Heritage Auctions has reported a 100% sell-through rate by both value and lot totals for their Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction, which was held August 7-9, 2014 in their Dallas offices. The auction generated $5.18 million in sales.

Across the board comic book results were strong, with many books eclipsing their Overstreet values, including a CGC-graded 2.0 copy of Detective Comics #31 (DC, 1939), a comic book with one of the most classic covers in comic book history, that appears on almost every collector’s want list, which brought more than triple its guide price at $34,165. A copy of All-Star Comics #8 (DC, 1942) CGC 3.0 – the first appearance of Wonder Woman – also checked in at triple its Overstreet price, finishing at $17,925, while Marvel Super-Heroes #18 Guardians of the Galaxy – Don/Maggie Thompson Collection pedigree (Marvel, 1969) CGC NM+ 9.6, a comic book that brought a mere $1,000 a few years ago, soared to $10,158, no doubt aided by the recent release of the “Guardians” feature film.

Original comic book art continued to be sizzling hot, led by the record price realized by Robert Crumb’s Zap Comix #0 complete three-page story “Ducks Yas Yas” original Art (Apex Novelties, 1968), a masterwork in Crumb’s amazing oeuvre. The three-page saga of a 1960s New York stoner and his quest for spiritual enlightenment is a true hippy comix classic, the quintessential R. Crumb comic strip and now worth $131,450.

Brian Bolland’s original artwork for Batman: The Killing Joke Page 14 realized $107,500. Page 14 of Killing Joke is easily one of the most influential pages of modern comic books. In it, Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon opens the door to her home to find The Joker waiting for her. He subsequently shoots Gordon, an event that kept her in a wheelchair for almost 25 years and caused the creation of her new identity as Oracle.

“Very few panel pages have ever sold at auction for more than $100,000,” said Todd Hignite, Vice President of Heritage Auctions, “so this page, as key as they come, joins some elite company. A record auction price for the artist, there are few pages in the history of comics that have had this kind of long-lasting impact.”

A Peanuts football-themed Sunday comic strip original art, dated 9-10-61, featuring Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, realized $95,600. A Peanuts daily comic strip original art dated 7-5-73, featuring Alfred E. Neuman, set another record when it brought $41,825.

A new auction price record was established for artist Sal Buscema. His original cover art for Avengers #72 realized $89,625. Barry Windsor-Smith’s original cover art for Conan the Barbarian #9 hit the same mark.

The original splash page art from the first appearance of The Guardians of the Galaxy, from Marvel Super-Heroes #18, sold for $14,340.

The page first came up for bid during the internet portion of the bidding on Thursday, August 7, with that round of bidding closing at $3,750 ($4,481.25 with buyer’s premium). The piece then came up for live bidding in the Friday, August 8 session.

“This is an incredible Gene Colan splash page and you just don’t see pages like this very often,” said Aaron White, Comics Consignment Director at Heritage. “Interestingly, this art and story is the first in a series of titles that led to the movie and its characters. The original Guardians of the Galaxy is set 1,000 years in the future but it’s an important part of the Marvel Universe.”

The page features Gene Colan on pencils and Mike Esposito (as Mickey Demeo) on inks.