Comic Book Auctions

A FEW of the highlights of the June 10 sale held by Comic Book Postal Auctions are illustrated in the accompanying caption stories – along with one of the two Dandy annuals sold a couple of weeks later in Swindon – and as ever, Malcolm Phillips has provided me with some informed observations on prices, market movements and much else besides.

THE VERY rare copy of the first Beano comic of 1938 that sold for an auction record sum of £6875 in the December 3 Comic Book Postal Auctions sale was featured on the front page of Antiques Trade Gazette No. 1568 and can also be seen in the selection of lots illustrated right.

The Beano and Dandy were the first British comics to be published entirely in colour when they appeared within months of each other in 1938. With a cover price of two old pennies, this first edition Beano achieved the highest price ever paid for a British comic when bidding closed at Comic Book Postal Auctions in London last week.

ONE of the more successful entries in this end of year sale at Comic Book Postal Auctions brought Christmas cheer to the Friends of St. Matthews School in Yiewsley, whose fund raising activities had brought in a large quantity of books, comics and annuals.

“WILL SUPERGIRL callously break the hearts of her athletic team mates by winning all the international sports events as her Linda Danvers identity?...” begins the gripping storyline of a 12pp comic strip artwork by Kurt Schaffenberger that sold for £880 in the US section of this online and postal summer comics sale at Comic Book Postal Auctions on June 12.

Dan Dare, pilot of the Future, makes his first appearance in the 1950 first issue of Eagle comic, alongside which is a 1953 Dan Dare Book of Jet Planes, with 3-D viewer. These were sold by Comic Book Postal Auctions, London, on June 12 for £248 & £130, respectively (+ 10 per cent buyer's premium).

THE 300-LOT postal and online comic auction which ended on March 13 was a complete sell-out and saw a top bid of £2540 for a copy of the first Beano Book (or annual) of 1940, which had a rather worn spine but was otherwise designated vg.

UK: ILLUSTRATED here are examples of English and American comics and two pieces of original artwork from the Comic Book Postal Auctions sale which closed on December 12.