THE FOUR-DAY EVENT TOTALED MORE THAN $32.8 MILLION, MAKING IT THE BIGGEST COMIC-FOCUSED AUCTION BY ANY HOUSE WORLDWIDE
By Jesse Hughey | October 7, 2025
Well before the final hammer came down September 14, Heritage Auctions had established its dominance as the premier auction house in comic books, comic illustration, and fantasy art. Heritage’s September 11-13 Comic Books Signature® Auction realized $7,700,613, and the overlapping September 12-14 Comic Art Signature® Auction added $11,673,865. Those totals, combined with the $13,500,000 sale of Frank Frazetta’s cover painting for the 1967 Lancer/Ace Conan reprints on September 12, boosted the auction house’s four-day total to a record $32,874,478.
The combined event was the biggest in the history of comics collecting, soaring past the previous record of $28.2 million set in April 2024 at Heritage and continues the trend of Heritage besting its own comic book and comic art auction achievements, with no competition in sight for the record.
Frank Frazetta’s defining image of Conan the Barbarian broke auction records when it sold for $13,500,000 at Heritage.
‘Queen Kong,’ Frazetta’s 1977 cover painting for ‘Eerie’ No. 81, realized $1,093,750.
Leading the four-day event was Frazetta’s landmark of modern fantasy art commonly known as Man Ape, an image that crystallized a literary hero and reset the expectations of popular illustration art. The oil-on-canvas masterpiece endures as one of the most recognizable of Frazetta’s Conan works and stands among the greatest images the artist ever produced. Its record-shattering $13,500,000 sale price is more than twice the next-highest auction result for any Frazetta work and any comic or fantasy artwork globally.
Other Frazetta highlights included the artist’s classic painting Queen Kong, which realized $1,093,750, and his Kubla Khan Portfolio Plate No. 3, which sold for $100,000.
“The final results of the auction go to show how respected Frank Frazetta is and how much demand collectors have for his work,” says Heritage Auctions Vice President Barry Sandoval. “He is not just one of the greatest artists in the comic and fantasy world. His work puts him among the premier artists of the 20th century in any category.”
This original art by Barry Windsor-Smith for ‘Marvel Comics Presents’ No. 81 sold for $425,000.
Dave McKean’s original art for Page 31 of 1989’s ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth’ sold for $362,500.
Three British artists contributed to the success of the Comic Art auction as well, breaking personal auction records in the process. Barry Windsor-Smith’s original art for this Marvel Comics Presents No. 81 splash page realized $425,000, while Dave McKean’s groundbreaking multimedia painting depicting Joker’s first appearance in the pioneering and bestselling graphic novel Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth took in $362,500. At $212,500, Dave Gibbons set a personal best for an interior page with his and John Higgins’ original art and production color guide for the thrilling Page 24 of Watchmen No. 5. And $68,750 for the original cover art for Daredevil: Yellow No. 3 set a record for the work of the late Seattle artist Tim Sale.
Meanwhile, in the Comic Books auction, an 8.5-graded copy of 1940’s Flash Comics No. 1 raced to first place with a final price of $396,000 – little wonder, as CGC has certified only three copies of the issue at a higher grade to date.
Graded VF+ 8.5 by CGC, this copy of ‘Flash Comics’ No. 1 realized $396,000 at Heritage. The issue features the first appearances of the Flash, Hawkman, Johnny Thunder, the Whip, and Shiera Sanders.
This near-mint copy of ‘Silver Streak’ No. 6 sold for a record $228,000.
Silver Streak No. 6, also from 1940, took the silver medal as the second-highest amount in the auction at $228,000, but the near-mint specimen handily broke the previous record sale price for the issue. “Unsurprising,” Sandoval says, as its 9.6 condition and Edgar Church (Mile High) pedigree were helped by this being the first time in nearly 20 years a high-grade copy of the issue, with its striking Jack Cole cover, had been auctioned.
Another 9.6-graded Mile High-pedigreed 1940 copy set a record as well when Hit Comics No. 5 sold for $90,000, besting the previous record price for the issue (and the copy) of $59,750. That copy sold at Heritage in 2017.
The Olympia Collection of Golden Age comics, which included this $216,000 copy of ‘Pep Comics’ No. 22, was one of the many highlights in Heritage’s four-day comic and comic art event in September.
This near-perfect copy of ‘House of Secrets’ No. 123, graded NM/MT 9.8 by CGC, is the highest-graded copy of the 1974 issue Heritage has ever offered. It sold for $13,200 in the September auction.
Several comics from the Olympia Collection, a Golden Age find from the state of Washington, contributed $1.14 million to the success of the Comic Books auction. Among the treasures from that collection was Pep Comics No. 22. Featuring the debuts of Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, and Jughead Jones, the copy sold for $216,000. Consider that a sneak preview of Heritage’s 304-lot Olympia Collection Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction coming up October 9.
And a near-perfect 9.8 copy of a 1974 horror comic made a bloody mess of its price guide suggested value. The House of Secrets No. 123, featuring Alex Toth art and a gruesome cover by Frank Robbins, took in a cool $13,200 – just a bit over the $20 value Overstreet put on a 9.2 copy of the issue.
