A rare first edition of the classic comic The Dandy has sold for over £4,000.
There are just 25 copies of The Dandy No1 in existence today after it was first published in December 1937.
The Dandy, that featured the adventures of Desperate Dan, was the first-ever British publication to use comic strips to illustrate and tell a story with the aid of speech bubbles.
Up until then, ‘story papers’ like Hotspur and Wizard mostly used text and the odd illustration.
The Dandy No 1 carried on the front page the amusing story of Korky the Cat stealing a fish from a restaurant which was then served to an expectant diner as just head and bones.
It also came with a free Express Whistler, a toy whistle made of yellow and blue tinplate.
The copy that has sold has been in the ownership of an avid comic collector for more than 20 years.
He decided to sell it with London-based Comic Book Auctions. It achieved a hammer price of £3,450. With fees added on, the total price paid for it was £4,100.
Malcolm Phillips, of the auctioneers, said the 85-year-old comic is in very good condition.
He said: “There were about 400,000 copies of The Dandu No1 printed. The publishers DC Thomson made a big deal of it because it was the first of real comic as opposed to a story paper.
“The Dandy was aimed at children aged between seven and 13 years old who hadn’t been catered for before it came on the scene.
“It created a sensation, especially among children, and encouraged DC Thomson to start The Baano six months later. “
As well as Desperate Dan, it also featured stories on Keyhole Kate and Freddy The Fearless Fly.
At its peak in the 1950s, it sold two million copies a week and slumped to just 8,000 when it ceased in 2012, its 75th year.
