DALLAS, TX.- Heritage's June 20-23 Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction, which realized more than $19.68 million, left no doubt that there are occasions when a Black Cat brings good fortune.

The four-day event scared up numerous major auction records, led by one of the most (in)famous horror comic-book covers of all time: Lee Elias' original art for Black Cat Mystery No. 50, which sold for $840,000 after a prolonged bidding war. Elias' cover was among the auction's more than 270 lots that hailed from the coveted collection of vaunted fan, collector, historian and author Roger Hill. It's now one of the world's most valuable comic book covers and tied with Wally Wood's cover of 1952's Shock SuspenStories No. 6 as the most expensive horror comic book cover sold at auction.

That was just one of numerous records set during the sold-out event, which realized $19,683,415 thanks to the more than 6,200 bidders who participated worldwide. Hill's collection alone realized $4,334,640.

By the auction's end late Sunday night, it was like a vinyl shop after an earthquake: Records had fallen everywhere, from Golden Age comic books to classic horror and Silver Age and modern-day original superhero art. Sessions also went long thanks to collectors vying for books and original artwork that are not likely to appear in public again soon.

"The material from our friend Roger Hill's collection was truly the best of the best – and rarest of the rare – so we were confident the market would respond accordingly," says Todd Hignite, an Executive Vice President at Heritage. "But the multiples over even the most ambitious estimates for the top lots, and the sheer number of auction records, truly amazed us. We couldn't be happier for both his family as well as the collecting community –and there are scores more highlights from the famed collection to come."

Johnny Craig's cover of The Haunt of Fear No. 15 from June 1950 blew past the previous auction record for the legendary EC Comics artist, writer and editor. Craig's toothless Old Witch, not yet the cadaverous crone made infamous by colleague Graham "Ghastly" Ingels, scared up one of the auction's many protracted bidding wars that took this historic piece from The Roger Hill Collection to $264,000.Speaking of Ingels, his August 1952 cover for The Haunt of Fear No. 14 isn't just one of Ghastly's greatest works, but it's now his most valuable. A tense tussle among collectors drove this EC landmark, which told the Old Witch's origin story, to a record-setting $204,000.

Hill's collection also featured several original Famous Monsterscovers, including Basil Gogos' first one for the publication: 1960's rendering of Vincent Price as Roderick Usher. Legend has it that publisher Jim Warren adored the piece so much he called Gogos to ask why he didn't drop it off at the office personally, "so I can hug you and kiss you?" A bidding war – yes, another – drove its final price to $90,000, a Gogos auction record.

Wally Wood set another auction record, as well, when his original art for the 1953 Planet Stories story "The Un-Reconstructed Woman" realized $57,600. This intricate, thrilling work is now, deservedly, the most valuable pulp magazine interior illustration ever sold at auction.

Hill's collection included several Chamber of Chills covers, among them Elias' cover of Chambers of Chills No. 23, which collectors have long singled out as a huge key from the era. That original artwork realized $180,000 to become the world's most valuable Chamber of Chills cover, toppling the $174,000 record held by Elias' cover of Issue No. 19, which punk-rocker-turned-heavy-metal-man Glenn Danzig famously used as the artwork adorning the Misfits' 1984 single "Die, Die My Darling."

And all that glittered in this auction wasn't just Golden Age.Heritage also offered Frank Miller's earliest cover to reach the auction block: 1980's Daredevil No. 165 – fitting, as Miller and Daredevil are Men Without Fear. It realized $324,000 to become Miller's most valuable piece during his stint on Daredevil, behind only a handful of covers and pages from his industry-remaking turn on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

From that mini-series' second book, "Dark Knight Triumphant," came a page set in the Batcave that kicks the tale into overdrive, where all is seemingly lost until Bruce Wayne dons the Batman's cowl to proclaim, "But the war goes on." That page realized $156,000.

Bidders also tussled over a page from one of the most significant Silver Age stories, The Amazing Spider-Man No. 50, which introduced Wilson Fisk – the Kingpin who continues to chew scenery and everything else in Marvel's small-screen universe. This page by John Romita Sr. and Mike Esposito sold for $216,000. Another Spider-Man cover also set a record for its artist, as Mark Bagley's cover of The Amazing Spider-Man No. 379 – featuring Venom, Carnage, Doppelganger, Demogoblin and Deathlok – realized $126,000 to set an auction record for the longtime Spidey chronicler.

Numerous comic books realized six figures during the event, among them a few record-setters. As expected, collectors went Shazam! over the highest-graded unrestored copy of Whiz Comics' premiere issue, featuring the debut of Captain Marvel, Heritage had ever offered. There is just one other copy graded CGC 7.0 and only two graded higher; getting this Whiz was like capturing lighting in a bottle, which is why it sold for $288,000, a new auction record for the historic book.

And one collector made theirs Marvel, all right, snapping up a CGC Apparent FN/VF 7.0 copy of 1939's Marvel Comics No. 1 for $228,000– a record for a restored copy of the book that introduced Human Torch, Ka-Zar and the Angel and told Sub-Mariner's origin story.The whole auction was an adventure – and right from the beginning, as the very first comic book offered during the four-day event, a CGC Fine/Very Fine 7.0 copy of Adventure Comics No. 40, sold for $90,000, setting an auction record for this historic book in any grade. Adventure No. 40 features the first story ever written for Westley Dodds, the original Sandman, and is among the rarest and top-ranked Golden Age books. Collectors responded accordingly.

They also fought over Cinderella – 1954's Cinderella Love No. 25, the subject of another bidding war that propelled the final price to $60,000. That makes this CGC Very Fine- 7.5 book, with a cover by the great Matt Baker, the most valuable romance comic book ever sold at Heritage (and, likely, anywhere).

On the opposite spectrum, at least subject-wise, Diary of Horror No. 1 from the White Mountain Pedigree realized a record-setting $43,200. This CGC Near Mint+ 9.6 copy of this pre-Code horror masterpiece from 1952 is the best Heritage has ever seen. And it perfectly set the stage for Hill's legendary assemblage: In the coming months, Heritage will continue to offer original art, comic books and ephemera from the storied collection that keeps making history.