A new original-owner collection of comic books, dating from 1940-1954,
will be offered to the collecting public by Heritage Auction
Galleries.

“Harold Curtis grew up in Danielson, a small, rural town in
northeastern Connecticut.” According to Ben Samuels, Consignment Director for
Heritage in a press release, “He began buying comic books in 1940. On Saturdays,
he and his younger brother and sister got up early in the morning in order to
complete all of their weekly household chores before noon. Following lunch,
their father rewarded each of them with an allowance payment of twenty five
cents. It was with this financial windfall that Harold bought his weekly supply
of comics, candy and movie theater tickets.”

“Titles featuring Batman
were Harold’s main interest,” Samuels continued, “but he also collected Boy
Commandos, Wonder Woman, Sensation, Plastic Man,
Smash Comics, Daredevil Comics, Boy Comics, Crime
Does Not Pay, and even a few selected romance comics as his interest in
girls began to grow… and understandably, as his interest in girls continued to
develop, he eventually stopped buying comics – but even after marriage he
refused to ever get rid of his beloved collection! Until now.”

“Many of
the earlier issues have ‘Harold Curtis,’ ‘Harold,’ ‘H.E.C.,’ ‘Curtis,’ or ‘H.
Curtis’ written in ink on the cover,” Samuels said. “Most issues have a
distributor’s ‘p’ mark in pencil or ink, others have a ‘w’, and a few of the war
comics have a ‘k’ mark. While some of the earliest issues show considerable
wear, most of the comics in this collection appear to have been read once, and
were stored well. Most are high grade and have excellent paper quality. Many are
at or near the top of the CGC census.”

The Harold Curtis Collection will
be featured in Heritage’s upcoming Comics Signature Auction #820, to be held May
11-13, 2006 in Dallas, Texas. For more information, please visit HeritageAuctions.com/Comics.