"I've always loved that drawing," commented Miller, when asked before the auction what his thoughts on its imminent sale were. "Danced around my studio like a fool when I drew it. I hope it finds a good home”
The Batman and Robin drawing sold for $448,125 at an auction yesterday held by Heritage Auction Galleries. The drawing is from page 10 from issue #3 of Frank Miller and Klaus Janson's 1986 The Dark Knight Returns. The auctioneers originally priced the piece at easily $100,000. At almost half a million dollars Miller’s artwork is "the single most valuable piece of American comic art to ever sell." The buyer of the drawing is anonymous.
Check out a very large version of the drawing here:
verybiggerversion Below check out more on the auction, the top selling comic art and the previous holder of the
most valuable piece of comic art.
The Dark Knight Returns #3:
From the Dallas Observer:
At the end of March, Heritage Auction Galleries invited some of us to walk across Oak Lawn to take a long, hard look at a never-before-offered original Frank Miller splash page from 1986's The Dark Knight Returns, among The Greatest Batman Stories Ever told and, along with Watchmen, the comic that made the funny papers safe for grown-ups. At the time, Barry Sandoval, director of operations for Heritage's Comics operations, guesstimated that the piece would sell for $100,000 – "easily"… Here’s Sandoval with the sold artwork in March, from the Dallas Observer (the drawing says "easily 100,000" on the back):
The Previous Record Holders From Bleeding Cool News:
The public record for an American comic book cover was set last year with the $380,000 sale of the cover of EC title Weird Fantasy #29 by Frank Frazetta.
The previous record for a piece of interior American comic art was also set last year by the pivotal splash page from Amazing Spider-Man #50, the famous “Spider-Man No More!” story, written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Romita Sr, which sold for $88,500 as reported by Bleeding Cool last year.Giving that some additional perspective, it of course blows away previous amounts paid for any post-1980 American comic art. Bleeding Cool reported that Watchmen #1 page 1 artwork by Dave Gibbons went for $33,460 this past November, and we also reported the sale of Frank Miller’s cover to Daredevil #188 for $101,575 last year. Miller’s Cover Art for Daredevil #188
Daredevil #188 Cover
Frank Miller and Heritage Auction's Announcement from Boing Boing:
The image is the single most memorable image from the entire comic book series and the greatest image from the decade of the 1980s ever to come to market, as well as now standing as one of, if not the most desirable pieces of original comic art from any era to come to market. It is a perfect stand-alone image of Batman and Robin (Carrie Kelley, the first female, full-time Robin) soaring high above Gotham City, emblematic of the entire storyline.
"I've always loved that drawing," commented Miller, when asked before the auction what his thoughts on its imminent sale were. "Danced around my studio like a fool when I drew it. I hope it finds a good home."
The previous record price for a piece of original American comic book art was set last year when the cover of EC comics Weird Fantasy #29, by legendary artist Frank Frazetta, sold at Heritage via a private treaty sale for $380,000. Glory to Frank Miller and The Dark Knight Returns…
Sources:
theDallasObserver bleedingcoolnews BoingBoing
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