Comic Book Postal Auctions

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AUTUMN 2013 MARKET REPORT

Beano Comic No.1: £2500.00
Amazing Spider-Man #1: £1325.00



Our Beano Comic No 1, previously owned by comics historian, Denis Gifford, sold for £2500 bearing in mind that this particular copy had a 3mm trim around its edges and there were some tape repairs. Denis used to trim all his key comics so they would fit into a plastic folder that he bought in the 1970s!

 



Ally Sloper has a firm collecting base as issues are genuinely rare with many from the late 1800s. There were 50 copies from this era, as well as Christmas Holiday issues and £352 took them away. There’s a complete year from 1897 offered in November’s catalogue.



Early individual issues of The Dandy varied between £75-110 each but this copy of Beano No 58 stood out at £176.

 



 

As well as all the war years, 1946 is a tough Beano year to put together and the complete run was offered here in a bound volume. Jimmy could well afford a new set of trews with the £1105 winning bid. Magic.



Hank Janson paperbacks were printed in the hundreds of thousands in their 1950s heyday but Scarred Faces was his second opus and is one of only 3 copies known to exist. A bondage cover to boot tied down £242 with the other issues in the lot showcasing Reginald Heade cover artworks.

 



Another bound volume of Beano comics, this time from 1955, made £671, a strong £13 per issue. When The Bell Rings by Leo Baxendale was now in its highly popular second year and set to continue its magnificent moronic mayhem in the retitled Bash Street Kids.

 



No, - Frank Hampson’s Studio did not get the text upside-down when producing this rejigged artwork for Martin Lucas Films. The artwork had to be printed on film which you turned round half way through in the MiniCine projector for the second half of the story. If that’s still not clear, it certainly was to the happy winning bidder who tendered £308 for the 9-page War On Venus cine film artwork.

 



In this artwork story Oor Wullie plays a game of Chicky Melly, or Knockdown Ginger and one of the later panels shows Fat Bob at hame, in bed wi’ The Dandy. Knocked doon fir a strang £720. Jings.

As we reported last time, Beezer and Topper are very difficult to find in high grades due to their large format and potential edge wear to the pages. To find them complete in bound volumes is rare and this Beezer 1960 year had some near mint issues. Dick and Harry popped up with £555.


This lot comprised the complete run of Jag with most of the free gifts and all of the annuals. Some of the Jags were jagged but £312 accelerated them away.

 

With the Water Pistol in its sealed bag and International Rescue cap ready for action, Thunderbirds Are Go! and they went for £143.


The most popular lot in September’s catalogue, Carlos Ezquerra’s moody artwork for an early appearance of Strontium Dog found many keen bidders with £825 the top Dog. Fetch.



With Rupert Bear in flagrante delicto, this Schoolkids Issue No 28, bid successfully here to £125, was the centre-piece of the Oz obscenity trials in 1971 where the defendants were initially found guilty and later innocent on appeal. Showing their respect for the legal system, they dressed as schoolgirls for the hearing. Those were the days.

 

 

These Dan Dare / Green Nemesis artworks were drawn and signed by Don Harley in 1998 for Rod Barzilay’s Spaceships Away. Created in Frank Hampson’s 1950s style, the two pages sold for £850.


 

Our US section started with an 86 piece lot mainly containing Funny pages from a 1930s selection of newspapers including The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post all of which can be regularly found for £2 or so a copy. So far – so ordinary, you might assume, but an appearance in the lot of an extremely rare WAGS Special Edition comic was well noted by our knowledgeable collectors, this issue edited and produced from Will Eisner’s Iger studios in 1937 with early appearances of Sheena, The Clock Strikes and Hawk Of The Seas by Eisner, himself.  £302 was serious for funnies.


Believed to be the third comic to be published, Century Of Comics from 1933 was a promotional giveaway with Milco-Malt but our bidders were not tempted by its £2700-3000 estimate and it remained unsold.


Not so Special Edition Comics #1 where Captain Marvel’s debut was bid to £357.00. Shazam.


Mister Mystery #12 certainly had eye-appeal at £165.

 

So did Superman’s anniversary issue 100 at £154.


The continuation of our 1950s pre-code Horror and Science-Fiction collection produced some strong winning bids with £198 for Adventures Into Weird Worlds #1 and £297 for Phantom Lady #13 (actually No 1) with art by my favourite illustrator of that period, Matt Baker.



E.C’s Weird Fantasy was also well bid with #8 at £132 and #9 at £128.



Weird Science fared even better with £176 and £180 for their highly regarded Wally Wood covers. Strong Gaines.

 

 


This most popular of titles continues to accelerate and a weak spine did nothing to discourage £1325 for a cents copy of Amazing Spider-Man #1 in [vg-] grade.

 

 

A solid [vg] cents Avengers #1 did well at £710 but a worn doodled J I M #83 did  even better at £416. Affordable keys are also not getting any cheaper.

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This copy of Hulk #1 took the description ‘worn’ to its lowest level as the dull, brittle front cover had pieces missing and was completely separated from the back with any evidence of a spine non-existent. Graded at [pr/fr], £366 will make a Banner headline.

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Ant Man’s first appearance in Tales To Astonish #27 provided a solid £797 for this cents copy with good cover gloss. The impending movie scheduled for release in November 2015 may have had something to do with it.  The well worn, doodled and Storm –tossed X-Men #1 with glued spine reached £275.

 

 

Canny bidders understand that the Batpack B6 contains a retrievable copy of Batman #181. A winning bid of £184 could well induce the successful bidder to extract said issue for CGC slabbing with a potentially higher value on its own. Plastic man.

 

Sometimes the most innocent of illustrations can give way to a conspiracy theory where the photographer knew all along that his work might be mis-interpreted, sometimes in the most mischevious way. Even that untouchable icon, Tarzan, fell foul of this subterfuge when the presentation of a gift of coconut milk by he-man actor, Johnny Weissmuller to Brenda Joyce is met with an innocent smile. As you can see, the bloke with the moustache knows exactly what’s going on.

 

 

All together now: "I've got a luvverly bunch of....."

 

 

Malcolm Phillips
Director
Comic Book Auctions Ltd.