The original artwork for a page from the comic book New Mutants No. 98, in which the character of Deadpool made his first appearance, did not quite break records but it came very close.
Over 5700 people bid in the comic art sale through Heritage Auctions, with the winner grabbing this historical page 14 for a cool $960,000. Interest in the character is high thanks to the $1.3bn blockbuster Deadpool v Wolverine, which was released in cinemas this year.
Heritage’s executive vice president Todd Hignite offered his own take on this huge auction result: “That entire era has risen to the top in popularity and desirability for comic art collectors, rivalling the earliest, rare examples from the classic period of comics. Deadpool’s debut page from New Mutants No. 98 is as perfect as it gets, so the incredible result was a thrill.”
The artist of the page, Rob Liefeld, who co-created Deadpool, was surprised at how much the art fetched: “I’m still buzzing with excitement,” Liefeld says about the sale. “I never imagined that this page, my debut as writer and artist on New Mutants No. 98, would command such an impressive price. Making comic books has been my entire life. I started drawing professionally as a teenager, and it’s a thrill that my biggest and most profound successes continue to come from the characters I created and the stories I brought to life with pen and paper.
“Deadpool continues to leave his mark on pop culture writ large, and I’m excited for both seller and buyer. I hope it brings great joy to both of them.”
Heritage was also offering the cover to the same issue, New Mutants No. 98, also drawn by Liefeld, with an estimate of $7.5m. But the owner of that piece withdrew it from sale.
The New Mutants page is the second most valuable page of comic art ever sold at auction, with the top spot taken by page 25 from 1984's Secret Wars No. 8, drawn by Mike Zeck. This tells the origin story of Spider-Man’s black costume, which sold at Heritage Auctions for $3.4m in 2022.
