About Heritage Auctions - Comics & Comic Art

Born in Boston in 1952, Jim Halperin was an endlessly curious child, who grew up watching his father Ed build a successful manufacturing business from scratch. From the time he was a toddler, Jim admired -- and wanted to someday emulate -- his dad, who often took him to his offices. Jim loved creating projects and businesses, and would routinely draw other children into his various endeavors, including roadside lemonade stands, neighborhood circuses, astronomy shows, and similar enterprises. Jim became a comic book dealer and fanzine publisher at ages 11-12 (his 8 comic book fanzines published in 1964 and 1965 still show up for sale on eBay occasionally) and stays in touch with contributors to those fanzines, including several who later made careers in that field.

As a summer project, Jim formed a part-time rare stamp and coin business in 1968, the same year he received early acceptance to Harvard College. He Immediately noticed that the buy prices in the classified sections of coin publications were much higher than most of the sell prices in the larger ads, and realized that every coin retailer must have had their own grading standards, often one for buying and one for selling. By his third college semester Jim was enjoying the coin business more than his studies, so at the end of 1971 he took a leave of absence to found New England Rare Coin Galleries (NERCG) under the principle that and that there would be far more demand for coins if dealers used the same grading standard for both buying and selling. He also understood that for vintage US coins, the very highest grades tended to be rare, and extremely undervalued when compared to the more popular “affordable” grades. By adhering to a consistent and reliable grading standard, NERCG was an immediate success.

In 1975, Jim co-designed protocols for numismatics’ first mainframe computer system, which would help catapult NERCG to the top of the industry. He also established the first registered rare coin fund (NERCF) in 1975, which raised $375,000, and was liquidated at auction for $2.15 million in 1980, providing its investors a nearly five-fold return after fees and auction commissions in under 5 years.

In 1982, Jim merged part of his business with his friend and former archrival Steve Ivy’s company to form a 50-50 partnership, renamed Heritage, in Dallas, Texas. Concurrently, Jim sold part of NERCG, including its tradename, to an employee.

In 1984, Jim designed -- and graded nearly all the submissions for -- the first privately owned collectibles grading service, Numismatic Certification Institute (NCI). He also wrote a book later re-titled "How to Grade U.S. Coins", which outlined the uncirculated and proof grading standards upon which NGC and PCGS would later be based -- and still are today. Jim and Steve Ivy were also significant early investor-shareholders in both PCGS and NGC and affiliated companies such as CGC, PMG and PSA.

Throughout the last three decades of the 20th century, Jim was widely considered the most successful coin dealer in America, far outselling every other numismatic dealer during that period. Many of the top coin dealers of that period began their careers working for -- and/or being financed by – Jim, both at NERCG and later Heritage, some for nearly half a century. Jim still counts these numismatists among his most cherished friends. It’s especially worth noting that Marc Emory started working at NERCG in 1975, founded its European gold buying operations, then became and remains a working partner at Heritage.

Jim is also a well-known futurist, collector of rare comic books, comic book artwork, early 20th-century American art and other collectibles, venture capitalist, real estate and technology stock investor, and philanthropist. Among numerous other charities, Jim established the Halperin Foundation, a family arts/health/education organization, that he operates with his wife of 40+ years, Gayle Ziaks Halperin.

With Steve Ivy’s buy-in, although not his delight, Jim worked only half-time at Heritage for a year in the mid-1990s while authoring two futurist fiction novels. His first, The Truth Machine, published by Random House in 1996, became an international science fiction bestseller with over a half-million copies sold in multiple languages, and optioned 15 times as a feature film by Warner Brothers, Lionsgate then finally, Revelations Entertainment. Jim's second novel, The First Immortal, published in early 1998 was optioned as a Hallmark Hall of Fame television miniseries. Both remain in print.

Heritage and the collecting field itself benefited greatly when Jim used insights gleaned from his research for -- and marketing of -- those novels to help redesign Heritage’s website, pioneering the use of third-party pricing data on item pages as well as the first free Permanent Auction Archive in the auction business. After launching its new web site in 1998 Heritage quickly became the world’s highest selling numismatic auction house and has remained so every year since. Heritage subsequently hired scores of top experts, expanding into dozens of additional categories including its renowned Comics and Comic Art department, conceived, staffed and still overseen by Jim.

Heritage Auctions (HA.com) is now the most popular auction house online destination in the world. Heritage reported total sales exceeding $1.86 billion in 2024.

Jim still works full-time at Heritage Auctions and has no plans to retire until he can no longer contribute to the company’s goals. He currently donates about one-third of his income, mostly via The Halperin Foundation. Jim plans to eventually donate most of his assets to charity including his remaining Heritage shares.

Joseph “Joe” Maddalena joined Heritage Auctions as Executive Vice President in January 2021 following an unparalleled 35-year track record of success as the founder of Profiles in History, which he built into the world’s largest auctioneer of coveted Hollywood memorabilia and popular culture keepsakes.  Some of the iconic items he brought to market included Luke Skywalker’s light saber, Dorothy’s ruby slippers, Indiana Jones’ whip and Peter Fonda’s Easy Rider chopper, along with the 2011 Debbie Reynolds auction that was highlighted by Marilyn Monroe’s Seven Year Itch “subway dress” realizing $5.52 million.  

Born into a family of antiques dealers in Rhode Island, Joe learned early on how to turn his passion for collecting historical autographs into a career.  Upon graduation from Pepperdine, he made the decision to become a full-time dealer of historical documents, and opened his first office in 1985.  Profiles in History now owns virtually every Guinness Book record for prices of original screen-used memorabilia.  Joe is a lifetime member of the Manuscript Society and is widely recognized as the nation’s leading authority on entertainment memorabilia and historical documents.  In addition, he starred for three seasons in Syfy’s Hollywood Treasure, which gave viewers an inside look at the world of showbiz and pop culture memorabilia.  

Joe brings deep and long-lasting relationships with major collectors in a myriad fields, as well as an encyclopedic knowledge of multiple categories such as nature and science, rare books and wine. His years of experience in these numerous categories and expansive role at Heritage will allow him to serve clients far more efficiently and effectively than ever.

Todd Hignite is Executive Vice President and Partner, Heritage Auctions. Todd heads the New York City office and has been integral to the company’s continued expansion in multiple art and collectible categories over the last fifteen years. During that time he has overseen numerous record-setting results both at auction and privately, managed many of the largest private and institutional consignments, and played a key leadership role in the dramatic expansion of the markets for Comic Art and Illustration Art, which has seen Heritage established as the dominant international auction house in those fields.

Todd also has extensive experience as a writer and curator in both the museum and gallery worlds, notably in organizing the most substantial US retrospective devoted to Robert Crumb, which originated at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco and toured US museums, including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, and the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, and as author of the books In the Studio: Visits with Contemporary Cartoonists (Yale University Press) and The Art of Jaime Hernandez/The Secrets of Life and Death (Abrams). He also worked for several years at Pace Gallery, New York, and he holds a Master’s Degree in Art History from Washington University in St. Louis.

Jim Lentz is the former president and owner of the Midwest animation art gallery chain, Stay Tooned Galleries. In the past he has also served as the National Sales Manager for Disney Fine Art and ben a consultant to Walt Disney Art Classics. Jim sat on the Disney Advisory Board of Dealers while he was running his chain of galleries. Jim was a Corporate Sponsor for the Midwest Chapter of ASIFA (Chicago Chapter of the International Animated Film Association) as well as the creator and curator for the 1989 – 1999 Midwest Animation Lecture Series in Illinois and Minnesota. This lecture series was a virtual who’s-who of animation both young and old. Animators, animation historians, directors ,writers, animation “Legends”, voice talent,  studio heads and family members of deceased animation pioneers were all included in this impressive roster of speakers. Jim had an early career with such companies as Chrysler Corporation and Tenneco Automotive before opening his first gallery in Barrington, Illinois. Jim is a graduate of CW Post University in New York.

Barry Sandoval, a Vice President of Heritage Auctions, joined the company in 2004. He has been part of the team effort that expanded the Comics department  (which also includes Animation Art, Video Games and Trading Cards) from some $10 million in annual sales to a $205 million year in 2024.  

Barry is an advisor to the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. He often writes and researches catalog descriptions for high profile lots, and he is proud of having won the CGC grading contest held at Wizard World Chicago some years ago.

Multimillion dollar collections Barry has helped bring to market include the Kerby Confer Collection, the Estate of Garth Williams, and A Collection of Great Cartoonists and Illustrators.

Barry is a licensed auctioneer whose favorite moment at the podium to date was calling the sale of Amazing Fantasy #15 in Near Mint Plus 9.6 condition for a then-record $3.6 million.

Weldon Adams has over 40 years of accumulated experience in the comic book industry. He has managed three different comic stores and worked for publishers such as Acclaim Entertainment and Ape Entertainment. Adams is an advisor to the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.

Jeremy J. J. Allen Jeremy’s passion and knowledge of collectibles go way back to when he was a kid. He was born and raised in Dallas - Fort Worth, to a family of collectors. He was the kid who could happily get lost in an antique store every weekend!

His entrepreneurial spirit began in the 90s when he started selling and trading his Trading cards from his dad’s sports memorabilia shop. He then attended art school for multimedia, branding, and design, which led to his career in several marketing firms. He gained a vast knowledge of PR, advertising, and marketing while making connections that helped land prominent branding and marketing deals. He worked on projects for large companies and sports stars. His mentor was also an avid toy developer and pop culture collector, which sparked more passion for everything collectible.

In 2016, his passions for design, business, and collectibles finally merged when he decided to focus more on the collector’s world, creating his own consulting hobby company, Collector’s League. He was soaking up collectibles knowledge, attending conventions, and immersing himself in everything trading card, TCG, pop culture, and entertainment. His solid connections and immense knowledge earned him work for helping companies in the hobby world with their branding, strategy, and online presence. With an arson of knowledge in valuable collectibles, an eye for design, and experience in business development, he eventually became an advisor and consultant for several companies in the industry.   His unique skills and experience brought him to Heritage Auctions, where he was a perfect fit as Consignment Director for the new and emerging department of Pop Culture Collectibles.

Areas of Interest:
- TCG - Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!
- Trading cards - Sports & Non-Sports
- Sneakers
- Pop Culture
- VHS
- Designer Toys
- Video Games
- HipHop
- Urban Art

What started as a childhood hobby turned into a teenage summer job in the late '90s now seems more like a calling than anything else. Xavier has 20+ years of knowledge and expertise in the comic book industry.  

Chavez started working at one of the oldest comic book storefronts at the age of 16, and by 21, he managed the store. Later, when he turned 32, Xavier purchased his store, Frank's Comics, specializing in comics, toys, statues, and modern comic art. He owned and operated the South Miami shop until 2019 when Xavier joined Heritage Auctions' comic & comic art division.   

Since then, Xavier has organized and brought the first Heritage Modern Comics featured Showcase Auction and The Mark Freedman Collection of TMNT memorabilia to market. 

Olivier’s love for U.S. comics and European “bandes-dessinees” began in the mid-Seventies. A passionate collector of original comic art since the early Nineties, Olivier has accumulated deep knowledge of the hobby and has made contacts with many artists and other high-end collectors over the years.

After gaining his degree in Marketing & Management, Olivier held management positions in the corporate world before joining Heritage Auctions as a Consignment Director. He will be responsible for meeting with clients and evaluate collections for Heritage’s upcoming auctions.

A native of Belgium who still resides there, Olivier is fluent in English, French, and Dutch/Flemish with a very good understanding of German.

Dallas native Jesus Garcia’s love for Pokémon cards started from a very young age. A Consignment Director for Heritage’s Trading Card department, he first discovered the phenomenon with the premiere of Pokémon the TV Series, an affinity that progressed to Pokémon Blue and Red and ultimately to the cards themselves.

With a background in Business Administration, Garcia joined Heritage in 2011, starting as an Operations Assistant before transitioning to positions as a Consignment Coordinator and Operations Supervisor for the Comics and Animation Art Department. As the Pokémon craze reignited, he began working on consignments in that area and was promoted to his title a year later.  

A longtime collector of Pokémon cards and Funko Pops, Garcia’s most interesting consignment came from “The Rad Dad Collection,” an exceptional collection passed down from Bart “Rad Dad" Kiser to his children on Christmas morning 1999 before he passed away in 2018. While the array of sealed base sets and booster boxes were massive in terms of quantity and value, Garcia most enjoyed personally working with the family, hearing the story of the experiences they shared as a family through the epic Pokémon collection, and sharing it with collectors during Heritage’s debut Trading Card event that realized $3.47 million in July 2021.  

Before joining Heritage, Bill King was the former Director of Stay Tooned Galleries, a Midwest animation art gallery chain, and was a team member for the long-running 1990s Midwest Animation Lecture Series.  

A graduate of the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, he also has 25 years of experience in the graphic design and illustration field both as a Sr. Art Director for Omnicom’s Adpac Corp. and as a freelance artist/consultant to many of Chicago’s top ad agencies. In 2004, Bill and his cousin, Las Vegas Comedy Magician Mac King, created the syndicated Sunday comic feature “Mac King’s Magic in a Minute.” The strip continues to this day, distributed through Andrews McMeel Syndication and appearing online and in newspapers all over the world. He is also a member of the exclusive National Cartoonist Society, a club dedicated to the advancement of cartooning arts. Bill and his lovely wife Joetta live on Chicago’s north side.

Joe’s resume in the field of Comic character collectibles includes but is not limited to: Principal owner along with his wife and partner Nadia of All Star Auctions and Comics and Stories, premier dealers of rare Comic Collectibles for over 30 years. Co-owners of Comic Art Appraisal LLC where they have prepared formal appraisals for well over 1 million items, including the most significant institutions, collectors and professionals in the field. Exclusive Comic Collectibles Consultants for Christie's from 1992 to 1997, where they inaugurated and conducted seven record setting Comic Collectibles sales; representatives for some of the most prestigious artists to have ever worked in the medium, including the Estate of Winsor McCay, Frank Frazetta, Carmine Infantino, Jerry Robinson, Joe Simon, Angelo Torres and Mort Drucker to name a few.  They have worked directly with professionals and collectors alike whose careers and interests have spanned the history of the medium to the present day.

Publishers and authors of The Christie's East Comic Collectibles catalogues; perennial special advisors and contributors to The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, the universally acknowledged reference work in the field; charter and founding members of the American Association of Comic Book Collectors Committee for Authenticity Certification and Grading; members of the American Institute Of Conservation for more than 20 years; author of the CAAR rating system as published in The Overstreet Guide To Collecting Comic And Animation Art, Gemstone Publishing, Oct. 2013 and authors of the definitive feature on high-end transactions in the Comic Collectibles field, Collecting At The Top, which appeared monthly in Gemstone Publishing Overstreet's FAN Magazine.

Nadia has an extensive background in both marketing and sales promotions. With a Bachelor of Science degree from New York University, Ms. Mannarino was co-owner of Comics and Stories, dealers of rare Comic Collectibles. She was co-owner of All Star Auctions, a firm specializing in auctioning Comic Character related items and was the Comic Collectibles Consultant for Christie’s East from 1992-1997.

In addition, she has been a member of the prestigious American Appraisers Association for over 10 years and is fully certified in the accepted appraisal practices as required by the Association. As such she is the only Accredited member of the Appraisers Association in the field of Comic Character Collectibles. As agent for some of the most prestigious artists to have ever worked in the medium, including Frank Frazetta, Mort Drucker, Carmine Infantino, Joe Simon, Angelo Torres and Jim Steranko, she has been instrumental in bringing the medium forward focusing also on up-and-coming artists and storytellers.

What began as a summer job in the early 90s evolved into a lifelong passion that has built a foundation of knowledge, making Matthew an unquestioned expert in the hobby.

Matthew started by setting up and manning the table of 50-cent comics outside a shop in Queens, N.Y. McGee later clerked at and eventually managed the world-renowned St. Mark’s Comics in New York City and later managed the back issue operation for Midtown Comics.

The breadth of his knowledge and the depth of his passion for comics and the comic book industry have taken him from coast to coast, from New York to the Pacific Northwest.

A Consignment Director for Video and Trading Card Games at Heritage, Brian Nocenti served as a software engineer for 12 years before giving into his true passion collecting Magic the Gathering cards. Nocenti first learned about Magic the Gathering in 1995, and after graduating from Widener University with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems, he decided to build a small business buying and selling these cards.   

As his passion for the game grew, Nocenti began to focus on graded cards in 2013 and put together some of the highest graded sets up until 2017. In early 2019, he started collecting sealed video games — his first game was purchased from Heritage — and became intent on learning as much as he could about PlayStation games. After he decided that sealed NES games weren’t going to be his main focus, he decided to put together a sealed PS1 Longbox collection because he heard through the gaming community that it couldn’t be done. After two years, he is missing just 4 of the 102 sealed Longbox games available.  

A native of Bridgeton, New Jersey, Nocenti is married with three children.

 Plucking his first comic, a copy of Adventure Comics #431, off the newsstand at Scott’s Grocery in Fort Wayne, IN set the wheels in motion for a lifelong love of comic books. By age ten, Reynolds had a weekly pull list at Broadway Comics and Baseball Cards. He would eventually work at the shop college summers and beyond, gaining access to the safe with the Silver and Golden Age comics he had only seen in the pages of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, of which he’s now a senior advisor.

 After moving to New York City in the late 90s, Reynolds began studying the Golden Age comic market to make the wisest investment choices possible, opting for the best quality keys he could afford at the time. He joined Metropolis Collectibles in 2009 and was instrumental in taking their online auction platform, ComicConnect, to new heights. A graduate of Indiana University Bloomington’s School of Journalism, Reynolds wrote nearly every press release and promotional email in the fourteen years he was with the company.

 Making the leap to Heritage Auctions in 2024, Reynolds, a skilled grader and appraiser, is overjoyed to be working alongside the top experts in the comics industry at the world’s best auction house.  

Aaron White, Vice President of Comics, is a Dallas-based specialist in Comics and Original Comic Art. A lifelong comic enthusiast, he joined Heritage in 2008 and trained under some of the top comic specialists in the world, honing his expertise in comic history, market trends, and original art. Aaron has played a pivotal role in bringing major comic collections to market, with his keen eye for quality and value making him a trusted resource for collectors, investors, and comic fans alike. His expertise has been instrumental in the sale of many notable collections, including the Alfred Pennyworth Collection, The Small Southern Town Collection, The Johnny Hart Collection, and The Truckee Meadows Collection, among others.

In 2024, Aaron was named Vice President, Comics, a recognition of his dedication and leadership in the field. With years of experience and a commitment to excellence, he continues to help clients navigate the world of comic and original art collecting, ensuring that remarkable pieces find their way into the right hands.

Growing up in the Chicagoland area, Brian discovered comic books at age 6 when his parents bought him some as a means to pass the time on long vacation drives. This started his long love of the hobby. In the mid-1990s Brian met a store owner who taught him how to grade, and before long he was traveling the Midwest working comic shows.  

When the comic market crashed in the 1990s, Brian left the industry for a while, only to later obtain his dream job working for Heritage Auctions where he is a Consignment Director for Comics and Comic Art. As Brian’s friends introduced him to Magic: The Gathering early on with the game, Brian also lends his talents to the Trading Card Game department.  He is also a licensed auctioneer who can be seen calling auctions for many different collectibles categories.