventure. There’s something unique and beautiful about these little back-ups. The lead Human Torch story is a standard tale with a villain, the Asbestos Man, who didn’t exactly go on to find infamy in the MU; we didn’t know about the deadly effects of asbestos back then, though. A low grade copy from the Good Doctor collection, with fairly severe right edge chipping, a small corner off bottom right, small spine splits top and bottom and wear and tear around the edges. Good tight staples though and reasonable page quality, with some blunting.   
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #111 FA+ £100 SOLD

*Marvel: Thor took over Journey Into Mystery with #83, and some years later, the title was re-named Thor from issue #126. We have the first seven issues from that point fresh in this week, mostly in low grade. The Thor series hit the ground running with a Hercules clash leading to adventures with the Greek pantheon, before heading out into space with the Colonizers and the debut of Ego, the Living Planet.
IN THIS UPDATE: THOR
#126 GD p £55 (PICTURED) 1st issue of series. Long colour-breaking creases across cover. Good staples, slightly at the back of centre, so that the very left edge of the cover is at the back. Decent off-white to cream pages.
#127 FA p £4.25 Book shop stamps SOLD
#128 GD p £8.25 SOLD
#130 GD/VG p £13.50 SOLD
#131 GD/VG p £10
#132 VG- p £20 1st cameo Ego, the Living Planet. Price sticker over pence stamp.
#133 GD+ p £32 1st full Ego, the Living Planet. Small chip out splash page.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: A real gem from the Bute Collection this week. From 1943, Four Favorites #11 published by Ace. An iconic cover featuring an animated war bond smashing Hitler and Mussolini in the chops as they stumble back over Hirohito while our titular heroes look on. That’ll be Magno & Davey, Lightning, the Unknown Soldier and Captain Courageous. Four long stories in a packed interior of very accomplished art: Magno & Davey is by L B Cole, Lightning and Lightning Girl by George Gregg, Unknown Soldier by Harvey Kurtzmann and Captain Courageous by L B Cole. The Axis forces didn’t stand a chance! We’ve graded this copy as an Apparent GD, i.e. it has some restoration. Mostly small horizontal tears at the spine have been glued, and the spine has been reinforced and rebuilt at the central staple, which is now firm. There is a 3 cm upper spine split and some flat colour-breaking creases around the cover edges. Nice clean creamy pages and strong colour cover. The price takes the restoration/repair into account. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: FOUR FAVORITES #11 App GD £600 

 

*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. We’re approaching the very end of these sets now, with just a few more to be listed. 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.) Three new sets this week as follows:
CREEPY WORLDS #125 £90 Comic GD/VG; Reprints Avengers #72 plus cover, ACG. 100 Pages SOLD   
SINISTER TALES #3 £100 Comic FN; Reprints Atlas, pre-hero Marvel, 2 Kirby, 1 Ditko, 1 Frazetta-esque Torres. A very early Alan Class comic. SOLD
UNCANNY TALES #78 £75 Comic VG;  Reprints  Daredevil #56 inc cover, Charlton, Atlas. Extra: Colour cover proof SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Just a small top-up to this category this week, with Combat (#203 & #231), Commando (#1545), Cowboy (#288), Football (#200) and Top Three (#13). Full details in our catalogue.

*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 with Ace Doubles and more. We’ve decided to list Ace Doubles at the beginning of our page, since they fit there alphabetically and collectors like to home in on them. Authors featured will also be cross-referenced in the listing. Ace Doubles are flip books and we’ll be featuring both covers per volume. Two listed to start with (one new in), and we’re also featuring this week The Long Way Home by Poul Anderson (new in) and The Alien Ones by Leo Brett, a Badger book.
PICTURED:
ACE DOUBLE: JOHN BRUNNER: ENIGMA FROM TANTALUS / THE REPAIRMEN OF CYCLOPS
Ace 1965 1st US PB GD £2.50
ACE DOUBLE: KENNETH BULMER – THE HNUTERS OF JUNDAGAI / JOHN GLASBY – PROECT JOVE
Ace 1971 1st US PB VG £3

*DC: “The Enchantress? Isn’t she a Marvel character?” we hear you say. Well, yes & no. Amora, the Enchantress who is Thor’s most beloved enemy, is certainly the most famous bearer of that name, but DC hit back with a short-lived super-heroine in 1966, who went on to better things after fifteen years in Limbo. In Strange Adventures #187, we met June Moone, freelance artist who stumbles into the wrong corridor at a costume party being held in a castle, and gets changed into a mystically-empowered heroine charged to fight crime (as you do). Making only two further appearances in SA #191 and #200, DC’s Enchantress was forgotten until she was revived as a villain in Superman Family #204, the years of exposure to dark magic having corrupted her. Following several other guest appearances, she became a regular in the first series of Suicide Squad, transitioning to the Big Screen as the Big Bad in the Suicide Squad movie of 2016. It was a long strange journey to stardom for Ms. Moone, but it all started here, in this very respectable copy, pence stamped, tight, well-attached staples, nice off-white pages, slight corner blunting and minor spine and right edge wear. Nice bright colours.
PICTURED: STRANGE ADVENTURES #187 VG+ p £70  SOLD

*DC: The 1980s was an exciting time for DC, with Swamp Thing, the Legion of Super-Heroes and the New Teen Titans all on creative highs. We present four launch issues from that illustrious decade, all series which went on to achieve a measure of success.
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
ALL-STAR SQUADRON #1 VF £15 The JSA reborn
HUNTRESS #1 VF £15 A new version of the popular character
OMEGA MEN #1 VF+ £15 Interstellar super-heroic adventure
SUPERGIRL, DARING NEW ADVENTURES OF #1 VF £17.50 Classic heroine; includes Masters of the Universe preview

*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. Spider-Man tangles with the Lizard in a two-parter in issues #76 & #77, guest starring the Human Torch. In #78 & #79, we meet the Prowler for the first time, the young streetwise would-be hero/villain who would go on to have a regular place in the Marvel Universe. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#76 VF+ £135 Flat and tight with great colour and just very minor handling wear. Great staples and nice off-white to white pages. SOLD
#77 VF- £85 Glossy and bright. Great staples and nice off-white to white pages. Deep black background cover; just short creasing in top right corner, barely breaking colour.  SOLD 
#78 VF- £195 1st Prowler. Brilliant gloss and bright colour cover. Just very minor spine and handling wear; a lovely copy. Great staples and nice off-white to white pages.
#79 FN/VF £80 Solid copy with great colour and gloss. Great staples and nice off-white to white pages. A couple of spine ticks which break colour lead to very short creases that don’t.

*Marvel: Also from the Good Doctor Collection this week, a consecutive run of Tales Of Suspense from #81-93, starring Iron Man and Captain America. An excellent period for the title, with Stan Lee at the writing helm and Gene Colan, Jack Kirby and others on art duties. Full details as always in our catalogue.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Two comics here with absolutely nothing in common except that they belong in this category. Dizzy Don from 1946 is a Canadian original and, despite being numbered #21 is the first issue. The titular character is an amateur radio detective and his stories (including the adventures of his cousin Silly Soozie) are full of crime, comedy and even science fiction. The more familiar Jumbo Comics from Fiction House (#151 1951) stars jungle queen Sheena, Hawk the pirate, Ghost Gallery and more beneath a vibrant Maurice Whitman cover.
PICTURED:
DIZZY DON #21 GD+ £35 Heavy spine roll. Small split bottom spine. Decent pages. 
JUMBO COMICS #151 VG £40 Wear around staples, but attached. Average edge wear, but no other marks or creases and decent pages. 

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: Something rather special this week. We occasionally get issues of L Miller’s Mystic through our hands, but we’ve never had this one before, attesting to its rarity. Issue #40 reprints the first appearance of Groot, darling of the Guardians of the Galaxy, from Tales To Astonish #13, as well as the rest of that issue plus stories from Journey Into Unknown Worlds #22 (Mystic was far thicker than a standard Marvel or Atlas comic). To boot, this copy is encapsulated by CGC and graded as a 5.0 (VG/FN). Unrestored blue label, off-white pages, case perfect. Irritatingly, CGC call this Tales To Asonish #13, with a footnote that it’s actually Mystic #40, which is fortunately rather obvious from the cover. Groot, by the way, says rather more in his cover speech balloon than I believe he has uttered in his MCU career. Not cheap, but have you seen the prices on Tales To Astonish #13 recently?  (NB any glare on the image is from our camera – the comic is NOT faded)
PICTURED: MYSTIC #40 CGC 5.0 VG/FN £750 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Secret Agent, Football and Historical Adventure in three #1 picture library issues this week: 
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
ACTION SERIES (Gold Token) #1 GD £8 Secret Agent X-9 (pages coming loose)
TIGER SPORTS LIBRARY #1 FA/GD £10
TV PICTURE STORIES William Tell #1 GD £8 The Assassins

*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 several works by Ray Bradbury, that most lyrical and poetic of American authors, equally at home with science fiction, fantasy, horror and whimsy, which often all merged into one in his writing. Wonderful novels and short stories which both captured the times in which he wrote, yet also seem eternal. Highly recommended. Full details of all our Bradbury stock in our catalogue.
PICTURED: ALL BY RAY BRADBURY
DANDELION WINE Corgi 1975 UK PB VG £5
FAHRENHEIT 451 Panther 1982 UK PB VG/FN £6
THE ILLUSTRATED MAN Corgi 1960 UK PB GD £10
THE MACHINERIES OF JOY Panther 1977 7th UK PB VF £3.50
THE OCTOBER COUNTRY Ace 1961 1st UK PB GD/VG £18
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES Corgi 1969 UK PB GD £5

*DC: Beneath a charming Jack Burnley cover await stories of Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, Zatara & others. Squarebound.with intact spine (a slight lean); tiny tear at spine bottom just in from spine itself. Lovely clean white background cover with no marks, tears or significant creases. Last four pages (part of Batman story) are loose and a little ragged, but all present. Nice off-white to cream pages.
PICTURED: WORLD’S FINEST #22 GD/VG £160 SOLD

*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.