The same collector also had the original art to the very first Jungle Jim strip which ran as a “topper” to the Flash Gordon adventure. The King Features Syndicate strip, dated 1933, helps to confirm the piece's authenticity.
“She sent over some images and my jaw just hit the floor,” says Chanes. His wife reached out to the auction house and mentioned she had some Flash Gordon artwork. It belonged to a collector who wasn’t active in the art collecting community. It is also “fresh to market,” which is how collectors refer to pieces that have been buried in private collections and never surfaced publicly. For art collectors, the discovery of the very first Flash Gordon art is the comics equivalent to digging up the Ark of the Covenant. There is one page of art from Marvel Comics #1 known to have survived. For comparison’s sake, the oldest surviving cover art from the granddaddy of comic book heroes - Superman - is thought to be the cover to Action Comics #15. The fact that the original art for the debut of an iconic character has survived only adds to the piece’s uniqueness. This was back when the art from comic strips and comic books was considered production afterthoughts most pages would be destroyed or tossed in the trash. Original art from this time frame is impossibly rare. The first appearance of Flash Gordon and his love interest Dale Arden, first published on January 7, 1934. “It may be the most important piece of Golden Age comic art to exist,” notes Brian Chanes, the Head of Consignments and Auctions for Profiles in History. Pre-auction estimates suggest it could sell for more than $500,000. It features the first appearance of Flash and his love interest Dale Arden, and the beginning of their space-faring adventures. The pencil and ink artwork from creator Alex Raymond was published on January 7, 1934, the day the strip debuted. One of the most significant pieces of original art from the Golden Age of comic strips to surface in the modern era, the 87-year-old art will be auctioned on March 31 by Profiles in History. One such piece is about to hit the auction block: the original artwork to the very first appearance of Flash Gordon from the 1930s.
In the big-ticket world of pop-culture memorabilia, there are rare items and then there are the unearthed treasures that make collectors gasp.
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