Super-Charged

COMICS AND COMIC ART CATEGORY BREAKS RECORDS AS SUPERHERO CULTURE STAYS STRONG

By The Intelligent Collector staff

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Comics and comic art had a spectacular year.

Heritage Auctions set a new record when its comics and comic art department registered sales of more than $79.3 million in 2019. The total is up more than $20 million from 2018, which also saw a record-setting total of $58.5 million.

“Our bidder base of collectors, both seasoned and new, has been expanding at a rate beyond our most optimistic expectations,” says Aaron White, a comics consignment director at Heritage. “Comic books, comic art and related memorabilia have never been more popular.”

Among the treasures grabbing collector attention in 2019:

• Frank Frazetta’s Egyptian Queen painting for Eerie #23 (Warren, 1969) sold for a record-setting $5.4 million
• Marvel Comics #1 (Timely, 1939), Windy City Pedigree, CGC NM 9.4, sold for $1.26 million
• Hergé’s first Tintin cover art, which appeared on the Feb. 13, 1930 issue of Le Petit Vingtième, sold for $1.12 million
• Captain America Comics #1 (Timely, 1941), San Francisco Pedigree, CGC NM 9.4, realized $915,000
• Robert Crumb’s “Stoned Agin!,” Your Hytone Comix (Apex Novelties, 1971), inside back cover original art, sold for $690,000
• Neal Adams’ Batman #251 (DC, 1973), original cover art featuring the Joker, sold for $600,000
• Superman #1 (DC, 1939), CGC VG/FN 5.0, sold for $456,000
• Jack Kirby and Syd Shores’ Captain America #103 (Marvel, 1968) original cover art featuring Red Skull, sold for $288,000

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What’s behind the surging interest?

“Thanks to movies, TV shows, toys and games inspired by Marvel, DC and other comic-book publishers,” says White, “comic characters are enjoying an unprecedented international appeal among all age groups and demographics, especially millennials and younger.”

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Another explanation could be that the baby boomer generation has hit a critical mass of nostalgia and disposable income – “a position that handily explains a similar rise in popularity enjoyed by retro and vintage science-fiction art,” reports Forbes magazine. “Whatever the answer, more and more collectors old and new are getting the itch to buy comics.”

This article appears in the Spring/Summer 2020 edition of The Intelligent Collector magazine. Click here to subscribe to the print edition.