Contributors
Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Cartoons
$500,000 Expected For Batman Comic
February 01, 2013The last time the copy of Detective Comics #27 that Heritage is currently offering came up for auction, it sold for $68,500. That was in 1995 at Sotheby’s. Since then this mid-rated 1939 book, which marked the debut of Batman, has soared in value. By the time the bidding ends at the Vintage Comics & Comic Art auction in New York on February 21-23, the Batman comic is expected to sell for at least $500,000.
Read more...You’re A Rascal, Charlie Brown
December 12, 2012In the 1970’s Peanuts creator Charles Shultz had a good deal more on his mind than just Charlie Brown. Infatuated with Tracey Claudius, a young woman 23 years his junior, the married Shultz sent her 44 letters, including 22 original drawings of some of his most famous characters. Sotheby’s will auction the trove later this week in New York, where it’s expected to bring $250,000-$350,000.
Read more...A Sale For Calvin & Hobbes Fanatics
November 09, 2012Anyone ever associated with a Calvin & Hobbes fanatic won’t be surprised at the estimated $125,000 price associated with the comic strip to be offered by Heritage next week. An original panel by the artist, Bill Watterson, has never before been sold at auction. It was first published in your local paper on Oct.18, 1986.
Read more...Spider-Man Cover Art Sells For $657,500
July 27, 2012Artist Todd McFarlane’s cover art for Spider-Man #328 sold for $657,250 yesterday at Heritage. While the result didn’t approach the $1.6m realized in Paris earlier this year for a Tintin drawing, the price was nonetheless an auction record for an American example of cover art. At the same auction, McFarlane’s original drawing for the cover of Spider Man#1, sold for $358,500.
Read more...Best Marvel Comics Collection Ever?
July 24, 2012For more than 20 years, Doug Schmell, a well-known comic book dealer, has been assembling a treasury of rare classic comics. Virtually every book, according to Heritage’s Lon Allen, “is the single highest graded” example of its type, or at least “tied for high graded copy.“ When Schmell’s collection, which includes such titles as “X-Men #1,””Avengers#1,” and “Fantastic Four #4,” comes up for auction this week in Los Angeles, it’s expected to sell for more than $3m.
Read more...Tintin Leads Sotheby’s lst Comic Art Sale
July 06, 2012Through the years, Sotheby’s has offered dozens of sales categories, but until quite recently, comic book art wasn’t one of them. In Paris this week that changed, as the auction house offered its first auction of comic strips. An original drawing by Belgian Tintin artist Georges Remi, better known as Herge, for his album “The Shooting Star” led the event with a price of $288,300.
Read more...African Americana At Swann
February 24, 2012Every year Swann Galleries trains its focus on the African-American experience. This year’s sale of printed and manuscript material features over 550 items, with sections devoted to slavery and abolition, civil rights, black power, history, music and literature—everything from a photograph of Tuskegee Airmen (est. $2,000-$3,000), to a pair of slave manacles ($2500-$3500), to an Ivory elephant tusk recovered from the wreck of a 16th century slave ship (est. $8000-$12,000).
Read more...Record $2.16m For Superman Comic
December 01, 2011In 1938, when Action Comics No. 1 introduced Superman to the world, a copy sold for 10 cents. Yesterday, after 50 bids, a pristine example sold for $2.16m in an online auction, becoming the most valuable comic book ever sold. Its provenance may be as interesting as its record price. Was it the copy that was stolen from actor Nicholas Cage back in 2000?
Read more...Playboy Pin-Up Art Gets Re$pect
October 12, 2011The lady in the Vargas painting asks the gentleman for his opinion on her hat. The answer is not shared, but the work is one 85 sexy comic illustrations, paintings and cartoons once in Playboy and now to be auctioned by Heritage. Some of the pieces are expected to go in the $30,00 to $50,000+ range. Surprisingly, the magazine became one of the top venues for the best illustrators and cartoonists of the second half of the 20th century.
Read more...Spiderman Comic Book Nets $1.1 Million
March 09, 2011You might want to inform your mother (who threw away all your comic books) that the 1962 debut issue of Spiderman just sold for $1.1 million. The pulp copy is in near perfect condition. It bypassed auction and went directly from private seller to buyer in Philadelphia.
Read more...World’s Most Valuable Animation Cel
February 10, 2011Back in 1999, this animation cel from “The Band Concert” featuring Mickey Mouse’s first cartoon appearance sold for $420,000, making it the world’s most valuable item of its kind. Heritage will offer it at their Comics & Comic Art auction in Dallas on February 24th and 25th . Although expectations are that it will command a much higher price, Heritage lists its estimate as simply more than $100,000.
Read more...Batman Steamer Trunk Discovery To Sell
February 07, 2011These five pages of original proofs for the first comic book in which Batman appeared were found in an abandoned steamer trunk in Rego Park, Queens, outside a building in which the series’ creator Bob Kane once lived. The pages will be a highlight at Heritage’s Dallas auction of vintage Comics & Comic Art auction on February 24th, when they’re expected to sell for more than $1000 each.
Read more...Rare Comics At Heritage
January 25, 2011A high-grade issue of the first Archie Comics that originally cost 10 cents is expected to sell for considerably more at a Heritage Auctions’ sale in Dallas, where it carries a $50,000 estimate. Valued at the same amount is a rare copy of the Fantastic Four#1. They’re part of the auction house’s Feb.24-26 Signature Vintage Comics & Comic Art sale.
Read more...Playboy Art Lures $2.9 Million
December 10, 2010An anonymous buyer paid $1,874,500 for “Mouth #8,” a 1967 pop art painting by Tom Wesselmann, at a Christie’s auction offering part of Playboy’s art archive. Billed as “The Year of the Rabbit,” the sale included over 80 photographs, 24 cartoons, a number of contemporary works of art, most of which had appeared in the magazine.
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