DALLAS, TX.- The magic of great entertainment partly comes down to its ability to cast a spell, to pull you into its unique universe and let you leave your own world behind. Whether your poison is movies, books, comics, television or theater, you trust your favorite storytellers to deliver the goods fully realized, with no sign of behind-the-scenes inception.

The catch: The stories that cast such powerful spells end up with fans — and collectors — who want to dig deeper and see how that omelette came together; they seek the backstory, the building blocks, the ingredients that led to such greatness. We collect scripts, animation cels, first drafts, props, storyboards, original promotional art — anything that gets us closer to the stories and characters we adore. On July 25-26, included in its comprehensive Hollywood/Entertainment Signature® Auction, Heritage will offer original artworks by foundation builders whose projects range from David Lynch’s Duneto Key Largo; from such indelible characters as Donald Duck and Wonder Woman to James Bond and King Kong. Artists Carl Barks, Robert Crumb and Edith Head are just some of the masters whose works lead the auction. Before comic-artist fandom became a thing, one of the comic world’s most renowned creators, while still anonymous, was dubbed the “Good Duck Artist.” Carl Barks, the man behind the comic charm and artistic genius of Disney’s Donald Duck and the creator of Scrooge McDuck, has since been hailed by colleagues as “the most popular and widely read artist-writer in the world” and "the Hans Christian Andersen of comic books” — but his loyal collector base still affectionately refers to the late animation and comics pioneer as “the Duck Man.”

Barks’ original oil paintings of Scrooge and his grand-nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie– especially those that depict the wealthy duck surrounded by his money (dubbed “Money Bin” paintings) — command high prices, but the few that were turned into limited edition prints by Walt Disney Studios are the most sought-after, and Heritage has a doozy: Barks’ Rich Finds At Inventory Time, which he painted in 1994, made for a spectacular Disney print edition and is infused with Barks’ incredible paint handling and compositional brilliance. Scrooge rides a goldmine cart into a chamber stacked with his riches as his wide-eyed grand-nephews and famous nephew Donald look on, and the entrance to the mine behind him reads “MINE ALL MINE!” The colors are saturated, the details are dazzling, and the painting is twice the size of his usual original paintings. The painting was commissioned by Barks’ longtime admirer, the comics impresario Steve Geppi. From the auction house that is the authority in all things Disney, this is by far the largest and most impressive masterpiece by the great "Duck Artist" that Heritage has ever encountered.

Decades after her Hollywood reign, Edith Head remains the most lauded costume designer in history, with eight Academy Awards (still the most Oscars won by any woman in cinema) — a testament to her 50-plus years designing the most memorable costumes for the most celebrated movies ever to hit the silver screen. Seeing Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly or Elizabeth Taylor glide across a set in a Head ensemble, we understand the timeless impact of the designer’s work. A great deal of the power of Head’s designs is grounded in her profound understanding of how the clothes propel a story forward — how they move with the actor not only through motion, but through character development. Through Head’s designs, a commoner becomes a princess, a villain finds redemption, a love story blooms.

She sketched her designs herself, and these working drawings tell the story of her process. In them you can see her hand in shaping a movie’s essence and aesthetic, from the regal ballgown worn by Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday to Elizabeth Taylor’s all-black stunner in A Place in the Sun to Grace Kelly’s ethereal pink ensemble in To Catch a Thief. More than 30 of Head’s original drawings for these Hollywood classics and others share the spotlight in this event. Drawn in gouache and ink on paper, the sketches represent the apex of Head’s creative power and include the most recognizable of her creations, many of which have shaped our vision of Hollywood glamor.

On the topic of classic Hollywood at its finest: Key Largo, Dark Passage, Dead Reckoning– Humphrey Bogart ruled the big screen in the 1940s, but his star turns were introduced to the world via each movie’s brilliant promotional material, and go-to artist-illustrator Luigi Martinati was the man to capture the tough-but-tender spirit of Bogart in his original artworks that became the posters for these films’ Italian campaigns, which could take place several years after WWII and their initial stateside releases. Martinati’s fluid yet detailed renderings of Bogie and his co-stars (including Lauren Bacall) take on each movie’s emotional and aesthetic resonance, and Heritage presents five of Martinati’s large-format vintage original illustrations of Bogart’s most celebrated films, including the aforementioned classics, as well as Martinati’s originals for You Can’t Get Away With Murder and the James Cagney-starring Angels With Dirty Faces. Executed in graphite, ink, watercolor and gouache on illustration paper and wrapped to artist's board, some are detailed with the artist's notes on verso concerning compositional tweaks and printing details.

Leave it genius comic artist and American grouch Robert Crumb to skewer the preciousness of the Academy Awards: In 1991 the irascible comics visionary was asked by Premiere Magazine to attend the Oscars and report back on his glamorous night out: He in turn gave the world a hilarious, honest and touching four-page comic strip detailing his anti-social foray into the very heart of Tinsel Town. In unmistakable Crumb style, he logs for us the depths of his alienation from the celebrity machine as he stands on the sideline or sits alone among the stars and wonders to himself about the very character of Hollywood’s most gorgeous and powerful. He renders himself, as usual, as a skinny, wretched fish out of water as he muses: “The men all stuck their chests out ... many of them had very hard faces ... they look like killers... like — GANGSTERS!! (I dunno maybe they were just character actors),” and when faced with his red-carpet frog march: “I felt ill at ease in the extreme and embarrassed for all of humanity.” In Crumb’s book, only fellow traveler and lone wolf Spike Lee gets a pass. Crumb’s entire original comic strip is another charming work in the event.

“Heritage continues to shape collectors’ discerning and evolving relationship with Hollywood entertainment and beyond,” says Joe Maddalena, Heritage’s Executive Vice President. “This auction is rich with indelible imagery and artistry, and these are some of the works by the brilliant artists who conceptualized some of our most beloved characters, narratives and modern mythologies.”