*Horror 1940-1959: Like Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales is one of the Marvel titles that had its roots in the Atlas Pre-Code Horror days and survived via the Big Panty Monsters into the super-heroic Silver Age. It’s the Pre-Code Horror that concerns us here, with four early issues from the Bute Collection in decent shape. The usual high standards of Atlas horror are preserved in these excellent items.
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES
#24 VG- £175 Pre-code. Great Bill Everett cover; Sinnott and others interiors. Glossy with rich colour. Tight firm staples. Minimal wear and off-white to cream pages. Soft long vertical sub. crease does not break colour. Handling creases at base of spine also do not break colour. 6.5 cm horizontal tear on back cover neatly taped. 
#26 VG- £175 Pre-code  Art by Colan, Katz, Infantino etc. Cover flat, colourful and glossy with tiny creases at bottom right edge. Some corner blunting and 4 cm upper spine split. Staples tight and firm, pages a nice off-white. Minor spine and edge wear; a handwritten word ‘Read’ in the ‘R’ of the logo. 
#30 VG £195 Pre-code. Art by Benulis, Drucker, Ayers etc. Glossy cover with rich colour. Tight, firm staples, nice off-white pages, Very minor edge wear except for a between-staple tear of about fingernail-tip size, with no loss.
#31 VG+ £215 Pre-code. Art by Greene, Benulis, Tartaglione etc. Flat, glossy and colourful, with firm, tight staples and nice off-white pages. One or two very soft cover creases which do not break colour and tiny nicks at upper and lower spine. SOLD

*Power Comics: From 1967, 15 issues of Wham between #134 & #150 (January to April). At this time, Wham was a mixture of many beloved humour strips plus reprints of classic early Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four issues. Includes both New Year and Easter issues. Averaging GD to VG; see our catalogue for details.
PICTURED: WHAM #146 VG £9 Easter issue

*Humour Comics: 1961 was, no doubt, a more innocent time, when D C Thomson launched a title for younger readers called Bimbo. A mix of fairy tale and cartoonish character picture strips, including the titular Bimbo himself and Baby Crockett from the Beezer, plus illustrated text stories and activity pages. This lovely copy of #1 is in great shape, with just a tiny corner off the back page bottom margin. The Free Gift, a balloon announced with some fanfare on the cover is not present, presumably long since perished.
PICTURED: BIMBO #1 VG/FN £15

*DC: Slade Wilson, a.k.a. Deathstroke (also known for much of his career as ‘the Terminator’, until Arnie’s agents said the magic words, ‘Cease & Desist’) made his first appearance in New Teen Titans #2, the successful Wolfman/Perez revival of the faltering franchise. Already a hit, the New Teen Titans’ fortunes rose with those of Mr. Slade as their recurring arch-nemesis, and eventually he went on to star in several series of his own, as well as media appearances in the ‘Arrow’ TV show and elsewhere. This copy is CGC Signature series, 8.5 (VF+) pence printed, signed by Deathstroke’s co-creator, the recently deceased George Perez, on 26th October 2019. White pages, case perfect. Perez was one of the definitive artists of the 1980s, a master craftsman famed for New Teen Titans, Crisis On Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman and many others, and a personal favourite. He is much missed. 
PICTURED: NEW TEEN TITANS #2 CGC SIGNATURE SERIES 8.5 VF+ p £325

*Marvel: In the fourth issue of Marvel’s Avengers series, the already formidable team of Iron Man, Giant-Man, Thor and the Wasp was augmented by one of the legendary heroes from the past. Captain America returned to action after years in Post-WWII suspended animation, and rapidly became the acknowledged heart and soul of the Avengers, who have never flourished for long without him! This is a fabulous pence printed copy of this historic issue, bright and colourful, fresh and glossy. The corners are sharp and the pages a supple white to off-white. There is an absolute minimum of wear at edges and spine, a soft, barely discernible crease across the bottom corner of the back cover (with no colour break), and the staples are tight and firm at spine and centrefold, just a little bit behind centre spine. Very slight tanning to bottom edges of inner covers, but a copy that just glows with quality! High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #4 VF- p £2,800

*Marvel: It’s not very often at all that we market a comic that’s missing part of the story. It has to be something really special, such as this Good Doctor copy of Fantastic Four #49, the second part of the famous Galactus/Silver Surfer trilogy and the first cover appearance for both these cornerstones of the Marvel Universe. The good bits: a cents copy with central cover image intact and clear; page quality okay with some margin staining. The bad bits: story pages 17 & 18 are missing; centrefold is loose. Story pages 7/8 and 9 are detached but present. Cover is off top staple and there is a fair degree of spine wear with colour breaking creases mainly in bottom left corner. So, this is not a copy you’d want to treasure forever, but with even Poor 0.5 copies selling at over £300, it may fill a gap of sorts for you.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #49 INCOMPLETE £150 SOLD

*EC: Leading this week’s releases from the Bute Collection is a set of five issues of Weird Fantasy towards the end of the run (thus the #14 & #15 issues are the second such to bear that number). For me, this later period of EC’s science-fiction stories are the very apex of that publisher’s superb body of work, with the finest artists ever to work in comics.
PICTURED: WEIRD FANTASY
#14 GD- £80 Pre-code. Wally Wood, Joe Orlando, Jack Kamen, Al Williamson, Roy Krenkel, Frank Frazetta. Clean cover with good colour and gloss. Nice off-white staples; cover off both staples at front only. Upper spine split 9.5 cm; lower 4 cm.
#15 VG £215 Pre-code. Joe Orlando, Al Williamson, Jack Kamen. Solid copy with intact spine, good cover colour and gloss. Staples firm at spine and centrefold. Nice off-white pages. Very small chip out bottom right cover edge.
#20 GD- £80 Pre-code. John Severin, Al Williamson, Roy Krenkel, Frank Frazetta, Jack Kamen, Joe Orlando. Taped spine; small discoloured patch below issue number. Subscription crease breaks colour. Staples okay, but slight water-staining around bottom staple on some pages. Small chip out bottom rear cover. Clean 1.5 cm tear up from centre front cover bottom edge.
#21 VG/FN £300 Pre-code. Classic cover by Williamson & Frazetta. Interior art by Joe Orlando, Al Williamson, Roy Krenkel, Jack Kamen, John Severin. Lovely copy with clean unmarked cover with rich colour. Staples firm at spine and centrefold and nice off-white pages, Just minimal wear at spine and edges. SOLD
#22 VG+ £135 Pre-code; final issue. Joe Orlando, Reed Crandall, Jack Kamen, Bernie Krigstein. Rich colour cover; off-white to white pages and firm staples. Reasonably mild spine wear with tiny split at top and 2 cm split at bottom. Slight suggestion only of subscription crease with no colour breaks. SOLD

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: In House Of Mystery #195, a few short months after the debut of Bernie Wrightson’s Swamp Thing in House Of Secrets #92, the same artist portrayed a very similar creature here, both visually and thematically. Under a great Wrightson cover (illustrating another of his stories from inside), a whole host of stories and features await in this giant issue. A nice clean pence stamped copy with great cover colour and gloss, tight, firm staples and excellent white to off-white pages. Very minor corner blunting but virtually no wear except for a small dink at the top of the spine with no colour breaks. 
PICTURED: HOUSE OF MYSTERY #195 FN/VF p £75 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: The very first issue of the long-running Look & Learn series new in this week. Part educational, part entertainment, lavishly illustrated (at least half in full colour), full of stories, historical features and quizzes, and complete with the centrefold presentation feature. A very decent copy with just some edge wear and small lower spine split, but solid and intact.
PICTURED: LOOK AND LEARN #1 VG £20 SOLD

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: From 1960 upwards, a somewhat earlier range of True Life Library released this week than of late, 25+ issues in the above number range. London was probably not quite yet swinging, but the standard of art by mainly European illustrators is still 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; earliest issues graded as GD are a little bent! Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: TRUE LIFE LIBRARY #306 VG £5

It’s been some time now since we started releasing the three prestige collections that we’re currently working on, so we thought it prudent to take the time to explain these again for those that missed the announcements first time round. We have already released and sold many comics from these collections, but further releases are due every week and will last for some time to come.

The Good Doctor Collection: This is a comprehensive collection representing a lifetime’s hobby by one of the UK’s most dedicated collectors. It is a mixture of original owner copies and copies sourced from the UK’s most significant dealers (including ourselves); the Good Doctor was very meticulous and patient in collecting nice copies where available and that is reflected throughout this 1500+ collection of Silver and early Bronze Age Marvel titles. All of the important Marvel titles are included and in virtually complete runs from early numbers upwards. 

The Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection: This is devoted exclusively to Amazing Spider-Man and covers almost every issue of Amazing from as early as #12 right up to around #800. The notable feature of the TASM Collection is that all issues are high grade, averaging VF/VF+. If you’re looking for really nice copies of Amazing Spider-Man for your collection, then look no further than this Collection. No duds here, and nearly all cents copies.

The Bute Collection: Named after a favourite place of the owner (Bute is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland), this is the personal reference collection of a working comics artist and author who wishes to remain anonymous. Derived from a multiplicity of sources over decades, but characterised by an astonishing depth, breadth and diversity of American and British items from the 1930s onwards, including many seldom seen on these shores, in a variety of grades. If you’re a lover of vintage comics, you’ll enjoy the ride, and you’re certain to find many comics you’d love to add to your collection.

And finally, a mention for our previous (now completed) prestige collection:

The Square Mile Collection: You’ll still find a few of these in our listings, although the vast majority of this prestigious collection has now sold; we completed listing them in 2020. You can read about it here: https://30thcenturycomics.co.uk/extras/the-square-mile-collection-archive/

*Marvel: Well, Iron Man’s inaugural lead coloured armour didn’t last very long, only halfway through his second story, in fact, when Tony Stark figured that a golden look was more becoming and was thus the first of many armour changes The baddie in this historic issue is Gargantus, a big chap with a big club, who, if memory serves, didn’t go on to a distinguished career in Marveldom’s rogues’ gallery. This is a pence printed copy, with unmarked cover image and pretty good cover colour. The spine is intact with good staples firm at spine and centrefold. No significant creasing (there is a soft, shallow non-colour breaking crease at the right of the logo). Wear to top front and back covers, slight chipping to right edge and a small strip out bottom right cover (7 cm by 0.5 cm at worst). The inside covers are a little tanned at the edges, but not brittle; pages are a nice off-white to cream colour.
PICTURED: TALES OF SUSPENSE #40 GD p £285 SOLD

*Marvel: Also from the Good Doctor this week, three early consecutive issues of Iron Man, all in nice shape. #4 features the threat of the Unicorn, #5 is a sci-fi tale of the future and in #6 Shell-Head comes up against the Crusher. All cents copies in superior grades.
PICTURED: IRON MAN
#4 VF £80 Vibrant colour cover with full gloss, square corners, firm, tight staples, white to off-white pages, very minor edge wear.
#5 VF- £75 Vibrant colour cover with full gloss, square corners, firm, tight staples, white to off-white pages, slight handling wear at spine with a couple of spine ticks with the tiniest colour breaks. SOLD
#6 VF- £75 Vibrant colour cover with full gloss, square corners, firm, tight staples, white to off-white pages, very minor edge wear, tiny colour-breaking crease across extremity of bottom right cover corner.

*Marvel: The 1972-launched Marvel Team-Up paired Spidey (and occasionally the Human Torch) with a different one of Marvel’s best and boldest each issue, providing readers with a chance to be exposed to new and unfamiliar characters – and, by happy coincidence, enable Marvel to retain copyright on heroes who didn’t currently have their own series! MTU #1 – never distributed in the UK – teams Spider-Man with the Human Torch against the sinister Sandman, with an (after-the-fact retcon) cameo debut by Misty Knight. This first issue of a popular and long-running series is a nice grade copy, (cents of course since there were no UK distributed issues), with a glossy cover and black background, square corners, staples firm at spine and centrefold and supple white to off-white pages. There are a couple of spine ticks not breaking colour, and a tiny pressure mark top right edge which just does. 
PICTURED: MARVEL TEAM-UP #1 VF- £135 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Created as a companion to Hotspur, Hornet’s star was ‘Bouncing’ Bernard Briggs, soccer goalie (and later jack-of-all-sports – British comics presented sportsmen the way American ones did scientists, with all the disciplines being interchangeable), who was the only survivor from the original line-up to make it all the way to the end. This week we have a lovely copy of the very first issue from 1963, the nicest we’ve ever seen with no marks and clean off-white pages. We doubt if it was ever nicer than this when it was first printed. Were it not for a couple of jagged right edges to interior pages (which we suspect is an original finishing defect rather than wear), we’d be tempted to give an even higher grade which is rare on a UK title with this paper quality.
PICTURED: HORNET #1 FN £75 SOLD

*Girls’ Comics: Dozens of issues of Bunty from her second and third years of 1956 and 1960 this week, numbers between #51 and #115. A mixture of grades, some nice, some not so nice. A few, as listed, have small amounts of cover graffiti, but this is not too obtrusive in most cases. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: BUNTY #51 VG £18 New Year issue

*DC: Lois Lane has had many mad moments – wacky bodily transformations, marrying random aliens/robots/villains, and convoluted and extreme schemes to entrap the Man of Steel into matrimony – but one of the maddest was her 106th issue – and the thing is, the creators weren’t even trying for the crazy! By this point, the writers were trying to make Lois more socially relevant, so she started embracing ‘issues’, and the issue here was racial tension. Now, younger readers won’t recall that in 1970, there was a controversial and sexually explicit film on release called ‘I Am Curious (Yellow)’ – writer Bob Kanigher, having apparently heard the title without grasping the context, stole this for the story’s title, ‘I Am Curious (Black)’, thereby bewildering, disappointing and offending multiple factions at once. Lois, having become suddenly aware of racial disparity – (precisely zero black people having appeared in her book until this point) uses Kryptonian ‘Transformoflux-Mold’ technology to turn herself into a black woman, and investigates Metropolis’ ‘Little Africa’ ghetto – from the inside! To be fair, the intentions were benign, and there are actually a couple of good points and good lines buried in there, but the overwhelming ham-fisted and cringe-making patronage of the issue has made it a bit of a cult item among connoisseurs of bad comics. This is an excellent cents copy, with a lustrous black background cover, full gloss and just minor edge and handling wear. Even though it’s (cleanly) off at top staple, the pages are a great white to off-white and in our opinion it makes the grade of Fine. ‘It’s important,’ Lois says on the cover, ‘that I live the next 24 hours as a black woman!’
PICTURED: LOIS LANE #106 FN £170 SOLD

*Marvel: If you’re looking for really nice copies of Amazing Spider-Man for your collection, then look no further than this 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. Issue #41 of the Amazing Spider-Man saw the first new villain of Jazzy Johnny Romita’s artistic tenure, as he and Swingin’ Stan Lee brought us the curiously endearing Rhino, a virtually unstoppable behemoth whose sheer power and tormented soul made him an instant hit, and a popular recurring villain, showing up everywhere from the Defenders to the MCU to the Unstoppable Squirrel Girl! (No, really…) The Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection copy is a beautiful cents example of this issue, tight and flat with good cover colour and gloss, excellent white to off-white supple pages and firm staples. There is virtually no wear, just a very slight blunting of the top left corner, a few narrow wear marks at the very bottom of the left bottom edge and tiny ticks at spine. The inner covers are ever so slightly discoloured at the very extremities, but we’re being ultra-picky on this great-looking copy. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #41 VF £1,150

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection this week, the first appearance of Marvel’s version of Hercules in Journey Into Mystery With Thor Annual #1 from 1965, as Thor’s opposite number, and brawling partner/comrade-in-arms, as the exigencies of the plot demanded. Not the first Hercules in comics, nor the last – but Marvel’s well-intentioned wenching boozer is probably the best-loved iteration since the original legend! This bumper 72 page edition also features reprints of the debuts of some of Thor’s early major foes, including Loki. This is a lower graded pence stamped copy, with the lower spine neatly taped for 10 cm, and a couple of fairly faint arrival dates stamped on the cover above and below the figure of Hercules. Nevertheless, decent colour and gloss, tight, firm staples and nice pages. Minor edge and corner wear, but nothing bad. This update also features Annual #2.
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY WITH THOR ANNUAL #1 GD+ p £175
ALSO IN THIS UPDATE: THOR ANNUAL #2 GD+ p £9.50 SOLD

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: Have you ever dreamed of owning a Golden Age issue of Captain America, but have been frustrated by their rarity, not to mention the fact that when one does turn up, the price is way out of your budget? Well, this week’s curiosity from the Bute Collection might just be your dream fulfilment, with not just one, but two issues of Captain America for one price… (in a manner of speaking). Let me be clear: this is the covers of Captain America #37 (1944) surrounding the pages of #68 (1948), so you get a classic crazily-busy Alex Schomburg cover and the complete contents of #68, when Bucky had been replaced by Golden Girl as Cap’s sidekick: two Cap stories, a Sub-Mariner story and a crime story from Cap’s files. The pages are in really nice clean condition, amazingly not far off-white. The cover has fared less well, with tape all along the inner cover at spine and a tear sealed by tape, about 7 cm from the central right edge. There is also some raggedness at the bottom edge and what looks like a grease stain over the right side of the logo. Still, one (or possibly two) of a kind!
PICTURED: CAPTAIN AMERICA #37/68 App PR/FA £375 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: 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. Issues #4-10 freshly listed this week, mostly in decent shape, a bit of foxing, a spot of rust on staple, but decent pages.
IN THIS UPDATE: TOP SPOT ALL SOLD
#4 VG £8
#5 GD/VG £7
#6 VG £8
#7 VG £8
#8 VG £8
#9 VG £8 (PICTURED)
#10 VG £8

*DC: After more than a decade of anticipation and demand, DC revived All-Star Comics, home of the Justice Society of America, in 1976 with #58 – continuing the numbering from the Golden Age. The veteran heroes were joined by three (relative) youngsters in the ill-named and short-lived ‘Super Squad’. One new addition was Power Girl, cousin of the Earth-2 Superman, who was a very different proposition from Earth-1’s Supergirl, and became the breakout star of the series, not just because of her zaftig appearance (though that didn’t hurt, especially as designed and illustrated by Wally Wood), but also because of her forthright, take-no-prisoners personality. This is a nice cents copy, bright with some gloss and great colour, staples tight and firm at spine and centrefold, supple cream pages and just a little corner blunting and handling wear at the top right edge. We sold an almost identical copy instantly just a few months ago.
PICTURED: ALL STAR COMICS #58 FN/VF £100 SOLD

*Marvel: One of our favourite Marvel anti-heroes here at 30th Century is the Sub-Mariner, aka Prince Namor the First, Monarch of Atlantis, whose heroism is outstripped only by his arrogance and the whole ‘The King and I’ vibe he has going on with the ladies! Following the dissolution of the distribution embargo in ’68, Namor, who had been rooming with the Hulk in Tales to Astonish, got his own solo series once more, and the grandeur and pageantry of his undersea adventures were aptly depicted by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, who also threw in a few hitherto unrevealed titbits about Namor’s origin. The Good Doctor copy of Sub-Mariner #1 is a fairly nice above average grade with excellent cover colour and gloss, staples tight and firm at spine and centrefold, lies flat and supple and has nice white to off-white pages. There is some corner blunting top left, and a tiny bit of handling wear top right. Pence stamped, the UK price has been penned over in felt tip in the unobtrusively placed T&P circle stamp below the right end of the logo, to my eye not spoiling the impact of the cover; we have reduced the grade because of this. 
PICTURED: SUB-MARINER #1 FN p £320 SOLD