Heritage Auctions’ July Comics and Comic Art Event Hits $21 Million
Heritage Auctions’ July comics and comic art event brought in more than $21 million, led by a record-setting piece of original Iron Man artwork.
The four-day event combined Heritage’s July 10-12 Comic Art Signature Auction and July 9-11 Comic Books Signature Auction. Together, the two sales realized $21,103,340. The Comic Art auction accounted for $14,471,390, while the Comic Books auction brought in $6,631,950.
The top result came from Don Heck’s original splash page from Tales of Suspense No. 39, the March 1963 Marvel comic that introduced Iron Man. The artwork sold for $3,875,000, setting a new auction price record for original comic art.
Heritage said the Iron Man debut splash page was one of 18 lots in the Comic Art auction to reach six figures. Joe Mannarino, Heritage Auctions’ New York-based Director of Comics & Comic Art, said the market has shown steady growth for more than 50 years and continues to bring in new collectors.
Mannarino said early Marvel splash pages rarely come to market and that the Iron Man artwork combined a historic image with a historic comic book. According to Heritage, six bidders were still competing for the page after bidding passed $3 million.
The Iron Man page topped the previous comic art record of $3,360,000, set at Heritage in January 2022 by a Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars No. 8 story page showing Spider-Man’s black costume.
Other comic art highlights included the original artwork for the climactic father-son lightsaber battle in Marvel Super Special No. 27, the comic adaptation of Return of the Jedi. That page sold for $275,000, making it the second-highest result in the Comic Art auction. John Byrne and Terry Austin’s cover art for Secret Wars II No. 1 sold for $250,000.
A Carl Barks Vacation Panel painting from 1972 realized $237,500. Heritage also said a group of 13 Alex Schomburg cover re-creations all sold for five-figure prices, totaling $592,500.
A special section of Joe Shuster items brought $506,875. The group included Shuster cover re-creations for Action Comics No. 1 and Superman No. 1, which sold for $137,500 and $81,250.
The comic book side of the event was led by an unrestored CGC 4.5 copy of Action Comics No. 1, which sold for $1,525,000. Heritage noted that about 200,000 copies of the issue were printed in 1938 and estimated that 100 or fewer survive today. A CGC Restored 6.5 copy of Action Comics No. 1 sold for $427,000, the second-highest result in the Comic Books auction.
Other major comic book results included an Amazing Fantasy No. 15 CGC 8.0 Universal copy at $237,900 and a Fantastic Four No. 1 CGC 9.0 Universal copy at $231,800.
Heritage also pointed to a newer comic result from Absolute Batman. A CGC Signature Series 9.9 copy of the black-and-white ashcan preview for Absolute Batman No. 1 sold for $15,860. The preview was distributed at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 in a run of fewer than 500 copies and includes signatures from artist Nick Dragotta and writer Scott Snyder.