*Horror 1940-1959: The short-lived post-code title from Atlas, Strange Tales Of The Unusual, ran for 10 issues from 1955 to 1957 and is noted for a stellar line-up of artists in its short story horror/mystery format. Here are two classy issues: in #5, we have the work of Crandall and Ditko, and in #7, of Kirby and Orlando.
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES OF THE UNUSUAL
#5 VG £59 Nice solid copy with good colour and gloss, unmarked cover, good staples and pages, moderate edge and spine wear.
#7 App VG £53 Decent copy with small horizontal nick out of spine near top staple, possible but unconfirmed colour touch in that area, good staples and pages, moderate edge and spine wear.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: It’s perhaps not well known that Micron published two separate series with the word ‘Combat’ in the title. Both commenced in 1959. The more familiar Combat Picture Library lasted until 1985 (1212 issues); the sister title Combat Library lasted at least 80+ issues (as far as anyone seems to know) and featured illustrated text stories with the occasional picture strip. The series are easily confused. We have examples of both in this update: 3 issues of Combat Library including some of the final issues) and several dozen Combat Picture Library, all pre-decimal in the series’ original livery. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED:
COMBAT LIBRARY #81 VG £3
COMBAT PICTURE LIBRARY #192 VG/FN £3.50 SOLD

*DC: In Adventure Comics #283, we witness the first reference and use of the Phantom Zone, an other dimensional prison to where Krypton exiled its criminals, who thus survived the destruction of Superboy’s home world. Primarily featured was General Zod, the would-be dictator of Krypton. Both Zod and the Phantom Zone itself went on to be heavily featured in Superman lore from then on. A long back-up story features Congorilla. This is a nice bright, clean pence-stamped copy, with a small colour-breaking crease across the bottom right corner, minor edge wear and a short central spine split, as well as a shorter one at the base of the spine (about 2 cm). Firm staples and nice white to off-white pages.
PICTURED: ADVENTURE COMICS #283 GD/VG p £200 SOLD

*Marvel: We lead off this week’s selection from the Good Doctor Collection with the debut of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, thus 1st appearances of Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, Mastermind and the Toad in the fourth issue of the X-Men from 1964. It’s a great pity that no one told Wanda that the clue to her costume colour was in her name, and thus she posed in a fetching shade of Emerald for the cover. Another Lee/Kirby classic and the first appearances of Wanda and Pietro, who were destined to become cornerstones of the Marvel universe. This is a decent towards mid-grade pence printed copy with relatively minor edge and handling wear (tiny chip out lower right cover). Good cover colour and a scene unspoilt apart from a faint book shop stamp in an unobtrusive part of the cover below the issue number. Staples are firmly attached at spine and centrefold. Pages are a nice, supple off-white. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: X-MEN #4 VG p £1,500 SOLD

*Marvel: Concluding the Good Doctor selections this week. The early issues of the Fantastic Four were bursting with characters who would later play pivotal roles in the greatest Marvel Universe, and issue #8 was no exception. This issue saw the introduction of Phillip Masters, the Puppet Master, whose traumatic childhood caused him to seek power, wealth and companionship by controlling the minds of others via a certain radioactive clay isotope, which he fashioned into puppets of the real people to invoke a modern-day voodoo. Appearing multiple times in the Marvel Universe, he remains a bane of the FF to this day – though his one emotional weak spot is his genuine love for his step-daughter Alicia, perhaps born of guilt over Alicia’s blindness, which was caused by an explosion during a dispute between Masters and Alicia’s father, in which Alicia’s father was killed. Alicia herself, originally a pawn of her evil step-father, has assumed a larger role, becoming first the beloved of Ben Grimm, the Fantastic Four’s Thing, sightlessly sensing the noble soul beneath the monstrous facade, and also, pivotally, convincing the aloof Silver Surfer of the value of humanity in the epic ‘Galactus Trilogy’. This is a colour-touched copy of this double debut, with clumsy grey inking above the logo and (we believe) some black at the spine. There is a ragged torn corner off the back cover the size of a large thumb. Other than that it’s a copy that presents well, with gloss and nice pages and only minor wear, but priced down to reflect the damage and restoration. More from the Good Doctor next week.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #8 App VG/FN £185 SOLD

*Marvel: In Avengers #83, we were treated not only to the debut of the Valkyrie – admittedly a persona adopted by the evil Enchantress here, but soon to become a star in her own right – but also the Lady Liberators, a team of heroic ladies who were nobody’s weaker vessels! in #87, we learned for the first time the detailed origin of the African Avenger, the Black Panther.
PICTURED: AVENGERS
#83 VG+ p £60 Colourful and glossy, good staples, nice pages. Spine and edge wear, small soft creases to top right corner, just breaking colour.
#87 FN+ p £90 Pence stamp, rich colour and gloss, good staples, nice pages. Tiny scuff/tear towards top of masthead box; tiny chip at bottom right corner, but an excellent copy.

*Miscellaneous 1940-1959: As we’ve said before, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby famously produced a wealth of material in the 1940s and 1950s in a wide variety of genres. Justice Traps the Guilty was a crime series by them from Prize, of which we have four issues new in this week from 1947 onwards. All issues have a varying amount of Simon & Kirby work present.
PICTURED: JUSTICE TRAPS THE GUILTY ALL SOLD
#7 GD £30 A little grubby & tired looking at spine & edge, but no specific defects.
#8 FA £15 Cover off lower staple, tear at lower staple area (approx 2 cm), notable corner creasing and spine wear, centrefold loose but present with ragged outer edges.
#10 FA £15 1 cm tear centre spine. Centrefold loose and edges of centrefold have been rather hamfistedly trimmed, very close to story edges.
#11 FA/GD £13 S & K cover only. Spine roll, tiny chip lower right cover, minor chipping right cover edge.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: One of the icons of British comics’ history, Eagle started up in 1950; every issue of its twenty year run starred Dan Dare, its most famous son. We’re always selling lots of Eagles, and we’re delighted to be able to replenish our stocks of the first volume this week, including many issues previously missing from our listings. A mix of grades. Consult our catalogue to fill your gaps!
PICTURED: EAGLE VOL 1 #5 £20 Covers separated.

*Girls’ Comics: A timely update to our stocks of the long-lived (1957-1974) Valentine comic this week, with a handful of issues from 1958/59 and many from 1962, including the Christmas issue. A delightful mix of romance strips and pop music content, typified nowhere better than the cover stories which portrayed a comic strip based on a hit song from the pop charts of the time. Mixed condition on these; inevitable rusty staples abound, except on the earliest issues, where a number have had their staples removed, leaving rusty paper stains! Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: VALENTINE 29/12/62 VG £16 Christmas issue

*DC: We continue our Legion of Super-Heroes event with Adventure Comics #267 from 1959. Twenty issues after their first appearance in Adventure #247, the Legion returned in ‘Prisoner Of The Super-Heroes!’ At this stage, Lightning Boy had become Lightning Lad in the costume he became famous for, and Saturn Girl had adopted her familiar red outfit (although I note she was a mousey-haired individual inside, whereas she was her proper blonde colour on the cover. Cosmic Boy’s outfit was more purple than the ‘pale scarlet’ it would evolve into. The story seems like one of those that was dreamed up to fit the cover scene which I assume came first. Superbly crafted stories of Aquaman and Green Arrow as back-ups. A decent copy, with a strong unspoilt cover image and rich colour. There is some chipping along the right edge (but nothing too bad) and wear along the spine, although the staples are firm there (the centrefold is off at the top staple only). Below the bottom staple inside the cover two small pieces of tape reinforce the spine. Pages are an okay off-white to cream. All in all, a fairly presentable copy.
PICTURED: ADVENTURE COMICS #267 VG- £100 SOLD

*Marvel: Flush with success at the dawn of the Marvel Universe, Stan Lee had an epiphany: if Iron Man, Thor and company were successful on their own – how much better would they be together? Thus was born the Avengers, in which Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp were brought together by the fiendish machinations of Loki and an heroic dynasty began which continues to this day! The Avengers has lasted myriad issues, with a plethora of spin-offs, and a veritable regiment of members (not to mention an extremely lucrative movie franchise), but this is the comic in which it all began! This is a comic which normally turns up for us in low grade, but this issue is an exception: a beautiful mid-grade copy, pence printed, with superb eye appeal. Rich cover colour and good gloss, with no blemishes. There are some minor creases (short horizontal and longer vertical) along the spine, a few of which faintly break colour, and tiny bits of wear at the corners, which remain reasonably sharp. Staples are firmly attached at spine and centrefold; pages are a very supple white to off-white. High resolution images are available on request. 
PICTURED: AVENGERS #1 VG/FN p £4,000 SOLD

*Marvel: A two-part slabbed extravaganza this week, as Spidey is menaced by reptiles! Both Stegron the Dinosaur Man and the ever-popular Lizard are spoiling Spidey’s Christmas in these high-grade copies. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#165 CGC 9.6 NM+ £100 Unrestored blue label universal grade, white pages, case perfect.
#166 CGC 9.6 NM+ £80 Unrestored blue label universal grade, off-white to white pages, case perfect. SOLD

*Marvel: From the Good Doctor Collection: As all good Marvelites know, the Mighty Thor debuted in Journey Into Mystery #83, and soon took over the title, adding his name to the logo before long. However, it wasn’t until issue #126 that Journey Into Mystery was dropped and the title became simply Thor. Thus #126 is a first issue of sorts. It’s joined here by the next seven issues as well. Thor encounters the Greek Pantheon, in particular Hercules, Zeus and Pluto (I think that’s a bit of Graeco-Roman wrestling going on with the names there!), plus an adventure with Tana Nile and the Colonizers in outer space, culminating in an epic encounter with Ego, the Living Planet. Cosmic adventure on a grand scale as only Stan & Jack could deliver!
IN THIS UPDATE: THOR
#126 VG+ p £62 (PICTURED) SOLD
#127 GD/VG £12 SOLD
#128 VG/FN p £18 SOLD
#129 GD/VG p £11 SOLD
#130 GD/VG p £12 SOLD
#131 VG+ p £15 SOLD
#132 VG/FN p £25 1st cameo Ego, the Living Planet
#133 FN- p £80 (PICTURED) Scarce; 1st full Ego, the Living Planet SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: After selling a Commando #1 a few weeks ago, we’re particularly pleased to have a nice copy of #2 fresh in. ‘They Called Him Coward!’ is a lovely copy, with vivid cover colour and a spine intact but for narrow splits of about 1 cm at top and bottom. Binding is tight and pages near white. A little spine wear and edge creasing, but a solid and good-looking copy.
PICTURED: COMMANDO #2 VG £300 SOLD

*DC: Although DC missed a trick by not including him on the cover, let me assure you that Green Lantern’s arch nemesis, Sinestro, does indeed make his first appearance within Green Lantern #7 (1961). Steeped in Green Lantern lore, the lead story introduced the renegade Green Lantern who would go on the plague the Emerald Gladiator throughout his career. This is a reasonable flat cents copy, with a totally unmarked cover image with rich colour. Light-moderate spine wear and minimal edge wear with good, firmly attached staples. Tiny nicks at top and bottom of spine. Pages are off-white with a light tanning at edges; inside covers are also a little tanned. A supple and attractive copy. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: GREEN LANTERN #7 VG- £500 SOLD

*DC: Over two dozen issues of Silver Age Flash fresh in this week. Mostly these are lower to mid-graded copies and very affordable. New issues comprise: #124 (Captain Boomerang and Elongated Man), #134 (Captain Cold & Elongated Man), #136 (Mirror Master), #140 (1st Heatwave plus Captain Cold), #146 (Mirror Master), #147 (2nd Professor Zoom plus Mr Element), #155 (Rogues’ Gallery), #159 (Kid Flash), #161 (Mirror Master), #163, #165 (Wedding of Barry & Iris), #166 (Captain Cold & Heatwave), #168 (Green Lantern), #171, #172 (Gorilla Grodd), #174 (Rogues’ Gallery), #176, #177, #178 (80 Page Giant), #179, #180, #181, #182, #185 and the 80 Page Giant Annual #1. Full grading and pricing details in our catalogue. Proof, were it needed, that the Silver Age Flash had the coolest gang of friends and foes around! 

*Marvel: The implacable robotic Sentinels, nemeses of the X-Men, have loomed large in the history of Marvel’s Mutant Heroes, making multiple appearances, each more fearsome than the last. The creations of a man determined to expunge the mutant genome from humanity, they emphasise the X-Men’s ‘otherness’, which is why they resonate so strongly with the readership. Here, we are pleased to present, kicking off the X-Men from the Good Doctor Collection, the trilogy of issues in which the Sentinels debuted: X-Men #14-16, all decent cents copies. 
PICTURED: X-MEN
#14 VG+ £470 Nice cover with rich colour, staples firmly attached. Reading wear at spine; moderate-light edge wear includes small tears at bottom and right edges; no other creasing. Pages are off-white. Some corner blunting. SOLD
#15 FN+ £225 Superior copy with rich glossy cover colour; staples are firmly attached. Minor edge wear only; white to off-white pages. Minor corner blunting and a small crease across bottom left cover corner does not break colour. SOLD
#16 FN £180 Lovely copy with rich cover colour; staples are firmly attached. Minor edge wear only, including a couple of small creases at spine which do not break colour. Minor corner blunting; off white pages.  

*Marvel: Joining the Avengers during the ‘Cap’s Kookie Quartet’ phase, the Swordsman was a swashbuckling crusader introduced to the team by departed Avenger Iron Man – or so our heroes thought! Actually, his whole backstory was a ruse, and the Swordsman was an agent of the Mandarin, sent to destroy the team from within. His deception exposed, the Swordsman spent the next several years as a member of various villainous teams, before redeeming himself, dying heroically, and marrying Mantis. (Yes, in that order. The Seventies were a strange time in comics.) Since then, of course, he’s returned from the dead, and developed an elaborate retcon involving his being either Hawkeye’s mentor or long-lost brother, depending on who’s in charge of continuity in any given week. Investors should note his apparent appearances in the recent Hawkeye TV show. Here is his first two-part story, from the Good Doctor Collection copies of Avengers #19 & #20, both bearing the Marvel Pop Art logo. More from the Good Doctor Collection next week!
PICTURED: AVENGERS
#19 VG- p £48 Pence printed, with corner blunting and small colour-breaking creases across the top and bottom right edge s of the cover and along the spine. Firmly attached staples and reasonable off-white pages.
#20 VG+ p £40 Pence printed, corner blunting with small colour-breaking creases at spine and a longer one across the logo, but rich cover colour, firm staples and nice page quality. A solid, clean copy.

*Marvel: A Frankenstein copy of a comic is where pieces from two or more copies have been combined to make a complete issue. Not a particularly pleasing process, but the results can be remarkable, and, if priced correctly, can result in real bargains. This copy of Journey Into Mystery #87, Thor’s fifth outing, is a good example. The beautiful cover has rich and vivid glossy orange and other colours, and virtually no wear except for a faint reading crease in from the spine which does not break colour. The edges are sharp, and the white pages are immaculate. Ordinarily, VF would be a conservative grade for this copy, which, unmolested, would price at £600-700. But then we come to the Frankenstein part. The right edge looks like it’s had a micro-trim and is very sharp, while the pages hang down a couple of mm below the bottom cover edge, correspondingly short of the top cover edge by the same amount. It’s almost certain therefore that the inside pages have been lined up with the staple holes to match the staple holes on the cover, and the centrefold is just coming loose at the bottom staple, tell-tale signs that the interiors have been remounted on to a cover from another copy that does not exactly match up staple hole wise. Nevertheless, a chance to acquire a beautiful looking copy at a bargain price. 
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #87 App VF £200 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 penultimate issue, #118, 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 include two stylish horror shorts by Jay Disbrow plus reprints of Fox science-fiction and jungle stories with horror overtones. But it’s the wonderful L B Cole cover for which this issue is prized. This is a very nice copy with excellent cover colour and gloss, tight and flat with staples firm at spine and centrefold and beautiful white to off-white supple pages. There is minimal wear around the lower staple and a tiny colour-breaking crease across the extreme of the right cover bottom corner. A soft crease of 5 cm length is at lower cover centre, but this only threatens to break colour for half its length with the light at a specific angle; this is a tough one to call. There is one further very faint soft crease up a couple of cms from the bottom edge, which does not break colour. Older than me, and has worn considerably better! High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: BLUE BOLT WEIRD TALES #118 VG/FN £540 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A round-up of various titles in this category this week, including the coolly stylish Lone Rider, Pearson’s Picture Stories of World War II and Secret Agent, a single issue of the rare and keenly pursued Pocket Chiller Library, three late Super Detective with Buck Ryan and the Shadow (not that one), two footballing issues of Tiger Sports, TV Picture Stories with the Buccaneers, Valiant (#5) and a couple of War At Sea. Something for most tastes; full details in our catalogue.
PICTURED:
LONE RIDER PICTURE LIBRARY #3 FN £12
POCKET CHILLER LIBRARY #122 GD £6
TV PICTURE STORIES: THE BUCCANEERS #1 GD/VG £10

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: More than 10 issues of Picture Romance Library added this week between #393 and #406, still in the mid 1960s and nearing the end of the publication run by Pearson’s (soon to be taken over by Newnes). Very mixed condition on these, but all okay. The cover artist was still experimenting with likenesses of pop and film stars on the covers until the bitter end.
PICTURED: PICTURE ROMANCE LIBRARY #404 VF £8

*DC: We don’t often turn to DC for our Horror Fest updates, but this week is an exception. It was only three weeks ago that I was writing here that we seldom see issues of Sensation Mystery through our hands, and like buses, a second one has now turned up in quick succession. Continuing the numbering from Sensation Comics, this issue, #113 from 1953, features a tale of the supernatural adventurer  Johnny Peril (a sort of John Constantine prototype), as shown on the striking cover, as well as several beautifully crafted tales of horror and mystery by some of DC’s finest creators of the time. Sadly, a low grade copy due to the covers being detached and separated, but not in bad nick apart from that.
PICTURED: SENSATION MYSTERY #113 FA £45 SOLD

*Marvel: Our second visit to the Good Doctor Collection this week features the second and third issues of the first Iron Man series from 1968. In #2, Shell-Head comes up against the Demolisher, while in #3 there is a re-match with the Freak, a transformed Happy Hogan. Stories by Archie Goodwin with art by EC alumnus Johnny Craig. Two very presentable copies.
PICTURED: IRON MAN
#2 FN/VF £90 Tight, flat and glossy with firm staples, off-white pages and very minor edge wear. SOLD
#3 VF- £90 Tight, flat and glossy with firm staples, white to off-white pages and very little wear.

*Marvel:  Rounding up some loose ends from recently-acquired Marvel Silver Age collections, we have six excellent issues which show that not everything costs hundreds of pounds these days.
IN THIS UPDATE: ALL SOLD
CAPTAIN AMERICA #112 GD- £4.50 Last Kirby Silver Age issue
DAREDEVIL #10 FA £6.50 by Wally Wood
DAREDEVIL #15 FN+ £40 (PICTURED) Re-Match with the Ox; Romita warming up for Spider-Man
HULK #109 FN/VF p £25 With Ka-Zar in the Savage Land
NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD #12 VG+ p £8.50 Barry Smith art
X-MEN #66 GD/VG p £23.25 Vs the Hulk; final new story of Silver Age series