Heritage’s comic and comic art signature auctions are filled with top tier material featuring the Joker, Conan the Barbarian, the Flash, and many others. The Comic Book Auction will be held on September 11-13, 2025, and the Comic Art Auction is scheduled for September 12-14.

Dave McKean’s painting of the Joker for Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth is headlining the comic art auction. For the book, McKean took a multimedia approach with illustration, photo collage, drawings, and photography. This piece highlights the book’s unique look with the Clown Prince of Crime appearing deranged with pinpoint pupils and a ghastly grin.

“I made a clay mask of the Joker and shot it from different angles and in different lighting states, then used these base photographs in the Joker panels, adding paint, ink and scratching out the emulsion,” McKean said. “The end result gives him a manic otherworldly quality compared to the other simply drawn and painted characters, and his grin remains fixed while the energy of the marks and lighting around him creates different expressions.”

Heritage Vice President Barry Sandoval calls the work “one of the most striking and memorable depictions of the Joker.”

Original art highlights also include a Calvin and Hobbes daily strip from 1990, Barry Windsor-Smith’s Marvel Comics Presents #81 Wolverine/Weapon X splash page, and the Action Comics #45 cover with a striking image of Superman. There’s also a standalone auction on September 12 for Frank Frazetta’s Conan cover painting, Man Ape.

The comic book auction is led by Flash Comics #1 CGC 8.5 with the first appearances of the Flash and Hawkman, as well as Shiera Sanders/Hawkgirl, Johnny Thunder, and the Whip. Two important Archie books cross the auction block with the debuts of Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, and Jughead Jones in Pep Comics #22 CGC 7.0 and Archie’s first self-titled book, Archie Comics #1 CGC 4.0. Keys continue with the Hulk’s debut in The Incredible Hulk #1 CGC 8.5 and Wonder Man’s first appearance in Wonder Comics #1 CGC 9.4.