Frank Frazetta’s Conan Leads Heritage to Record-Smashing $32.8 Million Comics and Comic Art Auction

All-time high hammer prices reached for multiple other artists make four-day event biggest comic-focused auction by any house worldwide DOWNLOAD DIGITAL PRESS KIT DALLAS, Texas (Sept. 15, 2025) — Well before the final hammer came down on Sunday, Heritage Auctions established its dominance as the premier auction house in Comic Books, Comic Illustration and Fantasy art. The three-day Comic Art summer event realized $11,673,865 and the overlapping three-day Comic Books auction added $7,700,613. Those totals, combined with the $13.5 million sale of legendary comic and fantasy painter and illustrator Frank Frazetta’s Conan Novel Cover Painting Original Art (Lancer/Ace, 1967), boosted the total for the events to a record $32,874,478. The combined event is the biggest in the history of comics collecting, soaring past the previous record of $28.2 million set in April 2024 at Heritage and continues the trend of Heritage besting its own comic book and comic art auction achievements, with no competition in sight for the record. Friday’s action included the thrilling one-lot auction of Frazetta’s cover painting for the 1967 Lancer/Ace Conan paperback, a landmark of modern fantasy art commonly known as Man Ape (1966), which sold for a record-shattering $13.5 million including the buyer’s premium. That is more than twice the next-highest auction result for any Frazetta work and any Comic or Fantasy artwork globally. It also foreshadowed a weekend of lofty new auction records to come. Selling at a final total of $1,093,750, Frazetta’s classic painting Queen Kong led the September 12-14 Comic Art Signature® Auction to a total of just under $11.7 million, with several other Frazetta works, including his Kubla Khan Portfolio Plate No. 3 and humorous erotic watercolor Beauties and the Beast, adding to that sum as well. “The final results of the auction go to show how respected Frank Frazetta is and how much demand collectors have for his work,” says Heritage Auctions Vice President Barry Sandoval. “He is not just one of the greatest artists in the Comic and Fantasy world. His work puts him among the premier artists of the 20th century in any category.” Three British artists pitched in to the success of the Comic Art auction as well, breaking personal auction records in the process. Barry Windsor-Smith’s original art for the breathtaking Marvel Comics Presents No. 81 splash page took in $425,000. Dave McKean’s groundbreaking multimedia painting depicting Joker’s first appearance in the pioneering and bestselling graphic novel Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth took in $362,500. At $212,500, Dave Gibbons set a personal best for an interior page with his and John Higgins’ original art and production color guide for the thrilling Page 24 of Watchmen No. 5. And $68,750 for the original cover art for Daredevil: Yellow No. 3 set a record for the work of the late Seattle artist Tim Sale. Silver Streak No. 6 (1940) took the silver medal as the second-highest amount in the Comic Books auction at $228,000, but the near-mint specimen on offer handily broke the previous record sale price for the issue. “Unsurprising,” Sandoval says, as its 9.6 condition and Edgar Church (Mile High) pedigree were helped by this being the first time in nearly 20 years a high-grade copy of the issue, with its striking Jack Cole cover, had been auctioned. Another 9.6-graded Mile High pedigreed 1940 copy set a record as well when Hit Comics No. 5 sold for $90,000, besting the previous record price for the issue (and the copy) of $59,750 in 2017 — also sold at Heritage. The 8.5-graded 1940 Flash Comics No. 1 issue raced to first place in the Comic Books auction with a hammer price of $396,000 — little wonder, as CGC has certified only three copies of the 1940 issue at a higher grade to date. Several comics from a Golden Age find from the state of Washington, the Olympia Collection, contributed $1.14 million to the success of the September 11-13 Comic Books Signature® Auction. Among the treasures from that collection is Pep Comics No. 22, featuring the comics debuts of Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones, which sold for $216,000. Consider that a sneak preview of the upcoming 300-plus lot Olympia Collection Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction October 9, which is already open for bidding. And a near-perfect 9.8 copy of a 1974 horror comic made a bloody mess of its price guide suggested value. The House of Secrets No. 123, featuring Alex Toth art and a gruesome cover by Frank Robbins, took in a cool $13,200 — just a bit over the $20 value Overstreet put on a 9.2 copy of the issue. Those are, of course, just a few highlights from the record-breaking auction weekend. Browse the results of the Comic Art Signature® Auction here and the results of the Comic Books Signature® Auction here. Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 2 million registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of 7,000,000 past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit. For breaking stories, follow us: HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter . Link to this release or view prior press releases . Hi-Res images available: Steve Lansdale, Public Relations Specialist 214-409-1699 or SteveL@HA.com