*Dell: I remember as a youngster going to see the Dr. Who and the Daleks film in 1965, and the thrill of seeing the Daleks in colour. Even then, I recall being puzzled by the fact that this Dr. Who (Peter Cushing) was not William Hartnell (this was before the days of regenerations). But without worrying about canon, the film was one to enjoy in its own right, adapting Terry Nation’s very first Dalek story from the TV series. Equally enjoyable is the adaptation of the same story in the first American comic (from 1966) to feature the franchise. Co-scripted by Terry Nation with art by Dick Giordano and Sal Tapani. This copy has a worn cover, but is intact except for a small chip out of the bottom right corner edge with a small crease above it. Off top staple, but otherwise tight and flat; very nice page quality. There are the remnants of a small water stain at the back left cover edge and in the margin of the last few pages, but overall an iconic comic that presents well and something I think we’ve only seen once before in 30 years.
PICTURED: DELL MOVIE CLASSIC 12-190-612 DR WHO AND THE DALEKS VG- £100 SOLD

*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 through 2021 and probably into 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.) We continue this week with three more sets, details as follows:
SECRETS OF THE UNKNOWN #125 £80 Comic: FN Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #76 inc cover plus Atlas, Charlton, ACG. Extra: Colour cover proof  
SINISTER TALES #53 £95 Comic: VG Reprints Daredevil #5 by Wally Wood inc cover plus Atlas (1 Everett), Charlton, pre-hero Marvel  (1 Ditko) Extra: Colour cover proof (torn and taped with part logo missing)
UNCANNY TALES #4 £50 Comic FN+ Reprints Charlton & Atlas, 1 Captain Video.  

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Bulldog Drummond was a between the wars tough gentleman adventurer created by H C McNeile (pen-name ‘Sapper’) and had an illustrious career in books, radio, TV, film, theatre and even comics. Super-Detective Library adapted the first and fourth Bulldog Drummond novels in issues #3 and #13.  We have very sound copies of both in VG/FN, flat and tight with great colour covers and nice page quality, with just the merest signs of wear and an inevitable appearance by our old friend the rusty staple, although here he is not much in evidence. 
PICTURED: SUPER-DETECTIVE LIBRARY
#3 BULLDOG DRUMMOND VG/FN £45
#13 BULLDOG DRUMMOND AGAIN: THE FINAL COUNT VG/FN £17.50 SOLD

*Childrens’ Books: A further update from this quirky sidebar in publishing history this week. ‘Blitz Books’ is a generic name for various publishers’ series of miniature books (approx 8.5 x 12 cm, around 16 pages, and published 1940-1944), these booklets helped distract children in air-raid shelters and Underground stations during bombing raids over London. They became known as ‘Blitz Books’, and, like many publications from the years of World War II, are quite scarce, particularly in as nice condition as the examples we have here. Four from the Pocket Series, illustrated text stories with colourful, evocative covers. None of these have ever passed through our hands before.
PICTURED: POCKET SERIES ALL SOLD
#33 SECRETS OF X-BASE VG/FN £7
#35 ESCAPE FROM TOKYO VG £6
#37 DOWN AMAZON WAY FN £8
#40 THE FIGHT ON WRECKERS ROCK FN/VF £9

Next week, we’re completing the first stage of our move (there will be two stages). Unfortunately, we will not be adding new stock to the website again until around 10th July, so there will not be a Newsletter next week. All orders placed before 4 pm today (Sat 26th) will be filled tomorrow (Sun 27th); any orders placed after that will not be filled until at least the 11th July at the earliest; some categories may take longer. Please bear with us at this busy time.

*DC: One of the quirkiest of all DC titles from the 1950s was Rex The Wonder Dog (the Adventures of). Rex doesn’t have any super-powers, but he did have adventures, together with his owner Danny Dennis. In this issue (#24), for example he becomes an honorary Indian chief (as you do). Backed up by the famous Bobo the Detective Chimp, with lovely art on Rex by Gil Kane and Carmine Infantino on Bobo. A very decent copy for 1955, with great 1950s DC cover colour; some edge and spine wear, but no damage. As a bonus, we also have it bundled with an awful but free copy of #22, which is completely brittle with every page separate, but hey, the price is right! We haven’t seen any issues of this series for a long time, so there aren’t too many out there.
PICTURED: REX THE WONDER DOG (THE ADVENTURES OF) #24 VG £36 SOLD

*Marvel: In this week’s Spider-Mania feature, we spotlight three issues of Amazing Spider-Man, each featuring one of Spidey’s earliest and most pernicious foes, Dr. Octopus. From 1967, #53; from 1970, #89 and from 1976, #157. Each cover features Doc Ock in full swing!
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
#53 VG £60 Small handwritten date above number; flat with good staples, minimal wear, tanning at edges with some corner blunting.
#89 VF- £73 Glossy and colourful, tight and flat, just minor handling wear.
#157 NM £65 Great cover colour and gloss; a beautiful copy with no specific flaws. SOLD

*Marvel: Forget the Frank Thorne drawn daft ha’p’orth in the chainmail bikini – the proper Red Sonja, who, you know, wore clothes and had a brain, made her first appearance in issue #23 of Conan’s title (Marvel rather dropping the ball by not having her on the cover, but we promise you, she’s in there) and truly making her mark in #24’s sumptuous epic ‘The Song of Red Sonja!’ wherein our heroine does a great deal more than sing, proving herself Conan’s equal, if not superior. Sadly, the popularity of Sonja’s appearances in these two issues led Marvel to produce a more sexualised and less competent version of the character for her solo series – but these stories, by Roy Thomas and superbly drawn by Barry Smith, remain as good as ever! These are both high grade pence printed copies, with great cover colour and gloss, tight, firm staples and nice pages, with just minimal edge wear.
CONAN THE BARBARIAN
#23 VF+ p £200
#24 VF+ p £175

*Marvel: One of the most noticeable things about supply and demand is how a TV or film appearance (or indeed a rumour of one) can turn a standard issue of a title into a high demand item. Here are three such issues of Thor, all in decent grade. #245 is the first appearance of He Who Remains, #282 the first appearance of the Time Keepers, and #372 the first appearance of the Time Variance Authority. All these may or may not tie in to the Loki TV show at some point. Perhaps they will bring out the speculator in you.
PICTURED: THOR
#245 FN £15
#282 VF p £30
#372 FN £40

*Western: The name Ghost Rider has been around since 1950 when it was used by Magazine Enterprises in their famous first rendition of the ‘spooky’ Western hero. Marvel reinvented the character in 1967 in his own title, although visually he was much the same as his predecessor. Like most Marvel key issues, this hasn’t escaped a significant price-hike in recent years. Not a great copy here, pence printed with moderate edge wear and more than moderate spine wear; there is a faint book shop stamp centre cover (on GR’s horse!). A bit dingy, but good staples and okay pages; not a beauty, but not a wreck either.
PICTURED: GHOST RIDER #1 GD- p £90 SOLD

*Marvel UK: Marvel UK’s unprecedented and experimental attempt to broaden their readership by generating a new British hero, Captain Britain, was the subject of much controversy, not least because he was created by two Americans (Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe) who, from the evidence presented here, had never met an English person, and whose interpretation of the UK’s manners and mores made the Austin Powers films look like documentaries. Be that as it may, the character endured to become a respected icon of the medium, and these issues are now attracting keen collector attention. Many issues of the first series new in this week, between #3 and #31, inc #19 (1st Lance Hunter, aka ‘Mr. Mockingbird’ from Marvels ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ television series) plus the 1980 Summer Special.
PICTURED: CAPTAIN BRITAIN
#19 VG/FN £10
1980 SUMMER SPECIAL VG £10 SOLD

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A myriad of Battle Picture Libraries this update, 20 issues from 1970 between #453 and #477. Although these stories mostly had one-off protagonists, there were some recurring features. From a newsagent’s uncirculated stock, these are in astonishing condition, averaging FN/VF. As always, please consult our catalogue for full details.

In 2017 we reported on the sad loss of Alan, a mainstay of the comic and book dealing worlds. Alan (AKA the Guv’nor) was one of the most respected figures in UK comic book fandom who did much to inspire and enthuse many others in the field.

He was the first full-time comics dealer in the UK, and published many fanzines about American comic books throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, including Fantasy Unlimited (later Comics Unlimited), the first Comic Book Price Guide for Great Britain, the Golden Age fanzine and the DC and Marvel Comics Indexes.

It fell to his friend Nigel Brown to edit and publish two of his works, firstly a book about comics (Comics Unlimited: My life as a Comic Collector and Dealer) and secondly a collection of short stories (The Adventures of Bernie Burrows, Bookseller) loosely based on his own book dealing experiences.

Both are now available as paperbacks or ebooks from Amazon. We’ve included the synopsis of each book below.

Comics Unlimited: My life as a Comic Collector and Dealer

This book details Alan’s life in comics, and his experiences as a comic collector and dealer from the early days of comic book fandom, beginning in the 1960s.

Alan later became a respected book dealer.

The Adventures of Bernie Burrows, Bookseller

Bernie Burrows is a reader, collector, and seller of books.

His world is populated by people struggling through the calamities of life, as is Bernie himself. But Bernie doggedly pursues his vocation despite growing competition from other bookdealers and websites, and an increasingly difficult public.

Join Bernie as he risks a late night opening of his bookshop in the hope of ‘the big sale’, encounters the phantom book-leaver, faces a life-or-death locked room mystery he has to solve, sets off on an expedition across the streets of Chicago in search of dust-jacketed treasure, and many more adventures.

We can heartily recommend both books. Alan was an entertaining writer and his acerbic wit shines through in everything he did. These serve as a testament to his memory and a reminder of how much the comic and book worlds miss him. 

*Marvel: Fans rave about the Giant-Size issues of the first run of the Silver Surfer from 1968 and a lot of attention is paid in particular to #1 & #4. For our money, John Buscema’s wonderful art has never looked more sumptuous than in #3, the debut of Mephisto, Marvel’s devil-like netherworld overlord, in particular the depictions of his domain. We have a decent enough copy new in; this is pence stamped (twice, as a bonus!), but neither over the cover central image; the upper stamp has a small label-size discolouration patch over it where a label has been removed (see scan). Other than that, the spine is intact but for a 1 cm split at base, the cover colour and gloss are good, the staples excellent and the page quality very nice. Edge wear is fairly minimal apart from two colour-breaking creases across the bottom right corner. These Surfer giants have certainly shot up in value of late, and show no signs of slowing.
PICTURED: SILVER SURFER #3 VG- p £270 SOLD

*Marvel: The Black Panther’s series in Jungle Action, which attracted a lot of acclaim at the time, was known for being verbose, introspective, reflective and philosophical. When the character’s co-creator, Jack Kirby, took over as writer and artist on T’Challa’s follow-up solo series, the results were… a considerable contrast. Shouting! Explosions! Aliens! Time-Travel! Implausibly-muscled ladies with black lipstick! Cosmic critters! All were here, and all playing at full volume all the time, in the crazed kinetic frenzy that Kirby was renowned for. Since the major movie hit, the King of Wakanda’s star is ever-ascendant, and this issue especially always sells very briskly because of its – frankly – high loopiness quotient. So, if you want this tale of ‘King Solomon’s Frog’, you’d better hop to it (sorry…) A nice high grade pence printed copy, with great colour cover and gloss, nice white to off-white pages and tight staples; just minor signs of reading wear at edges and corners.
PICTURED: BLACK PANTHER #1 VF+ p £90 SOLD

*Marvel: Let’s All Gang Up On The Hulk! Spidey joins the fray in this first part of a two-part adventure set in Canada, with art by John Romita. A nice high grade pence printed copy, flat, tight and glossy with firm staples and off-white pages. No specific defects, just a little corner blunting and a tiny amount of edge wear.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #119 VF- p £90

*Marvel: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. It’s Iron Man’s turn in ‘Let’s All Gang Up On The Hulk!’. In issue #9 of his own series, Iron Man faces off against the Hulk (or does he? You’ll have to read it to find out) as arranged by the Mandarin. George Tuska’s art, as inked here by EC alumnus Jonny Craig, has seldom looked better. This is a lovely Square Mile specimen, tight, flat, sharp, glossy and reflective, with just the tiniest nick to the right edge preventing an even higher grade. White pages and firm staples.
PICTURED: IRON MAN #9 VF p £130

*Alan Class Reprints: something a little more unusual in our Alan Class update this week, the short-lived crime series Tales Of The Underworld, running to only ten issues in all. We have five of these newly added to our regular stock section, all Charlton/Fawcett reprints, featuring the following recurring characters: Public Defender In Action, Judy Jones Powderpuff Reporter, Rookie Cop, Mike Danger, Johnny Adventure and Inspector Farnsworth of Scotland Yard. A thematic Alan Class rarity! Full details in our catalogue. 

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: In our close-on 30 years of trading, I don’t think we’ve ever had a copy of Super-Detective Library #1 through our hands before, so we’re particularly pleased to have such a nice copy as this new in this week. Starring Simon Templar AKA the Saint in ‘The Case of the Contraband People’, this flat and unmarked copy has good colour and an intact, solid spine, with great pages and little more than a hint of rust at the staple. Fairly sharp corners and just a trace of a soft crease on the back cover. This historic issue is worthy of any collection. 
PICTURED: SUPER-DETECTIVE LIBRARY #1 VG/FN £60 SOLD

*Girls’ Picture Libraries: From 1966, ten more issues of True Life Library (All In Pictures), between #511-524. Released right in the middle of ‘Swingin’ London’, the usual nurses, models and actresses are bolstered by somewhat more liberated heroines, including aviatrixes, monarchs and spies – oh my! With very accomplished art from mainly European illustrators, 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 minimal or no discolouration in the staple areas, averaging VG/FN. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: TRUE LIFE LIBRARY #517 FN £6 SOLD

*DC: Three excellent Batman stories await you inside this colourful sci-fi cover from Curt Swan; two are pencilled by Sheldon Moldoff (one co-starring Batwoman and Bat-Hound) and the third (cover story) by Dick Sprang, my favourite Batman artist of the period. This is a decent, pre-distribution copy with some edge wear and creasing, good colour, nice page quality and firm staples. There are faint vestiges of pencil marks (now erased) over the letters of the cover logo. Note that we also have a VG copy in stock, which is only slightly higher in price.
PICTURED: BATMAN #125 VG- £75 SOLD

*Marvel: Perhaps surprisingly, Wolverine had been around quite few years before he starred in his own title. (Even after this 1982 mini-series, it would be a further 6 years before Logan got his own ongoing solo title). You can’t say that Marvel were milking the character’s popularity – a phrase I thought I’d never write. But they did pull out all the stops with this mini, combining X-Men scribe Chris Claremont with super-star artist Frank Miller in this tale of the Yakuza and Wolverine’s doomed love Mariko Yashida. All fours issues are presented here as a set: #1 is a splendid VF+, #2 & #4 both very respectable VF grades, #3 structurally sound but let down a bit by some white marks (possibly stacking ink?) at the edges of the cover, VG/FN.
PICTURED: WOLVERINE #1 VF+; COMPLETE SET 1-4 £190 SOLD

*Marvel: Apart from a shared name and attribute of being ‘Lord of the Jungle’, there was little similarity between the Ka-Zar of Marvel’s Golden Age and the character introduced in X-Men #10. Unlike his predecessor, this Ka-Zar ruled over the Savage Land and had Zabu, a big pussycat of a sabre-tooth, as his companion. Ka-Zar has, of course, gone on to become a fixture of the Marvel Universe, with several of his own series under his belt; the long association of Marvel’s Merry Mutants with the Savage Land also started right here. This is an honest pence stamped copy, with good staples, decent pages and just average edge wear and corner blunting, nothing horrible.
PICTURED: X-MEN #10 VG+ p £200

*Marvel: What’s Old is our feature where we highlight stuff from our catalogue that you may have missed. A John Romita gem this update, a superior copy of Amazing Spider-Man #45, the second part of Spidey’s second clash with the Lizard. This is a bright, glossy copy with just minimal wear including a couple of small faint creases at bottom corners. A brilliant cover image which the quality of this copy brings to life.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #45 VF- p £95

*Marvel: Rumour has it that the Time Variance Authority (timeline monitors) will have a major part to play in the upcoming Loki TV series. What better time then to invest in their first appearance in Thor #372, part of the acclaimed Walt Simonson run on Thor? We present a nice copy, with just a few non-colour breaking creases at the spine and right edge.
PICTURED: THOR #372 FN/VF £40 SOLD