Heritage Comics & Art Auction Realizes $19.6M
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Heritage has finished another impressive Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction, seeing a total of $19.6 million in sales. Held on September 12-15, 2024, the auction closed with a near sellout and saw interest from 6,000 bidders.
The introduction of Marvel’s first family in Fantastic Four #1 CGC 9.6 sold for a new world record price of $2,040,000. This copy of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, and the Thing’s debut is one of only two at the grade. The book went well beyond the previous record of a CGC 9.2 copy that Heritage sold for $1.5 million in 2022.
“The state of preservation of this copy is simply unbelievable,” Heritage Vice President Barry Sandoval said. “It’s one of the greatest single comic books we have ever handled, and the final auction price reflected that.”
John Buscema’s Wolverine cover from his first solo comic series clawed its way to $600,000 – a new auction record for the artist. Showing the antihero with claws out and ready for action atop a pile of downed foes, the cover comes from a John Buscema Family collection.
Don Heck’s Tales from Suspense #39 page 8 showing Tony Stark taking his first steps in the original bulky Iron Man suit hammered for $504,000. Frank Miller’s Captain America #241 cover with the first meeting between Cap and Punisher, and Miller’s first time drawing Punisher, went for $228,000. Herb Trimpe’s The Incredible Hulk #123 cover showing the Leader wielding his Murder Module reached $216,000. Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson’s Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #106 cover, an infamous image of Lois Lane transforming into a Black woman, reached $144,000.
Steve Ditko saw two notable sales in the auction. His Amazing Spider-Man #32 page that shows Spider-Man being trapped by a metal mechanism went for $204,000. His Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #10 Doctor Strange pinup with both his physical and astral forms sold for $216,000.
Pre-Code horror art from the collection of late collector, historian, and author Roger Hill produced several top sales. Lee Elias’ Tomb of Terror #15 original cover depicting the gory moment when a man’s face explodes as a woman watches in horror was propelled to $300,000. Wally Wood’s Tales from the Crypt #26 cover with the macabre image of a body being exhumed after claims of holy ground desecration brought $126,000.
The Golden Age of comics produced several notable sales in the first session of the auction. Batman #3 CGC 9.0, featuring Catwoman’s first in-costume appearance, realized $66,000 – setting a record for the title in any grade. The highest graded copy of Detective Comics #233 CGC 9.2 with Batwoman’s debut sold for $50,400. The world of pulps made its mark when Amazing Stories #29 CGC 9.8 featuring the first appearance of Buck Rogers, skyrocketed to a record setting $105,000.
