Finest Known Copies of Landmark Disney Comics to Be Auctioned
The best surviving copies of some of the most collectable Disney comics will be auctioned off by Heritage Auction Galleries on November 13–14 in Dallas.
“The condition of these is unbelievable,” said Lon Allen, director of comic sales for Heritage. “Copies of these first issues are treasured and fairly valuable even if they’re in rougher shape, and since these were read and re-read by young kids, pristine copies are almost unheard of.”
The marquee lot of the group is a copy of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #1, certified Near Mint 9.4 by CGC. It’s the only copy of any of the first 15 issues to receive such a high grade to date. Familiar to a generation of readers, Comics and Stories was the best-selling comic series of all time, peaking in the early 1950s at nearly four million copies an issue (most comics published today have print runs well under 100,000). While the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide lists a top value of $33,000, Allen notes, “The only question in my mind is if it will sell for double or triple that price.”
The first Mickey Mouse comic book was “Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot,” known as Four Color #16 (1941), a comic for which the price guide didn’t list a value for grades above 8.0, doubting that any better copies even exist. Yet this auction will include a copy certified Near Mint minus 9.2 by CGC, easily the finest copy ever certified. “We auctioned the second-best copy for $23,900, so I’ll be in suspense to see how high this one goes. It’s one of the single best copies of any Disney comic that’s ever been auctioned,” Allen said.
While comic collectors love Mickey Mouse, they’re much more passionate about Donald Duck, because so many of his stories were drawn by the legendary Carl Barks, who is credited with fleshing out the character of Donald as well as creating Uncle Scrooge and other members of the supporting cast. The auction will have one of the few certified Near Mint copies of the comic with Barks’ first art on Donald Duck, Four Color #9 (“Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold”), “a copy that should fetch a result well into five figures” according to Allen.
Also being offered is the first of the longer Donald Duck adventures drawn by Barks, Four Color #29 (“Donald Duck and the Mummy’s Ring,” 1943), a copy certified Very Fine / Near Mint 9.0 that stands as the only one graded above 8.0 to date.
“Barks took both Donald and his readers on rollicking adventures in exotic locales — everyone fell in love with these stories because they had comedy, tons of action and fantastic art,” Allen said. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have cited Barks’ stories as an influence, as have generations of comic book artists. This issue’s long adventure “Donald Duck and the Mummy’s Ring” showed the first signs of what was to come, and it’s treasured by collectors.
“Since Disney comics, and the Carl Barks ones in particular, are popular all over the world, we expect strong bidding interest both from US and overseas bidders,” Allen said.
This is a guest article. The thoughts and opinions in this piece are those of their author and are not necessarily the thoughts of the Certified Collectibles Group.
