MAGIC COMIC (THE)

The third comic to come out of the D.C. Thomson stable after Dandy and Beano but it fell victim to war-time paper shortages after only 80 issues in 1941 as paper and dyestuffs were running short and perhaps none of the characters really making it into the big time. A GD copy sold for £1,331 in the Summer 2004 Compal catalogue which was quite a price at that time. A copy sold at auction in March 2005 for £1,925.

The number of copies of early issues can be counted on the fingers of one hand pretty much. As regards the first issue, the major authority on this subject Mr. Malcolm Philips suggested 8 known copies in his COMPAL catalogue in June 2004. It could be that a 9th copy surfaced on eBay UK in Jun 2008. It sold for £987 with 25 bids. It looked like a very solid VG or VG and had these comments: “No tears or pen marks, has some light stains, few nicks to leading edge on front cover, one on reverse, corners slightly dog-eared”. A good accurate description by the vendor. Nice to see!

It’s very difficult to arrive at a complete price guide for this title so I prefer to see what sales occur and gradually build up a guide from that.

Thomas Macey sent me a great picture of his #1 copy, rescued from a bound collection and framed now in the correct glass. This I think is the 10th recorded copy.

2024: undoubtedly this title is hard to collect and a special comic but as time goes by, collectors for it die off and I am noticing a general drop in prices. I will keep monitoring sales. I have lowered the guide price on issues #2 and #3 and will look at other prices too.