UPDATE: Heritage May 2015 Auction

Here are some updates on from Heritage's May 2015 auction (and a ComicLink result from February). Sorry, I have really been slacking.

• Little Nemo in Slumberland 7/18/1909 (Winsor McCay) - $131K (#3 comic strip)
• Amazing Spider-Man #238 (John Romita Jr.) - $100K (#26 cover)
• Jack Kirby and Chic Stone X-Men #9 Page 13 (Jack Kirby) - $71K (#8 panel page)
• Strange Tales #108 page 1 (Jack Kirby) - $55K (#11 splash page)

UPDATE: Heritage August 2014 Auction

This month's signature auction saw Brian Bolland soar into the #4 position of the panel page rankings with a significant page from The Killing Joke at $107,550. This is the most recently published page on the list (1988), two years newer than the The Dark Knight Returns page that sold for half this price last year.

The other page that made the lists is the Amazing Spider-Man #78 splash from John Buscema at $65,725. Covers by Sal Buscema, Barry Smith, Frank Mill and Robert Crumb hit $80K+ but did not hit the $100K cutoff.

UPDATE: Artcurial May 2014 Auction ($3.6 million cover!)

The May 24th Artcurial auction in Paris saw the all-time comic art price set when a Tintin cover (estimated at a mere 700K-900K €) ended up going for over $3.6 million after fees. Featuring scenes from 21 years of Tintin, it isn't too surprising that it surpassed all other foreign art. Another cover hit $1.3 million and two others went for over $200K.

Due to the volume of $100K+ foreign sales, I increased the minimum for pages and covers to $150K.

UPDATE: Heritage May 2014 Signature Auction Results

Wow, $657K for the very first Wolverine. We all knew we would see a big price, but we weren't sure how big. This price blows away all other panel pages (domestic and foreign) and ties the price for the Amazing Spider-Man #328 cover.

The other notable piece from this auction was the Alex Raymond Flash Gordon Sunday (pictured below). I am not sure if one of the panels being used as a 1995 stamp caused this to be the highest priced comic strip, but I would be feeling pretty good if I was the guy who paid $35K for the Raymond Sunday last August.

Panel Pages:
#1: $657,250: Incredible Hulk #180 page 21 (Herb Trimpe, Jack Abel)

Comic Strips:
#1: $215,100: Flash Gordon Strip 8/28/1938 (Sunday - Alex Raymond)

Splashes:
#8: $59,750: Incredible Hulk #5 page 1 (Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers)
#10: $53,775: Avengers #81 page 1 (John Buscema, Tom Palmer)
#11 (tie): $50,787: The Dark Knight Returns #2 page 3 (Frank Miller, Klaus Janson)

These are Trimpe, Raymond and Buscema's 1st entries in any of the ranking lists. View all results here.

UPDATE: Christie's Record-Setting Paris Auction

On April 5th Christie's held their first illustration auction. Six foreign pages made it onto the lists, including the all-time top panel page at $397,015 for a Tintin pencil page.

Asterix and the Soothsayer Cover

UPDATE: 34 Foreign Comic Art Pieces Added

This massive update includes 8 covers, 1 splash, 23 panel pages and 2 other pages...and each of them was $100K+! These pieces span 2008 to 2013. New additions are marked with a † after the price to make finding them easier.

Also to note is that I am doing money conversions based on the date of the auction, so in a few strange cases the euro (€) cost is actually higher for an item lower in the list. I may change this in the future.

Thank you Oystein S. for pointing out what artists I should be watching at www.artcurial.com!

1st Wolverine Headed to the Auction Block

The very first published appearance of Wolverine is hitting the auction block in May's featured Heritage auction. This final page from Hulk #180 features our introduction to our favorite pint-sized X-Man. Since pages from Hulk #181 were destroyed and/or damaged in a fire, this historic page may be the only intact early appearance of The Ol' Canucklehead. This sure is going to give the current panel page record holder a run for its money ($155K for Fantastic Four #55 page 3)!