When the hammer fell after the sale of Frank Frazettas Famous Funnies No. 214 Buck Rogers cover original pen-and-ink art in Heritages Comic & Comic Art Signature Auction, the result was out of this world. This magnificent painting, which portrays Buck Rogers sailing through space, sold for $1,035,000 to lead the June 26 to 29 event to a gross total of $22,653,352. Frank Frazetta is universally acknowledged as one of the premier artists in the comic world, and his work has been eagerly collected for decades, according to Barry Sandoval, vice president at Heritage Auctions. This piece is widely regarded as one of the greatest comic covers of all time, and the final result certainly validates that. This magnificent page of original art is the seventh work by Frazetta to bring more than $1 million at Heritage. Frazettas Dark Kingdom painting (1976), soared to $6 million in 2023. I knew our comic art selection was pretty special, but its always gratifying when the bidders agree, continued Sandoval. The first 30 lots in the comic art section averaged $168,000 per lot, and it seemed like every one of those brought a furious bidding war. Between comic art and comic books, we had 27 lots over $100,000. A copy of a CGC Near Mint 9.2 issue of The Incredible Hulk No. 1 (Marvel, 1962), which is tied for the highest-graded copy ever offered at Heritage, realized $780,000. The issue, which marks the Hulks debut, ranks second on Overstreets list of Top 50 Silver Age Comics. Another impressive result came in for Fantastic Four No. 1 White Mountain Pedigree (Marvel, 1961) CGC NM- 9.2 white pages, which climbed to $600,000. This issue presents Marvels first superhero team and the first appearances of Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, the Thing and a re-imagined Human Torch, as well as the Moleman and other characters, and it ranks No. 3 on Overstreets list of Top 50 Silver Age Comics. Comic art doesnt have to be big in size to make a big impact at the auction block. Consider Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes fame. The first appearance of Spaceman Spiff, a hand-colored daily comic strip of original art dated 11-29-85 measuring 4 by 12 inches, a mini-masterpiece, tied the record for the most ever paid for a piece of comic strip art at $480,000. It was a result that equaled the sum paid for another Calvin and Hobbes strip by Watterson that was sold at Heritage in 2022 and an Alex Raymond original Sunday comic strip artwork for Flash Gordon No. 1 in 2020. The strip in the 2015 auction is the earliest known to hit the collecting market. Watterson has held on to nearly all of his original drawings from the strips 10-year run, with exceptions made for occasional gifts to people close to him. This one had been given to Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Jim Borgman and his family. Another lot that soared past pre-auction expectations was Todd McFarlanes The Amazing Spider-Man No. 311 Mysterio cover original art (Marvel, 1989), which drew 48 bids on its way to $456,000. The first McFarlane Amazing Spider-Man cover art offered at Heritage Auctions in nearly a decade, it portrays the Webbed Wall-Crawler as he is reflected in Mysterios fishbowl helmet, and is one of the reasons McFarlanes work is coveted by collectors. We have been working with Heritage for decades, and like the Martin Shamus collection, Heritage was able to get record prices for some of these modern masterworks, said Stephen Shamus, who consigned the Detective Comics No. 880 cover art. The record price realized for the cover, which is considered one of the most important 21st-century covers, is a testament to Heritages leadership position in the marketplace, finished Shamus. For complete results, visit www.HA.com/7418.