DALLAS, TX.- A page from Astérix the Legionary depicting Obélix’s awkward first attempt at courting the graceful Falbala charmed the winning bidder to the amount of $206,250 as the top lot at Heritage Auctions’ International Comic Art Signature® Auction, which realized $3,105,825 over two days, Oct. 24–25.

The rare page was one of four by Albert Uderzo from his beloved Astérix series, three of which reached six figures, with the comically theatrical original Pilote cover introducing Astérix, Le Devin (Asterix and the Soothsayer) achieving $187,500 and the original painting of Uderzo’s map of France from Astérix le Gaulois realizing $106,250. The production master original art for the image that appeared on all Astérix titles, first published in La Rose et le Glaive in 1991, had its final price set in stone at $57,500.

Of the pre-Astérix Uderzo works offered, a group of two story pages from De Ruige Ridder, De Verwenste Baron - Belloy, Le Baron Maudit brought in $12,500, another pair of pages from the same issue reached $8,125 and a page from the humorous family series Sa Majesté mon mari (His Majesty, My Husband) from 1952 took in $1,187, bringing the combined total for the seven Uderzo works to $579,312.

“This is an especially desirable page from Falbala’s debut adventure, the beginning of one of the series’ most enduring character relationships,” says Olivier Delflas, Heritage’s Director of International Comic Art and Anime. “Uderzo’s incredible command of expression, movement and sequential storytelling are on full display on this page from an issue that is one of the best of the classic Goscinny-Uderzo period.”

Dave Stevens’ splash page from The Rocketeer Adventure Magazine No. 3 and Luis Royo’s Los Hilos de los Sueños both also realized $112,500, to round out the six-digit lots. The former is among the most memorable from the concluding chapter of Stevens’ final Rocketeer adventure, a full-page portrait presenting the iconic Betty as radiant, self-assured and unmistakably inspired by Bettie Page with Cliff’s bulldog, Butch, at her feet. The latter was created in 1999 for the cover of Royo’s publication Dreams, Los Hilos de los Sueños, and also appeared as the cover of the November 2000 issue of the prestigious fantasy and science-fiction magazine Heavy Metal, leading to reproduction in calendars, collectible cards, posters and other merchandise.

Big Baby, Curse of the Molemen, a defining image of famed American underground cartoonist Charles Burns, and a 1989 Moebius (Jean Giraud) original illustration of Iron Man each commanded $81,250.

Enrico Marini’s fully painted image of Camilla and Drago from the cover of Rapaces II flew to $50,000,and his variant cover for Batman: The Long Halloween - The Last Halloween swung to $40,000.

The Caped Crusader made a second appearance in the sale’s top 10 results, with the powerful Batman/Spawn No. 1 cover by Jim Lee and Scott Williams from their celebrated 2023 collaboration realizing $46,250.