On July 26 Heritage Auctions scaled new heights when a piece of original art by Todd McFarlane for The Amazing Spider-Man #328 (Marvel, 1990) settled at $657,250, including the buyer’s premium, as part of Heritage’s July 26′8 Signature comics and comic art auction. The artwork shows Spider-Man demonstrating his new powers on the Hulk, and it drew a collective gasp in the room as the hammer came down on the top offering of the auction.

The artwork was sold †along with McFarlane’s original art for Spider-Man #1 (Marvel, 1990), which brought $358,500 †as part of the first slice of the Shamus Collection of Modern Masterworks, a collection of late 1980s and early 1990s original comic book art put together by Martin Shamus, owner of a comics and memorabilia shop on Long Island, N.Y.

“We knew these amazing works of art were going to go high, but the happy surprise was that it was McFarlane’s Spidey #328,” said Todd Hignite, vice president of Heritage Auctions. “We all thought that McFarlane’s art for 1990’s Spider-Man #1, the best-selling comic book of all time, would be the most contested lot.”

A complete report of the auction will appear in a future issue.

⁁K