Welcome back to this week's top pics from Heritage's weekly Sunday and Monday comic book auctions! Heritage holds weekly funny book auctions which 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.
Spider-Man: The Todd McFarlane Era Collectors Cards
This week's auction starts with something I haven't seen a lot of -- multiple sealed boxes of trading cards for different comic and cartoon shows. Starting off we have Spider-Man: The Todd McFarlane Collection. This sealed box contains 48 sealed packs, containing 10 cards per pack. These cards have become somewhat collectible over the years, primarily when graded. Sealed booster boxes themselves are also highly collectible, but due to the noticeable wear this box might have a hard time breaking $300, but it isn't impossible. Heritage notes the package as being in excellent condition.
If you're focusing on building a trading card collection, don't overlook the following auctions this week:
Batman: The Animated Series sealed booster box, excellent condition.
DC Comics Costmic Cards inagueral edition, excellent condition.
Sandman Trading Card Group of 10, overall fine condition.
Four Color #247 Flash Gordon
This copy of Four Color #247 / Flash Gordon caught my eye immediately. The cover, by Paul Norris, features the titular Flash in an underwater scene. This comic in particular was likely a part of the Western Printing and Lithographing company, which was responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books, Whitman jigsaw puzzles, and Big Little Books. The divisions under this company are even more impressive -- including Dell Comics.
While the company formally went defunct in 2001, we can still find traces of them in modern publishing. As I said earlier, this book was likely part of the editorial department of Western. This is a unique piece of comic book history and should be on everyone's radar. Heritage notes this ungraded book as being in Good condition. By comparison, a CGC 3.5 sold for $43 in August 2018.
Robotech: The New Generation
Comico's short-lived life in the comic book publishing landscape was limited, but they made an impression. The publisher released books such as Johnny Quest, Grendel, and Mage: The Hero Discovered. The company had the right to release a Robotech comic series. Robotech is an American cartoon series spliced together by three different anime series into one coherent story: Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA. This Frankensteined show was an integral part of the early days of Western anime fandom and would serve as a gateway show for many viewers (myself included).
Robotech was (and to some degree still is) a popular series. While it has faced its fair share of criticism, the series was popular enough to spawn several comic series, video games, and toys. In 1985 Comico released several Robotech series, such as Robotech: The New Generation near the end of the company's life. The New Generation adapted the story of MOSPEADA for Western audiences, giving proper thanks to one of the shows that made Robotech possible.
This blue label CGC 9.8 with white pages is amazing. I absolutely love this wraparound cover, and the book itself is surprisingly affordable. The one-year average on similar blue-label books is $368. If you're an anime fan or appreciate the history of anime in North America, this book is a must.
