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SUMMER 2014 MARKET REPORT

THUNDERBIRDS A/W: £800.00
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1: £2,332.00

Prior to the publication of The Beano No 1 publisher’s D.C Thompson put flyers for their new, ground-breaking comic in their ‘Big Five’ titles: Adventure, Hotspur, Rover, Skipper and Wizard. A mini-comic in its own right the fold up, 8 page flyer is strongly collected today and this fine example commandeered £330.

Beano No 300 was the Xmas 1946 issue and we offered the front cover printer’s proof illustrated here with lower corner-piece neatly replaced. £220 was the very strong winning bidder’s response.

The near complete year of Beano issues for 1947 starred Lord Snooty, The Shipwrecked Circus, Tom Thumb, Jimmy And His Magic Patch and the first appearance of Wavy Davy And His Navy – all from the pen of art supremo, Dudley Watkins. £405 won the day.

Oor Wullie’s six school proverbs were realised just in time for the essay competition, and so was £550.

1940s Daily Mirror cheesecake was personified as Jane from the prolific pen of Norman Pett and six of Jane’s Journals were snapped up here for £166. Classy comic strips.

The first three Knock-Out Fun Books hit the canvas at £300.

Seventeen Marvelman / Young Marvelman issues found a firm £115 in mid grades, about £7 each.

Wilson always made Wizard a cut above the other DC Thompsons story papers and the Trainer Of Champions triumphed here with £253 for the complete year of 1957 in a bound volume.

The popularity of 50s cowboy artwork is undimmed as Buck Jones’s ambush is graphically illustrated here by Giorgio de Gaspari to capture £385.

We offered 5 lots of Bunty issues from 1964-69 and prices averaged £3 a copy. 1966 featured Discontented Doris, Detestable Della and The Unwanted One; obviously these issues had issues.

If you didn’t have a ring handy then the Pathfinder Wristlet Compass was the ideal accompaniment to Boys’ World No 1 and £115 pointed the way (and what can you say about that cool jacket and tie combo..?)

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Signed by the young boxer in 1963, Cassius Clay had just finished a sparring session in London prior to his first fight with Henry Cooper. The vendor’s mother worked as a secretary for the British Boxing Board of Control and this iconic piece had spent the intervening years stored in a cellar in the family home. It was bought for £500 by a lady as a birthday present for her nephew, lucky chap.

This Thunderbirds artwork by Frank Bellamy had Scott hatching a daring plan to rescue Virgil from the tunnel of fire. He made good his escape with £880.

Similarly Trigo and his men made shelter as the winged monsters swopped down onto the chasing Caton guards. An all-action Don Lawrence board at £550.

Don Lawrence combined with Mick Anglo to draw this Marvelman sketch for the Comics 101 convention in 1976. £150 seemed like a jolly good price.

Continuing into 1997 a 2000AD front cover artwork by Dermot Power with Slaine eyeballing The Cyth reached £650.

Our US section started with a run of Batman Joker and Catwoman covers with Batman 37 and 65 achieving £204 each.

Detective 97 with Dick Sprang’s homo-erotic artwork and high cover gloss made £280. The first Bat-Signal cover of Detective 108 signalled £170.

Phantom Lady 20 coupled with Daring Adventures 12 (the Lady’s #14 reprint), combined to produce £233.

This bright copy of Wonder Woman 10 from 1944 with original CGC 7.5 header lassoed its lower estimate of £450.

Three Fiction House Rangers comics starring Firehair, Commando Ranger and Tiger Man reached a mid estimate £102.

MAD clones Cracked and Sick created a satirical £88.

Star of our Silver Age selection was a Fine Minus cents copy of Amazing Spider-Man 1 which sold for an above estimate £2332.

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Issues 23-31 complete in mid grades realised £231.

Last sold as part of our ‘Uncle Stan’ pedigree collection in 2001, Avengers 60-71 rose significantly to £167.

As did the ‘Uncle Stan’ Thor lot at £222.

Incredible Hulk 6 with good cover gloss and no major defects returned a credible £94.

Sgt Fury 1, 6 and 23, Strange Tales 124 and X-Men 4 and 22 were the heaviest bid of all our US lots with £264 triumphant.

Conan The Barbarian and Defenders first issues, both high grade cents copies, performed strongly at £200.

During the school holidays I used to help my Dad who was the manager of a wine shop in Maida Vale, London. Not behind the counter, you understand, but doing the deliveries with the shop’s cast iron bike. There were a lot of mansion blocks in our area and the old bike could take two big crates of booze on the front so having negotiated the local traffic and dragged the crates up several floors where the lifts weren’t working it was generally hard work. Once I dropped a bottle of sherry down the stairwell which brought the residents out in a panic but I felt I was pretty much worth my ten bob at the end of the week (normally spent at His Master’s Voice on Saturday buying 45s of Buddy, Elvis or the Everly Brothers).

Fast forward forty years and the ‘helping Dad in the shop’ story had somewhat reversed. Our local comic shop in Camden was always busy at the weekends and the owner, Michael, used to get help from his Dad who manned the till near the door. Not being a comics collector but wanting to ‘get down with the kids’ Dad started calling the Amazing Spider-Man ‘Spidey’, Superman ‘Supes’, Fantastic Four the ‘FF’ and so on. These chummy soubriquets would be yelled down the crowded shop at regular intervals as customer requests to Michael who patrolled the more expensive stuff at the back. Up until one packed and eventful bank holiday afternoon when Dad yelled down five busy aisles:
‘MICHAEL...’ came the dutiful reply ‘Yes, Dad..’
‘WE GOT ANY CONE IN STOCK?’
‘Sorry, Dad?’
Louder: ‘WE GOT ANY CONE?’
‘No such title, Dad’.
‘BLOKE HERE SAYS YOU MUST HAVE’
‘Never heard of Cone, Dad..’
Even louder: ‘HE SAYS THE FULL TITLE IS ‘CONE - AND THE BARBARIAN’.
Guffaws and gentle instruction from a packed comic shop as Dad went all quiet...
I expect he still got his few bob at the end of the week.

Malcolm Phillips
Director
Comic Book Auctions Ltd.