Our Tiger No 1 from 1954 was only in average condition with some rust marks and tears to its cover margins but three very determined bidders were after it, one of whom owned a well-worn copy that he’d bought some years ago with its rare free gift, The Tiger Gun and press-out Flying Saucers. Unfortunately he didn’t get his upgrade but he had a jolly good try. The comic exploded to £2200 and I had estimated it at £60-80 - Oops…

The Thriller from 1935 sported its 52 publisher’s file copies in two bound volumes. They featured Philomel Cottage by Agatha Christie, The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace, The Saint by Leslie Charteris with most of the cover illustrations being drawn by the menacing, atmospheric pen of Mike Hubbard. Double upper estimate: £860.

Here are Beano Nos 34 and 56 in mid-grade fetching £250 each

And Magic Comics 38 and 43 nearly matching them at £200 each

Annuals have fallen in value over the last ten years as more copies come on to the market and the perceived rarity is lessened. However Dennis’s first annual hung in there with £120

1950s complete years of The Beano are now heavily contested and 1959, illustrated here, went over the moon at £3550 with a similarly graded year of 1958 a couple of lots earlier at £3050. (Watch out for further 50s complete years in our next auction in November…)

Classics Illustrated comics are still widely collected in high grades as they are generally quite low in price and everyone (of a certain age) remembers them from school (Mum: ‘It’s nice to see you reading something proper for a change…’)
A different set of rules apply when the CI rarities come up and here was Mr Midshipman Easy in its third edition, it’s scarce British cover not reprinted in the US, landing a sizeable £390.

A great selection of football free gifts with all their varied comics scored an impressive £740

In the late 50s and early 60s some of War Picture Library’s authors were war veterans and POWs themselves and they brought a reality and honesty to their story telling creating huge popularity for the title. WPL continues to break auction records with this unbroken run of issues 1-271 capturing £2250.

Fantastic No 2 gave away The Secret Brotherhood of Power Stick-on Scars. Notoriously difficult to find they made £135.

It’s Terrific No 2 was accompanied by its free gift Iron Man’s Missile Launcher which also hit the target at £135.

This is the first time we had ever been able to offer Solo No 1 with its Amazing Solar Saucer giveaway. Both in very high grade, The Scarecrow might well splash out on a new set of duds with £620.

Another star of the auction was these first 141 issues of TV Century 21 which also included free gifts with Nos 1 & 2 along with No 141’s Spectrum Shade Official Pass which you had to send away for. £2500 sent them all away.

 

Valiant No 1 heralded the first appearances of Captain Hurricane, Jack ‘O’ Justice and The Steel Claw, gripping the £300 winning bid.

These two Valiants from 1966 included the wonderfully rare free gifts of a Redwing model plane and the engine parts to go with it. Along with the Valiant 4-page Flyer advertising them, this was a lot magnificent in its completeness. £220 was happily paid by its knowledgeable new owner.

Captain Britain is well recognised here and in the USA with issues 1-22, 25-28 and the Boomerang free gift from No 2 waving the flag to £350.

Frank Bellamy artwork continues to attract strong bidding and his signed Garth artworks from ‘The Wreckers’ storyline produced £760.

We had not offered the full 22 issue run of Thunder before and it was complete here with free gifts Jumping Kangaroo from No 1 and Black Max’s Bat from No 2. Thunder starred Fury’s Family by Denis Mcloughlin, Adam Eterno, Phil The Fluter and Black Max by Eric Bradbury and Alfonso Font. They made £560.

A lovely bunch of Beano and Dandy free gifts from the 1980s-2000s went to a Dennis The Menace Fan Club member for £65.

Ron Smith’s double page artwork from 2000AD prog 304 had the Mega City gangsters setting a trap for Judge Dredd…£1340 preceded the getaway.

 

Cam Kennedy’s Rogue Trooper artwork from 1984 saluted £880.

2000AD’s prog 807 back cover artwork painted and signed by Ron Smith found a mid-estimate £620

Comedy Comic #9 from 1942 was actually the scarce first issue (the previous 8 issues were titled Daring Mystery). CGC’d at 9.2 with off-white pages it raised £1460.

A very respectable copy of Marvel Mystery comics #76 [fn+] (1946) inflamed £720

Batman #73 with Joker cover had some spine wear and inside cover ink bleed but the combination of the Caped Crusader battling his evil nemesis took this mid-grade book to £1120.

Dick Powell’s horrific cover to Black Cat Mystery #45 was sub-titled ‘This is what happens to you in Colorama!’ £260 was what happened to him.

Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein #24 and #25 monstered £250.

Avengers #4, a CGC 6.0 pence copy selling here for £1940.00 illustrated that the disparity between cents and pence copies of key books is continuing to decrease. In fact a cents copy CGC 6.0 sold at Heritage in April this year for $2640.00, almost exactly the same money!

This copy of Fantastic Four #3 had two small scuff marks to the top cover and a light back cover crease. Its [fn/vfn] grade resulted in a winning bid of £2100.

 

Fantastic Four #48 has been up and down in value over the last 15 years but Silver Age keys are dominant currently and this [fn-] copy took £1920, pleasing the vendor who had bought it 20 years ago.

 

Sgt Fury #2-12 in mid grades commanded £300

 

This [vg] copy of Green Lantern #1 collected £560

 

The cover artwork for Thrill-O-Rama #2 from 1966 was by George Tuska and Joe Simon and The Pirana got his teeth stuck into £1420.

 

Barry Windsor-Smith had told his private purchaser that ‘I mounted and matted the drawing myself…’ in a letter that was included with the ‘Hair’ artwork from his book ‘Barry Windsor-Smith Opus Volume 2’. Bid strongly, it reached £2500.

 

Dick Ayers had drawn this colour sketch of Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos in 2002 and the lot included a signed letter saying he was stationed at Boreham Wood airfield during WWII with very fond memories of those times. The US envelope was also included on which Dick had signed a profile sketch of himself. What a wonderful buy for £125.

 

Here’s Superman #33 from 1945 in [fn-] which has sold for a healthy £310.00
The front cover depicts a practical joke on Superman, a theme which our following story illustrates:

 

A woman runs a red traffic light and crashes into a man’s car. Both cars are demolished but, amazingly, neither of them is hurt.

 

After they crawl out of the wreckage the woman says “OMG, look at our cars, there’s nothing left, I’m a bit shaken up but you look completely unhurt – you must be some kind of Superman! Surely it’s a sign from above that we should meet and be friends and live together in peace for the rest of our days.”

 

The man replies “Thankfully, you’re in great shape, too, I completely agree, it’s a sign from above.”

 

The woman continues “…and look at this, here’s another miracle, my car is completely demolished but my bottle of 50-year-old Scotch isn’t even scratched. God has meant for us to drink this vintage single malt to celebrate our good fortune.”

Then she hands the bottle to the man. The man nods his head in agreement, opens it and drinks a quarter of the bottle and then hands it back to the woman. The woman takes the bottle, puts the cap back on and hands it back to the man. The man asks, “Aren’t you having any?”

 

“Nah” she replies, “I think I’ll just wait for the police.”

 

Some years ago Adam ate the apple. Will we ever learn?