CHICAGO — Artist Frank Frazetta’s painting “Death Dealer 6,” 1990, set a world auction record for the artist when it sold for $1,792,500, nearly three times its estimate, at Heritage Auctions May 10-12. The 18-by-30-inch oil on Masonite came to the block with a $50,000 estimate but bidders pushed hard for Frazetta’s dramatic and dark, vision of death. Frank Frazetta (1928-2010) began drawing illustrations for text stories in the middle of “funny animal” comic books in the 1940s; he went on to more adult themes in comics, then to paintings used for paperback covers, and famously popular rock album covers—it took years, but he was ultimately recognized by the fine art community as a serious artist.

Bidders set another world record when the original art for a The Far Side daily comic strip, by cartoonist Gary Larson, sold for $31,070, making it the most expensive Far Side strip ever sold at auction.

A full review of the sale will appear in a future issue.