*Marvel: A nice run of the original series of Conan fresh in this week from #11 to #22 complete. Lots of lovely Barry Smith artwork (by this time he had honed his skills to perfection), a couple of great fill-ins by Gil Kane (#17-18), a two-part crossover with Michael Moorcock’s Elric (#14-15) and a reprint of the first issue in #22. The best sword and sorcery comics ever. As always, see our catalogue for full details. 

*War: In issues #138 to #150 of the long-running Star Spangled War Stories title, DC featured the exploits of Enemy Ace, Hans Von Hammer, the German pilot from World War 1 (later WW2), known as the Hammer of Hell. Due to immense popularity following his debut in Our Army At War #151, he reappeared in that title before being granted his own series in Star Spangled, later appearing many times over the years in the DCU. We have seven nicely-graded consecutive issues of his SSWS run fresh in, all cents copies, with multiple copies of many issues as follows:
IN THIS UPDATE: STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES
140 FN £19.50 Enemy Ace SOLD
141 FN £19.50 Enemy Ace 2 available
142 VG+ £14.75 Enemy Ace
143 FN+ £26 Enemy Ace
143 FN- £18 Enemy Ace
143 VG+ £14.75 Enemy Ace; off lower staple
144 FN £22 Enemy Ace; Adams/Kubert art 2 available
145 FN+ £26 Enemy Ace
146 VF £33 Enemy Ace (PICTURED)
146 VG/FN £12.25 Enemy Ace

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: This Week’s #1 British comics slot is filled by Ranger #1 from 1965, with its original Free Gift included as a bonus. 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 before being subsumed into Look & Learn. The Trigan Empire debuted in #1, here with its Free Gift, the BOAC VC10 Booklet. This is a decent copy of this large format comic, with some spine wear, a minor crease or two and a small tear on the back cover margin. The Booklet Free Gift is a very nice Fine.
PICTURED: RANGER #1 (18/9/65) GD/VG WITH FREE GIFT FN £45 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 works of Joh Dickson Carr. I’m often harping on here about the Queens Of Crime, those indomitable (mostly) British women who dominated the crime/detective genre in the Golden Age Of Detective Fiction, roughly between the wars. Well, there was one male writer active at the time who was their equal, and he was an American to boot, although he lived a significant part of his life in England, where most of his tales were set. John Dickson Carr (who also wrote as Carter Dickson) was the master of the locked room mystery, a setter of seemingly impossible puzzles for his recurring cast of detectives. He also wrote many historical mysteries which are equally engaging. We’re now listing which novel features which detective (if a recurring character), as well as which are historical mysteries. Several new additions in this re-working. Featured are a few of my favourites (both UK and US editions); includes The Hollow Man, which is widely regarded as the best locked room mystery ever written. Lots of other stock listed in our catalogue. 
PICTURED: ALL BY JOHN DICKSON CARR
THE EMPEROR’S SNUFF-BOX VG £5 Berkley 1959 1st US PB
THE HOLLOW MAN GD £8 Penguin 1963 3rd UK PB
THE MAD HATTER MYSTERY VG/FN £12 Penguin 1955 2nd UK PB
THE SLEEPING SPHINX VG/FN £12 Bantam 1952 1st US PB
THE WITCH OF THE LOW-TIDE VG/FN £5 Penguin 1964 1st UK PB

It’s never too early to plan and do your Christmas shopping. Here’s a list of relevant dates for our trading during the festive period (please note that we have had to revise our last posting day before Christmas due to further Royal Mail strike announcements):

Saturday 10th December: Last day for orders for pre-Christmas delivery. You need to place your order no later than 4 pm. Orders placed after this deadline will not be posted until the New Year. This is also the day we shall be issuing our last Newsletter before Christmas.
Revised: Tuesday 13th December: Last posting before Christmas for all orders placed by 4 pm on Saturday 10th and paid for by 4 pm on Monday 12th December.
Saturday 31st December: Newsletter resumes. All orders placed after 4 pm on 10th December (up to 4 pm on 31st) will be filled this weekend and bills issued on 1st January 2023.
Wednesday 4th January: Posting for all paid orders outstanding.

Please note that these posting dates may be subject to change if Royal Mail announce any further strike action over this period.

*DC: In 1985, for the company’s 50th Anniversary, DC released Crisis on Infinite Earths, a 12-part series in which all the multiple parallel Earths of the DCU, long established ever since ‘Flash of Two Worlds’, faced annihilation, in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting alternate realities, and result in a more comprehensible DC Universe. Marv Wolfman and George Perez delivered a truly epic story, sending shockwaves through fandom as veteran characters perished, mostly permanently. (Well, until reality rebooted again, but in fairness that was decades later…) For all its flawed legacy (it was unevenly followed up by other creators, resulting in a ‘streamlined’ DCU that was actually more confusing, and it set the precedent for sprawling cosmic crossovers to become a tedious annual occurrence), COIE was an epochal event in the evolution of comics. Marvel’s Secret Wars may have done it first – but Crisis did it with style, expertise and a genuine air of consequence. In memory of the late, great George Perez. This is being sold only as a complete set of 12, averaging VF, no low grade copies.
PICTURED: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1; COMPLETE SET #1-12 AV. VF £140

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor this week, the Avengers come up against Dr Doom in a memorable encounter set in the Bad Doctor’s land of Latveria. Beneath a dramatic Jack Kirby cover, Heck and Ayers do their dependable story-telling to a Stan Lee script in this excellent outing for Cap’s Kooky Quartet. This pence printed copy is clean, colourful and glossy with tight, firm staples and supple off-white pages. Tiny creases at corners occasionally break colour to a minor degree, but a very lovely example.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #25 FN p £200 SOLD

*Marvel: Three issues that now qualify for the designation of minor keys: Avengers #181, with the first appearance of Scott Lang (before he became the second Ant-Man), Marvel Premiere #55, featuring the first solo outing for Wonder Man, and X-Men #166, with the debut of Lockheed, Kitty Pryde’s endearing little dragon. All three in tip-top shape! 
PICTURED:
AVENGERS #181 VF/NM p £60
MARVEL PREMIERE #55 NM £90
X-MEN #166 VF/NM £35 SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: L B Cole was one of the most famous of Golden/Atomic Age cover artists. He drew in a variety of genres, and was artistic director at Star, illustrating 95% of the company’s covers; his lurid, feverish style, almost hallucinogenic, graced horror, science-fiction, jungle and romance alike. Star took over the venerable title Blue Bolt in 1949 (previously it had been a classic anthology title starring the titular character, with much work by Simon & Kirby, Everett etc, lasting throughout the war years and beyond). By the time we got to the #113, Blue Bolt himself was long gone and the emphasis of the series had changed to horror, according to the zeitgeist of the time. Indeed, the title was rebranded as Ghostly Weird Stories from #120 onwards. Contents here (rather uniquely) comprise four excellent Jay Disbrow originals and a Basil Wolverton reprint from a 1942 Target Comics. But it’s the wonderful L B Cole cover for which this issue is prized, with spectral ghouls surrounding a grave digger. A very respectable mid-grade copy, with edge and corner wear, including a few colour-breaking creases. A solid spine, with just tiny nicks top and bottom, corner blunting and supple creamy pages. Staples are firm if a little rusty with virtually no migration. There are a couple of letters in what looks like wax pencil in the logo and a faint arrival date lower down. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: BLUE BOLT WEIRD TALES #113 VG £500 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 getting towards the end of these now, but still have enough left to last us just into next year. This week’s trio includes two 100 page Marvel issues, which despite the comics being post decimal, appear to be relatively rare in the marketplace. Details follow: ALL SOLD
ASTOUNDING STORIES #85 £110 Comic FN/VF; 100 Pages; Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #78 (inc cover) & #79, ACG,  Charlton. NB cover shows extended image of American original. Extra: Colour cover proof, with small scuffs.
SINISTER TALES #112 £80 Comic FN/VF; 100 Pages; Reprints Daredevil #62 plus cover, ACG, Charlton, Ibis the Invincible. Extra: Colour cover proof, torn and taped
UNCANNY TALES #7 £60 Comic FN; Reprints ACG, Charlton

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: The 1960 launch of Valentine Picture Story Library followed on from the 1957 debuting weekly, where often beautifully illustrated love stories were ‘inspired by’ (read: had an otherwise irrelevant song name as the story title) pop hits. Taking a cue from its weekly parent, VPSL featured longer romantic tales entitled after Top Ten records. We have the first issue in our #1 slot this week, in very nice condition apart from some minor rodent or insect chewing on the back cover corner and bottom edge.
PICTURED: VALENTINE PICTURE STORY LIBRARY #1 GD/VG £30 SOLD

*Childrens’ Books: An unusual Alice new to our shelves this week. This is an abridged version designed for younger readers, in a large format (25 x 32 cm) softcover picture book layout, with each page of text faced with a page of illustrations (artist unknown), all in vivid full colour. It’s a somewhat different-looking Alice in a pink dress, but the other characters look like their traditional depictions. Although undated, we believe this is from 1945. In really nice condition with just a few faults: slight rust to staples; centrefold loose; slight creases top left and bottom right. A prize for a dedicated Alice collector, the large format really showing off the lovely artwork.
PICTURED: ALICE IN WONDERLAND GD/VG £10 Juvenile Productions Undated UK PB

*DC: 25 issues of Batman from 1990-1992 now added to our stock (now more than 30 years old!), with almost every issue available between #451 and #475 in multiple copies and grades with very many NM. A distinctive and consistent period, mostly by Grant & Breyfogle. Included in #457 is the first appearance of Tim Drake as Robin. Please see our catalogue for full details.

*Marvel: There are two great lines in Spider-Man history. The first – ‘with great power there must also come — great responsibility!’ was not original to Stan Lee, but as far as we know the second – ‘Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot!’ is entirely Stan’s own work. Well, we’re not offering you the first this update (fresh out of Amazing Fantasy #15 for now), but we do have the second in the shape of Amazing Spider-man #42, from the Good Doctor Collection. In this issue, the astronaut offspring of J Jonah Jameson gained super-powers and posed a threat to Spider-Man… but let’s be honest, who really cares? Because the Big Deal this time was the revelation, finally, of Mary Jane Watson, the mysterious lady who’d been hovering in the odd panel, her face always obscured, for several previous issues! When Stan Lee and John Romita finally showed us the ‘Full MJ’, it proved to be well worth the wait, with one of the most famous intro lines in the history of comics! This first full appearance of Mary Jane is a low graded cents copy, with a worn spine and edges and with lots of small to medium colour breaking creases, but none of which impinge on the cover image. A small edge nick or two here and there, but reasonably good colour, okay pages and staples firmly in place.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #42 GD £55 SOLD

*Charlton: The second part of our major update to our Charlton stocks, covering the letters from ‘K’ onwards. Lots of new stuff from that most esoteric of publishers. We know there are lots of Charlton fans out there and would commend you to look through our catalogue at all the additions in these titles: Konga (big gorilla with Ditko art), Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds, Outer Space, Out Of This World, Popeye, Reptilicus (big lizard, #1), Sarge Steel (tough guy secret agent), Scotland Yard  (1950s, Inspector Farnsworth, from the personal collection of Alan Class with signed certificate and  proofs), Secret Agent (more Sarge Steel), Space Adventures (both series, with Ditko art, inc #55, from the personal collection of Alan Class with signed certificate and  cover proof), Space War, Speed Buggy (Hanna-Barbera #1), Strange Suspense Stories (inc #75 reprinting Captain Atom origin and early stories by Ditko), Teenage Hotrodders (exactly what it sounds like!), Thunderbolt (Peter Cannon) and Top Eliminator (more Hotrodders). Surely something for every taste!
PICTURED:
SCOTLAND YARD #4 FN/VF £35 SOLD
STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES #75 FN/VF £40
       

*War: DC Silver Age war comics always maintained a consistent standard with its distinctive cast of recurring regulars headed up by Sgt Rock. Three issues each of All-American Men Of War and Our Army At War new in this week.
IN THIS UPDATE:
ALL AMERICAN MEN OF WAR
#99 GD p £4.75 Johnny Cloud; off lower staple
#112 VG p £8.75 1st Balloon Buster
#114 VG £8.25
OUR ARMY AT WAR
#153 VG £33 2nd Enemy Ace
#155 GD/VG p £15.50 3rd Enemy Ace
#164 VG+ p £25 Eighty Page Giant: Sgt Rock’s 6 Battle Stars: Rock & Easy Co, Gunner & Sarge with Pooch, Lt Jeb Stuart of the Haunted Tank, Johnny Cloud, Mlle Marie, Frogman. SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: 14 issues of the long-lived Boys’ weekly Tiger, all from 1965 (June to December), when it was branded Tiger & Hurricane, having recently absorbed the latter.  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 1965, Roy, Johnny Cougar and Skid Solo rubbed shoulders with such adventure strips as Typhoon Tracy, Olac the Gladiator, Sgt Rock, Jet Ace Logan, Mick the Wonder Police Dog, the Jailbird Commandos and more. Most issues average VG/FN grade; full details in our catalogue. ALL 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 and Sleaze category, with authors alphabetically from June Bryony to Victor Canning. June Bryony’s Enchanted Love 32 page booklet from the 1940s has an evocative cover illustration by Oliver Brabbins; there are two editions of John Buchan’s famous Thirty-Nine Steps from 1964 and 1968; 3 Day Pass To Kill by Burke and Grace is a tough murder mystery set in Berlin and is new in; and Victor Canning provides A Delivery Of Furies, a fast-paced crime adventure thriller.
PICTURED:
ENCHANTED LOVE by JUNE BRYONY GD/VG £7 Hamilton Late 1940s 1st UK PB
THE THIRY-NINE STEPS by JOHN BUCHAN GD £4 Pan 1964 15th UK PB SOLD
3 DAY PASS TO KILL by J  W BURKE & EDWARD GRACE VG £7 Berkley 1955 1st US PB
A DELIVERY OF FURIES by VICTOR CANNING VG/FN £5 Mayflower 1969 1st UK PB

*DC: Back in the heady Silver Age days, just about the only way you could get to read the older stories of DC’s premier characters was in the 80 Page Giant Annuals they released for each series once per year. Then, in 1964, buoyed by the success of these annuals, DC turned the 80 Page Giant idea into a regular series of rotating characters, thus enabling us to catch up with a much bigger selection of these early stories than hitherto. After 15 issues, they broadened the concept again to include the Giants in the regular numbering of the series concerned. So this week we present most issues from that 15 issue run known as 80 Page Giant, including #1 (which would have been Superman Annual #9), #5, Batman’s 25th Anniversary special, #9, reprinting ‘Flash Of Two Worlds’, and many others. See our catalogue for full details.
PICTURED: 80 PAGE GIANT
#1 VG £55
#9 FN+ £50

*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. In Amazing Spider-Man #21, our hero comes up against the Human Torch’s old foe the Beetle for the first time, with the Torch himself involved for good measure (Johnny Storm’s path crossed frequently with the wall-crawler’s back in those days). This is a clean and flat cents copy with a glossy cover, vivid colour and great reflectivity, square corners and virtually no wear. Supple pages are off-white to cream, staples are firm and tight at spine and centrefold. Just a tiny bit of wear along the top of the masthead, and miniscule chipping at lower edge; there is also a small arrival date in pen above the ‘the’ in the logo.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #21 VF £485

*Marvel: Also from the Good Doctor Collection this week, every issue of the Incredible Hulk from #122-130. There’s a lot going on in these nine issues. Hulk/Thing battles are always keenly sought, and here’s another classic encounter in #122. Popular villain the Rhino appears in #124, and #126 features the first appearance of Barbara Norris, who was soon to become Valkyrie. The Avengers pop up in #128. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: HULK #122 FN/VF p £85 Pence printed, glossy with pure white background and great cover colour. Square corners, nice white to off-white supple pages and strong staples. There is a small dink at the top of the spine and one or two spine stress marks; none of these break colour.

*Charlton: A large and much overdue update to our Charlton stocks. Lots of new stuff from that most esoteric of publishers. We know there are lots of Charlton fans out there and would commend you to look through our catalogue at all the additions in these titles: Blondie, Blue Beetle (both Ditko and pre-Ditko), Captain Atom (Ditko), Charlton Premiere (with Children of Doom), Crime And Justice (1950s), Danger & Adventure (also 1950s, copies from the personal collection of Alan Class with signed certificates and cover proofs), Doomsday +1, E-Man, Gorgo, Hercules (from #1), Hot Rod Racers and Hot Rods & Racing Cars (a cult niche in their own right!), House Of Yang (from #1), the Jetsons, Johnny Dynamite, Judomaster and Jungle Jim (with Ditko/Wood art). Stay tuned for the rest of the alphabet in Part 2, coming soon!   

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Quality’s National Comics was where the symbolic character Uncle Sam made his debut (in #1) and by issue #39 in 1944, he was kicking Hitler’s butt on the iconic cover to this Bute Collection gem. National Comics was an anthology title featuring, in addition to Uncle Sam, several now obscure super-heroes such as G2, the Unknown and Quicksilver (no, not the one you think), and less super characters such as Policewoman Sally O’Neill and Chic Carter, police reporter. You certainly got a lot of reading in the big 56 pages. This reasonable copy has a clear and unmarred cover scene with a rich purple background. Relatively minor edge wear with some minor chipping to the right edge. There is a slight spine roll. Pages are supple and a very decent off-white. It was printed with only one central staple; this is off at the front cover with a staple-sized hole where it has come loose; it is, however, firmly attached at the back cover. A lovely, very rare item with a significant cover and charming interiors.
PICTURED: NATIONAL COMICS #39 GD/VG £450 SOLD

*Western: Gathering together a handful of nice old Westerns that have arrived in recent collections, we present a mixed bag of goodies from the 1950s/60s.
IN THIS UPDATE:
BOBBY BENSON’S B-BAR-B RIDERS #13 GD+ £39 Frazetta cover; includes Ghost Rider.
COWBOY WESTERN #67 VG- £12.75 Wild Bill Hickok & Jingles; Giant
ROCKY LANE WESTERN #79 VG £16.25 Giant
SIX-GUN HEROES ALL SOLD
#15 VG- £16
#17 FN/VF £34
#61 VG p £4.75

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A further and final (for now) set of additions to Top Spot for 1959. Top Spot, starting in 1958, was an unusual and not altogether successful attempt to link something like a traditional boys’ comic (albeit with more adult storylines) with the world of glamour, sport and showbiz (a la Tit-Bits or Reveille). Thus photos and articles on glamour stars would sit alongside quality picture strip stories of crime, sport, western and action. Despite being a publication of some quality, the experiment failed and the comic was merged with Film Fun after a year and a bit. From 1959, a further 13 issues from #24 up, including those where the numbering was dropped and they were just dated. There is one undated and unnumbered issue which fits somewhere between 20/6 and 22/8; usually this was due to a strike and we suspect there were no other issues in that range. All in decent shape, a bit of foxing, a spot of rust on staple, but nice pages. Earlier issues had glamour girl covers, later picture strip ones.
PICTURED: TOP SPOT 29/8/59 VG £8