DALLAS, TX.- To say Heritage’s September 12-15 Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction was fantastic would be an understatement, as it was a near-total sell-out that realized $19,666,768 thanks to the nearly 6,000 bidders who participated worldwide. But it’s also the perfect word — fantastic — thanks in large part to the $2.04 million realized for one of only two copies of 1961’s Fantastic Four No. 1 awarded a Near Mint+ 9.6 grade by Certified Guaranty Company, a new record for this historic first chapter in the Marvel Universe.
In more than two decades as the world’s premier comic book auction house, Heritage has never offered so highly graded — and coveted — a copy of the first Fantastic Four. Collectors responded appropriately, as this issue opened live bidding last Thursday at $1.05 million on its way to becoming the second-most-valuable Silver Age comic behind only the CGC Near Mint+ 9.6 copy of Amazing Fantasy No. 15 Heritage sold for $3.6 million in September 2021.
The previous auction record for Fantastic Four No. 1 was $1.5 million for a copy graded Near Mint- 9.2 Heritage sold in 2022.
“The state of preservation of this copy is simply unbelievable,” says Barry Sandoval, Heritage Auctions Vice President. “It’s one of the greatest single comic books we have ever handled, and the final auction price reflected that.”
But Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm weren’t the sole record-setters during the four-day event’s kickoff.
John Buscema’s original artwork adorning the first issue of 1988’s Wolverine, the inaugural solo series for the X-Man called Logan, sparked the first bidding war of Friday’s Comic Art session to realize $600,000, a new auction record for the legendary artist. This landmark work, which hails from a John Buscema Family Collection, led a Marvel-ous assemblage of classic era-defining first appearances, covers and splash pages from the Silver to Modern Ages.
In an event replete with centerpieces and masterpieces, Don Heck’s original art for Page 8 from Tales of Suspense No. 39 sparked one heck of a bidding war. And you can see why, as this page chronicles Tony Stark’s first baby steps in that clunky Iron Man suit. It soared to $504,000, second only to the $552,000 realized at Heritage in April for the Tales of Suspense page, whose eight panels show Stark clad in the suit to face his first “moment of reckoning.”
This auction also featured the earliest Frank Miller cover Heritage had ever offered: 1980’s Captain America No. 241, featuring the first meeting of Cap and the Punisher. Not only is this one of Frank Castle’s earliest appearances outside of The Amazing Spider-Man, in which the Marine-turned-vigilante debuted in 1974, but this was Miller’s first shot at the Punisher, who would become a regular during Miller’s celebrated stint on Daredevil. It opened live bidding at $77,500 and shot to a final price of $228,000.
Speaking of Spider-Man, this essential and iconic Steve Ditko page from 1966’s The Amazing Spider-Man No. 32 sparked another bidding war — and rightly so. It opened live bidding at $97,500 and just climbed to $204,000. One lot later, another Ditko masterpiece sparked another bidding war when the Doctor Strange pin-up from 1967’s Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics No. 10 opened live bidding at $82,500 and conjured a final price of $216,000.
That’s the same price realized for Herb Trimpe’s cover for The Incredible Hulk No. 123, featuring The Leader wielding his Murder Module. This might have been the subject of the auction’s most protracted bidding war. By the end, the only Trimpe original that has sold for more is the Hulk No. 180 page that features the first appearance of, you guessed it, Wolverine.
A historic DC Comics cover, which features Lois Lane’s transformation into a Black woman for 24 hours, likewise made a little more news in this auction: One of the most (in)famous covers in comic-book history was — no surprise — one of the most coveted classics among collectors, as Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson’s cover of Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane No. 106 realized $144,000.
Pre-Code horror, particularly from the collection of the late collector, historian, and author Roger Hill, continues to scare up significant prices. Lee Elias’ original cover of 1954’s Tomb of Terror No. 15 is an explosive work: A woman reels in horror as a man’s face explodes, his left eyeball launching into the gory oblivion. The cover promises a grisly explanation within: “Never has a story burst with the terror of BREAK-UP!” Collectors kept an eye on this prize, propelling it to a $300,000 finish.
Wally Wood’s original artwork for the cover of 1951’s Tales from the Crypt No. 26, an EC Comics classic likewise exhumed from Hill’s vaunted collection, scared up a final price of $126,000.
There were other fantastic record-setting finishes for comic books, among them a stunning copy of Batman No. 3, which contains the first appearance of Catwoman in costume. It opened live bidding at $18,500 and realized $66,000, a record for this issue in any grade. And in the same Bat-auction, there was another new Bat-record: This event featured a CGC Near-Mint 9.2 copy of Detective Comics No. 233, featuring the first appearance of Batwoman, which is the highest graded on CGC’s census. It’s also most valuable, having realized $50,400 after a bidding war.
There was some pulp friction when an August 1928 issue of Amazing Stories, the lone copy bearing CGC’s grade of 9.8, opened live bidding at $31,000 and sold for a record-setting $105,000 after another protracted bidding war. It’s a remarkable issue inside and out, from Frank Paul’s classic cover featuring a rocketman mid-flight to Philip Francis Nowlan’s science-fiction novella Armageddon 2419 A.D., which introduced hero and narrator Buck Rogers. It is a story set in the 25th century, a record set in the 21st century.
