The star lot from our UK section was hotly contested. Bought by our vendor in the mid-1980s, his Magic Comic Nos 1-7 from 1939 were in a bound volume and had been carefully stored away to retain their Fine/Fine+ grades. D C Thomson cancelled the title after 80 issues due to wartime paper shortages and the first appearance of Koko the Pup by E H Banger and Peter the Piper by Dudley Watkins created a fierce bidding war, the seven issues finally being knocked down for £4050

Rainbow No 1 (1914) was accompanied by its rare free gift of Mrs Bruin’s Boarding School cut-out models and first issue flyer. £320 stood out in class.

The Dandy Monster Comic No 1 from 1939 had some high quality professional restoration resulting in a winning opening bid of £1440.

The Dandy complete year of 1946 was only 26 issues long as it was published fortnightly and No 321 had a misprinted front cover which lacked its banner headline, ‘The Paper with a Store of Comic Stars’. Our research has failed to establish how many issues were misprinted in this way but the high grades of [fn/vfn] took this strongly desirable lot to £1320.

Beezer Nos 1-29, 31-43 including No 1’s free gift Whizz Bang were bound into seven volumes and Tom, Dick and Harry took away £1280

Here was the 1957 original artwork of The Eagle’s front cover from Volume 8 No 46. Drawn and painted by Frank Hampson.
“Dan and his crew are trapped in a huge pit, dug to trap the dreaded Selektrobots, most dangerous of the Mekon’s mechanized monsters. They wait tensely as the clanking din of the giant clockwork killers draw near…”
Luckily one very determined bidder beat them to it with a mechanized monster bid of £3250

‘Thrills, Romance and Top Song Hits’ were promised in 37 issues of Secrets from 1961 and with their wonderful covers they took a fiver each.

Roy of the Rovers and Rockfist Rogan – Fighter Pilot of WWII are still keenly collected as stalwarts of Tiger comic and issues 43-95 in two bound volumes roared to £780

The complete year of Beezer for 1968 included issue No 672 which showed artist, Dudley Watkins, drawing Ginger on the Beezer Book front cover. This bound volume also drew a big £1000.

The BIG ONE comic only ran for nineteen issues and any copies are really hard to find in decent condition because of their broadsheet size. With an upper estimate of £300 they were taken away for £350 – a really good buy for the winning bidder.

Knockout comics are also widely collected and 30 consecutive issues (including Feb 16 1962, the last one) starred Battler Britton, Kelly’s Eye and Strongbow (the native American – not the cider). They nearly double the upper estimate at £640. Cheers.

This all-action Black Hawk first page artwork by Massimo Bellardinelli was from 2000AD prog 128 in 1979 and it made £430. There are more boards in our next auction in September.

Original art of Charley’s War by Joe Colquhoun continues to sell strongly and three consecutive pieces from Battle-Action 234 in 1981 took £1300.

 

Our US Golden Age section contained a hum-dinger as Captain Marvel Jr #13 had Junior taking on Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini at American football and ‘carrying the ball for democracy.’ A £720 touch-down.

This cents copy of Avengers #1 had extensive colour touches to the front cover and with a Restoration grade of [apparent fn+] it hammered £1600

Our pence copy of Fantastic Four #48 had moisture rippling to all its pages and a light front cover crease (probably caused by a silver surfer) but the popularity of this key issue continues unbounded, evidenced by its £540 winning bid.

A cents copy of Fantastic Four #50 in [vfn] looked to be better value at almost the same price of £560

Our pence copy of Journey Into Mystery #83 had a well-worn spine and a big tear to pg 27 but its [gd] grade far outstripped the Overstreet Price Guide with a Thor hammer price of £2700

J I M #85 heralded the first appearance of Loki and this [vg-] pence copy is hard to find so its auction journey ended with £900

The iconic cover of Silver Surfer #4 is one of this writer’s all-time favourites. This particular UK price-stamped copy had a professionally restored top spine split giving it a Restored grade of [apparent vfn+] and £780 took it away.

 

Although a top five Silver Age key, this copy of Tales of Suspense #39 was more Worn Man than Iron Man and graded [fr/gd] accordingly. It was carefully carried away for £2450

X-Men #9 graded [vg-] and ten further issues between 53-66 [fn/vfn] exceeded expectations with £700

Here are cents copies of Action #289 in [nm-] and Adventure #287 [vfn+] (with Marilyn Monroe and JFK cover) at £155 and £90 respectively. High grades for very reasonable money.

Here’s a Batman Joker cover CGC 7.0 for £220

For £145 - Riddle-me this: can you p-p-pick up a penguin for £135?

There were low to mid grades in this Flash 8-issue lot but some keys here too at £410

Green Lantern #87 in [vfn+] where Hal’s Ring finds a new GL battling back-up. £340 up-front.

Here we see Iceman, a founder member of the X-Men who has the mutant power to freeze his enemies with extreme coolness under pressure. He also went on to star in Marvel title ‘The Defenders’.

As I write this story, West Ham have brilliantly triumphed in Prague winning The European Conference League Final. They also had a leader of the team, a Defender with extreme coolness under pressure. I will christen him ‘Rice-Man’.

 

As a long time comics enthusiast and football supporter I sincerely hope that his mutant power will shortly be deployed in my team’s arsenal (for a fully deserved, record breaking price, man).