School Friend #1

A recent sale by ebay seller 'the-Lewes-Bookshelf' (here) - who seems to be turning up a lot of interesting comic stuff lately - featured not only issue #1 of School Friend but also an A5 sized single sheet promotional flyer for the 1st issue. Rare! The winning bid was just over £50

UPDATED: Eagle club notebook - happy birthday Eagle

In honour of it being the 74th birthday of Eagle today I thought I'd share these images of an Eagle club notebook that was up for sale on ebay recently. 

I like these images, not just for the notebook (which I'd never seen before) but because the original owner has filled the notebook with transfers.I think the transfers were produced by Tuck's and I'm not sure I've seen an unused set of them. 

Anyway, this notebook gives you a good idea of what the transfers were like. You can see Dan Dare characters, Riders of the Range characters, PC49 (possibly for copyright infringement reasons just referred to as 'the man in blue'), Harris Tweed & Chicko. I don't think I've ever seen any Chicko (who was crated by Norman Thelwell) merchandise before.

UPDATE: the letter below (swiped from ebay) now confirms that the notebook was a free gift for early joiners of the Eagle club (in 1950)

Early Dan Dare artwork up for sale

Just a reminder that these are up for sale later this morning - good luck if you bid!

There's some fantastic Frank Hampson original art up for sale this month at an auction in Wiltshire on 18/19 October.

Lot 322 is here (estimated at £1500-£2000) the cover for Eagle 

Boom! sold for £950 + fees

Lot 323 (here) - estimated at £200-£300 a Treen reference sheet signed by Hampson himself

seems to have gone unsold (although I though there was a successful bid of £180 - maybe the reserve wasn't met)

Lot 324 is here (estimated at £1500-£2000) the cover for Eagle 

Boom! sold for £750 + fees

Lot 325 is here - and is a page from the very first year of Eagle (1950), again an estimate of £1500-£2000

Boom! sold for £800 + fees

Lot 326 is here and, again, is another very early page from 1950 - estimate is £1500-£2000

Boom! sold for £750 + fees

Early Dan Dare artwork up for sale

There's some fantastic Frank Hampson original art up for sale this month at an auction in Wiltshire on 18/19 October.

First up is lot 323 (here) - estimated at £200-£300 a Treen reference sheet signed by Hampson himself

Lot 324 is here (estimated at £1500-£2000) the cover for Eagle 

Lot 325 is here - and is a page from the very first year of Eagle (1950), again an estimate of £1500-£2000

Lot 326 is here and, again, is another very early page from 1950 - estimate is £1500-£2000

Eagle #1 preview copy for sale

Over on that eBay there's a rare opportunity (here) to acquire the preview issue of the original Eagle. The preview copy is distinct in 2 particular ways from the 'finished product' as follows.

Firstly, the date (21st April 1950) is 'wrong' as Eagle would eventually be published with a cover date of 14th April 1950.

Secondly, there's no 'Dan Dare, pilot of the future' box in frame 1 

Bidding opens at £700 (or you can make an offer) and runs until about 1PM (GMT) on Saturday 3rd October - good luck if you bid! This is a bit of a 'grail' item for Eagle fans so interest is likely to be high. Whether that interest translates to that high opening bid price I'll let you know.

I acquired my copy many years ago when it was (wrongly) sold to me as an incomplete copy of Eagle #1