Comics expected to sell for $500,000
DALLAS (AP) -- As a kid, Ralph Chicorel was careful with the comic books he faithfully bought for 10 cents at the drugstore in his Detroit neighborhood. That diligence will likely pay off for Chicorel, now 78 years old, when 110 of the comics he started collecting as an 8-year-old go up for auction this month at Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries. The offering is expected to garner around $500,000. The most important comics will go up for auction May 21, with the rest selling over the weekend.
The collection boasts the likes of "Batman" No. 1 and "Marvel Comics" No. 1, but the most expensive comic in the collection - expected to clear $100,000 - is the scarce "Marvel Mystery Comics" No. 9, noted for its cover battle between the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner - the first time two superheros appeared in the same story, said Heritage's director of comics operations, Barry Sandoval.
Experts say most comics from the "Golden Age" - the late 1930s through the 1940s - were thrown away or fell victim to World War II era paper drives. And most of those that were saved were read until they were in tatters or stored in a place where light, moisture or heat got to them.
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