They were in the best condition ever offered at auction and the full Beano year of 1945 doubled its upper estimate at £3250, that’s £125 for each fortnightly issue. Early Beano copies from the 1940s were also in high demand and numbers 76-100 averaged £250-350 each.

12 pages of original artwork from the 1880s, one featuring that old reprobate, Ally Sloper, were snapped up by the Cartoon Art Museum for £490 and will feature in an upcoming exhibition once they have been framed. The Museum is at 35 Little Russell Street, London WC1A 2HH and well worth a visit.

Seaside and Holiday comics were published during the 1930s and only sold at summer resorts during the holidays. As such they are rare as print runs were correspondingly low. This lot included Sunny Sands No 1, a publication not listed in our reference books and a real rarity. There were 8 issues in all, mostly trimmed, but this did not deter the winning bidder with a successful £230.

A fresh run of Tiny Tots in 3 complete years, 1947-49, enclosed in a bound volume totted up £210

Dandy No 17 in Fine condition made £220.

Korky gets his birthday bumps in the Dandy Monster Comic from 1947 and £470 was a very nice present indeed.

A lower grade Beano Xmas Number from 1939 still managed a lofty £330

Denis Gifford’s original mock-up for his unpublished Corker Comics 1-12 included original artwork by fledgling cartoonist, Bob Monkhouse and this unique piece of British comics history was also bought by the Cartoon Art Museum for £310.

This fresh copy of The Beezer No 2 from 1956 was taken to £90

Dudley Watkins drew and signed this Biffo The Bear artwork for the 1954 Beano Book and it featured many of the characters in a Christmas story. Intense bidding took it to £1320

A high grade bound volume of the 1954 Dandy complete year attracted a double estimate £1020

Cowboy comics have a wide collecting base and key character John Wayne always concentrates bidders’ minds. An unbroken run of issues 35-49 corralled £210, or £14 a pop.

Harold Whitaker drew Mickey Mouse and Peter Pan for Mickey Mouse Weekly in the mid Fifties and here was his archive of over 90 pencil roughs along with 21 episode scripts. £260 took the Mickey.

Early issues of Super-Detective Library are hard enough to find so the rarer Australian edition 1/- copies did not go unnoticed and these 13 numbers garnered £185

A 33 issue run of JAG including the first three numbers with their free gifts came in at £350

 

Numbers 11-20 of TV Century 21 sold very well at £24 each

The first four issues of Valiant caused a hurricane of bidding to £165

Roy Cross’s 1970 artwork for the cover of the Lion Book of Motor Racing raced to £230

Our Golden Age selection highlighted the scarce Super Duck Comics #1. With cover featuring Hitler and Hirohito, it dictated £130

Six mid-grade issues of The Haunt of Fear reached a strong £250. EC does it.

A surprisingly high £300 was successfully bid for The Punisher’s first appearance.

The first appearance of Thor in Journey into Mystery #83 makes this comic one of the key Silver Age issues but £1300 was an unprecedented high for a pence [vg-] copy.

 

A 1995 cover artwork by Michael Avon Oeming for Judge Dredd #7 (1995) included its editor’s acetate overlay, signed proof copies and the original comic for a mega £520