The Phil-Comics late October / early November 2026 auction is drawing to a close on eBay soon, with close to 200 listings of largely British comics and collectables to check out – and some, such as free gift issues of Tiger and Hurricane, and issues of Smash!, are attracting some fierce bidding.
There’s a diverse array of vintage comics, annuals, bound volumes, free gifts, original artwork, reprint books, original scripts, publisher letters and even a mid 1980s Buster competition prize – a gym bag type holdall, no less!
As well as plenty of British comic rarities this latest auction from Phil-Comics includes a number of issues of rarer story papers such as these copies of Buzzer story paper Volume 1 No. 4, cover dated 6th November 1937 (Fireworks issue). Published by George Newnes; and The Boys’ Friend Library No. 99, cover dated 30th June 1927
Run by Phil Shrimpton, the award-winning Phil-Comics, who has featured on the BBC’s Bargain Hunt show, specialises in vintage comics and related items such as annuals, holiday specials, free gifts and original artwork.
This auction includes a number of preliminary trial artwork by highly esteemed comic artist Roy Wilson, executed prior to his final drawing of pages for publication. Roy was a perfectionist and would often draw half, or even a full, strip but decide it wasn’t quite good enough for his own high standards and consequently would re-draw it. Whilst you can find many examples of completed original comic artworks (by a variety of artists and wonderful in their own right) on the market, you rarely see half pencilled / half inked pages which show the process first hand.
2000AD “Judge Dredd” Original Comic Artwork for Prog 1959 (2015) by Patrick Goddard
“X-Ray-Specs” published in the 1980s, issue and artist unknown, but may by Mike Lacey. Measures approximately 21 x 15 inches (53 x 38 cm) and has vibrant colours. The acetate overlay (which had the speech bubbles on) is missing. A 1/3 x 1/4 inch piece missing from the top right edge. A very light 1.75 inch crease to the top left corner.
Three prelim panels from the “Happy Harry and Sister Sue” strip that appeared in Crackers comic, in the 1940s, issue unknown, measuring approximately 16.25 x 5 inches. Has a vertical crease between the second and third panels (we will post it folded). The panels demonstrate crisp pen lines in the first panel and Roy’s pencil sketches in all three, so has a nice balance. For whatever reason, Roy wasn’t happy with these pieces, so started over and these were effectively discarded at the time (and saved from the bin by his wife).
Dandy comic Desperate Dan Original Artwork 1991 by Tony O’Donnell
Dandy comic “Korky the Cat” Original Artwork for the issue cover dated 27th October 1990 by Robert Nixon. The art is missing the balloon with the comment “It’s raining cats and dogs”, noted on the art itself
Film Fun comic No. 1972 cover dated 2nd November 1957 with Preliminary Artwork by Roy Wilson; a single panel from the internal page “Abbott and Costello” comic strip, specifically the second panel of the first row
George and Lynne Original Comic Art by Josep Gual for The Sun newpapaper (1980s) – Homework to Housework. Measures approximately 19.75 x 6.5 inches (50 x 16.5 cm) and will be posted flat by medium parcel rate, hence the higher postage rate. The top edge has a thin strip of tape to the front face. Phil-Comics this page of artwork from a bookseller who used to live in London next door to the scriptwriter, Conrad Frost. Conrad wrote the scripts for the “George and Lynne” strip, published daily in The Sun newspaper from 1976 to 2010. You can imagine how relentless it must have been to come up with a storyline, simple yet clever, every day without fail. So he asked his bookseller neighbour to supply joke books from his shop to provide inspiration, which he duly did. The book seller acquired a handful of original drawings from Conrad’s wife following his death
Look and Learn “Wildcat Wayne” Original Comic Artwork for No. 380, cover dated 26th April 1969, artist unknown. One of the strips in the “Ranger Entertainment Section”, following Ranger’s merger with Look and Learn in June 1966 (the title still visibly incorporated in Look and Learn three years later). The thin cardboard measures 51 x 36.5 cm and is generally in pretty nice shape. A pin hole to each of the two top corners. The title logo and face of character Theo Wayne, at the top, are missing.
Radio Fun comic preliminary, unused art for a Tommy Handley strip published in the 1940s, issue unknown. It measures approximately 15.5 x 4 inches. The panels demonstrate crisp ink lines to the first two, whilst the third is mostly pencilled, with an inked speech bubble. A vertical crease between the second and third panels. There are more unused Radio Fun artworks by Roy in this auction
Sandman Presents Dead Boy Detectives Book 1 Page 5 Original Comic Artwork (2001), drawn and signed by Bryan Talbot. The thin cardboard measures approx 43 x 28 cm and is in nice shape.
The “Sandman” lot includes this two panel strip created by Mike Higgs for the comic shop, Nostalgia and Comics
“Charlie’s Choice” art by Brian Lewis for Smash!, issue unknown. The strip was about a magic TV that transported people off the screen. The thick artboard measures 47 x 34.5 cm and is in nice shape generally. Two pen scribble lines to the top right corner.
“Closer To Me” art by Florenci Clave for Valentine Original Artwork for issue cover dated 4th April 1964, consigned to us by the family of the late comic artist Jim Baikie, whose collection it resided in for many years. This may have been just a two page story (in which case it is complete), since the gap the top of looks like it would have been the title header. Each thin page of cardboard measures approximately 55 x 44 cm. Minor corner creasing. A 1/2 inch piece lost from the top left corner of the first page.
“Suffer Now I Must” art by Carlos Freixas for Valentine Original Artwork for issue cover dated 12th December 1964, consigned to us by the family of the late comic artist Jim Baikie, whose collection it resided in for many years. This appears to be a two page story. The title logo is missing from the first page. Each thin page of cardboard measures approximately 54 cm in height but differs in width between 40.5 and 43 cm. Creasing to three corners on the larger page.
Whoopee “Ghost Train” Original Comic Artwork x 2 for No. 9 cover dated 4th May 1974, by Brian Walker. Brian enjoyed a very rewarding and impressive 50 year career as a cartoonist and illustrator, drawing some 5400 pages in that time. He contributed hugely to British comics, working for both IPC and DC Thomson. His work for IPC included the hugely popular “Scream Inn” for Whoopee, “Three Story Stan” and “Wizards Anonymous” in Shiver and Shake and “Boxatricks” in Buster, amongst others. For DC Thomson he drew “Smasher” in the Dandy, “I Spy” for Sparky, “Spike” in Spike and “Pop, Dick and Harry” for the Beezer. In the early 2000s he drew “Johnny Fartpants” for Viz, as well as creating the character and strip “Goldfish Boy” for the same comic. This listing is for two pages of original artwork, each page measuring approximately 56 x 41 cm and is on fairly thin cardboard. The title header is no longer present to the first page. There’s a well established folded in the white gap just above the lower pair of panels.
This edition of Wonder, No. 1723, cover dated 27th December 1952, is the festive edition with a lovely snowy title logo. Cover art by Roy Wilson, a prelim artwork included. A pencil name “Wilson” to the lower right hand cover edge, so we suspect this was the artist’s original copy he had from the newsagent? Bright cover colour despite light/medium to medium tanning. Odd small tear and very light crease. The spine of the cover has been folded out of line slightly with the pages, since production. VG-
Wonder comic preliminary Artwork by Roy Wilson for “Marmy and his Ma”, a strip that ran in the weekly comic in the 1940s, issue unknown. It measures approximately 9.75 x 3.5 inches. The panels demonstrate crisp lines and Roy’s pencil work, as the character with the ladder hasn’t been inked in the second panel. For whatever reason, Roy wasn’t happy with these pieces, so started over and these were effectively discarded at the time – but saved from the bin by his wife.
Wonder comic Christmas Dec 25 1943 Part front cover Roy Wilson Preliminary Artwork. An attempt at the front cover artwork for the cover of Wonder, cover dated 25th December 1943, by Roy Wilson. The page measures approx 25 x 4 inches and is basically the left hand four inches of what would have been a large page, ultimately destined to have the title logo / header and then four rows of panels. It seems Roy had pencilled in the first three rows in terms of sketches, then had inked in the header, probably first row and then some of the second row before deciding he wasn’t happy with it, thus starting over again. This was discarded and saved from the bin by his wife.
Comics With Free Gifts and Specials
Judy No. 56 cover dated 4th February 1961 With Free Gift Bluebird Ring – a rare item. The weekly comic was published by DC Thomson
Roxy No. 1 cover dated 15th March 1958 With Free Gift – Tommy Steele’s Guitar
Roxy No. 2 cover dated 22nd March 1958 With Free Gift, DJ Pete Murray’s Song Book
Tiger and Hurricane cover dated 14th October 1967 With Free Gift Football Album (Complete)
Tiger and Hurricane cover dated 28th October 1967 With Free Gift – Football Club Badge Sheet
Lion and Valiant Special Extra 1969
Tammy and Sally Holiday Special 1971, the first of sixteen Tammy specials
TV Comic Holiday Special 1967 featuring two “Doctor Who” strips
TV Comic Holiday Special 1967 “Doctor Who” strips – click for larger imagesValiant cover dated 23rd May 1970 With Free Gift – World Cup Chart (Completed)
Whizzer and Chips Holiday Special 1970, published by IPC. The first of 26 Whizzer and Chips holiday specials
Comic Runs
Beano issues 1878-1902 July to December 1978 Near Half Year (-5) in Bound Volume – one of several BEANO and Dandy items on offer
Boys’ Cinema Weekly story paper #7,8,15,17,35,55 (1920). Other lots of the same title on offer in this auction
Comet Nos. 519 – 535, June to October 1958, just one of several Comet comic runs on offer
A selection of 13 Smash! comics, published in January to March 1970. Several lots featuring this much enjoyed comic are on offer in the auction
British Comics Industry Ephemera
Buster comic circa 1985 Holdall Bag – assumed to be a Competition Prize
Sun No. 377 cover dated 28th April 1956, with “Max Bravo” Script by David Motton. This item has come from the personal archive of the former editor and script writer, who, as we’ve noted on downthetubes many times, enjoyed a thirty year career working in comics from 1954 to 1985. This is the original carbon copy script used for the “Max Bravo” story that was published in this issue of Sun as the double page full colour centre page spread.
This rarely seen item came from the estate of David Slinn, who passed away late last year. Phil-Comics sold a similar item to this a few months ago, which had come into stock in January, and had been informed by the vendor that there were no more items. Last month he found a further ten or so different items from the same collection, which is the last of what he had, so to the best of our knowledge this is the last one that we will have access to. The front cover says “Stingray ‘The Visiting Professor’ (complete script)” but there is a small piece of paper (1 x 1/4 inch) under the staples which shows there was an additional cover page, now missing. There’s one intro type page next and then it goes into 39 pages to the end, each titled Frame 1, Frame 2, Frame 3 and so on to Frame 39. The final text of Frame 39 (the last page of this script) says “Good to be back at Marineville. Now for some peace and quiet, I’ve had enough of visiting experts to last me a lifetime.” This could be construed as a final line, so perhaps this is the complete script, but the other script sold went to Frame 43, which suggests this has at least five pages missing at the back. Lovely item nonetheless, and rare as hen’s teeth!Longacre Press Ltd Letterhead dated 10th May 1961 regarding, it appears, work an upcoming Eagle annual to David Slinn, from his personal collection. David worked in the comics industry as both a writer and artist for several decades, and was always a great friend to us here at downthetubes, but was extremely elusive when probed about his career, so it has always been difficult to ascertain just what he did, working largely on girls comics. The letter is written and signed by A.S. Butterfield, of the Book Department, requesting the illustrations for a cricket quiz plus other drawings, offering a 21 guineas fee.Phil-Comics has been consigned this interesting and unusual balsa wood style item, which appears to be Sid’s Snake, from Whizzer and Chips, but it wasn’t given away as a free gift with the comic, although there is a possibility it was gifted as a competition prize. For example, in the issue of Whizzer and Chips, cover dated 19th October 1974, there was a competition that gave away £1 per week for a year as a first prize, with 250 other prizes of Bumper Joke Boxes and 500 Whizzer and Chips baseball caps. There’s a picture of the joke box, but we don’t know if it was literally the box, or a box with various joke type items (we suspect the latter), so there’s a chance it came as one of the items in here, but Phil Shrimptin admits he is merely speculating here. The jury is out as to where this originated. The auction house has certainly not seen another one on the market. An alternative solution is that it’s just a one-off home made item, albeit one of very good quality, with beautifully smooth, rounded edges down the length of the tail. Nice ink print, too. It measures just under 7 inches in length and 1.5 inches in width.
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.
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Comic art by “Scream Inn” creator Brian Walker and other humour comic greats set to go under the hammer
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