Rare Dandy annual from 1938 fetches £1,250 at auction

A rare copy of the first Dandy annual from 1938 has sold at auction for £1,250.

The 1939 Dandy Monster Comic, which was published at the end of the preceding year, was the first of 81 editions of the annual.

It had a pre-sale estimate of £1,200 to £1,500 at Keys Fine Art Auctioneers in Aylsham, Norfolk, and the winning online bid at Thursday’s auction was for £1,250.

The annual, which had an original cover price of 2/6, features many of the characters that went on to become household comic names, such as Desperate Dan and Korky The Cat.

The Dandy comic was first published by DC Thompson in December 1937 and continued until December 2012 in printed form, then for a further six months online.

Keys head of books Andrew Lindsay-Bullock said: “It is very rare to see a copy of the first ever Dandy annual, especially in such good condition.”