DALLAS, TX.- Anyone who has ever spent their free hours spinning a comics rack or opening their newspaper to the comics page will find something in
Heritage's Sept. 14-17 Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction that jogs the memory, quickens the pulse, stirs the soul. Among the event's more than 1,330 offerings are significant works handmade by celebrated titans and unsung heroes, valuable titles both famous and forgotten, and countless panels that have provided enduring pleasures.
Randomly scan the lots, as one might have done as a child, and you will find no shortage of Major Works. Among their venerable and valuable lot are scant survivors from DC Comics' Golden Age: Mort Meskin's original cover for 1941's Leading Comics No. 1, featuring the Seven Soldiers of Victory, and Fred Ray and Jerry Robinson's blessedly preserved cover for Batman and Robin's Detective Comics No. 58, inside of which The Penguin waddled his first steps.
Meskin famously made comics look like movies; this group image of Vigilante, Green Arrow and sidekick Speedy, Star-Spangled Kid, Shining Knight and the Crimson Avenger seems to jump off the page. And Ray drew some of comicdom's most famous images, including this 1941 Detective cover that, in August 2023, has again landed on comic-shop shelves as a facsimile reprint. Both covers hail from The Robinson Collection, so named for Ray's collaborator — and the man who co-created Robin and the Joker.
"Aside from being an outstanding artist, writer and entrepreneur, Jerry Robinson was a visionary," says Joe Mannarino, Heritage's New York-based Director of Comics and Comic Art. "He was among the first creators to sincerely appreciate the artists in the medium. Jerry worked alongside many of the top DC Golden Age artists, and when he saw an outstanding piece, he requested that it be returned from the printer so he could save it. Jerry accumulated the greatest-known collection of Golden and Silver Age art, and we are thrilled to offer two important examples from this remarkable collection."
From even earlier comes Alex Raymond's original Flash Gordon Sunday strip that ran in newspapers on June 18, 1939, along with the Jungle Jim topper that accompanied it. Raymond worked on Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim for just a decade — from their Jan. 7, 1934, debut until Raymond joined the Marines in 1944 — but his impact lingers well into the 21st century, whether in the ceaseless Star Wars franchise or the Thor films drenched in the bright, campy colors of the 1980 film adaptation.
The Star Wars nod is undeniable in this strip — the third pane, precisely. George Lucas has long insisted Princess Leia's "cinnamon-bun" hair in the 1977 film was inspired by "a kind of southwestern Pancho Villa woman revolutionary look." Yet Queen Fria is a dead ringer for Leia, from mane to moniker.
"This is one of my favorite pieces of art in the auction," says Heritage Executive Vice President Todd Hignite. "Not only has it never been on the market, but it's pretty much perfect in every way."
Speaking of Star Wars and works never before offered at auction, Heritage proudly presents Rick Hoberg and Dave Cockrum's original cover of Star Wars No. 5 — the penultimate issue of Marvel Comics' adaptation of Lucas' film, which was written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Howard Chaykin. This issue — featuring the story "Lo, the Moons of Yavin!" — was published on Aug. 10, 1977, just 77 (!) days after Lucas gave audiences a new hope for sci-fi on the big screen.
Infamously, Marvel initially scoffed at the idea of adapting Star Wars for spinner racks in 1975. But by the summer of '77, these books were the only way audiences could hang out with Luke, Han and Leia without lining up for another ticket. Readers snapped up the first six issues, and as Marvel's then-editor-in-chief Jim Shooter later said, those Star Wars books kept Marvel "alive during a very rough time."
An original cover from the first six issues of Star Wars has never been publicly offered. The Force is definitely with this one.
Heritage is also honored to announce that beginning with this event, the auction house is working with the family of Irv Novick to offer some of his most beloved and famous pieces spanning his remarkable career. Indeed, Novick was among the rare handful of artists who left his indelible imprint on the Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages, beginning with The Shield in 1940's Pep Comics No. 1.
But to that generation of kids who grew up dropping quarters on Batman and Flash books in the 1970s, Novick was a welcome and inescapable presence alongside the likes of Neal Adams, Jim Aparo, Carmine Infantino and others who defined the decade.
This event features 13 original works from Novick, and among this initial round of offerings are pages filled with iconic images of Batman, Flash, the Joker, Catwoman and Robin and even the Shadow from his guest turn in 1983's Batman No. 253. There are also two complete stories, including "Catwoman's Circus Caper," which appeared in the 100-pager Batman No. 256 in 1974. From four years later comes the entire 17-page story "Riddle of the Runaway Comic" that appeared in Flash No.268 — one of the most memorable, and meta, comics stories of the 1970s, as it's basically about how Barry Allen collects comic books featuring his Earth-2 counterpart, except Flash Comics No.26, around which this fun tale revolves. There's a heist, too, involving villains dressed as the Golden Age Wildcat and Green Lantern.
As is evident, this is an event filled with landmark art — and John Romita and Dan Green's original cover of 1985's The Uncanny X-Men No. 200 stands tall among their ranks. The cover says only "Double Sized Issue!" because the image — Magneto in shackles, caught between the warning X-Men and the Fenris twins — shouts for itself. This is "The Trial of Magneto!" written by Chris Claremont (and, in August 2021, revisited by Leah Williams) and one of the most significant X-Men stories of the 1980s, as it redefines the relationship between Charles Xavier and his old friend-turned-foe. Comic Book Resources noted last year that the issue "was a sea change to the X-Men status quo and a great story." With one hell of a cover.
This auction is so star-studded, so action-packed that we've yet even to mention one of its main attractions: Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer VI from 1990, one in his vaunted series of paintings featuring the axe-wielding, armor-clad barbarian who spawned novels, comic books, action figures and endless reprints. It wouldn't be a Heritage Comics & Comic Art auction without Frazetta, whose 1976 Dark Kingdom sold for $6 million in June to become the world's most valuable comic book or fantasy artwork.
For the collector who's MAD about The Godfather, here's no less an iconic work: Norman Mingo's watercolor cover of 1972's MAD No. 155, which contained Larry Siegel and Mort Drucker's beloved parody "The Odd Father." And for the Archie Comics collectors, Heritage is thrilled to present this "First Appearance" rarity in its entirety: Dan DeCarlo and Joe Edwards' complete artwork for 1963's Josie No. 1, which marked the debuts of Josie, Melody and Pepper, whose eventual disappearance (Valerie replaced her) remains one of comicdom's touchier subjects, at least in certain circles.
The only thing more unnerving than furious Pussycats fans is the shootout-in-a-skull cover to Punch Comics No. 12, represented in this auction by the highest-graded copy in CGC's registry, the 8.0 Very Fine copy with the Crowley Copy Pedigree. The 1945 book itself is among the "world's greatest comics," at least in the estimation of Golden Age entrepreneur Harry "A" Chesler, who slapped that motto on the cover of every book. But it wasn't just hype: Chesler ran a studio stocked with some of comicdom's best artists (including Mort Meskin, Jack Cole and Otto Binder) and the very men who worked on books for Archie's predecessor MLJ Comics. And in the case of this issue, with its nearly pristine cover by Gus Ricca, that's no understatement: It hails from the files of Fawcett publisher Wendell Crowley, who gave the world Captain Marvel.
Speaking of captains and marvels, this CGC Near Mint/Mint 9.8 copy of Marvel's The Avengers No. 4, featuring Captain America's Silver Age thaw, is a marvel of its own. There are just six copies graded 9.8 with none higher. So rare is this historic offering that this is only the second time Heritage has ever offered a mint-condition Avengers No. 4; the last time one came up, in 2017, the Avengers hadn't even fought their big-screen Infinity War.
And just in time for the critically acclaimed (no, really) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Heritage is delighted to offer one of the 35 copies of 1984's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles No. 1 graded CGC Near Mint/Mint 9.8. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the friends who became co-conspirators, printed just 3,000 copies of their Daredevil-Ronin homage on May 5, 1984. This copy is among that precious initial lot, which has been endlessly reprinted since. Turtles forever, indeed.
