Heritage sold many great items from the Keith Frome Estate collection on October 17th, including the original cover art for Ghost Rider #5 by Frank Frazetta, an OA for Hit Comics #5 by Lou Fine, and even an OA for McCraboy’s Master Comics #27.
Without a doubt, the star item for sale at this auction was Todd McFarlane’s Batman #423 Cover Original Art (1988), which sold for $781,250 at Heritage Auctions last Friday.
Todd McFarlane Batman #423 Cover Original Art (DC, 1988)
This sale established MacFarlane as one of the most famous, commercially successful, and acclaimed living cartoonists of our time.
The Image Comics co-founder is also widely known as an all-rounder who taught children to draw animals at an Arizona zoo last September.
Batman #423 is one of the most collected Batman covers. The comics themselves cost an average of $1,500 and have a grade of 9.8.
Sales information from GoCollect Sales information from GoCollect
The $781,000 price makes it the highest-selling original McFarlane artwork in Heritage magazine, second only to The Amazing Spider-Man #328 Cover Original Art (1990), which sold for $657,250 in July 2012. McFarlane is more closely associated with Spider-Man than Batman, so he could command a higher price in the current market. It’s possible that more of McFarlane’s comic art will go up for sale in the future, which will also impact prices.
Todd McFarlane poses with the cover of the “Amazing Spider-Man” comic book featuring the Incredible Hulk. Provided by Shannon Bailey
Most of the big auctions are for books and comic book art released before the late ’80s, but Heritage also sells contemporary comic book art, such as the art of Deadpool’s first appearance on page 14 of Rob Liefeld’s The New Mutants #98 (1991), which sold for $960,000 in November 2024.
The most expensive comic book Heritage has ever sold at auction remains Action Comics No. 1, which featured the first appearance of Superman, which sold for $6 million in 2024. The most expensive comic art sale was a painting by Frank Frazetta of the 1967 Conan novel that sold for $13.5 million last September.
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