‘Calvin & Hobbes’ Work Just Went Off The Market For Nearly Half A Million Bucks

As one of the most popular comics on the planet, Calvin and Hobbes has been a staple for fans since it first began in 1985. Who hasn’t seen the lively six-year-old and his tiger companion?

Now, an original hand-colored work by creator Bill Watterson has become one of the world’s most valuable comic strips of all time, fetching a whopping US$480,000 at auction.

Presented by Heritage Auctions at its Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction, the Sunday strip from May 24, 1987, depicts the iconic duo attempting to time travel, and is only the second such artifact to have gone under the hammer. 

The incredible price tag shatters the previous record set for the title, when the auction house sold a February 1992 hand-colored daily strip for US$216,000 back in September. 

According to Artnet News, similar to the strip that hit the auction block previously, the piece was a gift, this time to Lee Salem, who gave Watterson his big break during his time as a prominent editor at Universal Press Syndicate. 

On the nine-panel piece was a personal message by the artist, signed “For Lee with best wishes — Bill.” 

Heritage Auctions notes that only one other comic strip has ever amassed US$480,000—Alex Raymond’s very first Flash Gordon, which was published much further back in 1934. 

“All of us here, and every collector we’ve talked to, feels Calvin and Hobbes is at the very top of the entire history of newspaper-strip art, so it’s very gratifying to see the final prices reflect that,” says Todd Hignite, the auction house’s Vice President. 

[via Artnet News and Heritage Auctions, cover image via Heritage Auctions]