Frank Frazetta’s painting sets Chicago comic book auction record
CHICAGO, IL – Heritage Auctions set two world records on Thursday with Chicago’s first public auction for old comics and original comics. And while Superman might be more powerful than a locomotive, his earning ability to sell pales alongside an ax-wielding barbarian.
“Death Dealer 6”, an original 1990 painting by the late fantasy artist Frank Frazetta, sold for $ 1.79 million, nearly three times the work’s estimate, according to the auction house . Selling the Painting – featuring the artist’s popular Death Dealer character, which was used as the album cover for Molly Hatchet, an American military mascot and an airbrush design on the sides of countless pickup trucks from the 1970s – set a world auction record for a Frazetta piece.
The original art from Gary Larson’s “The Far Side” comic book also set a world auction record. It sold for $ 31,070, the most of the cartoonist’s “Far Side” comics to ever win at auction, Heritage said.
Superman may not have set any world records, but Action Comics # 1 of 1938 – the character’s first appearance – sold for $ 573,600. The seller, a longtime American comic collector, bought the issue for $ 50,000 15 years ago.
Other notable sales in the opening lots of the auction included:
- Batman # 1 (1949), featuring the first appearances of Catwoman and The Joker, $ 227,050
- original cover of Amazing Spider-Man # 61 (1968) by artist John Romita Sr., $ 167,300
- original art from a 1986 “Calvin and Hobbes” comic book by artist Bill Watterson, $ 65,725
- an original art page from New Mutants # 98 (1991), featuring Deadpool’s first appearance, by artist Rob Liefeld, $ 51,385
The auction, which features artwork by Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, Alex Raymond and Charles Schulz, runs through Saturday at the Heritage Auctions store in Chicago, 215 W. Ohio St., and on its site. Web.
Frank Frazetta’s “Death Dealer 6” (Image via Heritage Auctions)
