Our Judge Dredd artwork had been stored away, crucially out of the light, for 43 years. The vendor’s father worked in the art dept. at Fleetway House in London and took his teen-age son to the office where after a brief chat, a relatively unknown artist, Ron Smith, reached beside his desk and gave the young man this artwork as a gift. It had been kept in its original brown wrapping paper all these years eventually seeing the light once more at auction. Our research discovered that it was the full page, back cover illustration for 2000AD prog 294 from 1982. We then bought a copy on eBay for £15 which was included in the lot. 30 bids drove the price up and it was finally knocked down for £5,400. We would suggest that this is the only time that the Judge has ever been knocked down.

Here was a Teddy Tail’s Annual cover artwork from 1937 signed by leading artist of the day, Herbert Foxwell. It more than doubled its upper estimate, selling for £840.

48 issues of the Beano from 1957 starring Dennis The Menace by Davy Law and The Bash Street Kids by Leo Baxendale went for just over £10 a copy.

A ‘Reign of the Robots’ Dan Dare cover artwork (1957) by Frank Hampson showed Dan, Lex, Digby and Flamer returning from outer space to find the Earth under the dreaded rule of The Mekon – fiendish master-mind of Venus…The board’s bright gouache colours encouraged a winning bid of £760.

1957 was obviously a good year. That’s when this Rick Random artwork by Ron Turner for Super-Detective Library No 111 was illustrated. £400 won the space race for the Space Ace.

The first Tiger comic is quite difficult to find, but when it includes its wonderful free gift Space Gun, 5 (of 6) original carded Flying Saucer Bullets and the beautifully illustrated original bag, it becomes rare. The winning £720 bidder thought so too.

Cherie No 1 from 1960 was accompanied by its Lucky Love Locket with a photo of Cliff. In [vfn] grade it made £155.

A ten issue run of Commando Nos 61-70 commanded £43 each.

Romeo, ‘The Pick of the Love Papers’, sold strongly with 40 issues from 1966 making £540.

This early Ron Turner original artwork of Space Ace and The Lost City was published in Lone Star Magazine where Turner illustrated his adventures for over ten years. One of our major artwork collectors paid a strong £460 price.

The complete 52 issues year of The Tiger from 1965 became Tiger and Hurricane on May 15, bringing together the combined forces of Typhoon Tracy, Olac The Gladiator, Roy of The Rovers and Devil at the Centre of the Earth. Also included was The Tiger Annual for that year. A big £600 won the day.

The first eight issues of Shiver and Shake from 1973 starred Frankie Stein by Ken Reid, Scream Inn, Gal Capone, Lolly Pop, Moano Lisa and Horrornation Street. No. 3 included its free gift Glow Fun Stickers and No.1 its Practical Joke Chocolate Biscuit. £420 – Delicious.

We were delighted to offer the first Star Wars poster from 1977. It was the pre-Oscars UK quad original. Never having been folded or pinned up, the force remained with it for £2550.

 

One of Ron Turner’s most brilliant creations is his front and back cover original artwork for The Dalek Chronicles, a Doctor Who Magazine Summer Special from 1994. It is also illustrated on page 298 of the newly published ‘The Fantastic Art of Ron Turner’ by John Lawrence and the all-action piece sold for a record £3000.

Another vibrant original from the hand of Ron Turner is The Sun Makers re-creation artwork (1980s) from the paperback of the same name published by Vargo Statten in 1950 and included in the lot. Also photographed in John Lawrence’s book, it doubled its upper estimate with £780.

Here are the Dynamic Duo in full attack mode in Batman 98 and Detective 127 for £210 and £300 respectively.

Our copy of Startling Terror Tales #11 from 1947 had a detached cover with a split spine which only merited a lowly [fr] grade. However, its saving grace L B Cole cover art took the bids to a staggering £1420. We had some strong bidding interest from a gentleman living in Tyneside but, unfortunately, he did not bid highly enough to take Cole to Newcastle.

Amazing Spider-Man #3 CGC’d 3.5 allowed the Vulture to feed on plenty of scraps with £1040 whilst The Lizard slithered to a Very Fine £840.

A green issue before its time, Amazing Spider-Man #14 was challenged by both a Goblin and The Hulk but everything turned out [fn] with £1520.

The Amazing Spider-Man #129 had ‘remainder’ paint to its upper and lower page edges. (This was done back in the late 60s and 70s when comic shops had returned unsold issues to their distributors where they were put into stacks and brushed or sprayed with paint to stop them being resold as new). The comic still sold for £800.

We offered Avengers #1 and Daredevil #1 – two Silver Age key cents copies, both [vg] grade and selling for £1320 and £1280 respectively.

This F F #12 CGC 6.0 classic cover returned £620 whilst #52 grading at [vfn-] with a slightly miscut back cover took £600.

Originally from our “Uncle Stan Collection” and auctioned by ourselves in March 2001 for £770, Hulk #1 returned to us once more 24 years later with our original letter of authenticity including Stan Lee’s photocopy note and Spidey sketch. The bright cover was detached with spine splits to the top and bottom staples. Graded [fr/gd] it realised a very firm £3600, the historical provenance overriding the lowly grade.

Key mid-grade pence copies of Journey Into Mystery #83 [vg+] and #85 [fn-] took £1900 and £920. Thor’s hammer prices.

Two X-Men cents copy beauties: #1 in [vg+] at £3850 and Giant-Size #1 in [nm] at £2350. Mutants rule.

 

We may never know why Supergirl needed to take a 1959 rocket travelling from Krypton to Earth when she could probably have flown there unaided in half the time. However, the winning bid of £1220 was certainly rocket propelled. Meanwhile, over in 1973, The Joker was starting to play his trump card with a presidential £560.

Alan Austin (1955-2017) was the first full-time comic dealer in the UK, starting his ‘Heroes’ comic shop in an Islington basement in 1979. He produced the first Comic Book Price Guide for Great Britain and published many fanzines including Fantasy Unlimited, Comics Unlimited, Golden Age and The DC & Marvel Indexes. He was known to his many customers and friends as ‘The Guv’nor’ but he was much more than that – a Titan of British and UK comic-book fandom.
We offered six pieces from the Alan Austin Archive of Original Artwork and featured above is The Amazing Spider-Man and Women back cover fanzine artwork drawn and signed by John Bolton in 1976 which sold for £260. There will be further emotive pieces in our auction next February.