Artist accidentally uses rare comics for sculpture

A blundering artist made a papier-mâché sculpture using comic books he discovered in a skip - only to discover they were rare editions worth around £20,000.

After finding the discarded comics Andrew Vickers used them to create a life-sized man sculpture entitled 'Paperboy'.

However, after the piece went on display at a gallery in Sheffield it was spotted by comic book expert Steve Eyre.

It was while examining the piece that he realised the pasted sections were from classic Marvel Comics books.

Indeed, one of the comics used was a rare 1963 first edition of The Avengers, a copy of which Steve also owns, worth around £10,000.

It means that it would have been cheaper for Andrew to create the sculpture out of Italian marble rather than the comic books.

Vickers is somewhat philosophical about his blunder saying that there is no point in 'crying over spilt milk'.

However, he has promised Steve that he will approach him first with any other comics he may stumble across.

PHOTOS BY: Jonathan Pow / Rex Features