Marvel fan who rode London buses to shops and Post Offices in search of rare comics could make £20k

A graphic novel collector hopes to make a super-sized fortune after one of his old comic books was tipped to make £20,000 at auction. Peter Judge, in his sixties, hopes his original November 1961 Fantastic Four comic, signed by Marvel writer Stan Lee, will hit its top estimate at the sale on October 3.
-Credit: (Image: SWNS)


A Marvel fan who rode London buses to shops and Post Offices in search of rare comics could make £20k for the collection he has amassed when it goes to auction.

Peter Judge, in his sixties, has a selection of high-valued comics that he has been collecting since he was six years old. He hopes that his original November 1961 Fantastic Four comic, signed by Marvel writer Stan Lee, will hit its top estimate at the sale on October 3.

This original is not the only pricey graphic novel that Peter has as there are several rarities from the late 1960s and 1970s that could generate thousands of pounds under the hammer, including a UK first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man from March 1963, which could fetch up to £4,000, while an Incredible Hulk No 181 from 1974 - that features the first appearance of Wolverine - is expected to reach up to £2,000.

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A graphic novel collector hopes to make a super-sized fortune after one of his old comic books was tipped to make £20,000 at auction. Peter Judge, in his sixties, hopes his original November 1961 Fantastic Four comic, signed by Marvel writer Stan Lee, will hit its top estimate at the sale on October 3.
Peter has over 4000 comics in his collection -Credit:SWNS

Peter, whose comic book collection has totalled as many as 4,000 editions, said he now wants to see his huge hoard passed onto enthusiastic new owners. He said: “These are comics that have been read and enjoyed. I like to think new owners will enjoy them too. There are gems here. Few of them are in top grades – we were more interested in completing the stories.

“That makes this a rare opportunity for a new generation of fans to get hold of relatively affordable runs of British and American Marvel comics.”

Peter lived in Catford, south-east London, when his curiosity was piqued by the adventure tales contained in the graphic novels. And he began avidly collecting the comics when they appeared in British stores after becoming ‘instantly hooked’ on the stories.

He said: “I remember my first Marvel comic. I saw Fantastic #42 at the Post Office in Hither Green, South London, and persuaded my dad I wanted that comic, not a Teddy Bear comic.

A graphic novel collector hopes to make a super-sized fortune after one of his old comic books was tipped to make £20,000 at auction. Peter Judge, in his sixties, hopes his original November 1961 Fantastic Four comic, signed by Marvel writer Stan Lee, will hit its top estimate at the sale on October 3.
The Fantastic Four was the first comics Peter got -Credit:SWNS

“At the age of six, I was introduced to the X-men, Iron Man, Thor, and a cast of villains including the Absorbing Man, Count Nefaria, Eel, Plant-Man, Unicorn, Porcupine, and Scarecrow. I was instantly hooked, and so were my brother, and my friends at school.”

Peter and his friends soon found the original full-colour US comics and spent their pocket money seeking out new and old Marvel editions. He went on: “There were four of us from school. One friend would collect Spider-Man and another would collect Avengers. We discovered artists like Kirby, Ditko, Severin, Steranko, Kane, Colan, Adams and more, and drew our own efforts.”

By 1972, Peter and his brother had organised themselves into a search party - riding London buses to seek out newsstands and secondhand bookshops for issues. He said: “We were allowed a comic a week. My brother and I would pool our pocket money, birthday money and Christmas money to buy comics.

“The American ones used to come to the newsagents, but it was very unreliable. You didn’t know when they would come, which issues would arrive and whether you would be able to get hold of them. It meant that you could see issue 75 but never see 76.”

Eventually, Peter and his brother built up a collection of 3,000 to 4,000 comics. But arguably the most memorable encounter came in 1975, when Peter met Stan Lee live at the Roundhouse in Camden.

A graphic novel collector hopes to make a super-sized fortune after one of his old comic books was tipped to make £20,000 at auction. Peter Judge, in his sixties, hopes his original November 1961 Fantastic Four comic, signed by Marvel writer Stan Lee, will hit its top estimate at the sale on October 3.
The Spider-man comic could reach up to £20,000 -Credit:SWNS

He remembered: “I said hello to the man, and he signed Fantastic Four #1 for me, which is on sale at Ewbank’s now.” That same year, the first Marvel Mastermind contest began, which Peter later went on to win. He said: “I beat other entrants with correct answers to a host of trivia questions, and a final tiebreaker challenge: Write a sentence using the letters of the word Mastermind as an acronym.

“My answer was: Marvel Art Successfully Takes Every Readers’ Minds Into New Dimensions. Definitely the proudest moment of my childhood and it won the day.”

A telegram from new UK editor Neil Tennant, later of The Pet Shop Boys, told Peter he had won. But it was some months before the prize-giving ceremony at Marvel’s London office. There, Stan Lee presented Peter with a signed first issue of Captain Britain, the latest Marvel character, a certificate, and copies of Stan Lee’s Origins of Marvel Comics, signed by Stan and Hulk artist Herb Trimpe.

Peter said: “I followed Marvel till around 1979, when I gradually stopped buying them, except for series that interested me, like X-Men, and the Frank Miller Daredevils. Since then, I’ve kept my eye on graphic novels and interesting artists, like Mike Mignola, Dave Chadwick, and series like Transmetropolitan, Ex Machina and Paper Girls. Comics really are a transcendent and important medium.

A graphic novel collector hopes to make a super-sized fortune after one of his old comic books was tipped to make £20,000 at auction. Peter Judge, in his sixties, hopes his original November 1961 Fantastic Four comic, signed by Marvel writer Stan Lee, will hit its top estimate at the sale on October 3.
The Hulk comic Peter has is the first appearance of Wolverine -Credit:SWNS

“It was a great way of spending time with friends as a boy. The comic marts are still going on and fifty years later you will find the same individuals attending them.”

Ewbank's Auction House's head of comics, Thomas Francis-Duma, where the pieces will be sold, expected fans to be ‘queuing up’ to bid on them on October 3.

He said: "Peter Judge’s collection is an incredible find for us – rarities with a wonderful back story that have been carefully preserved for decades before seeing the light of day once more here. Comics fans will be queueing up to bid.”

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