“Batman: The Killing Joke,: Jack Kirby Original Art, help push Day 1 of Heritage Auctions’ Comics & Comic Art Event Past $5 Million Mark

Heritage Auctions began its four-day Comics & Comic Art event yesterday with a first session full of slam-bang action that smashed most expectations and pre-auction estimates that included a high price for a page of Batman: The Killing Joke by Brian Bolland. After a mere 105 minutes had elapsed, the Platinum Session filled with historic titles and significant works of original art had tallied almost $3.3 million.

Brian Bolland - Batman: The Killing Joke Page 2

Session 2, which kicked off later in the day Thursday and featured more than 150 additional comics alongside rare Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering items, brought in an additional $1.7 million. 

That pushed the first day’s total past the $5 million mark, with nearly every single page of original art sold for well beyond pre-auction estimates. Some doubled and tripled expectations.

Among the highlights were Brian Bolland’s Page 2 from Batman: The Killing Joke, his 1988 collaboration with Alan Moore that has influenced almost every Dark Knight tale since, set the tone early. The nine-panel slice of noir — featuring Batman and Commissioner Gordon striding past Arkham Asylum cells filled with villains, Two-Face among them – opened at $62,500. Then bidders tussled over the coveted page, pushing it past its $100,000 estimate to its final sale price of $156,000 – the highest Heritage has yet realised for a page from that influential book.

Two extraordinary offerings by Jack Kirby – the man who helped save Marvel Comics, and reinvented himself and the way comics looked over four decades – also hit six figures, including his splash page from X-Men No. 4, which sold for $132,000.

This should not surprise: Not only does it feature the team’s original lineup in the Danger Room, but on the back are Kirby’s handwritten notes in which he brainstorms the names for a new character eventually called Scarlet Witch.

Splash Page from X-Men #4 by Jack Kirby

Kirby’s team-up with his longtime collaborator Joe Sinnott on the cover of Fantastic Four No. 95 sold for nearly as much: $114,000. And his work with Dick Ayers on 1962’s Strange Tales No. 101, two pages in which Kirby depicted the origin of his beloved Fantastic Four, sold for $96,000.

Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott Self Portrait with Marvel Characters
Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott Self Portrait with Marvel Characters

But not all the high numbers came from long-ago stories.

Joshua Middleton’s cover to Marvel’s NYX No. 3 – the first comic-book appearance of X-23, a clone of Wolverine eventually seen in the 2017 Logan – sold alongside the character’s concept art for $78,000. 

Said Heritage Auctions Vice President Barry Sandoval, “That is now the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of 21st century US comic art.”

And the $72,000 realised for Harvey Kurtzman-Bill Elder work “Shermlock Shomes” was one of the highest prices Heritage has seen for a MAD offering. The eight-page, 8,000-gag tale opened bidding at $21,000, slightly higher than its pre-auction estimate. A flurry of bids later, and it found a new home for more than three times the expected sale price.

Sandman #6 Cover by Dave McKean

One of the nicest surprises of the first session came early, when it came time to sell Dave McKean’s original art to the cover of Sandman No. 6. Neil Gaiman’s heartbreaking work of fantasy from the late 1980s attracted countless new readers to the medium. This is where non-believers started referring to comics as literature.

And on Thursday, fine-art collectors met comics fans as they dueled over this mixed-media work that sold for $50,000, far more than twice its $20,000 pre-auction estimate. That’s especially rewarding since the art was originally given to the consignor by her boss as a sort of consolation prize as she was being laid off.

Other original art sold in the Platinum Session includes these highlights, among many:

Dozens of important comics likewise sold in Session 1 and 2, among them an issue of Wonder WomanNo. 1 graded CGC VF 8.0 for $120,000. A Superman No. 1 in CGC VG/FN 5.0 condition sold for $360,000. And the finest known copy of 1940’s Batman No. 4 sold for $40,800.

Marvel’s debuts also exceeded expectations, including Journey Into Mystery No. 83, which, in 1962, introduced Thor. A copy graded CGC VF 8.0 sold for $31,200 – an extraordinary jump from those not-long-ago days when an issue in that grade typically sold for a fraction of that.

Fantastic Four #1

And during the second session, a surprise: A CGC Qualified (for cleaned staples) VF+ 8.5 copy of Fantastic Four No. 1 sold for $72,000, which is approximately the Overstreet value for an unqualified copy in that grade.

The Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction continues with a floor session Friday at 11 a.m. Central, followed by four more Friday-Sunday sessions. For a complete list of results from the entire auction, register for free at HA.com



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