*Marvel: Walt Simonson revitalized the Thor series with his epic take on heroic storytelling from 1983 onwards. Calling on the richness of Norse myth, but with a subversive humour element, his stories were fresh and exciting, his art vibrant and dynamic. He also added many new characters to the mythos, such as Lorelei, Malekith and Beta-Ray Bill. A classic run of one of Marvel’s oldest, most iconic characters, with many issues new in from #339 (third Simonson issue) onwards; see our catalogue for details.

*Horror 1940-1959: Superior was a Canadian publisher active from 1945-1956 who mostly reprinted American comics from the same time period. They also published a number of original series that were distributed in the United States. Among these were three horror titles famous for their hallucinogenic covers and accomplished Fiction House style interior art. When you see a lot of these together, they have an almost hypnotic and uncomfortable effect. This week we feature Journey Into Fear #4-6, three of the nicest copies we have in the run, all mid-grade without specific defects other than general wear.
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO FEAR ALL SOLD
#4 VG+ £255
#5 VG+ £220
#6 VG £195

*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In the 1950s, as well as reprinting US comics, several British companies produced original comics in the US size and style, and we have four such examples this week. Captain Vigour (1952) was an olympic strongman turned adventurer with an emphasis on body image and fitness; Charles Rand (a later entry from 1966) appeared in just one comic, with Mick Anglo art — he was the man from S.U.N.D.A.Y. (Special United Nations Defence Agents, Y section — you could tell it was the sixties!); Space Comics (1958) featured the science fiction hero Captain Valiant of the Interplanetary Police Patrol (also with Mick Anglo art); Miller’s TV Heroes (1959), did exactly what it said on the tin: ‘picture stories of historical characters who have become TV Heroes’. Full details of all in our catalogue as always.
PICTURED: SPACE COMICS #77 VG/FN £25 SOLD

*Girls’ Comics: Three excellent Free Gifts with 1969 issues of Diana this week; all three comics are in FN condition, with all gifts in almost as new VF. #310 has the ‘Sunshine Bracelet’ in its sealed transparent bag (originally, this was glued to the margin of page 5, so the margin and the bag edge each have a tiny hole where it was removed); #360 has a ‘Dainty Wrist Purse’, presented in its original unsealed brown envelope, but sealed inside it in plastic and in pristine unused condition; #361 has the ‘Pretty Pearly Mermaid Ring’ still sealed in its original brown envelope. Competition for these gifted issues is usually very fierce and they get snapped up very quickly.
PICTURED: DIANA ALL SOLD
#310 FN WITH FREE GIFT VF £40
#360 FN WITH FREE GIFT VF £40
#361 FN WITH FREE GIFT VF £40

*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Mike Shayne was a hard-boiled private detective in the vein of Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade etc. He was created by writer Brett Halliday in the 1930s, and starred in 77 novels and over 300 short stories. As well as the character having a magazine in his name for over 30 years, a dozen films of Mike Shayne were made in the 1940s and 1950s, plus a radio series and a TV series in the 1960s; he was a popular chap back then! From 1958 onwards, Shayne’s adventures were ghost-written. Our selection of Dell paperbacks new in this week features some written by Halliday in later printings, as well as many of the later ones by other hands. What is really nice about them is that they all feature covers by the famous artist Robert McGinnis, known for his film poster work on Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Barbarella and several James Bond films, among many others. At 94, McGinnis is still around and has illustrated over 1200 paperback books with his distinctive style featuring sexy women. Several examples from this update are pictured here — our catalogue lists the entire 15 books in this update.
PICTURED: (all by Brett Halliday)
GUILTY AS HELL 1st US PB 1967 FN £5
MURDER BY PROXY 1st US PB 1963 FN/VF £5
SO LUSH, SO DEADLY 1st US PB 1968 VG/FN £5
THE HOMICIDAL VIRGIN 1st New Edition US PB VG/FN £6

*DC: In 1989, Neil Gaiman, not yet the superstar author he would later become, took the venerable DC superhero the Sandman and completely refurbished the concept – revamping the titular hero as an immortal embodiment of the Dreamworld, Gaiman opened the door to a myriad of adventurous possibilities, modernising the concept without invalidating or discarding either previous Sandman series (the 1940s and 1970s strips), but instead enfolding them into a larger meta-narrative. The Neil Gaiman Sandman series ran for 75 issues and a Special, and won an insane array of awards. This is where it all began, in this instance a lovely high grade copy with miniscule handling wear, a very tiny dink at the base of the spine and a ‘dot’ of label scuff close to the ‘N’ in the title. Excellent pages, tight staples.
PICTURED: SANDMAN #1 VF £85 SOLD

*DC: We reach the letter ‘E’ in our alphabetical round-up of the DCU this week. Just one title: 80 Page Giant. The history of publication of DC Annuals and Giants in the Silver Age can be a confusing one. Originally in the early 1960s, DC published a once a year Annual of their most popular characters: Superman, Batman, Flash etc, reprinting many of their earlier classic adventures. Since these proved very popular, they started upping the frequency, until in 1964, they integrated these into a regular series called 80 Page Giant, which is what concerns us here.  (Subsequently, with even more popularity for this format, they ended this series after 15 issues and started running the Giants in the regular numbering of the characters’ series, which led to even great frequency.) We’ve topped up all 15 issues of 80 Page Giant in our listing (except #7, peculiarly), so that they’re all available in a choice of grades and prices: Superman, Batman, Flash, World’s Finest, Secret Origins, Superboy, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. These fondly remembered volumes represent great reading value and entertainment. Back when they were published, when I were a lad, with no comic shops or back issue market, this was the only way to read these lovely old stories.

*Marvel: A Lee/Romita co-creation, the Shocker – a.k.a. Herman Schultz, career criminal and part-time scientist – created a special insulated suit which generated electrical waves that could open safes and incapacitate the police. Outsmarted by Spider-Man on their first clash, he has returned many times to battle the Web-Slinger and many other Marvel heroes, making his big screen debut in ‘Spider-Man Homecoming’ in 2017. This is a decent copy of his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #46, pence printed with a clean cover image, good staples and reasonable pages. There is some corner blunting, edge and handling wear and a 1 cm spine split at the top of the spine, but not at all bad.
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #46 GD/VG p £60

*Marvel: One of Marvel’s long-running and more beloved villains, Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man, premiered in this issue, with his ability to absorb and replicate the properties of any person, object or substance causing quite a headache for our favourite Thunder God! Despite his surly mien, many folks feel that Crusher Creel is, to quote the Shangri-Las, ‘Good-bad, but not evil‘, and he has quite the fan-base, especially in latter decades since he married Titania. This first appearance of an enduring villain is a decent pence stamped copy with strong, deep colours and some cover gloss; there is some corner blunting and minor edge wear with a couple of colour-breaking creases across the bottom right corner; nice off-white pages and good staples.
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #114 VG+ p £70 SOLD

*Marvel: Carrying on with our alphabetical tour of the Marvel Universe, the letter ‘D’ yields just two titles with new stock: Daredevil and Defenders, the former between #17 & #177, the latter between #16 & #92. Significant chunks of both titles now added to our catalogue.

*Horror 1940-1959: Atlas’s Journey Into Unknown Worlds started out, as you might imagine from its title, as a series which featured horrific science-fiction stories, in much the same mode as some of the work of writers such as C L Moore and Clark Ashton Smith, for example. In this update, we have two such early issues. #6 features the work of Colan & Heath among others and is a lovely FN+ copy, with great cover colour and gloss, tight, firm staples and really nice off-white pages. Edge wear is at a minimum but for a small 1 cm tear to the right cover edge. #7 is an Apparent VG/FN and features Colan, Maneeley (an electric chair story) and the Wolverton story ‘The Planet Of Terror’; a decent copy with good cover colour and gloss, nice staples and pages and a few nicks at the edges; the Maneeley story has one panel cut out due to a coupon on the reverse, but included are a high quality photo-copy of the complete affected story page as well as a small black and white copy of the affected panel (double-sided). Due to this defect, the comic is half the price it otherwise would be in this grade. Our third new listing is for one of the last pre-code issues of this title, #31 GD- £27, by which time it had mutated into more ‘traditional’ Atlas horror fare. 
PICTURED: JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS
#6 FN+ £165
#7 App. VG/FN £95

*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: Some classic DC & Fawcett material in this category this week: From K. G. Murray (Aus), two issues of Batman (#45 & #71) one Super-Adventure (#59, featuring Superman & Batman) and one Superboy (#94 in full colour throughout); plus a large format Marvel Family #64 from Miller. Full details as always in our catalogue.
PICTURED: BATMAN #45 VG+ £45

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Just one item in this category this week, but a great one: Thriller Comics # 1 from 1951. This digest-sized comics series, most famous under its later title of Thriller Picture Library, ran for 450 issues until 1963, and while it featured a plethora of characters during its lengthy run, the trend for the early years was for historical swashbucklers based on fictional (but serendipitously copyright-free) characters such as Robin Hood, Rob Roy, and so on. One such was the Three Musketeers, who were chosen to lead off the series in this volume. The artists were all accomplished Fleetway professionals, and readers thrived on these beautifully-illustrated pocket adventures. This copy of #1 is FA/GD, structurally sound but with considerable spine wear, including long splits at top and bottom and the habitual rusty staples, which haven’t bled too badly; interior pages clean and flexible.
PICTURED: THRILLER COMICS #1 FA/GD £60

*Girls’ Comics: Misty is today just about the top-selling Girls’ title. The original run of 101 issues is keenly collected, but are not rare. Much less common is the Best of Misty revival from 1986, 8 bumper issues compiling complete stories from the original run. We have 7 of these new in this week (missing just #3) and whilst not in tip-top shape (cover creases and edge wear), they’re priced to reflect that and are not torn or defaced. Fabulous Shirley Bellwood covers on each. Accompanying them is the one-off Souvenir issue from 2009. Misty may be gone, but not forgotten, and she always seems to find her way back through the mists…
PICTURED: BEST OF MISTY
#1 GD £25 SOLD
#2 GD/VG £25 SOLD
#4 GD/VG £25 SOLD
#5 GD £20 SOLD
#6 GD/VG £25 SOLD
#7 VG £30 SOLD
#8 GD/VG £25 SOLD
SPECIAL SOUVENIR ISSUE 2009 VG £15

*TV/Film Tie-Ins: Just one book this week, but it’s a cult favourite: Thunderbirds Are Go, the novelization of the Thunderbirds film from 1966. Cover credited to Gerry & Sylvia Anderson, inside it is credited as ‘Story by Angus P Allan, based on the film by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson,’ this Armada 1966 first edition paperback is also from 1966 and has illustrations by James Watson. All the usuals are involved in this thrilling space adventure — all five Tracy Brothers, Lady Penelope and Parker, Brains and the Hood. A nice glossy cover, if a little worn, with a short back cover tear; the spine is a little sunned and split by about 2 cm at bottom front.
PICTURED: THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO 1st UK PB GD £7.50 SOLD

*DC: After try-out issues in Brave & Bold and Showcase, the ‘Junior Justice League’ graduated to their own title in 1966, which lasted a very respectable 53 issues into the 1970s, with the estimable Nick Cardy often at the artistic helm, as here in Teen Titans #1. This copy is a solid mid-grade pence stamped example, with bright colours, tight staples and minimal edge wear and corner blunting; nice page quality. There is a very small colour-breaking crease across the bottom right corner and a tiny score mark top right cover with is replicated on the first few pages, but overall a glossy, nice copy. 
PICTURED: TEEN TITANS #1 FN p £100

*Marvel: How do you follow up the introduction of an enormously popular brain-sucking symbiote? Well, a few years after Venom, the House of Ideas came up with the spawn of Venom, and thus Carnage was created in Amazing Spider-Man #361. Our latest issue of this modern classic is a delightful NM, as good as new with no flaws or defects, and is accompanied by #362, the second Carnage appearance in the same condition (NM £35).
PICTURED: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #361 NM £140 SOLD

*Marvel: One of Iron Man’s perhaps less famous Rogues’ Gallery members is the Unicorn, another menace from behind the Iron Curtain and somewhat of a protege of the Crimson Dynamo. Chief among the many weapons built into his armour was his Power Horn, but you knew that, didn’t you? Iron Man takes him on in this epic encounter from Tales Of Suspense #56. This is a lovely pence printed copy, with great cover colour and gloss, clean and bright, with only a couple of minor spine stress marks and tiny edge and corner wear; tight and flat with excellent staples and off-white pages; presents very well indeed.
PICTURED: TALES OF SUSPENSE #56 VF p £140

*Marvel: From 1967, an excellent issue of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! With Captain America temporarily absent, the Avengers ranks had been bolstered by the addition of Hercules, and in this stirring adventure featuring the Cosmic Cube, they encountered the hero-villain Sub-Mariner. A superb high-grade pence printed copy with great cover colour and gloss, flat and tight with great staples and off-white to white pages.
PICTURED: AVENGERS #40 VF+ p £54

*Marvel: We continue through the Marvel alphabet with titles beginning with the letters ‘B’ and ‘C’, featuring additions to Battlestar Galactica, Black Goliath, Captain America (Jack Kirby issues), Captain Marvel, Champions (from #1), Conan and King Conan.

*Western: We’ve lassoed a few more tales of the old west for you this week from Dell & Gold Key: Annie Oakley, Bat Masterson, Gene Autrey (the singing cowboy), Roy Rogers (didn’t he sing too?), Sugarfoot & Zorro. Many of these Western stars shared their billing with their horses; can you match these equine companions to the above: Tagg, Champion & Trigger? 

*Alan Class Reprints: A huge update to the Alan Class title Uncanny Tales, with dozens of additions previously missing from our listing. This update includes both certificated Alan Class file copies and regular copies, pre and post decimal. Included are many Marvel reprints and other characters such as the Phantom, the Fly and Thunder Agents etc, as well as very many of those horror/mystery stories so beloved by Alan Class fans. Full details in our catalogue and don’t forget you can check content in our Alan Class Rough Guide, which has recently been updated yet again.
PICTURED: UNCANNY TALES #59 FN/VF £29

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: A fresh batch of the most successful picture library of them all, D C Thomson’s Commando, new into stock this week. About 20 pre-decimal issues ranging between #238 and #376, all in nice condition, many FN and some VF, and almost all previously missing from our listing. Full details as always in our catalogue.

*Girls’ Comics: Free Gift issues of Princess Tina seem vanishingly rare; I suspect the items of plastic jewellery on offer were extracted from their packets and proudly adorned necks, fingers and wrists. Not so here with this lovely issue from 1969. 8th March features a ‘wonderful imitation pearl ring’, pristine in its sealed plastic envelope; the price here reflects rarity.
PICTURED: PRINCESS TINA 8/3/69 FN WITH FREE GIFT NM £50 SOLD

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Three vintage science-fiction hardcover editions for your consideration this week. Firstly, one of the classic works by British author Edmund Cooper, The Tenth Planet, FN in FN DJ, 2nd UK HC from 1974. Secondly, the famous pulp epic The Radio Man (aka An Earth Man on Venus) by Ralph Milne Farley; although this edition purports to be a 1st from 1948, it clearly isn’t, although no data is available on its vintage, other than it’s post 1969; FN in FN DJ. Finally, an intriguing anthology edited by Martin Greenberg, The Robot And The Man, a 1st edition from 1954 (VG/FN no DJ), with stories by well-known authors with robot themes. Full details of course in our website catalogue.
PICTURED: THE RADIO MAN by Ralph Milne Farley; US HC, FN with FN DJ; later printing £10