Comic Book Auctions

While a Beano No 1 will always take the headlines, not so well-known titles can also impress

A real stand-out success in the Comic Book Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) timed online sale that ended on May 29 was to be found among the large collection of US comics that were offered without reserve – albeit a British issue of the comic bearing a cover price of nine pence.

Billed as the star lot in a sale that ended on February 27, a scarce copy of the 1937 first issue of Dandy made a high-estimate £3450.

In a world in which American superhero comics featuring Superman, Batman and other characters regularly sell for substantial six and seven-figure sums, it is really quite refreshing to be reminded of more modestly priced British rarities.

Complete year runs of Beano from the years 1958 and ‘59 that sold at £3050 and £3550 topped the bidding in a Comic Book Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) timed online sale that ended on August 29.

In anticipation of an exhibition at London’s Somerset House, ATG reviews 10 landmarks of Beano comic collecting

Having secured his prize for a notably higher than estimate sum, the buyer of a ‘Fireball XLV’ artwork told Malcolm Phillips of Comic Book Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) that very few artworks by its creator, Mike Noble, ever come to auction.

Publishers’ file copies of the first 199 issues of War Picture Library, pocket-sized and essentially pictorial publications of the years 1958-63, brought a bid of £3250 in a Comic Book Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) timed sale.

One highlight of a timed online sale of comics and related artwork was a complete run of Dandy for the year 1944 at £2250.

Fat Sod, Skinhead, Colin the Amiable Crocodile and Victor Pratt the Stupid Twat were introduced to the public in the form of a comic offered in a Newcastle pub in December 1979. Forty-one years later that comic is still going strong: Viz.

Shown here are two of the higher-priced lots from a timed online Comic Book Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) sale.

With their regular photographer isolated in Somerset, it was proprietor Malcolm Phillips’ partner, Sally, who used her iPhone to produce all the catalogue images for a Comic Book Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) timed sale on thesaleroom.com.

Offered without a reserve, a job lot of “low grade” comics dating from the 1940s-50s ended up selling for £1200 in a Comic Book Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) timed sale on thesaleroom.com.

As in its September auction, a double-page Frank Bellamy artwork featuring ‘Heros the Spartan’ proved a star turn in the latest Comic Book Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) online sale on thesaleroom.com.

Three pieces of original artwork were the big money spinners in a Comic Book Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) timed online sale on thesaleroom.com which closed on September 1.

The success of timed online auctions for London’s big auction houses is putting the format on the map for other salerooms too.

Pictured here is the front page of the scarce second issue of Dandy, published in January 1937, along with an even rarer example of the jumping frog toy that was given away with the comic as a promotion.