Frazetta Art Sells for $6M in First Day of Heritage’s Comic & Art Auction

Heritage’s Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction began on Thursday, June 22, 2023, already seeing mighty results for the four-day event.

Frank Frazetta’s Dark Kingdom painting original art took a big swing, selling for $6 million. The painting was first published as the cover for Karl Edward Wagner’s 1976 Kane series novel, Dark Crusade. It is one of the most popular Frazetta pieces, is regularly featured in Frazetta anthologies, and has been a favorite attraction at the Frazetta Museum for decades. The Dark Kingdom sale has set a new record for a Frazetta painting, besting the Egyptian Queen original art that sold for $5.4 million at Heritage in 2019.

“It’s so rewarding to see fantasy art that impacted us as kids enter this rarefied air as we’ve become adults,” Heritage Executive Vice President Todd Hignite said. “All of us at Heritage are first and foremost fans. We feel so fortunate to work with this art we’ve loved all our lives. And now the market reflects the importance we always knew it possessed.”

Following Frazetta’s painting, the top five sellers were anchored by major key comic books. The high grade Captain America Comics #1 CGC 9.2, featuring the origin and first appearance of Captain America and Bucky, the debut of Red Skull, and a striking cover of Cap punching Hitler, hammered for $810,000. The CGC 3.5 Promise Collection copy made the top ten sales at $168,000.

Superman #1 CGC 3.0, which is the Man of Steel’s first self-titled book and contains his origin, realized $360,000.

Spider-Man took two of the top spots. Amazing Fantasy #15 CGC 8.0, featuring the origin and first appearance of Spider-Man, as well as the debuts of Aunt May and Uncle Ben, snagged $312,000. Amazing Spider-Man #1 CGC 9.4 with Spidey’s origin retold, the debuts of J. Jonah Jameson and the Chameleon, and a crossover with the Fantastic Four, brought $264,000.

On the original art side, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Captain America Comics #5 splash page 1 sold for $252,000. The opening splash for “The Terror that was Devil’s Island” story shows a captured Cap and Bucky, along with a POW.

Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes daily comic strip original art dated March 28, 1986, reached $174,000. The four-panel strip features Calvin elevating the pair’s “coolness” factor, and is signed by Watterson in the third panel.

Heritage’s Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction continues Friday through Sunday, June 23-25.