Following up on our coverage of the latest Comic Book Auctions sale from Compal, The Beano No.1 offered, with its free gift Whoopee Mask and promotional No. 1 Flyer, sold for a world record price for a British comic at auction.
The hammer price this believed unique item was £26,000 plus 19% buyer’s premium, ending up just £60 shy of £31,000.
“The bidding didn’t go stratospheric until the last 45 seconds the lot was online,” Comic Book Auctions director Malcolm Phillips told downthetubes, “and the winning bidder, whose family hail from Scotland, when asked how he felt, replied ‘I’m over the wee moon.’”
This particular Beano was first sold this lot in Comic Book Auctions’ live auction at Chelsea Town Hall on 28th February 1999 and was entrusted to them once more, 25 years later.
Then, as now, the Whoopee Mask is the only surviving free gift accompanying the UK’s most iconic first issue.
The lot was offered with an estimate of £18,000 – 22,000.
Who knows what comic rarities the long-established auction house might offer next?
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Auctions, British Comics, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds
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