The original Don Heck artwork introducing Iron Man,
page 1 of Tales of Suspense No. 39 from March 1963, set a new auction price record for original comic art, taking in $3,875,000 to lead Heritage Auctions’ July 10–12
Comic Art Signature® Auction to a total of $14,471,390. Combined with the $6,631,950 take from the July 9–11
Comic Books Signature® Auction, the four-day event totaled $21,103,340 in a show of demand for top-condition copies of the hobby’s foundational issues and crucial original art.
The Iron Man debut splash page was one of 18 lots in the Comic Art auction to reach or exceed the six-digit price mark, a sign of the market’s remarkable sustained resiliency, according to Joe Mannarino, Heritage Auctions’ New York-based Director of Comics & Comic Art.
“For over 50 years, there has been steady growth that shows no sign of waning,” Mannarino says. “New collectors are constantly entering the field, inspired by not just the source material, but by the myriads of media projects that have emerged.”
Many of those projects, of course, are part of the vast Marvel Cinematic Universe. Mannarino credits Tony Stark and his superpowered alter ego with helping develop a new generation of fans beginning in 2008 with the Robert Downey Jr.-starring Iron Man, Marvel Studio’s first entry into the MCU. The original art for his first appearance in the character’s debut issue is a monumental cultural relic whose importance transcends the medium of Comic Books, and that’s before taking into account the scarcity of comparable pages.
“A fantastic image and a historic book combine for a record price,” Mannarino says. “Very few of the early Marvel splash pages are known to exist. When one shows up, the market is ready to react.”
That proved to be the case Friday, as six different bidders continued to vie for the page even after it passed the $3 million mark. The sale price tops the previous Comic Art price record of
$3,360,000 set in January 2022 at Heritage by 1984’s Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars No. 8 story page 25.
The intricate artwork for the epic climactic father-son lightsaber battle in the comic adaptation of Return of the Jedi in Marvel Super Special No. 27 proved a Force to reckon with on the auction block as well, selling for $275,000 to become the second-highest lot of the Comic Art Auction. The
cover original art by John Byrne and Terry Austin for Secret Wars II No. 1, a key Marvel Copper Age title and the top-selling issue sold to comic shops in 1985, took in $250,000, the third-highest total.
Disney comics have been extremely popular over the years, with monthly readership for Walt Disney Comics and Stories surpassing 5 million at one point. The consensus among fans was that Donald Duck adventures were especially high-quality, and in the 1960s, one artist in particular was discovered by comics sleuths to have been responsible for the best of them:
Carl Barks. After Disney granted him permission to sell oil paintings based on his classic Duck comics, commissions for the works were in high demand.
Vacation Panel from 1972 was the first large-format example of these works and was later published by Another Rainbow in 1995 as a signed limited-edition lithograph titled Leaving Their Cares Behind.
The beloved 1971 oil painting realized $237,500.
It was one of several recreations that proved popular in the Comic Art auction. Alex Schomburg had a short but impactful career in comics and is remembered for his action-packed Golden Age superhero and airbrushed “good girl” covers. Later in his career, he
recreated some of his most popular covers as finely detailed paintings that are now in high demand, such as
The Human Torch No. 8 and
All Select Comics No. 1. A highlight of this auction was the section of 13 Schomburg cover recreations, which all sold for five-figure sums that together totaled $592,500.
Images and information about all lots in the Comic Books auction can be found at
HA.com/7467, and about the Comic Book Art auction at
HA.com/7468.
Al Williamson
