Dennis the Menace’s 75th birthday was well publicised in the national press (he doesn’t look a day over ten) and his first appearance in The Beano No. 452 with CGC 5.5 grade took £340. Another Beano featuring the first Minnie the Minx went for £100.

A Desperate Dan artwork from 1947 by Dudley Watkins starred Dan’s desperate dragon with a flaming £460.

35 mostly high grade issues of Knockout from 1956 with the Knockout Fun Book from the same year took £410

Two Rick Random Space Ace artworks by Ron Turner for Super-Detective Library in 1957 aced £680

Frank Bellamy’s signed artwork of a Robin Hood action page for Swift comic sold for £450, the winning bidder highly pleased by his lower value Bellamy prize.

Twenty-five Sci-Fi 1950s paperbacks, all with Ron Turner illustrated covers, were snapped up for £210 by another keen collector.

An unbroken run of 41 Beanos from 1960 took away The Bash Street Kids reading material for £370

Our Commando No 1 from 1961 had a 2 ins spine split and small corner piece missing but it’s [vg-] still commanded a £430 winning bid

Another brilliant 1960s artwork board, this time by master illustrator, Alessandro Biffignandi with his Jet-Ace Logan ’10 Days To Doom’ cover artwork for Thriller Picture Library No. 426. It made £360.

JOE 90 by Keith Watson hit take-off with £490 for 31 issues, not even including No 1

Romeo’s romance reporter Sandie wrote an article in one of these 51 issues entitled ‘How to Pick Up Boys’. We don’t know if any of the comic’s female fans took her advice but our winning bidder had to pick up a strong £410 to win his prize.

SMASH! No.17 showed the first published appearance of The Incredible Hulk #1
cover outside the U S A. In [vg+] grade the comic sold for £480. Incredible bulk.

The 1973 UK version of Avengers No.1 is not particularly rare but the free gift 4 Super-Hero Transfers was so small that it often fell out of the comic’s interior before you even got a chance to read it. Our knowledgeable bidders knew the gift’s scarcity, taking it to a record £390

 

‘August 1916. After months of hard fighting on the Somme, Charley Bourne’s platoon was taken out of the line. Later they went to see some wounded comrades in the field hospital. ‘The Beast’, an military sergeant, was running the place like a prison…’
Joe Colquhoun’s evocative artwork brought £660.

Fantasy Adventures No 1 original cover artwork, painted and signed by Ron Turner for Wildside Press in the USA, also included the paperback in the lot and doubled its upper estimate at £820

Another Ron Turner original cover artwork for The Parasite Planet paperback (included in the lot) by Gryphon Books, New York, performed strongly at £680.

The Star Wars Return of the Jedi original British Quad poster returned £720.

Sensation Comic 78 from 1948 starred Wonder Woman with £110

Matt Baker’s cover art is highly collectable and we offered Cinderella Love #15 in fresh [fn+] grade. Cinderella loved £1920.

More matt Baker covers on Going Steady #11 [fn-] and Diary Secrets #10, (which was married with #11 interior stories!) [gd] still reached £1100.

Low grade Journey Into Mystery issues #6 and #16 journeyed to £480

Startling Terror Tales #4 [vg-] from 1953 with L B Cole cover took £200

The Punisher’s Amazing Spider-Man 129 CGC 7.0 targeted £760

Here is Daredevil #1 PGX 6.0 selling for £2050

Strange Tales 115 [vg+] and the annual #2 [vg-] (4th Spider-Man) both from 1963 and making £180

 

Tales of Suspense #52 [fg/fn] heralded the 1st appearance of Black Widow with £190 and #57 [vg] took Hawkeye to £280

House of Mystery #174 & #175 were both in [vfn] grades were coupled with Ghosts #1 [fn] and they spooked £360

High grade copies of Weird War Tales #1-5 (1971-72) targeted £220

Raphael #1 (1985 Mirage) [vfn/nm] £155 sold! Cowabunga!

 

The last time I saw Raphael was a few years ago in Rome at the Vatican where his magnificent frescos were displayed in its four papal museums.

The huge procession of visitors shuffled through from room to room and we had been subsequently warned that pickpockets operated in the area. Consequently we were on the lookout for any Teenage Mutants in the crowd but, luckily, none was encountered. We later visited Rome’s magnificent Trevi Fountains but, search as we might, we did not find any Turtles, Ninja or otherwise.

Thank goodness Raphael was alone.