Our November auction was a near complete sell-out and we feature some of the key items below:

1940s Beano Books are hard enough to find in any condition but the three of the early issues we had to offer were from one owner who kept them wrapped up in a drawer in the living room for over sixty years. 1945 leap-frogged to £1430, 1946 karted to £1320 and 1947 made a meal of the same amount. Fine prices for fine grades.

Just to illustrate the difference that grade makes, here is the Magic-Beano Book from 1943. It had worn boards and spine and 16 interior pages with ink doodles. Offered at No Reserve, £220 won the three-legged race.

41 issues of The Beano from 1954 had plenty of content. The lot included April Fool, Easter, Fireworks and Xmas copies as well as the first Bash Street Kids episode (entitled When The Bell Tolls) and DC Thomson artist, Dudley Watkins in a story about himself on the front cover of number 648. These lower grade comics went for £315. 48 issues of The Dandy from the same year garnered £187 reinforcing the approximate two thirds value difference between B and D.

Early in 1950 Eagle’s editor, Marcus Morris had a promotional run of the first copy distributed to schools and churches to check that they were acceptable to his potential readers. This full colour 8 page comic did not have the ‘Dan Dare – Pilot Of The Future’ front page header and it showed a different date of 21 April 1951. We had only seen a few copies in 20 years and this one was the highest grade ever offered at auction. Estimated at £600-700 this Eagle soared to £1430, an auction record. In 2007 we auctioned a [fine] copy for £715 and in 2001 one for £330. As the reverend Marcus Morris might have thought, a giant bird of pray.

Eagles are very saleable in bound volumes but because of the high print runs in the 1950s they are not rare and prices vary. These bright copies of volume 1: 1-52 made £375. Complete bound volumes 4 and 5 took £275 each.

The Eagle’s sister paper, Girl, starred Kitty Hawke and Her All Girl Crew and we offered the complete year of Volume 1. All aboard for £240.

Beezers have become more collectable over the last few years and a run of 24 issues between Nos 39-154 were firmly bid to £240 or £10 a pop (Dick & Harry).

Knockout’s complete year of 1952 was accompanied by its Knockout Fun Book for the same year and these original publisher’s bound volumes canvassed £286.

Born in the 1927, Jordi Penalva was a Spanish artist who started illustrating Fleetway’s Cowboy Comics covers in the early 1950s. He went on to draw Commando and Vampirella and his artwork rarely comes up for sale. Here he illustrates Kit Carson in a classic pose for Cowboy Picture Library No. 281. The winning bidder rode off into the sunset for £440. Surrounded, The Kansas Kid by the same artist fought his way out to £286.

Here was a mixed bag of TV and Film Star Libraries starring Elvis, Grace Kelly and Frankie Vaughan but the nostalgia bells were jangled by the old TV favourites: Charlie Chan, Emergency Ward Ten, Highway Patrol, William Tell and Dixon Of Dock Green. 56 issues, £4 each, evenin’ all.

Super-Detective Library featured Rick Random’s sci-fi adventures and  £75 neatly grounded these 10 issues

Thriller Comics Library starred Claude Duval, Dick Turpin and Robin Hood and 11 Fine issues hit the target at £10 apiece.

Tiger No 1 is a very collectable comic and if the free gift Space Gun And Flying Saucers are enclosed then highly desirable as well. From an estimate of £250-300 the bidding finally stopped at a staggering £775 underlining once more the rise and rise of British comics.

The Dandy-Beano Special of 1963 was the first of DC Thomson’s publications to star Dandy and Beano characters together. In 1999 we sold a fine copy for £200 but things have changed since then and £750 took Desperate, Dan, Dennis The Menace, Biffo, Korky and Corporal Clot to a collector in China.

With wonderful stories Wrath Of The Gods by Ron Embleton and Brett Million by Frank Bellamy, Boys’ World was offered here in its complete 89 issue run. Originally the property of Eagle staff artist, Roger Perry these 3 volumes were expertly bound by master bookbinder, Gerald Brady of Lancaster University. A First was awarded in comics at £450.

June was wearing her Floral Bracelet and Poppet showed off her Lucky Bracelet and while Mandy, Judy, Misty, Sandy and Tammy all looked on a mystery bidder stepped in with £495. Princess Charming.

Never offered before, Judy’s complete run of 175 issues starred the eponymous heroine with Nanette Of The North, First-Aid Fay and essential what-to-wear tips with Judy’s Alphabet Of Fashion. £550 covered A-Z.

Sixties stalwarts Hurricane and Jag first issues premiered stories of Typhoon Tracy, Skid Solo, The Indestructable Man and The Mouse Patrol. The Hurricane blew to £99 and Jag ripped £140.

Don Lawrence had unusually signed this piece of artwork from The Trigan Empire and £1200 secured this important board from Look And Learn 1967. From an average of £300-400 a few years ago Don’s Trigan work is now finding an entirely new price level.

More Tigers; this time the complete year of 1961 with attendant annual. Publisher’s file copies of Roy Of The Rovers, Olac The Gladiator and Jet-Ace Logan powered to £468.

TV Century 21 with free gifts are generally hard to find. This was the first time we had seen the Special Agent Sticker Badge with 7 Decoder Message Forms complete and our bidders felt the same way as £242 whisked them away. Similarly the Thunderbirds Cap was a rarity having been the free gift with No 90 and £170 fitted well, no strings attached.

Wham! 1 was signed to its top margin by creator, Leo Baxendale and with Fireworks and Xmas issues made £93.

Frankie sees an ad to ‘Gain Popularity – Get A Piano’ but everyone gets earache, he loses popularity and Dad loses several teeth...crowned at £505.

We had a run of trade issue comics in the last action and here was another with Whoopee No 1, pre-print run undated and in its promo folder. £185 secured this rarity.

A high grade selection of 12 1970s first issues and free gifts was offered here including Action 1 with Red Arrow, Vulcan with Potato Gun, Monster Fun with Freaky Spider Ring and Krazy with Krazy False Teeth. A big £440 succeeded. Fangs.

2000AD Progs 1 and 2 with free gifts Space Spinner and Biotronic Stickers were snaffled away by the same bidder for £165 each. Nice fresh copies that have sold for double that in the past.

This iconic artwork had Judge Dredd aboard his Lawmaker surveying the growling Mega City One in the final page of the story ‘Twilight’s Last Dream’. Drawn and signed by John Burns for 2000AD 756 in 1991 a new record was set for any artwork in this genre as £2200 accelerated the Judge away.

Following on from the popularity of our stories taken from the Reader’s Letters of Girls’ comics we give you Caroline Casey, who wrote to Princess (The Best Magazine For Girls) in December of 1960. Caroline (aged 14) of Weymouth, Dorset writes:

‘Just before Christmas it was freezing cold outside and my brother, Jim was tinkering about with his old Sunbeam, trying to get it to go. Whilst he was under the bonnet I jumped into the driver’s seat, pressed the starter and lo! the engine started. Was Jim’s face red..!

With blood - I’d run him over. (Once more we add our own punch line)

Happy and peaceful holidays everyone,

Malcolm Phillips
Director
Comic Book Auctions Ltd.