Early Captain America Art, Spy vs. Spy, and Frank Frazetta's Dark Kingdom at Heritage

Nearly 1,500 items will go under the hammer at Heritage's June 22-25 Comics & Comic Art auction including work by Frank Frazetta, Golden Age Batmans, pages documenting the birth of Bane, original Calvin and Hobbes strips, and the first meeting of MAD's 'Spy vs. Spy'.

Leading the sale is a Jack Kirby-Joe Simon splash page from the fifth issue of Captain America Comics to hit newsstands. "The best Golden Age Timely art, such as this historic splash page, is basically impossible to find," says Heritage Auctions Senior Vice President Ed Jaster. "Only a scant few pages are even known to exist, and this is the best splash page we've ever seen – by miles – prominently featuring Captain America and Bucky. To describe it as museum quality is only scratching the surface."

Also headlining is Frank Frazetta's Dark Kingdom, depicting the warrior with the winged helmet and the blood-dripping ax advancing over the skeletons of the fallen. The painting was first used as the cover of Karl Edward Wagner's 1976 novel Dark Crusade, one in a series of tales about the immortal pre-medieval warrior Kane. But it's better known for its second appearance as the album cover for Molly Hatchet's 1979 Flirtin' With Disaster, the Jacksonville boogie-rockers' second record and a best-seller. Dark Kingdom became among Frazetta's most-reproduced works and the original in this auction is available to the public for the very first time.