Not too long ago, the only vintage comics that could bring prices above $50,000 were all from the “Golden Age” of the World War II era. In the meantime, however, the nicest copies of some comics from the Baby Boomer generation have cleared that hurdle quite easily. Case in point: a comic that barely made it to Heritage Auction Galleries in time to make its auction deadline, a certified Near Mint copy of Amazing Spider-Man #1, offered in the Comics and Comic Art auction taking place Aug. 14-15.
“The current bid for this comic as we speak is already at $53,000 – more than the highest price listed for the issue in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide – and this comic still has quite a way to go,” said Jim Steele, who cataloged the lot for Heritage. “What’s really exceptional about this copy is the razor-sharp right edge, as most copies of this key comic – even really nice ones – tend to have chipped right edges.”
Another highlight of the sale is
original Charles Schulz artwork in the form of Sunday and weekly comic strips. “Collectors have seen the prices these have commanded in our previous auctions, and that has generated a lot of phone calls and e-mails,” said Barry Sandoval, Director of Comics Operations at Heritage. “As a result, this auction has some truly superb examples of Schulz’s work, with some of the most popular themes like
baseball and
football (with Lucy pulling the ball away before Charlie Brown can kick it of course). The earliest Sunday we’re offering, from
Nov. 4, 1956, features the sensitive musician Schroeder.”
Virtuoso comic art is not just the province of Charles Schulz in the mid-August auction, as evidenced by the presence of the most significant grouping of original artwork from horror comic master Bernie Wrightson and a page of original Jim Steranko Strange Tales artwork from 1967.
“We’ve never had as deep a gathering of Wrightson’s work as we have in this upcoming auction, most of it never before offered for public sale,” said Sandoval, “and Steranko artwork from this period when he was taking Marvel by storm is – to say the least –hard to come by.”
A pair of important #1s are also generating advance-auction buzz among erudite collectors:
a 9.2 NM CGC certified copy of All-Select Comics #1, with one of the greatest Golden Age covers ever by Alex Schomburg, one of the era’s premier artists, and
the highest-graded copy of Archie Comics #1, the first-ever teen comic book.
Selections from the Bob Cowan Collection of Original Comic Strip Art also bear special mention as they ready for auction. The grouping, with 30 lots of original art from titles like Prince Valiant, Mandrake The Magician, Tarzan and Flash Gordon, among the many, promises spirited bidding for this splendid survey of original comic art from the second half of the 20th century.
“Mr. and Mrs. Cowan are a shining example of the collecting spirit,” said Sandoval. “They started more than 20 years ago with a passion for original animation art. Despite having a very strict budget at the time, they were very savvy about their purchases. Original comic art soon followed and, one piece at a time, they’ve built a great and valuable collection that we now have the privilege of offering just a part of.”
For more information on this auction, to read detailed lot descriptions for these, and all other lots, and to download fully-enlargeable color images, go online to
www.HA.com/7009, or contact Barry Sandoval at 800-872-6467, ext. 1377, or via email at
BarryS@HA.com.
To reserve your copy of any Heritage auction catalog, please contact Client Services at 1-800-872-6467, ext. 1150, or visit www.HA.com/Catalog to order by email.
Heritage Auction Galleries is the world’s third largest auction house, and by far the largest auctioneer of rare collectibles, with annual sales more than $700 million, and 425,000+ registered online bidder members. For more information about Heritage's auctions, and to join and gain access to a complete record of prices realized, along with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit www.HA.com.
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