Welcome back to this week's top pics from Heritage's weekly comic book auctions! Heritage holds weekly funny book auctions that feature key issues, overlooked comics, oddball memorabilia items, and more. These auctions are a must if you want to beef up your collection! Here are my top picks for you to watch.
Bringing Up Father Antique Hanbill (1919)
Certain Platinum Age cartoon strips had a huge impact on pop culture. Bringing Up Father was arguably one of the more popular cartoon strips of its time, lasting from 1913 until 2000! The cartoon strip was adapted many times in the 1910s and 1920s, with animated shorts, movies, stage shows, and so much more. While the cartoon strip has properly ended, the characters have appeared in Gasoline Alley as recently as 2018. If you were to visit Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure, Bringing Up Father also has a prominent place in Cartoon World beside a bevy of other Platinum Age cartoon strip characters!
This handbill is for a 1919 showing of Bringing Up Father in Society at the Concord Opera House. The show consisted of animation with live music and chorus girls. This was a true vaudeville experience. It's impressive that this handbill has survived over 100 years - Heritage notes that this handbill is in overall very good condition.
Fantastic Four #1 CGC Universal .5
Are you ready to have a Fantastic summer? I sure am! And this book is being offered at the right time. At the time of this writing, a second trailer has dropped for this summer's Fantastic Four, which looks...fantastic! This first appearance of the team has consistently been a hot book, with sales numbers seldom dropping dramatically. Not only did this Silver Age key introduce the team, it was also the first comic book published under the Marvel imprint. On top of all of that, this was the first superhero team introduced under the Marvel name. It's no wonder this book is ranked highly on almost every single Silver Age want list.
This CGC Universal .5 with off-white to white pages is noted as incomplete - half of page 3 is missing. But if you have been looking to add this book to your collection, I wouldn't shy away from this copy. The current fair market value for .5 copies is $5,500. To compare, a 9.6 graded copy has a fair market value of $2,000,000. Perhaps that's an unfair comparison, but it's still worth noting. To date, CGC has graded 3,092 copies, with 2,128 receiving a Universal label. I absolutely believe this book will climb in value.
Web of Evil CGC Universal 1.5
This eye-catching cover by Jack Cole features an unsuspecting victim being strangled by (what I can only assume to be) the arms of Jean the Strangler, as noted on their chest! Web of Evil from Quality Comics only ran for 21 issues between 1952 to 1954. DC Comics would go on to buy Quality in 1956, but all of Web of Evil is public domain at this point. While DC could have used the horror line, it would likely have been in vain, as The Comics Code Authority was around by that time.
This CGC Universal 1.5 has cream to off white pages, and despite the low grade, the cover still pops. To date, CGC has graded 12 copies of this issue, with all 12 receiving a Universal grade. While there's no price data for 1.5 copies, a 3.0 has a fair market value of $130. This pre-code horror could be had for a potentially great price!
