Opening Lots in Chicago’s First Comics & Comic Art Auction Bring $6.44 Million at Heritage Auctions

World record for Frank Frazetta painting set for $1.79 million

DIGITAL MEDIA KIT

DALLAS, Texas (May 10, 2018) – The opening lots of Chicago’s first public auction dedicated to vintage comic books and original comic art brought $6,466,982 on Thursday, May 10, at Heritage Auctions, Chicago. In just 90 lots, collectors set two world records for original comic art and pushed auction prices more than two- to three-times over pre-sale expectations.

Artist Frank Frazetta’s Painting Original Art titled Death Dealer 6, 1990, set a world auction record for the artist when it sold for $1.79 million, nearly three times its estimate.

Bidders set another world record when the Original Art for a The Far SideDaily Comic Strip, by cartoonist Gary Larson, sold for $31,070, making it the most expensive Far Side strip ever sold at auction. 

Additional top highlights from the auction’s first session: 

·         $573,600 - Action Comics #1 (DC, 1938) - first appearance of Superman; sold by a longtime American comic book collector who paid $50,000 for the copy 15 years ago when he first added it to his collection

·         $227,050 - Batman #1 (DC, 1940) - first appearances of both the Joker and Catwoman

·         $173,275 - Whiz Comics #2 (#1) - first appearances of Captain Marvel

·         $167,300 - John Romita Sr. The Amazing Spider-Man #61 Cover Original Art (Marvel, 1968)

·         $65,725 - Bill Watterson Calvin and Hobbes Daily Comic Strip Original Art dated 1-21-86 (Universal Press Syndicate, 1986)

·         $51,385 – Single page of art from the comic book featuring the first appearance of popular character Deadpool: Rob Liefeld New Mutants #98 Story Page 15 Original Art (offered just a week before the film “Deadpool 2” hits theaters)

The 1,685-lot auction continues through Saturday at Heritage Auctions, Chicago, 215 West Ohio St., and on HA.com.

Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.

The Internet’s most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has over one million registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of four million past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit.

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Eric Bradley, Public Relations Director