*Marvel: New from the Good Doctor Collection this week. In issues #31 to #33 of Lee & Ditko’s Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker’s alter ego faced the machinations of the mysterious Master Planner in an early ‘story arc’ – decades before the term was coined. The Planner was revealed to be one of Spidey’s most deadly enemies, and placed our hero in such peril that his escape became one of the most iconic scenes of Spidey’s earlier career. This three-part story is well remembered as a baptism of fire along Spidey’s heroic journey – and, into the bargain, issue #31 introduces two characters – Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn – who are destined to have major impacts on his future!
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#31 VG+ p £350 ‘A Marvel Pop Art Production’. 1st Gwen Stacy, 1st Harry Osborn. A decent pence-printed copy with good cover colour. Solid spine with some edge wear and corner blunting. Minor creasing/handling wear, but no significant colour breaks except a small crease across bottom right corner. Staples are firm at spine and centrefold, supple pages off-white to slightly cream.
#32 VG/FN p £95 Nice clean pence-printed copy with good cover colour and some gloss. Solid spine, staples tight at spine and centrefold, supple pages off-white to slightly cream, only slight corner blunting. No significant creasing except a 1.5 cm colour-breaker below bottom staple.
#33 FN p £300 Iconic cover. Nice colour and gloss on cover. Square, flat and clean, pence-printed. Solid spine, staples firm at spine and centrefold. Only minor edge wear and corner blunting. Pages are supple and off-white.

*Marvel: Like most major Marvel characters who have been around for decades, the High Evolutionary has a long and convoluted history that we don’t have time and space to go into here. Suffice it to say that genetic manipulation is at the core of his work ethos, and that he will make his MCU debut in Guardians Of The Galaxy 3, scheduled for 2023. He first appeared in Thor #134, where the Thunder God pursues a kidnapped Jane Foster to Wundagore and encounters the High Evolutionary and his knights/men-beasts. This is a perfectly serviceable mid-grade copy. Like all Marvel comics dated October and November 1966, its UK distribution was affected by a dock strike, and the relatively few copies that made it here at the time had a different 10d stamp on them. On this copy, that stamp has been overwritten with ‘6d’ in black marker (see scan). Otherwise there are minor colour-breaking creases in corners and edges, with a few white spine ticks. Corner blunting, but okay, off-white pages and tight, firm staples. 
PICTURED: THOR #134 VG p £125

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Another pre-Marvel Age classic from the Bute Collection! In 1954, after a gap of five years, Atlas (the re-branded Timely) revived their Sub-Mariner series. The Atlas revival lasted ten issues, and comprised some of the best work of Namor’s creator Bill Everett, whose art had evolved to its very best by the 1950s. #25 is the third issue of the revived series; 3 gorgeous Sub-Mariner stories featuring Namora, Betty Dean and Princess Fen, plus a Human Torch story. This is a low grade copy; the covers are detached, with long central spine splits and taped at both top and bottom spine. There is also a long horizontal tear sealed by tape on the inside front cover, a small corner off the bottom right of the front cover and some back cover tears. Staples are firm at centrefold. Pages are okay but a little tired, with one tear in the margin of the bottom splash, which extends halfway into a lower panel. Cover creasing and a small stain above the logo, but nothing too severe. Perhaps looks better than it sounds! 
PICTURED: SUB-MARINER #35 FA £150 SOLD

*Western: In all our years I don’t think we’ve ever had a Comic Media western comic before, so it’s a particular joy to welome even just one to our catalogue from the Bute Collection (the only one to surface so far). Death Valley #6 has accomplished art, with cover by Don Heck and interiors by Heck and Ross Andru. Only a low grade, with spine splits and edge creasing with small chips out, still an attractive rarity.
IN THIS UPDATE: DEATH VALLEY #6 GD £12 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Three large format Tigers from the less often seen year of 1963 this week, all nice flat copies with just a little staple rust. These are consecutive issues from 28th Sep to 12th Oct and were issued with Free Gifts of ‘a super wallet of 50 star footballers,’ plus the photos to put in it. Sadly, the gifts are not included with these examples.
IN THIS UPDATE: TIGER 1963 ALL SOLD
28/9 VG £7.50
5/10 VG £7.50
12/10 VG £7.50

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: From 1962-63, when the Beatles were rising to fame and London was just beginning to swing, 17 more issues of True Life Library added to our catalogue between #331 and #371. The standard of art by mainly European illustrators is very accomplished. These are lovely items, their appeal enhanced by the fact that they are from a newsagent’s reserve stock, never sold or circulated, with white pages, bright covers and not too much rust in the staple areas on most examples. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: TRUE LIFE LIBRARY #340 VG/FN £7 SOLD

*Comic Strip Books: Just one new entry here this week, but it’s a good one! Several classic pre-code EC horror stories presented in a standard American paperback, black and white in a sideways format. With stories from the Crypt-Keeper, the Old Witch and the Vault-Keeper, all 3 of EC’s horror classics are included. Spine a little cracked with a tear at top. A little wavy. 
PICTURED: TALES FROM THE CRYPT Ballantine 1965 3rd US PB GD £25 SOLD

We’re pleased to report that the potential disruption to our routines that we mentioned last week has not come about, and we shall be issuing our regular newsletter tomorrow and filling orders on Sunday. As usual, we have a very mixed range of items coming up this week, to suit most tastes and budgets, so keep an eye out for the newsletter in its regular time slot, followed by updates on this page.

*DC: Three classic Superman comics this week. Action #282 is pure Silver Age Superman & Supergirl, full of the Superman family cast of characters. The first issue of 80 Page Giant is devoted to Superman’s most fabulous imaginary adventures and in Superman #132, Lois marries an alien (again!).
IN THIS UPDATE:
ACTION COMICS #282 VG p £38
80 PAGE GIANT #1 VG- £47 (PICTURED)
SUPERMAN #132 VG- £47 Loose centrefold

*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. Introduced in 1972 as the star of his own title, Luke Cage, then ‘Hero For Hire’, was Marvel’s third black superhero (after Black Panther and the Falcon) but the first to hold his own book, and Marvel cross-pollinated Luke early on, with a guest-appearance in their top seller, Spider-Man. In ASM #123 (non-distributed in the UK), Spidey misinterprets Luke’s attempts to get a living wage for his heroics as something more sinister and one of those ‘let’s have the heroes clobber each other’ misunderstandings ensues, doubtless hoping to draw readers over to Luke’s own series. This outstanding copy is tight, flat and glossy, with staples firm and spine and centrefold, supple off-white pages and square corners. Only the tiniest signs of handling wear at edges. There are those who will value this even higher because the Mark Jewellers insert is in place. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #123 VF+ £110 SOLD

*Marvel: Also from the Good Doctor Collection this week, we present a consecutive run of the Incredible Hulk from the second issue of his own series (#103) up to #121 (1st Glob). In mixed grades, but all reasonable. Art by Marie Severin and Herb Trimpe. As always, check our catalogue for further details.

*Harvey: Harvey’s Black Cat made her debut in the very first Harvey comic, Pocket #1 (1941) and appeared also in Speed Comics before she was granted her own title in 1946. In Black Cat #1, as well as two adventures of Linda (Black Cat) Turner as ‘Hollywood’s Glamorous Detective Star’ you also get several stories with war and horror overtones. The Bute Collection #1 is a ‘returns’ copy, i.e. unsold on the newsstand, and the logo ripped off to get a refund (see scan). The rest of the comic is complete and in reasonable condition, a little discoloured and dog-eared, with bottom right corners (margins only) missing. We’re selling this bundled with a coverless copy of #2, missing its centrefold, with some loose pages.
PICTURED: BLACK CAT #1 PR; BUNDLED WITH #2 (INCOMPLETE) £75 SOLD
(NB This was mistakenly listed in our Newsletter as being in the Miscellaneous 1940-1959 Category)

*Romance: We don’t get enough updates to our Romance category, so we’re pleased that the Bute Collection offers us the chance to add two from the 1940s/50s. Fawcett’s Cowboy Love (with cowgirl and horse photo cover) shows us the softer side of life on the range, while Famous Funnies’ Personal Love delights with a photo cover of Johhny Ray and Mitzi Gaynor (and if you’re old enough to remember who they were, this might be the comic for you!). Both decent mid-grade copies.
IN THIS UPDATE:
COWBOY LOVE #8 VG £13 SOLD
PERSONAL LOVE #30 VG- £20

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: A consecutive run of the ground-breaking 2000 AD this week, every issue from #11-30, mostly in very nice shape. Includes 1st Walter the Wobot in #13 and 1st Tharg’s Future Shocks in #25.
PICTURED: 2000 AD #13 FN/VF £22.50 1st Walter the Wobot

*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, which now has the new layout down to ‘Blyton’. The works of Enid Blyton understandably dominate, with a plethora of dust-jacketed hardcovers of her various series, all with highly evocative cover art, particularly by Eileen Soper on the Famous Five, but there are a few other gems as well, such as Joan Aiken’s Welsh mythology fantasy The Whispering Mountain. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED:
THE WHISPERING MOUNTAIN BY JOAN AIKEN
Puffin 1975 4th UK PB VG/FN £5
JO-JO BY ELLA ANDERSON Pickering & Inglis 1959 1st UK HC VG £20
and BY ENID BLYTON:
FIVE HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME Brockhampton Press 1969 UK HC Later printing FN £15
FIVE ON A TREASURE ISLAND Hodder & Stoughton 1953 UK HC 10th Impression VG £30
THE MYSTERY OF THE HIDDEN HOUSE Methuen 1965 11th UK HC VG £15
WELL DONE, SECRET SEVEN Brockhamton Press 1965 10th UK HC VG £6

You may experience some disruption to our normal services starting towards the end of next week. This results from planned surgery to a family member, and we will not know the extent of the disruption until the outcome is known. This will not affect this weekend’s orders, which will be posted out as usual on Wednesday 5th October. After that, we’re not quite sure at the moment when the next newsletter will be sent, or when we’ll next be filling orders, but we hope to minimise the disruption as far as possible. Keep an eye out here for further bulletins as the situation becomes clearer.

*DC: Long time followers of our updates will doubtless know that the Gardner Fox/Mike Sekowsky issues of Justice League of America are among my very favourite comics, and it’s a fine selection we have fresh in this week, commencing with #10, re-worked from Sensation Comics #109 and wonderfully executed by the incomparable Murphy Anderson. I can remember being awed by this as a kid. #10 introduced not only Felix Faust, but also the Lord of Time and the Demons Three, so villains aplenty in this classic issue. The inventiveness and use of classic science fiction and fantasy tropes (in which Fox was well versed) has never been equalled, in my humble.
IN THIS UPDATE: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA
#10 VG p £65 (PICTURED) Pence stamped bright copy with some spine wear, off lower staple.
#19 VG- p £28 Off top staple
#20 VG+ p £32
#26 VG- p £21.50 Off top staple SOLD
#27 VG+ p £23 SOLD
#28 VG+ p £28 SOLD
#31 VG+ p £24.75 Hawkman joins team

*DC: In 1987, spinning out from the ‘Legends’ event, DC repurposed the name Suicide Squad (first used in the Silver Age), this time in the form of a gang of (mostly) super-villains on suicide missions for a quasi-governmental agency led by Amanda Waller. Writer John Ostrander made this concept into a quality series which has always remained popular, for all that Suicide Squad has been used since in the DC cinematic universe in movies that got, shall we say, mixed reviews. Just a handful of issues fresh in to top up our stock. 

*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. From July 1970, we have a beautiful copy of Amazing Spider-Man #86, in which the Black Widow, having previously worn a cute-but-retro fishnets & cape outfit, remade her image into the sleek, leather-clad redhead that we know her as today. Taking on Spidey in a story by noted feminist (ahem ahem) Stan Lee, she delivers immortal lines such as “Don’t think I’m helpless just because I’m soft and cuddly.” Ah, they don’t write them like that anymore; aren’t we lucky? We have this first appearance of the Widow as today’s movie-goers would recognise her in a lovely high grade cents copy, with a brilliant white cover background, plenty of gloss, square corners, supple white to off-white pages, staples tight and firm at spine and centrefold. Just a couple of short, soft non-colour breaking creases at the spine prevent a higher grade.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #86 VF+ £350 SOLD

*Marvel: We conclude the Good Doctor run of Iron Man with issues #7-10, mostly very presentable copies. Iron Man duels with the Gladiator and the Mandarin, including a tussle with a (spoiler) Hulk android in #9. 
IN THIS UPDATE: IRON MAN
#7 FN+ £40 (PICTURED)
#8 VG- p £18
#9 FN+ £60 (PICTURED)
#10 VG/FN £40 (PICTURED) SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: Whilst it’s fair to say that the introduction of the Comics Code saw the ‘teeth pulled’ from the horror titles that survived, with horrific elements toned down, it’s also true that such titles as Atlas’s Mystery Tales continued showcasing excellent stories of mystery and imagination from the cream of Atlas’s creative talent at the time. Six post-code issues from the Bute Collection this week, as follows:
IN THIS UPDATE: MYSTERY TALES (ALL PICTURED EXCEPT #32)
#29 GD/VG £58 Burgos, Everett, Powell, Forte & others. Reasonable copy with good colour. Spine a little weak with small upper split; lower right corner a little dog-eared.
#30 VG- £67 Brodsky, Burgos, Ayers, Heck, Forte, Greene & others. Nice solid copy with spine ticks. Long diagonal crease across lower right breaks colour.
#31 VG £77 Burgos, John Severin, Forte, Sale & others. Very decent copy with good colour and gloss. Square corners, little edge wear; some small horizontal creases from spine only break colour at tiniest edge.
#32 PR £11 Burgos, Greene, Reinman & others. An awful copy; the cover and leading pages are torn in half down the middle and detached. 
#33 FN- £105 Burgos, Forte, Greene, Sale, Everett & others. Nice flat copy with good staples and pages; only a little corner blunting and minor reading wear at spine. 
#35 VG+ £87 Burgos, Stallman, Colan, Benulis, Everett & others. Solid copy with only colour-breaking reading wear at spine.

*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. Six early issues new in this week, as follows:
PICTURED: THRILLER
#21 FA Black Hood
#24 GD £15 Kevin The Bold
#29 FA £12 Ivanhoe
#30 FA/GD £13.50 The Strange Affair Of The Lyons Mail
#31 GD £15 Jane Eyre
#33 GD/VG £17.50 Tom Brown’s Schooldays

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Who are the Queens Of Crime? By my count, six authors who rose to fame in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction between the wars, and leave behind a legacy in crime writing that will never be matched. The most famous of course is Agatha Christie, also Dorothy L Sayers, Gladys Mitchell, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey and Margery Allingham, the latter of whom concerns us here. They all had their recurring detectives of course, and Margery Allingham’s was Albert Campion, a suave sleuth of noble blood, perfectly portrayed on TV by Peter Davison. Four Allingham Penguins fresh in this week featuring Campion in typically clever murder mysteries, including his very first outing in The Crime At Black Dudley. (NB: We’re improving the layout of our book listings, including adding an image for every book, and have started this file by completing ‘A’ authors; large files such as this will take a long time to complete). 
PICTURED: All by MARGERY ALLINGHAM ALL SOLD
THE BECKONING LADY Penguin UK PB VG £4.50
THE CHINA GOVERNESS Penguin UK PB GD £3.50
THE CRIME AT BLACK DUDLEY Penguin 1967 7th UK PB GD/VG £4
SWEET DANGER Penguin 1968 9th UK PB FN £6

*DC: The complete set of all 4 Deluxe format editions of Stardust from 1997, the fantasy with text by Neil Gaiman and beautifully painted illustrations by Charles Vess. Adapted in 2007 into a very successful and star-studded film. All four lavish issues in NM condition.
PICTURED: STARDUST #1 NM; Complete Set #1-4 £25

*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, an exceptional copy of Amazing Spider-Man #19, featuring the Sandman and the Enforcers and guest-starring the Human Torch. This cents copy has a brilliant white background (rare to see this as rich as on this copy) and great cover gloss and reflectivity. Virtually no wear at all (just a handful of tiny indentations at the bottom edge). Staples are tight and firm at spine and centrefold; supple pages are off-white to cream. Flat with square corners. The best copy of this issue we’ve ever seen. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #19 VF+ £675 SOLD