DALLAS, TX.- Heritage’s latest International Original Art Signature® Auction, held March 9-10, realized $2,373,526. That impressive result comes with an Asterix.
A page from Albert Uderzo’s Asterix in Corsica, which first appeared in the January 1967 issue of Pilote, realized $106,250 to take top honors during the two-day event and become only the second original page featuring the beloved mustachioed Gaulish warrior to realize six figures at Heritage. It’s little wonder why: As the catalog notes, this delightful page features all the hallmarks of what Le Monde once proclaimed a top-25 book of the 20th century: “the series’ characteristic humor, Obelix with wild boars under his arms, a magnificent visual of Asterix, all set against an incredible historical backdrop.”
This curated event, spanning decades and continents, featured more than 630 works. And it was a near-complete sell-out thanks to the more than 2,800 bidders participating worldwide.
Among the event’s top lots was one of the numerous works offered by Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius, who was represented in this event by nearly two dozen works. Chief among them was a striking closeup of his spiked-helmeted cosmic creation, Major Grubert, which realized $75,000. This piece originally appeared in 1977’s Métal Hurlant No. 15 as part of the story “Le garage hermétique de Jerry Cornélius” and has since been reprinted dozens of times as Moebius’ reach extended into every comic book and science-fiction film made since. So significant is this single page that a single panel from it was offered as a limited-edition silkscreen in 1989.
For the first time in its storied history as the world’s largest comics-art auctioneer, Heritage presented one of André Franquin’s original Gaston Lagaffe Gags — No. 839, specifically, dating to 1978. The Belgian creator’s most famous and beloved character was considered a “dedicated idler in jeans and espadrilles.” But as The Los Angeles Times noted in 1997 upon Franquin’s passing, he evolved into “one of the world’s most beloved anarchists, a gentle saboteur of the status quo who is against parking meters, cops, office routine and most other things that pass for the trappings of modern civilization.” This quintessential Lagaffe work realized $56,250.
Not far behind was a work by an American master whose coveted comic strips reshaped the medium: Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim Sunday strip from Dec. 10, 1939, which looks as modern as anything made tomorrow as Flash sleigh-rides across a tundra to escape The Great Glacier Monster. It sold for $51,250.
This event also featured the earliest The Phantom daily strip Heritage has ever offered, from May 15, 1936. Ray Moore’s early Phantom works are scarce, and this four-panel piece sparked a bidding war among devotees eager to get their hands on a work featuring The Phantom and his wife-to-be Diana arguing over secret plots and hidden treasures. This particular treasure realized $37,500.
As ever, the Kentucky native Don Rosa proved himself an International Original Art sensation with collectors: This splash page from 1994’s Donald Duck & Company, originally published in Denmark and featuring a nostalgic Scrooge McDuck, realized $45,000. Little wonder bidders tussled over this entry from the final installment in the series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, as it shows that life’s not just about the money you make but the friends and adventures you accrue along the way.
