DALLAS, TX.- Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, created just one cover of Batman, but it was enough to leave a monumental imprint on the comics landscape. Sold for a total of $781,250, an auction record for a McFarlane cover, that landmark cover of Batman No. 423 (1988) led Heritage’s October 17 Keif Fromm Collection Comic Art Signature® Auction to an impressive $3,678,064 total for the single-day, single-owner event, but it was far from the only milestone sale amount.

Fromm was known best for his legendary collection of Golden Age comic art — possibly the finest in the world — and those items performed spectacularly well in the auction, including the Captain Marvel Jr. “V for Victory” Master Comics No. 27 cover art by Mac Raboy, which sold for $337,500; Lou Fine’s Hit Comics No. 5 Red Bee original cover art, taking in $275,000; C.C. Beck’s Whiz Comics No. 19 from July 1941, which sold for $118,750; and Jack Cole’s Silver Streak Comics No. 10 Daredevil and the Claw Story Page 1 original art, which took in $112,500 — auction records for each artist.

Heritage also continued its incredible run with the works of Frank Frazetta, following its record-breaking sale of Frazetta’s cover painting for the 1967 Lancer/Ace paperback of Robert E. Howard’s Conan, a landmark of modern fantasy art commonly known as Man Ape (1966), which sold for a record-shattering $13.5 million including the buyer’s premium. The October 17 auction price reached $437,500 for the original cover art for The Ghost Rider No. 5. Featuring a classic Frazetta femme, this kinetic work suggests a Wild West Batman, a masked vigilante swinging to the rescue against a backdrop of gun smoke

“The phenomenal success of this auction is a testament to Keif’s incredible eye for the best of the best quality comic art,” Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena says. “That combined with Heritage’s reputation and international reach resulted in multiple world records for these artists.”