*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints Of US Material: We’ve never had this issue in stock before, #1 of the 1st UK series of Flash from Strato publications, reprinting, appropriately enough, the 1st Silver Age Barry Allen Flash issue #105, with its classic Mirror Master cover. Both Flash stories from that issue are here, together with some DC science-fiction stories which look like they’re from Mystery In Space. Not a bad-looking copy, suffering from spine curl where the binding glue has shrunk, and a cover tear at the bottom right corner with no loss. But bright and colourful with clean black and white pages. Perhaps you should bear in mind that an American copy of Flash #105 in this condition would set you back over £1000…
PICTURED: FLASH #1 VG- £50 SOLD

With the infection rate in London now decreasing, we have found a safer way to access our warehouse at certain times, and can now start filling orders from our catalogue.

We have a large backlog of catalogue orders that have built up since we last filled them around mid-December, so it’s going to take us a little while to catch up to date. But if you have placed an order with us and have not yet had it filled, this should happen over the next 1-3 weeks.

Orders may continue to be placed and will be filled in sequence as fast as we can manage it. If you place a catalogue order at the moment, it’s likely to be 2-3 weeks until you hear from us, but we will reserve the items you order.

Orders for items featured in our Newsletters (from 1st Jan onwards) will continue to be filled as they are placed.

A further update on our progress will appear here soon. Thanks for your patience and we hope to be operating normally again as soon as possible.

*DC: A nice selection of lowish grade Detective Comics fresh in this week, spanning the old and the new looks. This update comprises #275 (Zebra batman), #309, #312 (Clayface), #319, #324, #341 (Joker), #347, #355 (Zatanna’s Search Part 5), #368, #371 (classic Batgirl cover, pictured), #374, #377 (Riddler), #382, #390 and #395 (Neal Adams art). Most of these issues are characterised by small label removal scuffs over the Comics Code Box; see our catalogue for full details.
PICTURED: DETECTIVE COMICS #371 GD p £9 SOLD

*Marvel: One very successful latter-day addition to the Web-Head’s Rogue’s Gallery was the Hobgoblin, who made his debut in 1983’s Amazing Spider-Man #238. The path of destruction, and mysterious identity, of this suspiciously familiar evil-doer kept readers entertained for more than a year before the Big Reveal, with several red herrings and false ‘revelations’ along the way. This copy of ASM #238 is a glorious NM- with only the slightest signs of having been read at the spine (I’ve seen brand new comics more worn that this!). Sadly, the Lakeside ‘Tattooz’ are not present; the Good Doctor relates that he used them! The Hobgblin’s second appearance in #239 is an even better NM. 
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#238 NM- £425
#239 NM £60

*Marvel: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. Our last entry in Goblin Week is 2018’s Amazing Spider-Man #797 sporting an ‘homage’ cover to #238, Mayhew Variant with the Red Goblin (synthesis of Norman Osborn and Carnage, apparently). This is a CGC Blue Label (unrestored) 9.8 (NM/M equivalent) with white pages and a totally undamaged case.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #797 9.8 NM/M £150

*Marvel: We commence the Thor listings from the Good Doctor Collection with one of the most sought-after issues: Journey Into Mystery #112. One of the scarcer early Thor appearances, at least here in the Old Country, an oddball ‘untold tale’ flashing back to the events of Avengers #3. Intervening in a dispute between fans of the Hulk and Thor, the Thunder God himself responds to the question of who’s stronger by narrating an extended ‘Director’s Cut’ of the previous skirmish between himself and old Jade-Jaws in said Avengers issue. Apparently intended to ‘big up’ the profile of the Hulk – who was at that point homeless, a wandering villain without his own series – this ‘extended remix’ story is superbly told by Lee and Kirby, and in the back, ‘Tales of Asgard’ relates the origin of Loki, now of course more significant than ever. Only lightly distributed in the UK for unknown reasons, this is scarcer here than its contemporaries, although this specific copy is a pence stamped lower mid-grade copy. Quite a few long creases on the front and back covers, although most of them don’t break colour and the cover retains good colour and some gloss. Edge wear and corner blunting, but nothing severe. Staples are decent and firm at the covers, although the centrefold is coming a little loose at the top staple. Page quality is a very acceptable off-white. More from the Good Doctor next week!
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #112 GD/VG p £150 SOLD

*Marvel: From 1990, the sought-after prestige format 2 issue series ‘The Thanos Quest’, by Jim Starlin (his creator) and Ron Lim. Both high grade issues are offered here as a set. For those who like their Marvel cosmic.
PICTURED: THE THANOS QUEST
#1 VF+, #2 NM- SOLD AS SET £35 SOLD

*Miscellaneous 1960 Onwards: Dark Horse’s long association with the Star Wars franchise is widely regarded as the finest Star Wars comics by many fans of the phenomenally popular Star Wars concept. Dark Horse Star Wars comics were mostly produced in mini-series, and the very first of them was the Dark Empire sequence of 6 issues from 1991. We have the first two issues fresh in this week.
PICTURED: STAR WARS DARK EMPIRE #1 VF/NM £30
ALSO AVAILABLE #2 VF £7.50

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Four early issues from the famous Super-Detective Library series, all in nice condition, featuring Dick Barton, Lesley Shane and other mysteries. Great art from the early 1950s.
PICTURED: SUPER-DETECTIVE LIBRARY
#12 DICK BARTON: CITY UNDER THE SEA VG/FN £17.50
#16 LESLEY SHANE: THE RIDDLE OF THE RACE GANG VG/FN £17.50
#17 THE PHANTOM OF THE FUN-FAIR VG/FN £17.50
#19 LESLEY SHANE: THE LAST JEST OF ANGELO YATES VG/FN £17.50

Since we initiated our restrcted sales, the infection rate for Covid has worsened, at one point reaching 1 in 10 in London. All of us involved with filling and despatching your orders have had three vaccinations, and there is no incidence of the virus here. However, we have a highly vulnerable family member that we have to care for. 

Our warehouse is located in a complex of similar businesses and we share common entrances, lifts, stairs and corridors. Thus it is impossible not to encounter others on trips there. In view of this, we have decided that we can only have very restricted access to it for short specific periods until the level of infection has decreased to what we woud consider to be within the realms of safety.

For the time being, therefore, and until further notice, we will only be able to fill orders from the stock listed in our new weekly newsletters (from 1st January onwards) and comics listed in our catalogue which are priced at £50 or more.

You can place orders for other items from our catalogue and we will record them, reserve the items for you (as long as no one else has reserved them before you) and contact you again when we can access our warehouse fully and check that you want to go ahead with your order. It’s impossible to say at the moment how long this will go on for, but we will post further information here as things change.

I apologise for any disappointment and inconvenience this may cause, but I’m sure you understand that we have to put health and safety first in these difficult times.

*DC: Part of Jack Kirby’s famed and epic 4th World sequence at DC, New Gods #1 (1971), featured the debut of Orion and the 4th appearance of Darkseid (cameo). We have a low to mid-grade pence stamped copy on offer, with some edge wear and corner blunting, firm staples, small scuff marks over the pence stamp where a label has been removed, a faint pencil mark across part of the logo, and a long colour-breaking crease (that is not too discernable) across the bottom right corner of the cover. The copy is a little tired, and has some tanning to the inside cover edges, with minimal light tanning to the off-white page edges. 
PICTURED: NEW GODS #1 GD/VG p £50 

*Marvel: We’re being  particularly blessed right now with two superb collections coming through our hands. You’ve already seen many releases from the Good Doctor Collection, which covers the vast majority of the Marvel Silver Age, with only the tip of the iceberg released so far. Now, we’re proud to present the Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection, which 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+.

As often as we can, we shall be releasing issues from the Totally Amazing Spider-Man Collection, starting this week with #12, the earliest. (Please don’t ask for details of other issues in this collection, since nothing will be ready before it’s listed here.)

Not a dream! Not an imaginary tale! (How very DC-like of Marvel to use those blurbs!) How does Spidey get out of this one? Well, we’re not saying… In the 12th issue of Amazing, Spidey comes up again against the dastardly Doc Ock, with the results shown on the cover. This is a beautiful pence printed copy, with vivid colour cover and gloss and a totally unspoilt cover image (just the merest suggestion of a couple of tiny creases across the very extreme of the bottom right cover, but these can barely be seen). Tight and flat with firm staples and virtually no wear but for a miniscule chip at the bottom right edge. Lovely white to off-white pages. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #12 VF- p £675 SOLD

*Marvel. ‘The Master Of Planet X’ sounds more like a sci-fi B movie than an issue of the Fantastic Four, but that’s what you get in FF #7, where Kurrgo, the aforementioned Master, turns the human race against our heroes in order to persuade them to journey to Planet X in order to save it. A reasonable pence printed copy, with edge wear, some cover creasing (non colour-breaking), but a long subscription crease which isn’t too bad. Good staples and decent page quality.
PICTURED: FANTASTIC FOUR #7 GD/VG p £165 SOLD

*Marvel: In Ms Marvel #1, spinning out of Captain Marvel, former background character Carol Danvers got her own set of super-powers and a whole new supporting cast (including new boss J. Jonah Jameson) as she attempted to discover the mystery behind her own origins. Although moderately successful, the series was attacked by critics who derided Carol’s derivative costume, which made her look like Captain Marvel’s sidekick, and the fact that Marvel were offering a ‘powerful, confident’ heroine who suffered from blackouts and amnesia. Despite these jibes, Ms Marvel has been a prominent member of the Marvel Universe for nearly forty years in one guise or another – whether as Ms Marvel, Binary, Warbird, or most recently the latest Captain Marvel, her chequered history has provided many intriguing plotlines. With the Captain Marvel movie, starring Carol Danvers, being a blockbuster hit worldwide, early appearances of the character have heated up. This is a CGC 9.2 (NM-) cents copy, unrestored universal blue label, with white pages and a case in perfect condition. 
PICTURED: MS MARVEL #1 CGC 9.2 NM- £170

*EC: Always a joy to welcome original ECs to our listings, for quality and workmanship in the genres they covered unsurpassed before or since. Two issues of Shock Suspenstories new in this week, the ‘sort of’ compendium title which featured horror, science-fiction and crime. Both #7 and #11 are full of all of these, with art in #7 by Jack Kamen, Wally Wood, Joe Orlando and George Evans, within a classic melting face Al Feldstein cover. #11 features Johnny Craig (inc cover), Wood, Reed Crandall and Kamen. 
PICTURED: SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES
#7 VG+ £250 Pre-Code. A very solid copy with great spine, firmly attached staples and very little wear, marred only by the previous owner’s name written in biro several times across the logo and blurb box, but fortunately not the cover image. There is the very faint vestige of a very soft diagonal crease across the bottom left of the cover (the window area), but this is barely noticeable.
#11 GD/VG £60 Pre-code. Staples firm at centre, a little loose at spine. Long horizontal colour-breaking crease across logo, small paint stain just below it. Spine and edge wear. SOLD

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: The longest-running Western character from Atlas/Marvel, Kid Colt, was heavily reprinted in two series in the UK in the 1950s. The first, from Strato, lasted 58 issues from 1955-1958 and the second, from Top Sellers, lasted (as far as we know) just 6 issues from 1959-1960. All issues were a bumper 68 pages in black and white and featured Kid Colt stories alongside other Western Heroes from Atlas, DC and other publishers. A large update this week with issues from the 1st series between #46-52, as well as what we believe to be the complete second series from #1-6. Full grading and pricing details in our catalogue.
PICTURED: KID COLT OUTLAW (2ND SERIES) #1 FN £20 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Probably the most valuable and prized of all Picture Libraries, we’re pleased as punch to present a copy of Commando War Stories In Pictures #1 from 1961: ‘Walk Or Die!’. We don’t see many copies of this coveted collectable — perhaps this is the fourth to come through our hands in 30 years (and one of the previous was incomplete). The good news is that this copy is complete and probably in the best shape of all the copies we’ve had. The cover image is strong with great colour and all the pages are white and firmly attached, with just minor tanning to the very edges. There are a few cover wear marks, mainly in the smoke part of the image to the right edge. The spine is almost totally intact with a very small 1 cm tear midway with no loss and a 2 cm lower spine split.  A great opportunity to obtain this iconic item. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED: COMMANDO #1 GD/VG £625 SOLD

*DC: We continue our Legion of Super-Heroes event with one of the earliest adventures of the Legion in their own series, Adventure Comics #309 (although DC missed a trick really by continuing to feature the Superboy back-up story on the cover at this time). The main event is the ‘Legion of Super-Monsters’ story featuring the villainy of Jungle King, who, following the refusal of his application to join the LSH forms his own Legion of alien beasts to wreak havoc. Contains the classic lines from Sun Boy: “You can’t bring that dangerous borlat in here!” and Brainiac 5: “We’ll draw lots for the job excluding Saturn Girl, because it’s too risky a mission for a girl!” (Guess he forgot she was leader at the time!) A lovely CGC 7.5 VF- cents copy with light tan/off-white pages, unrestored blue label, totally undamaged case. 
PICTURED: ADVENTURE COMICS #309 CGC 7.5 VF- £55 SOLD

*Marvel: Absolutely loads of goodies to come from the Good Doctor Collection in 2022! We kick off the year with the first appearance of the Vision in Avengers #57. A significant latecomer to the Silver Marvel Age, the enigmatic synthezoid, the Vision premiered as a villainous pawn of the evil Ultron. Rapidly being discovered to be misguided, he was offered membership the next issue, in one of the most rapid reforms ever, and became a mainstay of the Avengers and the MU in general, particularly through his convoluted relationship with the Scarlet Witch. Based on a Simon & Kirby character from the 1940s, Roy Thomas’ love affair with all things Golden Age stood him in good stead, as the Vision captured the hearts and minds of readers worldwide… though the exquisite art by John Buscema doubtless didn’t hurt! Now a pillar of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Vision’s star continues to rise. This cents copy is a solid mid-grade with a strong and colour-rich cover image retaining some gloss; there are minor creases to the top and bottom right edge corners, but these barely break colour. There are a couple of 2 cm scoring marks around Hawkeye’s upper left arm, but these do not penetrate paper. Staples are tight and firmly attached; reading wear at the spine is very minor; excellent off-white page quality.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #57 VG+ £275

*Marvel: We round off this week’s selection from the Good Doctor Collection with a consecutive run of Iron Man between #21 to #30, which seem to turn up less often than most titles from this period. Mostly in nice grades, these are all flagged up as ‘The Good Doctor Collection’ in our catalogue and are available for immediate order and despatch. More from the Good Doctor next week!

*Marvel: Following his 1976 return to Marvel, the legendary Jack Kirby was anxious not to get trapped in the cycle of just illustrating super-heroes again, and one of his conditions was that he would be allowed to write and draw his own concepts. How much of the Eternals concept was his is, politely, open to debate; reminiscent of the then-popular Erich Von Daniken paperbacks, which asserted that mankind’s historical ‘Gods’ were alien visitors, Kirby’s Eternals postulated the return of ancient immortal extraterrestrials and the cataclysmic repercussions for humanity. Originally intended to stand apart from the Marvel Universe, it was shoehorned in at editorial insistence, which resulted in Kirby eventually abandoning the strip mid-story, but with the Eternals movie this series has gathered a lot of interest. This is a nice, above average copy of the first issue, pence printed, with just minor reading wear at the edges and a tiny colour-breaking crease at the bottom right corner (and I do mean tiny!). Great colour and gloss, firm, tight staples and white pages.
PICTURED: ETERNALS #1 FN+ p £90 SOLD

*Vintage Magazine-Sized Comics: Also known as Marvel Spring Special #1, this one-shot black and white magazine from 1988 adapts the then new comedy horror feature film starring the famous glamour horror hostess. Not distributed in the UK and not well distributed anywhere, this is the first copy of this rarity we’ve ever had for sale. Colour cover by Joe Jusko and colour back cover with a photo of Elvira herself. A lovely copy, with just the very slightest signs of ageing at the spine and edges.
PICTURED: ELVIRA MISTRESS OF THE DARK #1 VF £75

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: This week, we conclude our 1953 listing of Lion, the ‘King Of Picture Story Papers’ with the fourth and final quarter, all 13 issues from October to December. From an original owner collection, these average a nice uniform VG at £5 each, with one or two higher or lower. The inevitable rusty staples are not too much in evidence with only minimal bleed. As Lion succinctly put it in one of their straplines: ‘School, War, Detective & Adventure Picture Stories.’ See our catalogue for full details.

*Girls’ Comics: From January 1958, we are pleased to welcome the first issue of the girls’ weekly which came to define the category: Bunty. D C Thomson’s first venture into the girls’ comic market (they had essayed a few story papers for the fairer sex, without conspicuous success) proved to be a smash hit. Granted, at the time of its launch, rivals were scarce – only Odhams’ distaff Eagle, Girl, and the converted story papers from Amalgamated, Girls’ Crystal and School Friend, existed to compete – but Bunty trumped them all, becoming the longest-running of the type, not hanging up her hockey sticks until the early days of the 21st Century. This copy of #1 – only the third we’ve ever had in stock during our 30 years’ trading – features ‘The Four Marys’ (who lasted until the final issue – without ever leaving school!), ‘The Dancing Life of Moira Kent;, ‘Orphan of the Circus’, ‘Parachute Nurse’, and what appeared to be a European import, ‘Bimbo and her Baby’ – which would be a very different strip if it were released these days! Make no mistake if you’re considering adding this to your collection — it’s a POOR copy, with browned ragged cover edges; 90% of the cover is loose with just a small piece to the bottom spine hanging on. There are also chips out and margin tears inside. Apart from the missing chips however (which don’t affect stories) it IS complete, and at a price which won’t break the bank and will fill a gap for you until a better one turns up.
PICTURED: BUNTY #1 PR £50 SOLD