*DC: Originally planned as a regular Batman Annual, the story which would become The Killing Joke evolved by accident; as the wait lengthened for the pages to come in from illustrator Brian Bolland, Alan Moore’s story shifted, becoming more of an examination about the nature of the relationship between Batman and his arch-nemesis the Joker. Collateral damage along the way was Barbara Gordon, Batgirl, who was crippled and traumatised in the start of events which transformed her into Oracle, a sequence which outraged many at the time and polarises factions even today. Regardless of whether you love it or hate it – and there’s many on both sides – its importance and popularity can’t be denied, as it has remained constantly in print and gone through a myriad of formats. This first printing copy is vibrant, firm, glossy and tight, with just some small amounts of non-colour breaking stress marks at the spine bringing the grade down a little.
PICTURED: BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE VF- £40

*Marvel: The first of this week’s Good Doctor Collection updates: In Fantastic Four #18, the Skrulls, sworn enemies of the FF since their second issue, developed their own super-soldier with all the powers of the FF – and one more! The Super-Skrull has been more seen on Marvel’s cosmic stage than with the FF in later years, but this is where he got his start. This is a pence printed copy in great shape, rich colour cover, unmarked, with deep sky background. Only minor corner blunting and the only creasing is a spidery reading crease from bottom staple down to bottom spine, which just breaks colour, plus a couple of non-colour breaking stress marks in that area. Beautifully supple off-white to white pages. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #18 FN+ p £750 SOLD

*Marvel: This week’s trip to the world of Spider-Mania comes from the high grade Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection, in this case a CGC 9.6 (NM+) copy of Amazing Spider-Man #183. Spidey faces not only the threat of the Big Wheel, but also the Rocket Racer and the Terrible Tinkerer. Plus Mary Jane turns down his marriage proposal. Some days are just not meant to go well… Universal unrestored blue label, off-white to white pages, case in perfect condition.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #183 CGC 9.6 NM+ £95

*Marvel: In the second issue of Daredevil, the sightless swashbuckler comes up against Spidey’s foe Electro (with a cameo from the bashful Thing). Daredevil #1 was drawn by Bill Everett, whereas the pages of this issue were graced by another Golden Age great Joe Orlando. We have classified this pence printed copy as an App (for ‘apparent’ grade) GD+, due to what we suspect is a possible micro-trimmed top edge, although this doesn’t impinge on anything or spoil the enjoyment; it is however priced as such. A nice clean and solid cover image with no markings. Some spine wear, including a split of about 2 cm at the top. Dust shadow to edge of back cover, and moderate to heavy tanning to inner cover edges, but no brittleness. Staples are firm and attached, page quality is a decent creamy colour. 
PICTURED: DAREDEVIL #2 App GD+ p £135 SOLD

*Horror 1940-1959: The Bute Collection provides us with this week’s dose of Pre-Code Horror, in the shape of two issues from different titles published by Comic Media: Horrific & Weird Terror. Hugely popular with collectors of this genre, Comic Media produced distinctive material that stood out in a crowded field at the time. Many issues of Horrific featured ‘big head’ covers by Don Heck, as in the example on offer here; #9 also features art by Pete Morisi, Marty Elkin and Rudy Palais. Weird Terror #10 also features a cover and interior art by Don Heck, as well as Ross Andru and Rudy Palais.
PICTURED:
HORRIFIC #9 GD+ £150 Pre-code. A couple of long colour-breaking creases and some short ones. Chipping along top and right edge and bottom right corner. Pages and staples pretty good; previous owner’s name and address on back cover. SOLD
WEIRD TERROR #10 GD/VG £275 Pre-code. Spine worn but intact. Small creases around edges only, a few of which break colour. Nice cover image and pages. Cover coming loose at front only at bottom staple. 

*Power Comics: Although Alan Class had been reprinting Marvel super-hero tales in his various titles from the early 1960s – and Len Miller presented some in his anthologies ‘Spellbound’ and ‘Mystic’ – it took until 1967 before a concerted attempt was made to reprint Marvel superheroes in sequential order. That was in the Power Comics weeklies, and after trials in Smash! Wham! and Pow!, they released Fantastic, a weekly devoted entirely to super-heroes, with Thor, Iron Man and the X-Men from the beginning, in glorious black & white and oddly re-edited for the UK market (such as changing American idioms for more intelligible jargon). We may mock – in fact, those of us who’d been reading the originals all along did – but for those benighted parts of the country where the American editions weren’t imported, this was a gift much appreciated, and many people’s first exposure to the Marvel Universe was in these pages. This is a lovely copy of Fantastic #1 (sadly missing its Free Gift), with great page quality, a white background cover, flat and tight with minimal wear. The staples are firm but just have a minimal amount of rust with a little migration. Slight signs of foxing at cover edges, but bright colours front and back and very little wear.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC #1 FN £60 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Six more classics from the famous Super-Detective Picture Library series this week, featuring female detective Lesley Shane, Jet Scott, Captain Dack and more. From an original owner collection, the condition on these is very consistent.
IN THIS UPDATE: SUPER DETECTIVE LIBRARY
#34 (PICTURED) VG/FN £17.50 Jet Scott & The Sword Of Fire
#35 VG/FN £17.50 Crime Under The Ocean
#39 VG/FN £17.50 Lesley Shane: The Stolen Crown
#40 VG/FN £17.50 The Case Of The Hunted Man
#43 VG/FN £17.50 Meet Captain Dack
#45 VG £15 Crime From The Sky

Operating in an industry which is heavy on the use of cardboard and plastic, we have always been conscious of attempting to be as green as possible in our use of packaging. Whilst we package the vast majority of our outgoing mail in purpose-made mailers offering maximum protection and security for your purchases (these mailers can of course be re-used), we also strive to make use of any suitably sturdy packaging that we can recycle, particularly on very large parcels or those of an unorthodox size. Thus you might find you receive your package/parcel from us in a box that has been used before. Rest assured that we employ strict quality control to protect the integrity of your purchases and we will never compromise on the quality of our packaging. Everything that leaves us is intended to survive even the roughest handling by the postal services, and we make every effort to ensure that your comics and books arrive in the same condition as that in which they were despatched.

*DC: We kick off our first week of releases from the Bute Collection with a relatively modern example. The New Teen Titans debuted in a 16 page insert in DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980), in a story which featured the first appearances of Cyborg, Starfire & Raven. (The main feature was a Superman & Green Lantern story by Marv Wolfman and Jim Starlin.) Wolfman also penned the Titans debut, drawn by George Perez, a team which brought the Titans to prominence as one of the great comics of the 1980s. The Bute Collection copy is a pence printed glossy and colourful edition, with sharp corners, tight staples and white pages. A faint line can be seen in certain light down the centre of the comic, but is not a crease and looks like a printing issue; in no way does this spoil the copy.
PICTURED: DC COMICS PRESENTS #26 VF p £110 SOLD

*Marvel: This week’s first visit to the Good Doctor Collection commences the Captain America issues and features the first appearance of the Falcon, co-star of the recent TV series. Three years after the debut of the Black Panther, 1969’s Captain America #117 saw the debut of Marvel’s second African-American super-hero. Having switched bodies involuntarily with the Red Skull, Cap ends up on Exile Island, being hunted by the Skull’s henchmen. Rescued by a young man named Sam Wilson and his pet hawk, Redwing, Cap persuades Sam of the importance of a costumed identity as a symbol, and Sam adopts the guise of the Falcon, first to inspire revolution in the native population of Exile Island, and later as an aspirational figure in Sam’s Harlem home. The Falcon and his avian sidekick Redwing would become a mainstay of Cap’s series, and of course figure largely in the current Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is a reasonably attractive cents copy, with good colour and some gloss, nice pages and good staples (except that the centrefold is off bottom staple). Some edge and corner wear and markings and (mainly) non-colour breaking creases, but a strong central image.
PICTURED: CAPTAIN AMERICA #117 VG £265 SOLD

*Marvel: More from our comprehensive, high grade Spider-Man Collection this week as we feature four consecutive classic issues by Lee & Romita, featuring Ka-Zar, the Spider Slayer, the Kingpin, Gwen and Mary Jane and the gang etc. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#57 FN/VF £65 A bright, shiny copy with some colour-breaking creases at lower spine and minor edge and corner wear, but white pages and tight staples.
#58 VF £70 Tight, flat and glossy with just minor corner blunting. SOLD
#59 VF- £130 1st Mary Jane cover. Excellent copy with great colour, gloss, nice pages, tight staples, just a few small, non-colour breaking creases at spine.
#60 FN/VF £130 Classic Kingpin cover. Unblemished black background. Shiny and vibrant, with minor corner blunting and a couple of small creases which do not break colour. SOLD

*Marvel: Our Steranko A Go-Go feature showcases the Silver Age Marvel super-hero work of Jim Steranko, one of our favourite artists and one of the most innovative. His storytelling, both words and pictures, sums up the spirit of the late 1960s, and his all too brief body of work has always left his fans clamouring for more. Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD constitutes his main body of work, and we have every Steranko issue of Strange Tales fresh in this week, from #151 to #168. For the budget conscious, many of these are low grade and thus at bargain prices. Included are the first two Living Tribunal appearances (in Dr Strange) in #157 & #158, 1st Val in #159 plus the classic Steranko cover shown here.
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #167 VG+ £32 SOLD

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: A true Golden Age gem from the Bute Collection. Sub-Mariner #6 (Summer 1942 edition) features two long Sub-Mariner stories drawn by Carl Pfeufer and a 20 page Angel story. With a classic cover by Alex Schomburg, who drew many of the Timely super-hero covers. Cover colour is good if a little dingy. There is a long upper spine split of about 10cm (cover off top staple), and a lower spine split of about 8 cm. Tiny chip out of top centre cover and a couple of insect marks causing two small holes though the comic near the spine but below the bottom margin. Small letter in pen or pencil on ‘R’ of logo, tiny scuff mark on Namor’s leg and a couple of soft, short, non-colour breaking creases bottom left of cover. But overall presents very well. We see precious few Golden Age Timelys and the last time we had one demand was phenomenal. High resolution images are available on request, but there is a good chance someone will order this before we can get those to you.
PICTURED: SUB-MARINER #6 (1942) FA/GD £1,075 SOLD

*Alan Class Reprints: Not Plate Sets this week, but 13 Alan Class issues, all pre-decimal and in nice condition, with over half of them reprinting classic Marvel stories. The Avengers, Spider-Man, Daredevil and the Torch/Thing all await within these pages. All those featuring Marvel covers are depicted here. Please refer to the regular catalogue listing for full details of all issues. Most issues have a discreet and unobtrusive previous owner’s label over the ‘Approved Comic’ symbol.
PICTURED: ALL SOLD
LEFT: ASTOUNDING #76 FN £22
RIGHT: SECRETS OF THE UNKNOWN #115 VG/FN £21
BELOW LEFT TO RIGHT:
SECRETS OF THE UNKNOWN #116 FN £22
SINISTER TALES #99 FN/VF £30
SINISTER TALES #101 FN £29
SUSPENSE #101 VG/FN £21
UNCANNY #76 VG+ £19

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: A run of Love Story Library this week from #521 to #550 from the mid-sixties, featuring nearly every issue in that sequence. These are a delight, with lots of Carnaby Street influenced covers and outlandish storylines including perky young witches, creepy Christmasses, go-go girls and other groovy chicks. Bright, upbeat and hugely enjoyable, with colourful eye-catching covers and often striking interior art. These new additions average VG to VF, some only flawed by a degree of staple rust, but many rust-free. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: LOVE STORY LIBRARY #528 VG/FN £4.50

*Marvel: Our Good Doctor update this week continues our new Steranko A Go-Go feature showcasing the Silver Age Marvel super-hero work of Jim Steranko, one of our favourite artists and one of the most innovative. His storytelling, both words and pictures, sums up the spirit of the late 1960s, and his all too brief body of work has always left his fans clamouring for more. Although Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD constituted his main body of work, he did dip a toe into the water of other titles, including three issues of Marvel’s Merry Mutants, the X-Men (covers on all, interior art on #50 & #51).
PICTURED: X-MEN ALL SOLD
#49 FN/VF £350 1st Lorna Dane (later Polaris). Steranko cover. A lovely copy with a totally unmarked cover image and a brilliant, pure white background. Great cover colour and gloss, very little corner blunting, off-white to white supple pages and tight, firmly attached staples. Only minor handling and edge wear.
#50 FN- £250 1st Lorna Dane in costume. Steranko cover and interior art. Dynamic green-tinted cover, one of the great iconic masterpieces of the later Marvel Silver Age. Unmarked cover image with great colour. Off-white to white supple pages and tight, firmly attached staples. A couple of small creases at spine do not break colour; small bit of handling wear near right edge. Very minor edge and corner wear. 
#51 VG/FN £50 Steranko cover and interior art. Great cover colour and off-white to white supple pages and tight, firmly attached staples. Minor handling wear faintly shows across cover; spine wear with tiny colour-breaking creases; some corner blunting.

*Marvel: Doctor Strange has always been blessed with a good selection of artists working on him, nowhere more so than in this update of issues #2-12 of his second series (starting in 1974), with early issues by Frank Brunner, followed by Gene Colan. As a bonus, we also have the rather beautiful Annual #1 from 1976, with stunning art by P Craig Russell. All very nice copies; see our catalogue for full details.
PICTURED: DR STRANGE ANNUAL #1 FN+ £40 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: Top Spot 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, as in issue #1, photos and articles on glamour stars such as Diana Dors and Sabrina would sit alongside quality picture strip stories of crime, sport, western and action. The prize in the competition in #1 (a Vespa scooter) showed that Top Spot’s target audience was young men rather than boys, as did the Free Gift with #1 (sadly missing here) of a glow-spot tie clip. Despite being a publication of some quality, the experiment failed and the comic was merged with Film Fun after a year and a bit. Our copy of #1 is VG, with rusty staples (minimal migration), off bottom staple and minor foxing and corner curling, but in pretty good shape.
PICTURED: TOP SPOT #1 VG £25 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Early issues of Commando remain both tough to get and in high demand, so we’re glad to have five early (ish) examples fresh into stock this week as follows:
IN THIS UPDATE: COMMANDO
ALL SOLD
#59 (PICTURED) FN £25
#60 (PICTURED) VG/FN £22.50
#93 VG (PICTURED) VG £20
#105 VG £15
#115 VG/FN £17.50

Over the years, we have been privileged to handle and market many prestige collections of note, such as the Alan Class Private Collection, the Whitko Collection, the Square Mile Collection and, still ongoing, the Good Doctor Collection and the Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection.

We are now delighted to announce the impending 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.

The overall collection comprises literally tens of thousands of comics, and our job is to sort through them and extract the vintage gems. They are not recorded or ordered, so the journey for us will be just as exciting as it is for you as we’re able to reveal these treasures. We’ve already seen enough to know it will be quite an experience! Special thanks to Will Morgan here for services above and beyond.  

Due to the particular circumstances surrounding the owner of this collection, we can only carry out the sorting on an infrequent and incremental basis, and we expect the whole job to last several years. We will be branding comics from the Bute Collection with special labels and a logo on our What’s New page. And we’ll be starting next week with the first releases. 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. 

*DC: A couple of dozen Silver Age Superboy added to our catalogue this week in the above number range, spanning the 10 cent to 12 cent price change. Includes many issues previously missing from our listings. The Smallville adventures of Superman as a boy are both charming and wacky, featuring his family, friends and foes and, particularly, Krypto the Super-Dog, of course. Full details as always in our catalogue.

*Marvel: In Tales Of Suspense #58, Iron Man and Captain America were ‘in mortal combat’ (as a result of the machinations of Kraven the Hunter and the Chameleon, who had hopped over from Amazing Spider-Man). And in #59, Cap joined the title with the beginning of his own series, and an encounter with a gang of mobsters in a story which also featured the introduction of Jarvis, the Avengers butler. Iron Man meanwhile comes up against the Black Knight. With artwork by Don Heck and Jack Kirby, and guest shots from their fellow Assemblers, these are almost like reading early issues of the Avengers.
PICTURED: TALES OF SUSPENSE
#58 VG- p £135 Pence printed, structurally sound but for a little fragility at front top edge with tiny chip out (similar at back but unaligned). Good spine, tight staples, small signs of wear at edges. Unspoilt cover image. Inner covers are moderately tanned, turning to heavy at edges, but not brittle. Pages are a decent off-white. Faint hint of a subscription crease down top half of front cover barely shows and only breaks colour for a couple of cms into logo.
#59 GD/VG p £115 Pence stamped and structurally sound with good solid spine, tight staples and only minor edge wear. Cover has good colour and some gloss. Nice off-white to cream pages. The comic is marred by a long dust shadow down the right hand edge (see scan). Inner covers are heavily tanned at edges, but not brittle. 

*Marvel: These days, when the roster of the Avengers seems to change every other week, it’s refreshing to remember the first big membership shake-up, in the 16th issue of the Avengers. Yes, the team had gained and lost members before – the Hulk leaving and Captain America joining – but this was a radical event as the remaining four founding Avengers stepped down to leave the team in the hands of Cap – only recently returned from frozen limbo – and three former super-villains, Quicksilver, Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch! The gamble played off, and the ‘Cap’s Kookie Quartet’ years are fondly remembered by most veteran readers. You can read more about this period in Will’s lockdown article here. This Good Doctor copy is mid-grade, pence stamped, with a few minor colour breaking creases on the cover, mostly above the logo, but strong cover colour and gloss, staples tight at spine and centrefold and supple white to off-white pages. Minor edge wear and corner blunting. The deep purple cover background is really vibrant.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #16 VG/FN p £150 SOLD

*Marvel: Continuing our new Steranko A Go-Go feature showcasing the Silver Age Marvel super-hero work of Jim Steranko, one of our favourite artists and one of the most innovative. His storytelling, both words and pictures, sums up the spirit of the late 1960s, and his all too brief body of work has always left his fans clamouring for more. Although Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD constituted his main body of work, he did dip a toe into the water of other titles, including three issues of Captain America: #110, #111 and #113. We have the first two of these in this update. #110 is a landmark issue; Rick Jones takes on the Bucky identity and teams up with Cap against the Hulk. Marvel’s movie star villainess Madame Hydra makes her debut. And I don’t think I’ve ever since the fury of the Hulk so vividly depicted. The story continues in #111.
PICTURED: CAPTAIN AMERICA BOTH SOLD
#110 VG+ p £110 Pence stamped; great cover gloss and colour. White to off-white pages, good staples. Some edge wear and corner blunting, but superb cover image.
#111 GD/VG p £25 Pence stamped, a bit tired and dingy. Staples and pages are okay, minor creasing and corner blunting.

*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.) Just one set this week, but it’s a rather special one. The run of Creepy Worlds reprinting early Fantastic Four issues are particularly prized.
CREEPY WORLDS #37 £225 Comic FA; cover (fairly cleanly) detached; much wear and tear and creasing; dog-eared. Reprints Fantastic Four #6 inc cover, Charlton, Atlas (1 Ditko, 1 Wood). Extra: Colour cover proof (torn and stained). SOLD