*TV/Film Tie-Ins: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we turn to the earliest by alphabet in our TV/Film Tie-Ins category, where the TV show or film pre-dated the book. Included here are the first 1990 novel (a taut political thriller of a dystopian Britain starring Edward Woodward), the novelisation of Alien, a tale of the Angels from Captain Scarlet, the uncommon first ever Avengers novel from 1963 with Steed and Cathy Gale, and three novels from the New Avengers series. See our catalogue for the full selection.
PICTURED: ALL SOLD
1990 by WILFRED GREATOREX VG £10 1977 2nd UK PB
ALIEN by ALAN DEAN FOSTER VG £3 1979 1st UK PB (2nd printing) Movie stills at centre
ANGELS: THE CREEPING ENEMY by JOHN THEYDON VG/FN £30 1968 1st UK PB
THE AVENGERS by DOUGLAS ENEFER VG £40 1963 1st UK PB (2nd printing) 1st Avengers book; uncommon
THE NEW AVENGERS: THE EAGLE’S NEST by JOHN CARTER FN £7 1976 1st UK PB

*DC: Two landmark issues of Adventure Comics before the Legion of Super-Heroes began its regular feature with #300. In #282, Superboy encounters Star Boy, who was introduced as having all of Superboy’s powers and the newest member of the Legion. Obviously, the editors forgot about him for quite a while after the Legion feature was launched, because it was quite a while before he appeared again with a hasty explanation that his powers had worn off, just leaving him with his ability to make things super-heavy (evidently the Legion already had enough members with Superboy’s powers). In #293, we were treated to the debut of the Legion of Super-Pets, including the very first appearance of Comet the Super-Horse, joining Krypto, Streaky and Beppo. I’ll let you in on a little secret: this was the very first story featuring the Legion I ever read, when it was originally published in 1962. 
PICTURED: ADVENTURE COMICS
#282 VG- £59 With slight reading crease at spine and faint central subscription crease. Tiny chipping at right edge, very small upper spine split. Some gloss, off-white to cream pages, firm staples.
#293 VF+ £300 A superb copy, with brilliant unmarked cover with great colour and gloss. Square corners, supple white to off-white pages, firm, tight staples at spine and centrefold. Virtually no wear. SOLD

*Marvel: Leading our Good Doctor releases this week: The Black Knight has a long and distinguished history at Marvel. Originally, a heroic knight at the court of King Arthur in the Atlas series of the 1950s, the name was revived in the Silver Age, first as the villainous foe of Giant-Man, and later as the new Black Knight (Dane Whitman) in the Avengers and elsewhere in the Marvel Universe (both US & UK). Avengers #47 features the first appearance of Dane Whitman, with him becoming the Black Knight in #48.
PICTURED: AVENGERS
#47 VF £235 Bright and glossy, lovely off-white to white supple pages and excellent staples. The only wear is a couple of short creases which don’t break colour near the spine, created from reading. A beautifully fresh copy.
#48 FN/VF p £275 Pence stamped. Colourful and glossy, with slightly blunted corners. Lovely off-white to white supple pages and excellent staples. It’s one of those copies which is printed slightly off centre so that a very small piece of the cover image is shown along the spine edge of the back cover. Tiny creases at bottom right cover do not break colour.

*Marvel: When the Ant-Man name was unclaimed in the late 1970s, a brainier-than-average sneak-thief, Scott Lang, stole Hank Pym’s old apparatus and became the second bearer of that title! But it’s okay – he did bad things for good reasons, specifically to find a cure for his dying daughter, as was revealed in Marvel Premiere #47 and #48, the two-part tale which (after a non-costumed cameo in Avengers #181) was Scott’s first full appearance. John Byrne and David Michelinie created this different take on the hero, and since then, Scott has had his ups and downs – been in jail a few times, been dead a few more, been a love-slave of the Purple Man (No, really. Google it. Better yet, don’t) – but he’s fought his way back to respectability, and has achieved cinematic stardom in two eponymous movie hits, plus pivotal roles in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’. This double-dip debut for our loveable scientist scofflaw consists of nice high-grade copies.
PICTURED: MARVEL PREMIERE
#47 VF/NM p £150 Pence printed. Tight, flat, shiny, great staples, white pages, just an absolute minimum of handling wear.
#48 VF+ p £35 Pence printed. Tight, flat, shiny, great staples, white pages, just an absolute minimum of handling wear. A tiny bit askew in the printing with white spine towards the bottom. SOLD

*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. This week, we jump to the final 40 issues of the original series of Amazing Spider-Man, from #401-441 (mysteriously missing just #434). Lots going on here as you might imagine: Maximum Clonage, crossovers with other Spidey titles, the female Dr Octopus, Onslaught, Carnage (inc cosmic Carnage in #430-431), Black Tarantula, Free Gift issues and a whole load more. Hundreds of earlier issues from this collection still to come!
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #430 NM £50

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: From the Bute Collection this week, four Issues of Quality’s mammoth (60 page) anthology title Feature Comics. Starring Doll Man as the cover and lead feature, there was a plethora of additional adventure and humour strips such as Rusty Ryan, Lala Palooza, Mickey Finn, Swing Sisson and a host of others.
IN THIS UPDATE: FEATURE COMICS
#86 GD/VG £25 SOLD
#88 VG £30 Loose centrefold
#89 FN+ £55 (PICTURED) SOLD
#90 GD/VG £25

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: Six lovely visions of the future reprinted from US originals this week, many with original British covers. We have Planet Stories #4 & #9 (reprinting stories from Planet Comics), Red Comet #9 (ditto), the very rare Spaceman Comics from Cartoon Art Productions (unnumbered, also reprinting Planet), Space Travellers #1 (reprinting the famous Twin Earths strip) and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet #7 (reprinting the US comic of the same name). 
IN THIS UPDATE:
PLANET STORIES #4 FN £20 (PICTURED)
PLANET STORIES #9 FA/GD £10 Small corner off top spine
RED COMET #9 VG/FN £18 (PICTURED)
SPACEMAN COMICS NN GD £30 (PICTURED) SOLD
SPACE TRAVELLERS #1 FA/GD £8 Taped cover tear SOLD
TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET #7 VG/FN £10

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A chunky selection of Micron’s Combat Picture Library in the above range both pre and post decimal, fresh into stock this week, including many issues beyond those we already had listed. Grades are very mixed, from low to high. As always, please consult our catalogue for full details.

*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, and the detective novels of Carter Brown. Alan Geoffrey Yates was a British born Australian who wrote under that pseudonym between 1954 and 1984. He was extremely prolific in this and other genres, turning out over 300 novels in his career. His work was hard-boiled in the style of Raymond Chandler, without the plot complexity, but with an entertaining sense of humour and laconic noir feel. The novels were written in the first person in the guise of one of several detective protagonists he used, examples being Lt Al Wheeler, tough cop, Rick Holman, Hollywood trouble-shooter to the stars and Mavis Seidlitz, whose IQ was lower than her bust size (allegedly). (We have detailed which detective features in which novel in our listings). Originally published in Australia (but all set in America, because “his readers preferred it”), Brown became internationally famous when they were published in first the USA and then the UK. The earlier American Signets were cover-illustrated by Barye Phillips and the later ones by Robert McGinnis, two highly talented artists who captured the spirit of the books beautifully. Most scenes featured sexy women, but inside the sex was always suggested rather than explicit. The cover art for the Passionate (see below) was used for the cover of Glamour International 25 (see our Book Art Books entry this week). A few highlights from our extensive stock are shown here, including two books new in.
PICTURED: All by Carter Brown
THE DESIRED VG £8 1960 1st US PB (NEW IN)
THE GIRL FROM OUTER SPACE VG £8 1966 1st UK PB SOLD
THE LADY IS AVAILABLE VG £5 1960s 3rd US PB
LAMENT FOR A LOUSY LOVER GD £6 1960 1st US PB
THE PASSIONATE VG £8 1959 1st US PB (NEW IN)

*DC: Lots of issues of both series of Swamp Thing & Saga of, with a comprehensive listing for the first run of the muck monster (commenced by Bernie Wrightson) and a smattering of Alan Moore’s stories from the second series, including the classic cover on #34, and Moore’s final issue, #64. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: SWAMP THING #7 FN p £43 SOLD

*Marvel: A landmark from the Good Doctor Collection. Strange Tales #110, already the showcase title for the Fantastic Four’s junior member, the Human Torch, presented a mystery back-up strip starring a supernatural champion named Doctor Strange. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, already the creators of hugely popular twist-ending tales in a plethora of Big Panty Monster comics, turned their talents to an eldritch hero, and Doctor Strange was born! Essentially a retread of Marvel’s previous Dr. Droom character, where this Doctor had the advantage was in Steve Ditko’s powerful and gripping artwork, quite unlike anything else in the field, which catapulted the good Doctor from an interesting novelty into the Marvel Universe’s Master of the Mystic Arts. Unheralded on the cover – honestly, is anyone really bothered if Paste-Pot Pete’s Invincible Paste-Gun does finish the Torch off? – the stylish back-up story introduced the Sorceror Supreme to the Marvel Universe, commencing a lengthy career which has crossed over very successfully into the MCU. Here he faces the recurring threat of Nightmare for obviously the first time. Although possessing decent off-white to cream page quality, this is a low grade cents copy, with the front and back covers, mostly held together by tape on the inside, separated from the contents. The inside tape also extends slightly to seal some small tears near the spine. There’s heavy wear with colour breaking creases round all the edges, although the central image remains unmarked. The copy is a bit limp and tired, although the staples, which hold the contents well (if not the covers) are strong. First appearances of Marvel’s main characters have spiralled out of reach of most collectors’ budgets in recent years, but at least here’s a copy that’s cheaper than a mortgage (particularly at the moment!). High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #110 PR/FA £1,200

 

*Marvel: The Black Panther’s series in Jungle Action, which attracted a lot of acclaim at the time, was known for being verbose, introspective, reflective and philosophical. When the character’s co-creator, Jack Kirby, took over as writer and artist on T’Challa’s follow-up solo series, the results were… a considerable contrast. Shouting! Explosions! Aliens! Time-Travel! Implausibly-muscled ladies with black lipstick! Cosmic critters! All were here, and all playing at full volume all the time, in the crazed kinetic frenzy that Kirby was renowned for. Since the major movie hit, the King of Wakanda’s star is ever-ascendant, and this issue especially always sells very briskly because of its – frankly – high loopiness quotient. So, if you want this tale of ‘King Solomon’s Frog’, you’d better hop to it (sorry…) This is a decent mid-grade pence printed copy, with some spine wear  (small white ticks), corner blunting and half a dozen tiny pressure marks in the bottom right cover corner. But with excellent colour and gloss, white pages and firm, tight staples. 
PICTURED: BLACK PANTHER #1 VG+ p £50 SOLD

*EC: A splendid quartet of Weird Science from the Bute Collection this week. Of all of EC’s high quality output, their science fiction tales have always been my favourites. These issues feature the very best of EC’s artists at the height of their powers.
PICTURED: WEIRD SCIENCE
#7 VG- £180 Pre-code. Feldstein, Kamen, Kurtzmann, Wood. Nice solid glossy copy, small amount of chipping at right edge, three long cover creases which are not too invasive and don’t break colour. Good firm staples and nice off-white to cream pages. SOLD
#11 VG- £145 Pre-code. Feldstein, Wood, Kamen, Orlando. Glossy cover, unmarked cover image, off-white to cream pages with minor foxing in margins, off bottom staple, tiny corners off bottom cover edges, some spine and edge wear with small lower spine split, 3 cm piece of tape up from bottom central cover. SOLD
#20 GD+ £150 Pre-code. Wood, Kamen, Orlando, Williamson. Classic ’50 Girls 50′ cover and story, drawn by Al Williamson with inks by Frazetta and Krenkel. Unmarked cover image. Lower spine split (4 cm), spine quite worn, staples attached but a little loose and rusty with just small rust migration. Tiny chips out and minor tears at cover edges. Nice off-white pages.
#21 FA/GD £65 Pre-code. Wood, Kamen, Williamson, Frazetta, Orlando. Taped spine, two small chips out of cover edges, tears at logo, long colour-breaking cover creases; a tired copy.

*Modern Reprints: All 7 issues of the Deluxe format reprinting of the complete Neal Adams Deadman from Strange Adventures and Brave & Bold. One of Neal Adams’ earliest outings, the story of the death of Boston Brand and what happened to him next has gifted the DCU with one of its most charismatic characters. The complete set is available in an average grade of FN/VF at a bargain price.
PICTURED: DEADMAN #1 FN; COMPLETE SET #1-7 AV. FN/VF £15 SOLD

*Annuals: Two favourites this week: Beano from 1968 (at the height of its powers with all the classic characters) in nice condition, and Smash 1970 (the usurper) in even nicer condition. NB Smash is a mixture of humour and adventure strips and is located in our Boys’ Annuals sub-category.
PICTURED:
BEANO 1968 VG £30
SMASH 1970 FN/VF £22.50

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: We move into the early 1970s with this week’s release of Love Story Picture Library, the longest running romance picture library from Fleetway, comprising 20 issues between #1100 and #1196. The same high standards and look of the series are maintained as we move out of the swinging sixties, with 70s fashion looks beginning to creep in. These new additions average very nice condition, nearly all better than FN, with many VF. Small degree of staple rust only on some, but most rust-free. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: LOVE STORY PICTURE LIBRARY #1100 FN/VF £6

*DC: The unique tabloid-sized editions from the 1970s are always popular and many of the DC ones are uncommon, such as the two here this week. The House Of Mystery Limited Collectors’ Edition C23 is a wonderful package; not only do you get seven superb stories by the very best of 1970s horror artists: Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson, Gil Kane, Alex Toth, Jack Sparling and Segio Aragones (!), with their art on wonderful display in this tabloid size, but it’s also chock-full of games, cartoons, a 3D mystery cut-out, features and pin-ups. Christmas With The Super-Heroes, C43, features Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the House of Mystery and the Golden Age Sandman in reprints of their seasonal (mostly Golden Age) adventures, plus a host of festive features.
PICTURED: LIMITED COLLECTORS’ EDITION BOTH SOLD
C23 VG/FN £30 House Of Mystery Nice copy with some spine creasing, but nothing too bad.
C43 VG+ £20 Christmas With The Super-Heroes Edge wear, small spine ticks, small back cover crease

*Marvel: Many folks say – with justification – that Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, was a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for DC’s Catwoman, created to give Spider-Man a ‘beloved enemy’ vibe and increase the romantic tension in the series. Probably true; but nevertheless, the Black Cat rapidly stepped away from her derivative roots, primarily owing to her low level probability manipulation – subconsciously causing ‘bad luck’ for people who opposed her – and the fact that although she’s frequently done heroic and noble things, she’s never completely shed her criminal ways. These copies of the Black Cat’s debut in Amazing Spider-Man #194 & #195 come from the non-distributed ‘wilderness years’, so there are no pence variants of these issues.  
IN THIS UPDATE: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#194 VG+ £150 (PICTURED) A nice copy, with tight, firm staples, spine ticks and some handling wear, decent off-white pages; it is marred by a colour-breaking crease of 11 cm across the bottom right corner.
#195 VG- £20 Spine creasing and minor impact damage at the base of the spine, plus more wear than is normally seen on this issue, although the staples and pages are good. 

*Marvel: Leading the Good Doctor releases this week are four issues of Tales Of Suspense, #60-63, which feature the earliest solo adventures of Captain America, after he joined Iron Man in sharing the title in the previous issue. Lots of landmarks in these: #60 features the second appearance of Hawkeye, with the Black Widow in tow for good measure; #61 has Cap in Viet Nam; #62 unveils the origin of the Mandarin; and #63 re-tells the origin of Captain America, in a tale set in WWII.
PICTURED: TALES OF SUSPENSE
#60 GD £40 A bit limp and tired, with staples a little rusty, small amounts of water damage to bottom and lower right edges, but not too bad.
#61 FN+ £70 A clean, superior white copy with little wear and good reflectivity, nice pages and firm, tight staples.
#62 FN/VF £80 Great copy with good cover colour and gloss, nice off-white pages and firm tight staples, square corners with just very minor edge and spine wear.
#63 VG/FN £90 Good cover colour and gloss, staples are tight and firm (if a little wear around the top one), pages a nice off-white, some shallow creasing at top right corner which does not break colour; minor edge wear.

*Marvel: In 1972, Marvel came up with the brainwave of the team-up title (that DC had been doing in Brave & Bold for many years by then); ostensibly this was starring Spidey or the Human Torch with the guest star of the month, but it soon transformed to just Spidey with Johnny Storm making fewer and fewer appearances. We have a complete run of issues #21-40 fresh in, mostly in decent grades and all cents copies. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: MARVEL TEAM-UP #22 VF £19 SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: Also from the Bute Collection this week, two issues of ACG’s short run series (17 issues) from the early 1950s. ACG was at the vanguard of horror publishing earlier with Adventures Into The Unknown and maintained a good standard of production and art, as evidenced by the eye-catching covers to these issues. Lower-graded but seldom seen.
PICTURED: OUT OF THE NIGHT
#14 FA/GD £30 Pre-Code. Water rippling damage to right side, but not too bad, has dried reasonably well. SOLD
#16 GD- £35 Pre-code. Foxing/staining to cover and some interiors. Structurally okay.

*Alan Class Reprints: A chunky update to our stocks of Astounding this week, all Alan Class file copies and certificated with his signature. This selection is all pre-decimal and starts at #1. Also featuring the one-shot Astonishing, also a file copy. Don’t forget that our Rough Guide to Alan Class Reprints give information on the content of individual issues, where you can check for super-hero stories and popular artists etc.
PICTURED: ASTONISHING STORIES NN (#1) FN £30
ASTOUNDING
#1 FA 24 Lots of spine damage
#2 GD- £28

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: 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, but also featuring crime, war, western and science-fiction adventures. The artists were all accomplished Fleetway professionals, and readers thrived on these beautifully-illustrated pocket adventures. In addition to the featured items listed below, we also have three later issues new in, #238 (Dick Daring of the Mounties) and #245 & #253 (Battler Britton).
IN THIS UPDATE: THRILLER:
#36 FA/GD £13.50 Castle Dangerous
#37 GD £15 (PICTURED) Windsor Castle
#38 VG £20 The Children Of The New Forest
#39 GD/VG £17.50 (PICTURED) The Gay Corinthian.
#40 PR £8 Westward Ho!

*Childrens’ Books: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we turn to our Childrens’ Books category, covering the classic Jennings school novels by Anthony Buckeridge, and adding a vintage and wonderful 1930s edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, beautifully illustrated by Margaret W Tarrant.
PICTURED:
ACCORDING TO JENNINGS by Anthony Buckeridge Collins 1961 UK HC GD/VG £7
ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll Ward Lock HC 1930s GD/VG £35
Pictorial Boards; Illustrated by Margaret W Tarrant; 24 Colour Plates all present, 2 shown
25 x 19 cm Beautiful, sound, lovely condition SOLD

*DC: In the days before the Legion of Super-Heroes joined Superboy in Adventure Comics (and eventually took over the title), Superboy’s back-up features included Aquaman, Green Arrow, Congorilla, and Tales of the Bizarro World in a continuous run. Eleven issues from that whimsical time this update, including #266, which features the debut of Aqua-Girl (the first Aqua-Girl that is, not the second one who appeared much later. Clear?)
IN THIS UPDATE: ADVENTURE COMICS:
#266 VG p £53 (PICTURED) 1st Aqua-Girl. Pence-stamped, some edge wear but bright and clean copy. Good staples and pages.
#268 GD p £16.25 Lower spine split
#277 VG p £30
#279 GD/VG p £23
#280 VG p £30
#286 VG p £28 1st Bizarro Mxyzptlk
#287 GD/VG p £16.50 1st Dev-Em
#288 VG p £29
#291 VG p £12.50
#292 VG p £12.50
#295 VG p £12.25