POW! ZAP! Comics donated to a Worcester charity shop have been flying off the shelves, raising more than £1,500 for St Richard’s Hospice.

Collector Andrew Farthing generously donated 2,000 comics and several dozen graphic novels from the 1980s and 1990s including fans’ favourites such as Marvel, X-Men, Hulk, Daredevil and Vertigo to the St Richard’s Snowdrops Bookshop in Reindeer Court before Christmas.

The highly collectable comics were in very good condition and went on sale ranging from £3 to £300 for a bundle.

Manager of Snowdrops Bookshop Emma Lamb said not only were comics vanishing from the shelves but were also disappearing through online buys as well.

She said: “We are really pleased with how they have sold so far with people of all ages coming in to buy them. We’ve already sold more than 650 comics and 60 graphic novels in the shop and some through the internet, but there is still lots of choice left.”

Mr Farthing, the avid sci-fi reader, filled his house with more than 15,000 and comics throughout the years but decided to have a clear-out and raise money for charity in the process.

He said: "I've been a keen reader of all sorts of material from science fiction to Proust since I was very young and have accumulated an enormous number of books over the years.

“I collected so many for a very simple reason – I enjoyed reading them! But I donated them because I felt the need for a clear-out - maybe something to do with my looming 50th birthday in a few months' time! With a house full of 15,000 books as well as the comics, I wanted to free up some space, so I donated the comics along with a few thousand books.”

“It seemed silly for books and comics that I'd read and was unlikely to want to read again to sit in my house when the hospice shops might be able to redirect them towards good homes and raise some a few thousand pounds in the process.”

Mr Farthing has also been volunteering for the hospice in the Evesham bookshop and Leigh Sinton goods warehouse as a book sorter for around a year.

For more information on the hospice, visit strichards.org.uk, or to see what books and comics remain, visit the bookshop in Reindeer Court, Worcester.