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"Justice League of America No. 195" Cover Art Fetches $288K at Auction
Posted on December 12, 2022 by Neil Cole
The price on the cover to 1981's Justice League of America No. 195 reads just 60 cents. The original cover itself, featuring an all-star roster's worth of heroes and villains rendered by the late, legendary George Pérez, sold Saturday afternoon at Heritage Auctions for $288,000. That is by far the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by the beloved, influential artist without whom DC would never have experienced its first great Crisis.
The final price, realized after one of myriad bidding wars that broke out during Heritage's Dec. 10-11 Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction, served as testament not only to the beloved creations featured on the comic's cover but the man who brought them to life. In fact, just moments later, another historic Pérez Justice League of America cover - for issue No. 207, another cherished work crowded with heroes spanning DC's history - realized $132,000.
These landmark pieces by Pérez, whose death in May left the comics world brokenhearted, were among the beloved books and bedecked Bristol boards offered during this completely sold-out event, which drew 2,145 bidders worldwide and realized $4,507,000 by weekend's end.
"This has been an extraordinary year for comic books and comic art at Heritage, and I was thrilled to be a part of it here at year's end," says Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena. "This auction was smaller than most of our comics events, yet it set numerous records, which should come as no surprise as every page and every book here was fresh to market. And for DC fans, especially, this was a delight."
The first session alone, dominated by some of DC's most historic team-ups, hit $2,192,796 all by itself. And Pérez was not alone among the record-setters during this event.
Mike Grell - most famous for his tenures on Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Warlord and Legion of Super-Heroes books - likewise saw his previous auction record smashed when his original cover for All Star Comics No. 58 sold for $168,000 following a ferocious bidding war. The cover for that book, a 1976 resurrection of the Justice Society of America title retired in 1951, featured Robin in a new costume, the JSA's Flash and Green Lantern and Doctor Fate and Wildcat, and, most notably, Power Girl making her debut as Superman's Earth-2 cousin while sporting what became her trademark (and oft-discussed) peekaboo costume.
The Spectre loomed large over this auction: One of the best copies Heritage has ever offered of More Fun Comics No. 52 - the 1940 book that introduced Corrigan's vengeful anti-hero - sold for $264,000, more than doubling its previous auction record. This CGC Very Fine+ 8.5 copy scared up a bidding war in a sale that, in part, paid homage to the JSA member who continues to haunt DC's titles well into the 21st century.
Murphy Anderson's cover for DC's Showcase No. 64, when the artist and writer Gardner Fox resurrected slain cop Jim Corrigan's undead avenger, sold for $120,000.
This auction also featured one of the late Neal Adams' landmark covers from 1971: World's Finest No. 201, which pit Superman against Hal Jordan's Green Lantern in a tussle over "A Prize of Peril," with Doctor Fate (really, Felix Faust in disguise) serving as ringmaster. That thrilling, kinetic piece sold for $90,000.
This auction might have tilted heavily toward DC, but one marvel among the Marvels sold for nearly a quarter of a million dollars, which should come as no surprise. A four-panel masterpiece from 1965's The Amazing Spider-Man No. 29, which finds the Wall-Crawler tussling with the Scorpion, was among the finest Steve Ditko Spider-Man pages ever to come to auction. A fierce tussle between bidders drove the final price to $240,000.
Click here to see complete results from the Dec. 10-11 Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction.
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