*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: A pair of novels by Russell that show his range. Dreadful Sanctuary is about an alien conspiracy, while Next Of Kin is a humorous take on one man’s fight against an alien bureaucracy. Perhaps one of them was written by his Eustace….

On a regular cycle, we sweep through our entire stock to delete sold items and keep our listing as up to date as possible. We’ve just finished deleting sold items from the following files in our American section:
*Marvel A – C
*Magazines/Books About Vintage US Comics
As of the time of writing, these categories are bang up to date, with every item listed available.

*Collected Editions: In addition to archiving classic UK comic strips from the 1960s through to the 1980s, Rebellion are also providing a series of all-new Specials starring the characters (and where possible, the creators) of yesteryear. This month, just in time for Hallowe’en, they’ve issued ‘Home, Sweet, Home’, a Special starring the sentient and vengeful computer, Max, and the unfortunate denizens of the tower block where he metes out the roughest of justice, as originally seen in Scream! Devoted to mostly one long story by a variety of artists (with a short back-up and a reprint of an original ‘Thirteenth Floor’ episode), this epic-length ‘monster mash-up’, alternating black & white with full-colour for maximum shock impact, is brand-new for £5.

*DC: DC’s groundbreaking and controversial run of Green Lantern (cover-titled ‘Green Lantern co-starring Green Arrow’) was renowned for its tackling of issues which had been seldom raised in comics before – albeit, in retrospect, perhaps heavy-handedly, it nevertheless raised many questions the medium had previously failed to address. One such was racism, and when, after Hal Jordan got injured, the Power Ring selected African-American John Stewart as a temporary replacement Green Lantern, the heroes were forced to confront certain unspoken truths in their society. Originally intended as a one-off character, John was brought back frequently, often replacing Hal for long stretches, both in the Justice League and as the Green Lantern of Earth – mercifully having abandoned his cliched ‘angry black dude’ persona early on. This copy of the debut of DC’s first black super-hero is a FN p copy, minor foxing at upper and right cover edges but otherwise unmarred, on sale at £125.

*DC: A condition of Kirby’s move to DC was that, in addition to launching his own series, he should take on one long-running DC title. The lucky title was Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen – a surprise pick, admittedly – in which Kirby ditched all the beloved tropes such as lovelorn alien women and Jimmy Olsen Fan Clubs, and set our freckle-faced hero off on an odyssey across America to encounter Kirby’s own ‘Fourth World’ creations. Prominent among these was Darkseid, the fiendish ruler of the hell-world Apokolips, in only a fleeting cameo – Darkseid’s image flashes up on a monitor screen while Facetiming with Morgan Edge – but it’s nevertheless the first appearance of the villainous fulcrum of the entire Fourth World Saga, and as such is commanding insane prices right now. We have the first three of Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen back in stock, in affordable mid-grades: #133 is FN+ £18; #134 (1st Darkseid cameo) is FA p £20 and #135 (pictured, 3rd Darkseid) is FN+ p £55.

*Marvel: After a long stint as a supporting character and mainstay Avenger, the Black Panther was finally awarded his own series, taking over in Jungle Action from the 1950s reprints of scantily-clad white folks saving grateful black people, which to be honest was a bit tone-deaf even back then! The decision seems to have been made a bit suddenly, as T’Challa’s first solo was technically a reprint of his first clash with M’Baku the Man-Ape, but under the hands of scripter Don McGregor and diverse artists, it rapidly became one of the most talked-about series of the 70s. We have two of the Black Panther Jungle Action run new in stock: #5, 7.0 FN/VF at £70 and #13, 9.2 NM- at £40. Both are CGC Blue Label copies, indicating no restoration, but in full disclosure we should point out that the #5 has a stamped arrival date (over the ‘her’ in ‘Panther’ on the cover), which the CGC graders may not have taken into account, as technically it’s not a wear & tear defect.

*Horror/Mystery 1960-1980s: In the middle of a convoluted cross-dimensional saga such as Steve Gerber, writer of Man-Thing, was fond of, everyone’s second favourite shambling muck monster met a few guest stars from other worlds. One such was Howard the Duck, an irascible humanoid fowl from a plane where anthropomorphic animals were the highest life form. This walk-on character, doubtless intended as a one-off joke at the expense of Disney, was so avidly welcomed by readers that he was brought back from seeming destruction to star in his own acclaimed and award-winning satirical series – which got its accidental springboard in this very issue! Fear #19 is VF, on sale at £125. SOLD

*Marvel: Issue #13 of the Fantastic Four’s magazine brought us to the mysterious Blue Area of the Moon, and introduced the enigmatic Watcher, cosmic custodian of devices of unimaginable power. Despite his vast power and omniscient knowledge, the Watcher was solemnly sworn never to intervene in the affairs of Earth… unless, you know, he really wanted to, which fortunately for Marvel Earth he did numerous times before his untimely death in 2014! (It’s okay, he got better. We think. Modern comics are a bit hazy for us, but we’re sure we’ve seen him around…) Moreover, it featured a Russian scientist re-creating the flight which gave the FF their powers to gain super-abilities of his own – and by staffing his ship with trained primates, making sure his ‘teammates’ were subservient to him! The Red Ghost and his Super-Apes (Mikhlo, Igor and Piotr – we knew you were dying to know!) also became a recurring feature in the Marvel Universe, even after the Cold War thawed. This double-shot debut, heroic and villainous, is a PR p copy. General moderate to heavy wear, tape residue at spine, covers separated and detached and one non-story page removed. On sale at £50. SOLD

*Marvel: Now, our ‘Mighty Marvel Firsts’ sub-heading is normally reserved for persons rather than artefacts, but this is kind of a special case; in this issue’s Captain America story, the Red Skull gains possession of the Cosmic Cube, an artefact so powerful it can bend reality to his will. This was the first appearance of the Cube, which gained greater prominence in Marvel Lore over the decades, before being swept up into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as (let’s see if I have this right) the ‘Tesseract’, a.k.a. the Reality Stone of the Infinity Gems, which ties into the whole big Thanos brouhaha, which frankly is so complicated it makes my brain ache. But anyway, that’s the reason for the sudden ‘spiking’ of this otherwise perfectly lovely issue in the series. This is a cents copy, no pence stamp or overprint, and is a remarkable VF+, on sale at £65. SOLD

*Marvel: During their expansion of the mid-1970s, Marvel gave many long term characters a shot at their own series, and one such was the Inhumans, who had been supporting the Fantastic Four for years. Under the creative direction of writer Doug Moench and artist George Perez, the series was a ‘fish out of water’ drama, as the Inhumans sought to come to terms with both modern Manhattan and changing political mores in their own retreat of Attilan. The first five of the short-run series are now back in stock. #1 (pictured) is FN p £20.

*Marvel: A huge run through Marvel’s SIlver & Bronze Ages this week, with over 100 issues added to the following titles: Avengers, Captain America, Defenders, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Howard the Duck, Hulk, Marvel Presents, Marvel Spotlight, Micronauts, Punisher, Secret Wars, Spider-Man (Spectacular), Thor, What If and X-Men. A glance at our listings for these titles will find them nicely enhanced. 

*Horror 1940-1959: Four Pre-Code Horror classics from diverse publishers this week – though two are not all they appear to be! Eerie Adventures #1 from Ziff-Davis, features a stunning Allen Anderson cover and artwork by Nostrand and, on the cover-blurbed ‘Vampires of Venus!’, Bob Powell; Exposed #1, from D.S., has the subhead ‘True Crime Cases’, but trust us, the content is as gory and violent as you could want! Feature Presentation #5, Fox’s ‘showcase’ title, features the book-length tale of ‘The Black Tarantula’, and is definitely not one for the arachnophobes! Last, but far from least, Standard’s Out of the Shadows #5 features striking artwork from Alex Toth, Ruben Moreira, Jerry Grandenetti and others. Eerie Adventures #1 is FA (centrefold loose, lower right cover corner missing, small piece out back cover) £65; Exposed #1 is FA (off bottom staple, long horizontal cover tear) £60; Feature Presentation #5 is VG £100 and Out of the Shadows #5 is VG+, remarkably crisp for its vintage, at £120. EERIE, EXPOSED AND SHADOWS SOLD

*Spirit: The Spirit, Will Eisner’s legendary creation, having ended his lengthy run in American newspapers in 1952, returned briefly to four-colour comics in 1966, with Harvey publications producing two 64 page giant-sized issues. A small amount of new material augmented re-coloured reprints of classic strips from the Spirit sections of yesteryear – and given that the original Spirit stories ran an average of 6-8 pages, that’s a lot of reading! These two issues (a third was announced in #2, but never published) are truly beautiful examples, bright, tight and glossy, with white interior pages, vivid cover colours and unmarred squarebound spines. Both issues are VF+, cents copies with no pence stamp or overprint; #1 is £63, #2 is £50. SOLD

*Marvel UK:  Following his original 39 issue weekly run and his stint as a perennial guest of the Black Knight in Hulk Weekly, the good Captain was brought back from limbo in 1981 by Dave Thorpe and Alan Davis, the latter of whom redesigned Captain Britain for his ‘second chance’. Davis gave the Captain the Union Jack inspired outfit he wears today, and replaced CB’s lithe physique with a hyper-muscularity based on the comic-strip hero Garth, an exaggerated superhuman ideal. The political analogies by writer Thorpe proved unpalatable to Marvel UK management, and he was replaced by then-neophyte Alan Moore, whom the powers-that-be thought might be less controversial (Good luck with that…). This run introduced the Crazy Gang, Opal Luna Saturnyne, Gentleman Jim Jaspers and other characters who would prove instrumental to the Captain’s legend. We have a complete run of the Captain Britain issues of Marvel Super-Heroes Monthly, commencing with the new CB’s debut in #377 (VG £15), through to #388, after which the strip moved into the Daredevils anthology. Also pictured is #387 (FN £15), the first Alan Moore-scripted issue.

*Boys’ Adventure & War Picture Libraries: Continuing our massive swoop through Air Ace, we have now reached the 300’s, with multiple adventures of recurring characters Dogfight Dixon and Battler Britton, as well as one-off tales of airborne derring-do. This is not quite a complete run, being around twenty issues short of the range from #300 to #399, but the condition is exemplary. From one single source, a newsagent’s unsold inventory, these are copies which have never been circulated, and are in a remarkable state of preservation, averaging FN and with many VF, an unusual grade for British comics of this vintage. Keep watching the skies – more Air Ace updates soon!

*Humour Comics: Four classic comedy issues with Free Gifts from the Fleetway/IPC publishing house; we open with Buster for 7th February 1970, in VG with the Free Gift – ‘My Favourite Soccer Stars’ booklet – in FN; 1971’s Knockout #2 (19/06) is exceptionally rare with the free gift ‘Shaking Skeleton’ in decent shape, as the flimsy body joints tend to get easily lost or damaged. This copy is VG with an immaculate VF gift, still un-punched-out of its support card. Krazy #2, 23rd October 1976, is VG with the ‘Superjet Joke Camera’, still in its original envelope, the envelope a little crumpled but overall Free Gift FN; and Monster Fun #2, from 1975, is in FN with Free Gift – Freaky Spider Ring – still lurking untouched in its original pristine envelope, VF. Buster 7th Feb 1970 with Gift is £25; Knockout #2 with Gift is £40; Krazy #2 with Gift is £35 and Monster Fun #2 with Gift is £35. BUSTER, KNOCKOUT & MONSTER FUN SOLD

*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’ve just added six novels by the multi-award winning author Clifford D Simak which we’ve not previously listed before. In time-honoured alphabetical order they are: A Choice Of Gods, Cosmic Engineers, Destiny Doll, Enchanted Pilgrimage, Shakespeare’s Planet and The Visitors. Simak’s aim was to root science fiction in scientific fact, without writing ‘hard’ SF, and accepting that it’s entirely possible that alien motivation and communication would be unintelligible to humans. The themes in these novels range from invasion of the Earth (The Visitors), the effect of depopulation on the Earth (A Choice Of Gods), a quest involving goblins, gnomes and witches (Enchanted Pilgrimage), strange planets (Destiny Doll and Shakespeare’s Planet) and a plucky band of humans attempting to save the Universe (Cosmic Engineers). All guaranteed to be a cracking read!

*DC: While these are inarguably a bit ‘modern’ for our demographic, Adam Hughes is probably the hottest living artist in comics, and his covers, particularly lady-centric ones, go for high prices even when he has nothing to do with the interiors. These are two of the most famous images of his 21st Century work: 2006’s Catwoman #51, in which Selina Kyle’s misdeeds appear to be catching up with her (known as the ‘Lost’ cover after the TV show, with the sequence of numbers on Selina’s board those used on ‘Lost’); and Justice League of America (2007) #6, the variant cover with the dishy and devastating Black Canary taking care of business as usual. Both are CGC Blue Label, indicating no restoration. Catwoman #51 is 9.8 (NM/M) at £185, and JLA #6 is 9.6 (NM+) at £40. SOLD

*DC: Originally adapted from a novel by Denny O’Neil, exploiting the Kung Fu craze, 1975’s Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter seemed like another example of white cultural appropriation dressed up as chop-socky entertainment, but despite some notable creators (including a blink & you’ll miss it stint by Jack Kirby), nobody’s heart really seemed to be in the project – until issue #5, when a new character, Lady Shiva, appeared in the testosterone-soaked milieu of KFF and perked things up no end. Richard Dragon’s own series faltered after eighteen issues, though he has returned many times as a supporting character attributed with – in retrospect – the training of many of DC’s hand-to-hand heroes, but Lady Shiva became the breakout star of the series, with significant appearances in the Batman books and Birds of Prey, becoming a virtual arch-enemy of the Black Canary in the latter. We have 15 of the original 18 issues of Kung Fu Fighter back in stock; pictured are issue #1 VF/NM £50 and issue #5, Lady Shiva’s debut, NM- £50. Details on all the others, of course, in our online listings.

*DC/Marvel: The DC/Marvel Crossovers are always hugely popular, so after far too long a hiatus, we’re delighted to have a handful back in stock. The main event is the Marvel & DC Presents team-up of the Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans by Claremont, Simonson and Austin, in which our heroes join forces against the twin threats of Darkseid and the Phoenix. This spectacular one-shot is NM at £28. Also new to this category is 1995’s Batman Vs. The Incredible Hulk, a comic-sized reprint of the tabloid DC Special Series #27, and two prestige format one-offs, Daredevil/Batman and Punisher/Batman. Lastly, a selection of both 1996 and 1997’s Amalgam one-offs, in which the DC and Marvel Universes collided to bring us Amazon! X-Patrol! Bat-Thing! Generation Hex! Iron Lantern! and Lobo the Duck! PICTURED ITEM SOLD

*Marvel: In the fourth issue of Marvel’s Avengers series, the already formidable team of Iron Man, Giant-Man, Thor and the Wasp was augmented by one of the legendary heroes from the past. Captain America returned to action after years in Post-WWII suspended animation, and rapidly became the acknowledged heart and soul of the Avengers, who have never flourished for long without him! This copy of Cap’s iconic return to action is a pence priced copy in GD-. The primary flaw, other than moderate general wear indicated by the grade, is the large figure ‘6’ written in Magic Marker on the logo and upper central cover, in the slapdash way beloved of old-time second-hand bookstalls. Otherwise, this clean and sound copy, firm at cover and centrefold, would grade at least GD+. However, we try to be fair, so GD- p it is, on sale at £275 for one of the single most significant issues of the Silver Age.

*Marvel: One of the scarcer Spider-Man appearances, and often overlooked, was his guest-shot in Strange Tales Annual #2. While Annual #1 had been devoted exclusively to reprinted Big Panty Monsters and shock-ending chillers, by the second issue, Johnny Storm, the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch, had taken over as the lead feature, and an all-new 18-page Lee & Kirby story teamed him up with – and in finest Marvel tradition, pitted him against – the Amazing Spider-Man! This issue is scarce in the USA, and even rarer here in the UK, for reasons unknown. This is a pence copy, GD/VG, with minor lower spine wear and a small upper spine split, on sale at £145.

*Marvel: Following Kirby’s tabloid-sized Special, Marvel green-lit an ongoing series exploring the milieu of 2001: A Space Odyssey, giving artist/writer Kirby a free hand – perhaps too free a hand, as while time-transcending spectacle there was in abundance, the lack of a central cast left the readership feeling ‘unanchored’ to the series. This was remedied to an extent with issue #8, and Kirby’s introduction of X-51 (later known as Mister Machine and his final (so far) identity of Machine Man), a humanoid robot in search of his soul, who became the protagonist for the rest of the series, spinning off into his own title and becoming a prominent part of the main Marvel Universe. This copy of 2001 #8 is NM p £80. SOLD

*Marvel: When the Ant-Man name was unclaimed in the late 1970s, a brainier-than-average sneak-thief, Scott Lang, stole Hank Pym’s old apparatus and became the second bearer of that title! But it’s okay – he did bad things for good reasons, specifically to find a cure for his dying daughter, as was revealed in Marvel Premiere #47 and #48, the two-part tale which (after a non-costumed cameo in Avengers #181) was Scott’s first full appearance. John Byrne and David Michelinie created this different take on the hero, and since then, Scott has had his ups and downs – been in jail a few times, been dead a few more, been a love-slave of the Purple Man (No, really. Google it. Better yet, don’t) – but he’s fought his way back to respectability, and has achieved cinematic stardom in two eponymous movie hits, plus pivotal roles in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’. This double-dip debut for our loveable scientist scofflaw consists of a VF/NM p #47 at £75 (pictured), and the conclusion in #48 FN+ p will run you a mere £11.

*Marvel: The popular Thing team-up title, Marvel Two-In-One, is replenished this update with issues between #38 and #78, co-starring the great and good of the Marvel Universe, including Thundra, the Impossible Man, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Giant-Man, the Vision and a host more!