Frazetta’s Vampirella cover and a strong Detective Comics #27 helped drive a rare five-lot, seven-figure finish across comics and comic art.
By Intelligent Collector Staff | March 4, 2026
Heritage Auctions closed out February and opened March with a combined $27,513,124 across its Feb. 26–28 Comic Books Signature® Auction and Feb. 27–March 1 Comic Art Signature® Auction, a total the company said was fueled by an unusually top-heavy concentration of blue-chip material. For the first time in the firm’s history, five individual lots reached $1 million or more in a single comics event, which Heritage described as a record for any Comics auction event.
At the top of the week’s results was Frank Frazetta’s original cover painting forVampirella No. 1 (Warren, 1969), which realized $3.125 million. Heritage noted the sale followed September’s $13.5 million result for Frazetta’s Conan cover painting Man Ape. The press release also highlighted a second Frazetta work: a promotional painting for Battlestar Galactica that sold for $475,000.
On the comic-book side, a Detective Comics No. 27 (DC, 1939) graded CGC 7.0 sold for $2.318 million, leading the Comic Books Signature® portion of the event. Heritage said only six copies have been graded higher by CGC than the 7.0 example, and noted it previously sold through Heritage for $1.5 million in 2020—a detail that underscores how sensitive landmark keys can be to condition, scarcity, and timing when high-grade comparables are limited.
Several additional seven-figure results helped complete the five-lot milestone. Heritage reported that Joe Shuster’s original cover art for Action Comics No. 21 reached $1 million, a noteworthy result given Shuster’s short window producing early Superman material and the historic lack of preserved original art from the period. The event also included a top-graded copy of All Star Comics No. 8 (DC, 1942) graded CGC 9.4, which realized $1.342 million, and Superman No. 1 (DC, 1939), which brought $1.22 million.
Outside the seven-figure tier, the press release pointed to continued strength for cornerstone Silver Age and original art, including John Romita Sr.’s cover for The Amazing Spider-Man No. 84 at $656,250, described as the highest price paid for a Romita cover, plus record results for select EC cover art from a named collection.
For collectors, the week’s takeaway is less about a single outlier and more about breadth at the top: when million-dollar results arrive across Golden Age keys, early Superman original art, and headline comic illustration, it suggests sustained demand for historically central material—especially when scarcity and condition are clearly documented.
Source: Heritage Auctions press release (March 4, 2026).