14 Coronation issues and No1s from the early 1900s performed strongly at £410 These key issues are genuinely rare.

Our Beano No.1 from 1937 had a 3” vertical, ragged tear to its back cover and a new bidder took on several of our regulars to win this absolute key British comic for £7,200. To our knowledge there are about 30 issues in existence.

The Dandy No 334 is the 1946 Bumper Xmas Number. It was CGC grade at 8.0 [vfn] and sold for £180

A high grade copy of 1950s Magic-Beano Book showed Biffo painting the Beano gang for an artistic £300

Ron Turner’s two Rick Random original artworks from Super-Detective Library No 111 (1957) took £450

Spaceman Comic of the Future (1953) is a tough run to put together with art by Norman Light and Ron Embleton and of the 12 issues we offered (out of 15 printed) four had detached covers, the lot selling for £180.

This copy of Commando War Stories in Pictures No 1 from 1961 had moisture stains to the covers and page margins. It sold for £260, not so much ‘Walk or Die’ as Walk Not Dry.

The 1966 complete 53 issue year of Buster included The Buster Club Badge and 5 promotional flyers from other comics. As is usual with comics from that era the staples were rusty and disintegrated but this did not stop a bidding frenzy soaring from the modest £60-80 estimate to a whopping £680. Andy Capp would’ve been so proud of his wee boy.

John M Burns original artwork of UFO for TV Action 113 (1973) was taken over three times its upper estimate of £200 to £640. Hopefully the winning bidder will be happily singing ‘Me and My SHADO’

Faceache original artwork by Ken Reid scrunged to a strong £340

The Red Baron’s WW1 dogfight artwork drawn and signed by Ron Turner is reproduced on pg 261 of ‘The Fantastic Art of Ron Turner’ book by John Lawrence. It sold for a modest £180

Batman #12 was somewhat tired with worn corners, brittle edges and re-stapled pages, but Its lowly grade of [fr/gd] still produced a firm winning bid of £560.

Crown comics #6 had a detached cover, #7 had a detached centrefold so both were graded as [gd] but Matt Baker’s cover and story art is strongly collected and £260 took them away.

 

Witchcraft #2 has a horror comic collector’s must-have cover, its [gd] grade disregarded for £350

CGC graded at a lowly 1.0, Amazing Fantasy #15 (UK variant) sold just under its reserve at £5400.

A [vfn/nm] cents copy of Fantastic Four #45 heralded the first appearance of The Inhumans and sold for a modestly human £360

This copy of X-Men #1 had a weak spine with discoloured tape residue and doodles to the splash page but Cyclops kept his eye out for £1500

Amazing Spider-Man (1968) #56-67 were all cents copies from the ‘Uncle Stan Collection’, a run of Silver Age comics sent to the UK by Marvel creator, Stan Lee for his nephew, John. Included was our company’s original December 2000 certificate of authenticity letter with photo copied message and Spidey sketch by Stan Lee. The lot took £600.

Fourteen years ago I nearly met Stan Lee.

 

Geoff West, an old pal, had a stand at the London Super Comics Convention at the Excel Centre in Docklands and he had managed to get the great man to endorse and sign some of his artwork and comics whilst he was in town. (I was scared to ask at what cost).

 

There was a buzz in the hall as a crowd grew and solidly moved towards us. In a moment my friend’s stand was engulfed as cameras flashed and the crowd quietened to a respectful hush as a voice in the middle said ‘Hi, I’m Stan Lee…’

 

My hand fumbled for my mobile, now suddenly unable to perform its basic function, as I thought how best to ask if he remembered how I’d been able to auction his nephew’s comic collection more than a decade previously. The crowd of around 50 people were now pushing and barging around me and, in what seemed like a moment, the great man and his entourage were gone.

 

Fourteen years ago a crowd of around 50 people also nearly met Stan Lee.