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A piece of original art by Robert Crumb has been sold at a record price for a piece of American comic art by Heritage Auctions. Crumb’s cover art for the Ballantine Fritz the Cat collection from 1969 sold for $717,000. That narrowly tops the old top price for a piece of American comic art, $657,250 for the final page of Incredible Hulk #180, the first appearance of Wolverine, by Herb Trimpe and Jack Abel (see “Comic Art Page Sells for $657,250”). A Frank Miller page sold for nearly $450,000 in 2011 (see “Miller Page Goes for $448,125”).The record price for a piece of comic art anywhere in the world is still over $3.5 million for the flyleaves/end pages for the Adventures of Tintin albums, by Herge (see “Comic Art Sells for $3.5 Million”). Two other pieces of Tintin art have sold for over $1 million (see “Original Comic Art for Over $1 Million”).The art is 11” x 12.5” and was from the Felix Dennis Estate. Fritz the Cat was one of Crumb’s earliest characters, and the subject of two animated features in the early 70s. It's a sign of how much the world has changed that this piece of comic art, a cover for a collection of underground comics that were on the fringe of pop culture at the time, is now the most prized piece of American comic art ever sold.
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Victor Santos (Polar, Violent Love) has a new graphic novel coming in October from Dark Horse that is an opportunity for English-speaking audiences to get a dose of his rather electrifying artwork for the first time on Rashomon. The new book consists of two installments of a noir mystery set in Japan during the time of the samurai, the first of which was originally published in Santos’ native Spanish, but is now being translated for the first time, and the second installment of which is currently appearing in Europe. Here we get both tales in one volume, rendered in English with new cover artwork and plenty of extras and process pieces, for which Santos is known.Rashomon begins with the body of a samurai found on the road to Yamashina in feudal Japan, and the story encompasses the search for his killer. Detective Heigo Kobayashi takes the case but finds only “dead-end clues” and no direct witnesses. In this book, Santos’ predilection for noir and filmic elements takes flight, inspired by Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s tales featuring the heroic commissioner Heigo Kobayashi.Victor Santos has kindly shared some process art with us today on Comicon.com. Here’s our look at his process in developing the cover for Rashomon: