Frazetta Vampirella No. 1 Cover Painting and CGC 7.0 Detective Comics No. 27 Shine in $27.5 Million Feb. 26–March 1 Heritage Comics and Comic Art Auctions

Joe Shuster Action Comics No. 21 original cover art, top-graded All Star Comics No. 8 and Superman No. 1 among the five individual lots to reach seven-figure amounts — a new record for any Comics auction event DOWNLOAD DIGITAL PRESS KIT DALLAS, Texas (March 4, 2026) — For the first time in Heritage Auctions history, five Comic Books and Comic Art lots reached the $1 million mark in a single event as the auction house closed out February and roared into March with sales of many of the hobby’s most prestigious titles and artists during the Feb. 26–28 Comic Books Signature ®Auction and overlapping Feb. 27–March 1 Comic Art Signature® Auction. The Comic Art auction tallied $15,559,202 over its three days, and Comic Books reached $11,953,922 for a total of $27,513,124. “These two auctions had some of the most sensational issues and original art in the comics collecting hobby, so it was rewarding to see the prices reflect their importance,” says Heritage Auctions Vice President Barry Sandoval. “This was the first time we had five lots close at $1 million or higher in the same Comic Books and Comic Art event, and I am confident it is a great indicator for the market.” Following September’s record-smashing $13.5 million sale of his Conan cover painting Man Ape, Frank Frazetta continued his Heritage hot streak as his original painting for the cover of Vampirella No. 1 sold for $3.125 million. As Frazetta was known to do, he modified the source painting for the premiere Vampirella issue after publication, in this case painting over the Drakulon Queen’s costume to depict her in the nude. Another Frazetta highlight was his promotional painting for the Battlestar Galactica TV series, published in TV Guide and also used as the wraparound cover art for Battlestar Galactica 2: The Cylon Death Machine, selling for $475,000. “As longtime supporters of Frazetta’s art — and after setting every worldwide auction record — we were thrilled that both paintings today sailed well past our pre-auction estimates, with the heated bidding on the Vampirella No. 1 cover an amazing testament to the depth of his market,” says Todd Hignite, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Comic Art. “We all felt going in that this auction represented an ideal balance of art from all eras and genres, so it was particularly rewarding to see incredibly strong results spanning all those areas, from rare Golden Age examples selling for seven-figure records to art from 2026 selling for six-figure records,” Hignite continues. “Collector interest is truly at an all-time high, and the fact that it spans the full range of this wonderful art form and isn’t focused on one particular segment shows us what a deep and robust market we’re in.” Among the rarest examples of Golden Age art was the Joe Shuster-drawn cover of Action Comics No. 21, which reached $1 million. Bidders relished the opportunity to snap up original cover art by Shuster, who co-created the character Superman with Jerry Siegel. A Shuster-penciled Action Comics page from a few issues later, Story Page 11 from No. 24 with inking by Paul Cassidy, reached $168,750. Heritage Vice President Aaron White was glad to see the prices reflect the prominent place in pop culture history represented by the Shuster lots. “Considering his importance to the genre, opportunities to own Joe Shuster originals are relatively rare, as pages and covers weren’t saved the way they are today, and there was only a short window of time in which he was drawing Superman,” White says. “Clearly, collectors appreciated these pieces’ combination of scarcity, historic importance and just how great they look.” John Romita Sr.’s cover for The Amazing Spider-Man No. 84 reached $656,250, the most ever paid for a Romita cover. Selections from The Richard Pujol EC Art Collection had strong results as well, including record prices for Jack Davis and Graham Ingels covers, each of which reached $212,500. A CGC 7.0-graded copy of Detective Comics No. 27, the 1939 issue that debuted Batman, sold for $2.318 million to lead the Feb. 26–28 Comic Books Signature® Auction. This landmark issue lands year after year in the top three titles according to Overstreet, and only six copies have ever been graded higher by CGC than this 7.0 specimen, which previously sold through Heritage for $1.5 million in 2020. The origin and first appearance of Wonder Woman in All Star Comics No. 8 consistently puts that 1942 issue in Overstreet’s Top 100 Golden Age Comics, and this CGC census-topping 9.4 copy proved its value, reaching $1.342 million. The Man of Steel continued his winning streak as well to round out the Comic Books auction’s trio of million-dollar lots, with the 1939 debut issue of Superman’s title comic book commanding a $1.22 million price. Results for all lots in the Comic Books auction can be found at HA.com/7461, and those for all Comic Art auction lots can be found at HA.com/7462. 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: Jesse Hughey, Public Relations Specialist 214-409-1376; JesseH@HA.com