The lifetime collection of a comic book-obsessed lecturer has sold at a Surrey auction house for more than £62,000.

Nigel Kitching says he was given his first comic books before he could even read by an employee on his dad's farm, which set him up for a lifetime obsession.

The 66-year-old's comic fascination eventually saw him write them himself, working in the industry for over 20 years before creating and lecturing a Master's degree in Comics.

However, after moving house and deciding he needed to refine his collection, dad-of-two Mr Kitching finally decided to sell most of his collection.

Divided into 340 separate lots, the 6,000 comic collection spans back to the early 1960s and includes rare first appearance issues for Iron Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four.

The collection, which spans more than six decades, has now sold for a premium-inclusive total of £62,625 by Ewbank’s Auctioneers, based near Woking.

The most expensive item was an Incredible Hulk magazine, No. 181, featuring the iconic first appearance and cover of Wolverine from November 1974, which sold for £4,160.

Mr Kitching explained that being handed his first Marvel comics before he was able to read marked a 'Sliding Doors' moment that shaped his life.

He was handed the American comics by a man working on his father's farm in North Yorkshire, much to the chagrin of his parents, at the age of five, in 1964.

From then on, Mr Kitching would constantly pester his parents to tour comic shops in the hopes of finding rarities every time they left the house, chasing the great works of Marvel artists Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Gil Kane.

As he began to learn to read, he bought his first title from a newsstand.

“It was Spider-Man No 28, (1965)," Mr Kitching recalled.

"I still couldn’t read, but I loved the artwork and it had a black cover. My mother thought the cover was creepy, but she let me buy it when she saw how keen I was to have it.

“When my father’s friend gave me the Fantastic Four numbers 30 and 31 in the early 1960s, it set my life on a different course.

"I would probably be a farmer now if it wasn't for that. It changed the course of my life and became my career.

"But I recently moved house, and no longer have the storage I had before. I’ve kept some of my favourites, but consigned around 6,000 comics to the auction at Ewbank’s."

On holiday in Scarborough once, Mr Kitching even sought out rare comics that were used as ballast for ships coming from the United States.

"In those days, most of the comics you saw in the shops were D.C. Thomson titles like The Beano and The Topper, but I wasn’t interested in them,” he continued.

As his collection grew, so did Mr Kitching's fascination with comics.

He eventually went on to work in the industry for more than 20 years as a writer and artist, creating the world of Sonic the Comic, based on Sonic the Hedgehog, and working with 2000AD, who created Judge Dredd.

After his career in the industry, Mr Kitching went on to teach a Master's degree in Comics at Teesside University, and is now close to completing a PhD in comics.

“This isn’t a single trophy-lot consignment, but rather a substantial, broad-based comic collection built by an early, engaged Marvel-era collector,” Tom Duma, Ewbank’s Comics and Comic Books specialist, said.

“A foundational collector’s run, it spans the formative years of modern superheroes, with notable issues from the Early UK Marvel and Silver Age."

Highlights of Mr Kitching's collection included significant rarities, including a 1963 copy of Tales of Suspense, which features the first appearance and origin of Iron Man.

The collection also included the X-Men No 1 first issue from 1963, featuring the first appearance of the X-Men, Professor X and Magneto.

Comics starring Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Silver Surfer and even Dracula also featured amongst the leading titles in the sale.

Pick of the Spider-Man titles was a 1963 copy of The Amazing Spider-Man No. 5, which includes the first meeting of Doctor Doom and Spider-Man.

Across two sales, the entirety of Mr Kitching's collection sold for a premium-inclusive total of £62,625.