10 Coronation issues and No.1s from the early 1900s performed strongly at £310. These key issues are genuinely rare.

The Hotspur comic Nos. 1-11 from 1933, although quite hard to find, were not in very good condition with edge brittleness and some minor loss. But No.1 had its free gift Black Cloth Mask which is quite rare. However, it is almost the same gift that was given away with the Beano No.1 in 1938, which was named the Whoopee Mask, where only one has ever survived. The big difference is the Whoopee Mask was never produced in black for The Beano.

The Atomic Age comic was a scarce one-Shot produced by Agar Publishing in 1947. It starred ‘The Bat-Man, Dick Gordon’ ( the comic strip nicked from the US Batman comic with mangled alter ego of Dick Grayson (Robin) and Police Commissioner Jim Gordon. Other stories were Rex Rogers Speeding Through Space and Atomic Tommy the Bullet-Proof Crime Smasher with art by H Stanley White, Basil Reynolds and Walter Booth. From an estimate of £30-40 it sold for £350.

A near complete run of The Beano years 1942-43 missing one issue were very well worn with fragile spines, heavy folds and edge pieces missing. But they were propaganda war issues, taken away for £760.

The Dandy 1944-45 in two complete years were in the same [pr/fr/gd] condition with a few in [vg] grade and these propaganda war issues sold for £460.

Walt Disney Weekly No.1 from 1959 came with it scarce free gift, Zorro’s Hat, which we assembled for this photograph (unfortunately too small a fit for your big-headed auctioneer) and it made a heady £155 along with No 2 and it’s Zorro Mask at £115.

Keith Watson’s artwork doesn’t come up for auction that often and his double page Dan Dare artwork from 1962 took an opening bid of £760.
We hadn’t offered Huckleberry Hound comics before and 28 issues including No.1 with the Summer Extra and Flintstones Fun Extra gobbled up £270.

Lion comic early years are seeing some resurgence and the complete year of 1961 with free gifts and the accompanying 1961 Annual roared to £360.

Twenty-four 1970s mostly first issues, many with their free gifts Rampaged and Smashed their way to £290.

Charley’s War by Joe Colquhoun was offered here with two original artworks and one photocopy artwork to complete the episode. Colquhoun’s unparralled WW1 artistry abetted by the brilliant scripts of Pat Mills took £780.

Ron Turner’s original artwork of Judge Dredd for 2000AD’s prog 16 back cover sees rebel robot leader, ‘Call-Me Kenneth’, downed by a crushing blow. Floored with £2800.

Two original artworks of Tharg’s Future Shocks (1977) by Ron Turner from 2000AD prog 30 hammered £680.

15 Superhero No.1 issues from the 1980s, most with their free gifts had Marvel Teaming-Up to £310.

 

Here was one of Ron Turner’s last artworks, ‘Deadline To Doomsday’ selling for £320. The piece was created as a follow-up to the hugely successful Dalek Chronicles in 1998. It was illustrated on the last page of Doctor Who magazine No.276 (included in the lot) as part of the great man’s eulogy by his agent, writer and great friend, John Lawrence.
Lawrence’s two relevant script pages were also included and the artwork is featured in his well-illustrated book, The Fantastic Art of Ron Turner.

Our US Golden Age section started out with two mid 50s low-grade Batman comics: #91 and 104 making £120.

All American Men of War #45 with Never Again #1 in mid/low grades were good value at £45.

Dark Mysteries #15 (1953) [vg] reached £155 whilst Detective #138 [fn] garnered £125

Five issues of Detective Comics from the late 50s took £360.

The Avengers #1 featured above had rusty staples and off-white pages, its [vg] grade not stopping Thor hammering £1720.

This Avengers #4 cents copy had slight Marvel chipping to its cover edge but its grade of [vg/fn] secured a solid £920.

A wonderful cents copy of Fantastic Four #72 resided here with its iconic Silver Surfer cover and a [vfn+] grade. £145 was a not unreasonable price for this beauty.

An unbroken run of ten 1974 Hulk comics #171-180 did really well, their high grades producing a winning bid of £250

The Silver Surfer dominated the cover of Tales To Astonish #93 and this [vfn/nm] cents copy closed out £340.

This X-Men #1 had an ad page cut out (not affecting the story) but buyers were undeterred taking this [fr] copy to £920. The [fn-] #2 fetched a little more with £980.

The Neal Adams cover swipe of 1939’s Detective Comics #31 will always elevate the value of Batman #227 from 1970. And such was the case here with a [fn-] copy taking £410.

 

Back in school when ‘I were a lad’ we always did comic ‘swapsies’ in the playground with Beano, Dandy and The Eagle the most popular titles. But I always had a hankering for American comics and my well-thumbed collection of The Fantastic Four soon took over my later years. I thought it was really cool that Johnny Storm drove a Corvette Stingray and Reed Richards and Sue Storm, The Invisible Woman, were actually married.

 

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago nearing supper time in the Phillips household when my wife suggested that my super-hero alter ego should be The Invisible Man. Mildly pleased by what I thought was a compliment, I made the mistake of asking why. She replied that it was very hard to see me in the kitchen.