Comic book

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

Four auction records were set in the first 90 minutes of a recent four-day comics and comic art auction conducted by Heritage (20% buyer’s premium).

Newcastle auction house Anderson & Garland is holding The Comics Auction on September 28-29.

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including a copy of The Beano No 1 selling for a five-figure sum at auction.

Priced on the cover at nine pence, it was a British copy of a Marvel comic of 1983, one that saw the first appearance of the mighty Thor, that led the bidding at £6300 in the comics section of a July 21-22 sale held by Fieldings (24% buyer’s premium).

Sold for $2m (£1.62m) in a major and hugely successful comics sale held by Heritage (20% buyer’s premium) of Dallas was an original cover artwork produced in 1986 by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1.

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.

The six lots described here are drawn from a hugely successful sale of comics and comic art held in Dallas by Heritage (20% buyer’s premium) over four days, from April 7-10.

'Bewegungsstudie', or ‘Study of Movement’, by Rudolf Koppitz, is the most famous of six tipped-in photogravures, each with a protective glassine sheet, that make up Pictures from the Tyng Collection, a 1931 publication of the Royal Photographic Society.

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.

A four-day US sale of comics and comic art produced some extraordinary results – with 4900 would-be buyers registered and every one of the 1333 lots sold to bring a premium-inclusive total of $23.76m (£17.34m).

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.

Spider-Man became the most expensive comic book superhero in a Heritage (20% buyer’s premium) sale this autumn.

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.

Coinciding with the new (and long-awaited) release of James Bond film 'No Time To Die', Bloomsbury gallery Abbott and Holder is holding an exhibition of original drawings made for the serialisation of Ian Fleming’s novels in the 'Daily Express'.

Collection now up for sale was owned by soldier killed in Korea but kept safe by his brother

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.

A copy of the very first issue of Captain America soared to £320,000 (£235,640) at Heritage Auctions.