*Pulp Fiction: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we commence the only category where this process has not already started: Pulp Fiction, featuring the classic pulp magazines of the 20th Century, so-called for their paper quality. Just two entries to start: Amazing Stories from 1950 (new in), the classic science fiction pulp title, and American Eagles 1949, derring-do among plucky aviators.
PICTURED:
AMAZING STORIES 1950 FEBRUARY VG £15 SOLD
AMERICAN EAGLES 1949 WINTER VG £7 UK Edition SOLD

*DC: The Bute Collection brings back fond memories for me this week with the Batman Annual #2 from 1961, one of the earliest Batman comics I must have read growing up. Batman & Robin’s ‘Thrilling Action Roles’ particularly resonate for me, be it the ‘Underseas Batman,’ ‘Jungle Batman’, ‘Lord of Batmanor’ ‘Super-Batman’ or any one of these wonderful stories reprinted from the 40s/50s. Best of all perhaps is the 1962 Batman calendar pin-up at the centre, and the Batman Family portrait on the back cover. A splendid package, and one we don’t see too often. This copy is not in the best of shape; pence-stamped, the front cover has bene reinforced with extra staples – otherwise it would be split for most of its length. The spine, other than that, is quite good, just small splits at rear top and bottom. Colour cover is very vivid; there is a handwritten biro price on the ‘N’ on ‘Batman’ in the logo. Pages are cream/tan, with one or two rough edges, but nothing brittle. Great reading value.
PICTURED: BATMAN ANNUAL #2 GD- p £40 SOLD

*DC: Sadly, when editor Julius Schwartz left his two DC science-fiction titles in 1964 to concentrate on Batman, they were never the same again. He took his star creators with him, and those brought in to replace them by new editor Jack Schiff were simply not of the same standard. True, Space Ranger, who shared the title with Adam Strange from #92-102 was not really different to when he had been edited by Schiff over in Tales Of The Unexpected, but the Adam Strange strip lost all its ingenuity and wonderful art. Competent enough tales, and the split book approach between the two heroes was novel, but the series limped along like this for 11 issues before Ultra the Multi-Alien took over. By that time, the writing was on the wall for Mystery In Space… For those wishing to investigate this backwater of the DCU, we have all 11 issues of this sequence fresh in in a variety of grades; full details as always in our catalogue.   

*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. A wonderful Lee & Ditko two-parter this week in Amazing #26 & #27, where Spidey comes up against the Crime-Master (an old foe in a new guise) and, of course, his primary nemesis of the time, the Green Goblin. I can remember buying #27 in a newsagent’s as it came out, my first issue of Amazing. Ditko’s hoodlums on the cover were dressed in such an old-fashioned way, I remember wondering if this was set contemporaneously or historically. Ah, balmy days!
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#26 VF- £350 Great cover colour and gloss, unmarked. Staples tight and firm at spine and centrefold. Square corners, supple off-white pages. Very minimal wear, just very slight chipping to lower cover right edge and miniscule and infrequent spine ticks that are barely noticeable.
#27 VF- £325 Great cover colour and gloss, unmarked. Staples tight and firm at spine and centrefold. Supple off-white pages.  Square corners, except bottom left which has a little rounding. Very minimal wear, just a few tiny spine ticks.

*Marvel: Also from the Good Doctor Collection this week: From the mid-1960s and the thrilling era of the Marvel ‘split book’, where two lead features shared a title, we present every issue of Tales To Astonish from #71 to #89 starring Sub-Mariner and the Incredible Hulk. There was always something fast-paced and exciting about these 10-12 page continued stories and these two Marvel favourites were at their best during this period. Mostly in very respectable mid-grades (sometimes higher), full details will as always be found in our catalogue.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Four issues of Quality’s National Comics from the Bute Collection this week, one of the most esoteric anthologies of the period. Cover featuring circus sideshow man the Barker and his weird chums, other regulars included policewoman Sally O’Neill in stylish crime noir adventures, more crime with the masked Whistler, costumed hero Quicksilver (no, not the one you’re thinking of), humour with Granny Gumshoe, the elderly detective, Steve Wood, waterfront detective, mischievous toddler Lassie and lots of other comedy strips. All four copies fresh in are in very decent condition for their age, solid copies with little wear or creasing. 
IN THIS UPDATE: NATIONAL COMICS
#54 VG £35
#69 FN £37 (PICTURED) Gill Fox cover
#72 FN £37
#74 GD/VG £19 Penultimate issue; structurally the same as the others, but graded down due to a stacking ink defect on the cover.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Although being the birthplace of Don Lawrence’s rightly celebrated Trigan Empire, the large format Ranger had a lot of other things going for it as well: nice paper quality, glorious painted covers and lots of other beautifully executed strips such as H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines & Allan Quartermain, Treasure Island , Space Cadet and many other stories of war, western, science fiction and historical adventure in a mix of colour and black and white. It had a short life of 40 issues before being subsumed into Look & Learn, but we have all issues fresh in from #2-40 from its 1965/66 run. Plus we have knocked about a third off of our Ranger prices. Consult our catalogue for details, where the reduced prices are now shown.
PICTURED: RANGER 25/9/65 VG £10 2nd issue SOLD

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: This week’s release of Love Story Library (later Love Story Picture Library), the longest running romance picture library from Fleetway, comprises 17 issues in the 400’s number range from 1963/64. 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 decent condition, with little wear or creasing in most cases, the grades mainly determined by the amount of staple rust.  Full details as always in our catalogue.

*Comic Strip Books: Two 1978 paperbacks new in this week, reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #7-13 and Hulk #1-6 in full colour. A great way to enjoy these classic stories at a fraction of the price available in other reprints!
PICTURED: BOTH SOLD
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOLUME 2 by STAN LEE Pocket Books 1978 1st US PB GD/VG £9
Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #7-13 in full colour. Spine cracked; some edge wear.
INCREDIBLE HULK by STAN LEE Pocket Books 1978 1st US PB GD £9
Reprints Hulk #1-6 in full colour. Lots of cover creasing, but glossy and intact.

*DC: Although DC missed a trick by not including him on the cover, let me assure you that Green Lantern’s arch nemesis, Sinestro, does indeed make his first appearance within Green Lantern #7 (1961). Steeped in Green Lantern lore, the lead story introduced the renegade Green Lantern who would go on the plague the Emerald Gladiator throughout his career. This is a nice flat pence printed copy with strong colour and supple off-white to cream pages. The cover is off at bottom staple, but firmly attached at top, with both staples tight at centrefold. There is some edge wear, but nothing bad, with some thin colour-breaking creasing just in the very bottom right corner. There’s a tiny tear at the top of the spine, and a 1.5 cm one at the bottom. Tiny red ink mark centre right cover. A clean copy that presents well from an original owner collection new to the market.
PICTURED: GREEN LANTERN #7 GD/VG p £350 SOLD

*Marvel: A superb offering from the Good Doctor Collection this week with Amazing Spider-Man #8. In this special ‘Tribute To Teenagers’ issue, your friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler tackles the Human Torch, the Living Brain and Flash Thomspon (poor Peter just wasn’t getting along with anyone that month!) Single digit Spideys need very careful consideration these days for budgetary purposes, but this nice copy offers a cheaper option than most in its grade. Pence printed, with very strong colours and totally unmarked cover. A small number of spine ticks just break colour, but only very faintly. Corners are fairly sharp, staples are tight and firm at spine and centrefold. Supple pages are off-white (perhaps just a hint of cream). This will look very nice in your Spidey collection. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8 FN- p £500 SOLD

*Marvel: From the Bute Collection this week, and from 1963, the first Fantastic Four Annual. We don’t see this one turn up too often, so are delighted to have a fresh copy new in. In the lead story, the Sub-Mariner and Atlantis invade New York in a 37 page epic. There’s also an expansion of the FF’s first meeting with Spidey and a reprint of their origin from their first issue, plus a rogues’ gallery and other features. A decent pence printed copy with spine and edge wear, a long colour-breaking reading crease at spine, a tiny chip out top right corner by Comics Code box, a colour-breaking crease of about 2 cm across bottom right corner, and one or two short colour breaking horizontal creases at spine. Staples are virtually okay if a little rusty; final page is coming loose from bottom staple. Faint pencil/narrow crayon line vertical across Namor’s bofy. The spine is intact except for the top 1.75 cm, where it is split; it looks like a patch has been placed just over the top spine area (not on the front or back cover), so we have considered this may be amateur restoration and given this an ‘Apparent’ grade. A reasonably attractive copy of this relative rarity.  
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #1 App VG- p £175

*Horror 1940-1959: There were two Pre-Code Horror series that bore the name ‘Beware’; it’s the first from Youthful in 1952 that concerns us here. Truth be told, this first series ran to only three issues (#10-12), previously being named Fantastic and from #13 on, changing its name to Chilling Tales. Beware #12, from the Bute Collection, has four accomplished tales of horror beneath a striking man- fights-off-monster grabbing-chick cover. Body snatchers, evil children, monsters, rats and zombies all await you within. A vivid yellow background with strong colours on this vibrant, unmarked cover. Minor corner blunting, but very little wear – just a miniscule corner off cover bottom right. One small tear with no loss right edge of cover (about 1.5 cm) with similar on one internal page. Pictured below. As is evident in the scans, the comic is slightly mis-cut (not trimmed) and not quite square; this is fairly common in comics of this age from some companies.  High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: BEWARE #12 VG/FN £500 Pre-Code. SOLD

*Annuals: Four UK versions of Batman annuals published in the 1960s available this week, all in fairly low grade, but with bumper reading value! All feature classic Batman strips and John Jones, Manhunter from Mars or other contemporary DC features in black and white.
IN THIS UPDATE: BATMAN ANNUAL ALL SOLD
1959/60 FA £25 (PICTURED) Joker story and debut of Ace the Bat-Hound. Cover fixed on by brown tape. Edge wear with some scuff marks.
1960/61 PR £8 No spine. Front cover detached. Lots of edge wear and significant tape and scuff marks.
1962/63 FA/GD £12 Small bits of spine missing. Small tape and scuff marks. Fair bit of wear.
1967 GD £10 Spine present but a little scuffed. Corner and minor edge wear; small markings on cover.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Famous later, following a name change to Cowboy Picture Library, this title started out in 1950 as Cowboy Comics, originally published by Amalgamated until Fleetway took over. It lasted a very respectable 468 issues until 1962. We have almost all issues between #11-50 freshly available this week, when the title alternated between Buck Jones & Kit Carson (although I did notice Tim Holt in #20). A surprising number of cowgirls featured on many of the covers, as well as totem poles (go figure). Low grade but rarely seen, these all have taped spines with varying degrees of rust stain at the staple and migration to match, but are all complete. Grades are FA to FA/GD; prices £7-8.
PICTURED: COWBOY COMICS #11 FA £7

*DC: “What?” you youngsters incredulously cry. “There was a Suicide Squad without Harley Quinn in it?” Oh yes, ye of little faith. Travel back with us to the early days of Brave & Bold, wherein a team of non-costumed specialists – astronomer Hugh Evans, physicist Jess Bright, medic and intermittent psychic Karin Grace, and manly leading man Rick Flag Jr. – tackled meteor storms, dinosaurs, giant lizards, giant monsters – actually, mostly just freakishly big critters – in exotic locales. Written by Barking Bob Kanigher, the stories were short on logic but heavy on the pulse-pounding action, sleekly illustrated by the team of Andru & Esposito, and are fondly remembered today – particularly since Flag and Grace popped up in significant roles in later incarnations of the Squad. Four of the six original Suicide Squad adventures fresh in from the Bute Collection this week, missions 3-6 from Brave & Bold #27 & #37-39.
IN THIS UPDATE: BRAVE & BOLD
#27 GD/VG p £48 (PICTURED) Solid copy with good colour, pages and staples. Tiny splits at either end of spine. A few tiny creases in bottom right cover corner break colour.
#37 GD p £17.75 Lots of small tears and creases at spine and edge wear elsewhere; bookshop stamps. SOLD
#38 VG+ p £35 Solid copy with just minor edge and spine wear.
#39 FA/GD £11.75 Rusty staples. Off top staple. Great cover image. Wear along top edge.

*Marvel: Key issues don’t come much more key these days than Iron Man #55, wherein the cosmic arch-villain Thanos, nemesis of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, made his first appearance, the brainchild of fan favourite writer/artist Jim Starlin. Thanos has of course gone on to plague Marvel’s heroes in comics and movies ever since, but here is where it all started. This landmark issue also features the debuts of Drax the Destroyer, Mentor, Eros (later Starfox of the Avengers) and Kronos. This pence printed copy is rather nice, with brilliant colours and gloss, firmly attached staples, and supple white to off-white pages. Printed very slightly askew, with the base of the spine showing a slightly wider white edge than the top. It would grade significantly higher were it not for a faint coin-sized stain at the right edge between the logo and a Blood Brother’s head. Fortunately, this does not really detract from the cover image. There are also a couple of tiny biro letters in the price box below the ‘6p’.
PICTURED: IRON MAN #55 VG/FN p £365 SOLD

*Marvel: Lots of Hulk from the Good Doctor Collection this week, most issues between #141 and #176. As well as numerous encounters with foes old and new, there are significant first appearances here. #141 has the first Doc Samson, #142 the first Samantha Parrington iteration of the Valkyrie, and #168 the first Harpy. Turn your fellow collectors green with envy as you stock up on your Hulk goodies.
PICTURED: HULK 
#141 VG+ p £42
#142 VF+ p £90

*DC: In the wake of the Justice League/Justice Society crossovers, interest was revived in the 1940s heroes of the JSA, and one of several tryouts was the Spectre, a literal ghost who wandered the Earth, battling evil with mighty supernatural abilities. Brought back for a solo tryout in Showcase #60, by the superb team of Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, the Ghostly Guardian’s powers were elevated to almost godlike levels, to the point where the writer must have strained to come up with credible opposition for him – but the epic clashes between mystical and demonic forces pioneered ‘cosmic’ themes in comics. Two more Showcase issues followed (#64 here) before the Spectre launched his own series shortly afterwards.
IN THIS UPDATE:
SHOWCASE #60 PR/FA p £27 Re-stapled, long spine split and long back cover tear. Cover image okay, but not a nice copy. 
SHOWCASE #64 VG p £35 (PICTURED) Decent copy with spine and edge wear, short colour-breaking vertical crease bottom third cover centre.
SPECTRE #1 GD- p £20 Worn spine with small tear at top (slight loss); biro prices (small) on cover. 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 throughout 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’re approaching the very end of these sets now, with just a few more to be listed. Three new sets this week as follows: ALL SOLD
CREEPY WORLDS #111 £90 Comic FN; Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #61 plus cover, Atlas, Charlton, 1 Jaguar
SUSPENSE #117 £100 Comic FN+; 100 Pages; Reprints Avengers #75 (inc cover) & #76, ACG,  Charlton. Extra: Colour cover proof, with small tear taped.
UNCANNY TALES #76 £60 Comic GD (contents detached from covers);  Reprints Daredevil #54 plus cover, Atlas, Charlton SF. Extra: Colour cover proof.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Not just #1, but in fact the first six issues of this celebrated  Picture Library series from Fleetway this week, dating from 1963. Subjects ranged from war to western to historical adventure. All in pretty nice shape.
IN THIS UPDATE: VALIANT PICTURE LIBRARY ALL SOLD
#1 VG £20 (PICTURED)
#2 GD/VG £8
#3 FN £20
#4 FN £10
#5 FN £10
#6 VG/FN £9

*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 re-listings for authors from Banister-Blaylock. All three branches of this category are represented, from relatively obscure pulp era and later science fiction authors such as Manly Banister, Ben Barzman, Barrington Bayley and Eando Binder, through to more famous authors such as Lloyd Biggle Jr (including a new-in Nebula Awards anthology edited by him) and Michael Bishop with his tour de force time travel novel No Enemy But Time, then on to horror from Charles Beaumont with an uncommon collection of stories (The Edge) and fantasy from Peter S Beagle (The Last Unicorn) and James Blaylock. There’s even a genre hybrid: the excellent A Scent Of New-Mown Hay from the wonderful John Blackburn which combines science fiction and horror; highly recommended. Several are pictured here. Full details as always are given in our catalogue.
PICTURED:
ECHO X by BEN BARZMAN Paperback Library 1964 2nd US PB GD £3
THE LAST UNICORN by PETER S BEAGLE Pan Ballantine 1971 1st UK PB FA/GD £15
THE EDGE by CHARLES BEAUMONT Panther 1966 1st UK PB GD/VG £15
NEBULA AWARD STORIES 7 by LLOYD BIGGLE JR (Ed) Panther 1974 1st UK PB VG £10 (NEW IN)
MENACE OF THE SAUCERS by EANDO BINDER Belmont 1969 1st US PB FN £8
NO ENEMY BUT TIME by MICHAEL BISHOP Sphere 1983 3rd UK PB VF £5
A SCENT OF NEW-MOWN HAY by JOHN BLACKBURN New English Library 1968 1st UK PB VG £7

Our January Blues Half Price sale is now concluded. Thanks to all of you who made it such a tremendous success with your unrestrained ordering!

*DC: Two particularly ropey (but relatively cheap) copies of the debuts of Flash villains from early Silver Age issues: the Trickster in #113 and Captain Boomerang in #117. Both would go on to long and infamous careers in the DCU. These are hardly copies that would look great in your collection, but for those on a budget or wanting just to fill gaps, these’ll do the job!
PICTURED: FLASH
#113 PR/FA p £60 Neatly taped spine. Lots of bookshop stamps all over the cover; the original pence stamp has been inked over. Cover has creases with wear to edges, but pages are okay. Complete.
#117 PR p £30 Very clumsily taped spine; tape coming loose and attached to part of image, cover almost detached and very worn with tears and creases and a corner off bottom right (see scan). Pages aren’t awful and comic is complete, except that back cover is missing.

*Marvel: Leading from the Good Doctor Collection this week, we have the first cameo and full appearances of Ultron. In 1968, Ultron was introduced as the secret leader of the Masters of Evil. At first seemingly, ‘just another robot’, he became one of the Avengers’ greatest enemies, particularly when his poignant connection to Hank Pym, Goliath, was revealed, and his menace has metastasised into other media, most notably the ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ film of recent years. We have Avengers #54, in which Ultron made his first fleeting appearance, and #55, in which his full villainy was unleashed, new in for your enjoyment in lovely condition. 
PICTURED: AVENGERS
#54 VF £135 Glossy cover with vivid colour. Staples tight and firm at spine and centrefold, supple white to off-white pages. Virtually no wear; a couple of minor stress marks to spine do not break colour. Tiny crease of less than 0.5 cm across very edge of top right cover corner, almost too small to see. .
#55 VF+ £175 Glossy cover with vivid colour and bright white background. Staples tight and firm at spine and centrefold, supple white to off-white pages. Just the tiniest corner rounding to bottom spine and bottom right corner; no other wear.