This Beano No 1 was accompanied by its No 1 Flyer, an insertion in publisher,  D C Thomson’s story papers the week before Beano publication as an advertising flyer. It is a mini-comic in its own right. The comic had some cover rust marks fading through the first few pages and it was graded as [vg]. It reached just below its lower estimate at £8,700.

The scarce Beano No 7 also had some cover rust residue but nearly doubled its upper estimate to £920

The first Beano Christmas issue is rare and we offered the second highest graded copy at auction. Fiercely contested, it took a magnificent £1720

By contrast, the first Dandy Christmas issue, this copy with some rust marks in a lower grade [vg-] made £185.

Here’s Magic Comic No 2 with its mini-comic flyer at £270.

We offered a tatty run of 11 Triumph comics from 1939 with the first US Superman reprints published in the UK. Such is the interest in early Superman comics that this group was knocked down for a super-human £620

There were only 38 issues of The Dandy in 1949 as the first six months were published fortnightly. This did not stop a successful winning bid of £1040 for this beautifully bound volume.

Raphael Tuck’s Better Little Books helped distract children in air raid shelters and underground stations during bombing raids in wartime London. Known as ‘Blitz’ books they are relatively scarce, especially in these high grades. Unscathed at £290.

Oh Boy! No 4 from 1948 starred The Tornado on its front cover which was drawn and scripted by Bob Monkhouse. Along with Streamline 4 and The Evil-Eye Thriller, these rarities contributed to the £260 winning bid.

The Beano issues in 1950 returned to their original larger format during the second part of the year so two bound volumes were required to present this complete year and a great value £860 took them away.

Biffo shaped lollipops were the theme of The Beano’s front cover artwork by Dudley Watkins and £1000 gave them a good licking.

This 1958 Broons book was in hard back format, only produced for publisher, DC Thomson’s internal use. Subsequently rare and in great condition it brought £320. Help ma boab.

A half-year bound volume of Comet from 1957 starred Buffalo Bill, The Lone Ranger, Jet-Ace Logan and Strong Bow (The red indian chief, not the cider) An intoxicating £320 resulted.

A complete run of the first 10 volumes of Eagle included a spare copy of Vol 1 No 1 and tipped the scales at £880.

Printed as a one-off issue in 1946, Denlee Publishing’s The Mighty Atom had all the attributes of a US hard-boiled detective comic with a space adventure thrown in. This full colour, large format rarity did enormously well with £155.

A good run of Space Comics Captain Valiant from the 1950s by the Arnold Book Co. had its 18 issues selling for over £10 each.

From 1960-65 Beano and Dandy were printed in lower quantities as rival titles Beezer and Topper (from the same publisher) offered fresher characters in a larger format. Today these years are more difficult to put together and often outpace earlier years in value. Illustrated here, the complete year of 1963 in a bound volume was strongly contested to £940

From the Bob Monkhouse collection, Frank Bellamy’s original artwork from Boy’s World in 1963 showed Brett Million searching for invisibility. £1580 was not as hard to find.

Korky the Cat original artwork by Jimmy Crichton was accompanied by the original printer’s proof for The Dandy’s front cover and £1080 took them away.

Also from Uncle Bob’s collection were three Daily Mirror original strips signed by Frank Bellamy where Garth is trapped with Andromeda in Tallion’s torture chamber. £1320 set him free.

Among this group of Viz original artwork by Chris and Simon Donald was a Valentine’s Day Card sold in aid of Comic Relief in 1988. In true Viz style it romantically suggested: ‘Be My Valentine – Or Fuck Off.’ And for £320 it did.

Plenty of amateur restoration on Superman #32 and 35 resulted in £170.

 

 

Our US section included some Golden Age heavy hitters.

Amazing Mystery Funnies V2 #5 had its cover detached where rusty staples had worn through the spine but this issue with classic Bill Everett cover claimed £1100

Batman #11’s fresh looking cover had tears and clear tape to its spine. Hard to find in the UK, this issue starring Joker and The Penguin sold for £1200.

New York World’s Fair Comics #1 was specially published for sale at that exhibition in 1939 and largely failed to sell due to its 25c cover price. Sporting a blonde Superman on the cover it did somewhat better here at £840

We featured a collection of pulps in pretty reasonable condition in this auction and Fiction House’s Planet Stories from 1945, Vol 4 issues 1-12 stood out with £260

Eight issues of Weird Tales from 1939 included covers by Virgil Finlay and stories by H P Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe. £240 quoth the raven.

These 3 Action Comics had amateur restoration to their edges and spines and in [apparent gd-vg] grades found £280

Here is Superman #11 channelling Hercules but with 30% of the top cover neatly restored by the long-time original owner.  Unchained for £250.

Black Rider #8 is actually the first issue of the title and has an Overstreet Book Guide value of $159.00 in Fine grade. You might think ‘so what’ but the chap who posed for the comic’s photo cover was none other than Marvel Atlas editor, Stan Lee and this titan of comic creators was rewarded here at £410. A Marvel Atlas indeed.

We offered another icon in a photo-cover and the universal Marilyn effect weaved its magic on Sweethearts #119 with £720

Pence copies of Amazing Spider-Man #3 and #4 were strongly contested to £520 and £350 respectively.

Avengers #2 CGC’d at 8.5 saw fierce bidding to £900 whilst Avengers #4 with noticeable scrape to its back cover just reached its reserve with £560

A mid-grade collection of Fantastic Four #6, 9, 10 and 13 stretched to £580

Early Hulks in mid grades are much more difficult to locate and these issues in [vg-fn] made banner headlines with £300 and £250

The status of the Oscar winning Black Panther movie shone on this lead page artwork done for the UK’s Planet Of The Apes magazine No 75 from 1976. There was jungle action at £720

Strange Tales #110 heralded the first appearance of Dr Strange. The comic had spine and edge colour touches and was graded at [apparent fn]. With its three accomplices the Doctor was closely examined at £720.

Here’s a copy of X-Men #4 in [vfn-] which mutated to £430

With a Neil Adams cover swipe from Batman #31, Batman #227 from 1970 begins to gather iconic status itself and this [fn] issue sold at £140 to suggest that. Alongside it is a [nm-m] New Mutants #98 from 1991 - snaffled away for £185

One of the star artworks in our auction was from the Bob Monkhouse archive. With Thunderbirds 1 rocketing off the page Frank Bellamy shows yet again how to bring the genre alive. Even his use of white space between the panels accentuates and focuses the action. This magnificent TV 21 centre page artwork from 1967 sold for a record £4750.

 

Whilst we’re on the subject, one of our customers, who has the whole set of TV Century 21 comics, bought from new when he was a child, has sent us in two photos of his Dalek toy collection taken in the 1960s. Produced by Cherilea Toys in 1965, Dalek Swapits were exclusive to Woolworths and sold in ready-to- assemble pieces for a shilling a go. He accompanied the photos with the following note:

 

 

‘Dear Malcolm, I enclose two photographs of my Dalek collection from the Sixties. You can also see some Fireball XL5 and Stingray boxes but the models are all gone. I had about twenty but Mother put them in the bin.’

 

I suspect that Mother had strict instructions from Father to get his model railway table back.