As you might expect, the first Beano from 1938 was strongly contested. Bought by our vendor in the mid-1980s, it showed some edge wear and tears and had been professionally restored with clear archival tape to most of its page edges and a narrow piece missing from the RH lower cover edge had also been restored. 30 years later we graded it as [apparent vg]. ‘Apparent…’ meaning a comic that is graded the way it presents after restoration.

Having been initially bid to £2900, the lot’s final minutes weathered a storm of bidding, closing out at £5,500, the delighted winning bidder popping in a few days later to collect his hard-won prize.

The complete year of 1949 Dandy comics were published fortnightly until the end of July then weekly once more in narrower format and a slimmed down Desperate Dan did not sneeze (thank goodness) at a fat £920.

Here is the complete year of 1959 Beezers where The Banana Bunch and Pop, Dick and Harry fell over themselves with £720

The first four issues of TV Picture Stories Charlie Chan adventures were mainly responsible for the strong winning bid of £360. They are really hard to find. Even for a detective.

Over the last two decades there have not been many Dandy complete years of 1959 issues offered for auction and The Boy with the Iron Hands along with Robinson and his Dog, Crusoe sniffed out this bound volume in the wonderfully high grades of [vfn/nm] at £1000.

Emergency Ward 10 in 1957 was the first medical TV soap-opera and who could forget Nurse Carol Day and Dr Desmond Carrington - certainly not the keen bidders who took 12 of Pearson’s TV Picture Stories to £185

Also joining the £1000 club are Ginger by Dudley Watkins and The Banana Bunch by Leo Baxendale with this high grade year of Beezer comics from 1966.

This Dan Dare/Eagle original cover artwork was painted and signed by Frank Hampson, still showing its bright gouache colours as Dan, Sir Hubert and Digby touch down on a mystery planet with £1760.

A Heros The Spartan artwork painted and signed by Frank Bellamy sold under its estimate after the auction’s close at £2750

A mixed bag of 49 Topper comics in various grades from 1955-1961 sold well at £460 or (£9.50 each in old money).

T V Comic starred Supercar, Four Feather Falls, Fireball XL5, The Milky Bar Kid and Doctor Who. The lot comprised 63 mid-grade issues with one free gift, and took an impressive £540. The Milky Bars Are On Me.

The Seventies are well represented by the 1972 year of Buster and Jet which starred Faceache and Queen of the Seas by Ken Read with Nellyphant and Clever Dick by Leo Baxendale. Faceache finally forced a smile for £430.

3 original artworks featured here, drawn and signed by Joe Colquhoun with script by Pat Mills. ‘The battle of the Somme raged on as Charley’s camp is savagely attacked by German fighter planes… £540 was successfully bid.

 

Our US section featured Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #1 from the legendary IRS collection, a forced sale of comic book assets by the IRS to recoup the proceeds of a huge amount of fraudulent purchases by one of their Colorado employees in the mid Nineties. £680 was a Lois leader.

This copy of Amazing Spider-Man #3 was graded [gd] with a front cover scrape and the cover off its lower staple. It still managed £840.

1968’s Cap America #100 CGCd at 7.5 was relatively good value at £370.

This lookalike Fantastic Four #1 cover is in fact a 1966 Golden Record Comic Set reprint which sold very well for £410. Would the Fantastic Four become the new Fab Four?

Currently the hottest Silver Age book in town, our Fantastic Four #5 cents copy had biro owner names to cover and splash pages, a corner piece torn away and some clear tape repairs to its page edges. Notwithstanding, £1720 was the hefty price paid to ‘Meet Doctor Doom’.

A gorgeous [nm-] cents copy of Fantastic Four #55 realised a strong £330.

Hulk #4 from 1962 does not come around that often and this Irish ‘1/-‘ price- stamped copy in [vg/fn] took £350.

 

The first appearance of Dr Strange was hugely enhanced by Benedict Cumberbatch’s brilliant portrayal of Stephen Strange in the 2016 eponymous movie and the book has remained a strong Marvel key ever since. CGCd at 5.5 this cents copy empowered £2150.

Contrasting grades of Tales of Suspense #40 and #41 showed the former with Marvel chipping, back cover biro owner name and weakened spine at [vg-], the latter a cents copy immortalised in 6.0 plastic – both at £260 each.

This first appearance of Ant Man had a light pen cover price of ‘2½p’ (…those were the days…) its [vg+] grade translated now into £1600.00. Tales to Astonish indeed

Adventure #283 is a Superboy key issue with the introduction of The Phantom Zone. A bright cents [vfn+] copy at £580

Flash of Two Worlds in a [fn] £440.

The first Green Lantern shines to £920, CGCd at 6.0

Justice League of America #1 tipped the scales with an affordable £490.

What a difference 85 years of The Beano makes with the recent 85th Birthday issue of 29 July 2023. Under the heading ‘ Mount Beano gets a Celeb Makeover’ there are front and back cover special appearances including Harry Styles, Lewis Capaldi, Adele, Lewis Hamilton, Marcus Rashford, Jill Scott, Ant and Dec, Stormzy, Claudia W, Sporty Spice and finally Minnie (who still thinx she’s) The Minx and Dennis The amusing young man. (Over at The Dandy you've now got Kranky the Cat and Disparate Dan)

I know I’m an old, boring comics collector but it seems to me that Big Eggo has finally become Big Ego.