It is no secret that comic books are a huge business. With somewhere around 2,000 comic book shops around the United States before the pandemic, comic book collectors have been paying up record prices for key issues of the so called “Grail” comic books of the Golden Age and Silver age. Some sales are now routinely being announced above $1 million!

With the sector finding collectors and investors alike, comic book art seems to be the next Grail chase for collectors. Original pieces of comic book art selling for high prices is not exactly new. It is just astronomical what some of these prices can sell for now.

These are generally black and white drawings being sold, so they have very limited eye appeal that most comic book collectors look for in comic books themselves. This also implies that the market has the biggest appeal to those who are deeply attached to comic books and who also have the pocketbooks that can pay up to extraordinary amounts to own these assets when they come up for bid.

Collectors Dashboard evaluates high-end collectibles as an alternative asset class. This means the original works of art that end up in comic books are attracting the same capital that could have easily been invested into stocks or bonds. There is no way to know if this area of comic book art will become the next big focal point for collectors and investors, but one thing is for certain — these prices should speak for themselves!

Heritage Auctions regularly has key issue comic books up for auction and the auction house’s sales for original comic book art has shown some blistering results. An auction from April 7-8, 2022 saw some incredible sales prices for these unique works of comic art. What is amazing about some of these auctions is that some of the scenes we are seeing sell in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars are not necessarily the most important comic book scenes — they just have extreme scarcity built into being unique.

Images below by Heritage Auctions.

Jack Kirby and Chic Stone Tales of Suspense #59 Captain America Splash Page 1 Original Art (Marvel, 1964) sold on April 7, 2022 for $630,000.00 after 27 bids.

Jim Lee and Scott Williams Uncanny X-Men #271 Story Page 4 Original Art (Marvel, 1990) sold on April 8, 2022 for $360,000.00.

Frank Miller Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #3 “Hunt the Dark Knight” Cover Original Art (DC, 1986) went for $264,000.00.

Harvey Kurtzman MAD #9 Cover Original Art (EC, 1954) sold on April 7, 2022 for $264,000.00.

John Romita Sr. and Mike Esposito Amazing Spider-Man #50 Story Page 10 Kingpin Original Art (Marvel, 1967) sold on April 7, 2022 for $240,000.00.

John Buscema and Joe Sinnott What If? #1 Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four? Cover Original Art (Marvel, 1977) sold on April 7, 2022 for $228,000.00.

Jon Bogdanove and Dennis Janke The Death of Superman Trade Paperback Cover Original Art (DC, 1993) sold on April 8, 2022 for $204,000.00.