The Interiors auction at Bristol’s Clevedon Salerooms is a regular and eclectic sale featuring a great range of items – and among those on offer this week is a selection of art from the estate of comic artist Brian Walker, who died last year, best known for his work on Beano, The Dandy, and Whizzer and Chips.
One of his best-known and most loved strips was “Scream Inn” which first appeared in Shiver and Shake in 1973, running there for 79 issues, before moving to Whoopee the following year.
Brian Walker’s folio of comic art 
Art by John Jukes 
Big Daddy by Mike Lacey (Buster) 
The Smasher by Hugh Morren 
The Smasher by Hugh Morren 
“Frankie Stein” by Bob Nixon 
“Stage School” by Bob Nixon 
“Creep Comix” by Reg Parlett 
Art by Jack Prout and Roy Wilson, from the estate of Brian Walker 
Johnny Fartpants by Brian Walker
The folio of comic artwork on offer included “Johnny Fartpants” by Brian for VIZ, two of his pages of “The Smasher” for The Dandy by Hugh Morren, “The Three Blairs” plus pages of “Frankie Stein” and “Stage School” by Bob Nixon (aka Robert Nixon), “Big Daddy” for Buster, presumably by series regular Mike Lacey, a page of “Creepy Comix” by Reg Parlett, a series that ran at varous times in WOW! Whoopee and Whizzer and Chips, “Black Bob” art from The Dandy by Jack Prout; and what looks to be art by the legendary Roy Wilson, too.
The folio has an estimated sale value of between £200 – £300, but I would hope that the provenance and the sheer variety of the art will see it sell for more.
The sale also includes jewellery and watches, silver, coins, stamps and ephemera, clocks, ceramics and glass, paintings, and of course furniture and other decorative items – and some wonderful Robert Harrop-produced Camberwick Green and Trumpton figures, based on the children’s series, across multiple lots, two issues of The Beano, Nos 736 and 746, published in 1956, Disney Fantasia characters; and a lot of seventy “Saucy Seaside Postcards“ dated as produced in the 1940s.
Model makers may also be interested in the Airfix 1:72 scale The Battle of Waterloo kit on offer, together with a quantity of box Revell and other soldier kits.
Operating since 1860, Clevedon Salerooms is one of the longest established fine art auction houses in the South West. Quarterly Specialist Sales remain a key part of their Auction Calendar, attracting international interest. The hugely popular regular Antiques and Interiors Sales provide a source for collectors, interior designers, and the general public.
Update, 9th December: The folio sold for £780 (plus commission)
• Read our tribute to Brian Walker here
With thanks to Brian’s daughter, Jo Burgess for sending us information about this auction
An earlier version of this story wrongly attributed “The Smasher” pages to Brian Walker. We now believe them to be the work of Hugh Morren, and have updated the article
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “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: Art and Illustration, Auctions, British Comics, Comic Art, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Merchandise, Other Worlds
Great to see these pages and it’s good they’ll go to collectors. What saddens me is that when Fleetway were allowing artists to have their artwork back in the 1980s/90s, some of those artists refused, saying they had no use for it. If they had, their families could have some extra income from art sales now.
John, are you sure those Smasher pages are by Brian himself? They look like Hugh Morren originals to me.
Thanks Andy, I’ll amend that – I wasn’t sure, and given the folio contains art Brian owned by other artists, that makes sense. Thanks
One possibility is that the Dandy office sent them to Brian when Hugh was about to retire.
The note from Bob to Brian looks interesting although I can barely read it. Feels like “thanks for covering for me while I’m on holiday, here’s an example of my approach to Frankie” – something Brian did for several of Bob’s characters such as Frankie and Buytonic Boy/Super Steve. I don’t remember if Brian ever drew Creepy Comix, but he may have done.