Because very few comic book-related collectibles have ever sold for more than $1M, it's a big deal when one joins the $1M dollar club. And the newest member of this exclusive club joined last week -- on June 27, the original cover art for Famous Funnies #214 sold for $1,035,000 during an auction hosted by Heritage Auctions.
As a refresher, the most expensive comic-related item that ever sold was a CGC 8.5 Pedigree copy of Action Comics #1 that sold for $6M on Heritage over a year ago on April 4, 2024. To me, this was a fairly strong sale especially when you consider it occurred two years into a comic book bear market.
In terms of original comic book art, the most expensive original artwork that ever sold was pg. 25 from Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #8 which sold for $3.36M on Heritage over three and a half years ago near the end of the "comic boom." During this same period of time, the original cover art for the Dark Knight Returns #1 sold for $2.4M. More recently, the original artwork for the cover for Amazing Spider-Man #194 joined the $1M club when it sold for $1.02M in January 2025. Just narrowly missing the $1M mark was the original artwork for the first Deadpool story page from New Mutants #98 which sold for $960,000 back in late 2024.
There have been a few signs of weakness in the original comic book market, however. For example, the original artwork for the first in-story appearance for Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #39 sold for "only" $504,000 back in April. You'd think that the first in-story appearance of Iron Man would be worth more than the first in-story appearance of Deadpool, but, according to the market, it was barely worth half as much.
In spite of the volatility, the original cover art for Famous Funnies #214 is the latest collectible to join the $1M club when it sold for $1,035,000 on June 27th:
Although this issue doesn't include the first appearance of a major character, it's still highly sought after since it's a beautiful example of Frank Frazetta's artwork. Frazetta, who had his artwork in Tally-Ho Comics #1 published when he was just 16 years old, became famous for his lush paintings of Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan, and Vampirella in the 1960s and 1970s. This Frazetta painting sold for a whopping $6,000,000 back two years ago:
Frazetta's breakout comic work, however, was his Buck Rogers-related work in Famous Funnies, one of the earlier American comic books. Still only in his twenties, Frazetta pencilled, inked, and sometimes wrote Buck Rogers features himself. Famous Funnies #214 is one of his most famous Buck Rogers covers. High-grade copies of this issue are extremely rare (only 103 universal blue label copies on the CGC Census) and sell for tens of thousands of dollars. For example, this CGC 9.2 copy sold over a year ago for $31,165:
Is the original artwork of this cover worth 32x the value of the comic itself? Considering how much Frazetta's paintings have sold for in the past, the buyer may actually have gotten a good deal for this early example of Frazetta's work.
