Parts of one of the most impressive comic book collections ever assembled will be sold this weekend at Heritage, as the auction house begins its sale of Christine Farrell’s complete run of every DC comic book.
Farrell, a well-known member of the collecting community for decades, passed away earlier this year, leaving behind a treasure trove of comic history.
The Burlington, Vermont-based comic shop owner first began amassing her collection in her youth. But it didn’t begin as a collecting pursuit, as Farrell explained to NPR in 1995. It was about the love of reading the books themselves that lit the fuse.
“This is my childhood,” Farrell said. “I saved them, I didn’t call them a collection, I started calling them a collection when I was 18 or 19 when I didn’t want to admit I was reading them.”
Farrell’s collection had grown to around 2,600 comics by 1976, when she was interviewed for a story in the Burlington Free Press. Her first comic book was an issue on Lois Lane from 1962. She was hooked ever since. Even then, long before comic book collecting had matured into the standardized industry of condition grades and values known today, Farrell was cautious with her books.
“I discovered that if you loan comics to friends, you never see them again,” she told the Free Press.
Heritage Auctions Vice President Lon Allen has been working with some of the most significant comic book collections ever assembled for decades during his time in the industry, the last 23 years of which have been spent at Heritage, the same auction house which set the record for the most expensive comic book ever sold earlier this year with the $6 million auction of Action Comics #1.
Allen recalls meeting Farrell once, around ten years ago at a New York Comic Con. “She was at our booth talking to one of our employees and after she walked away they asked, ‘Hey, do you know who that is?’ And I'd said ‘no,’ and they said, ‘Well, that's Christine Farrell, and she has a complete DC collection’,” Allen told cllct. ”And I'm like, ‘What? She has a complete DC collection? Like, are you kidding me?’”
When Allen and the team at Heritage received the call to handle Farrell’s comics on behalf of her estate, they took in around 12,000 comic books, ranging from early “Detective Comics” issues to original comic art. The entire collection likely numbered in the tens of thousands by the time of her death.
None of the books had been graded, though she had kept her collection fairly organized, with the higher-end issues stored safely in a vault.
“I did practically nothing else for six weeks,” Allen said, describing the time it took to go through the collection, thousands from which the auction house submitted to CGC for grading. The third-party authenticator added a notation on the label of each book tying it back to the Farrell collection.
“Christine Farrell’s collection is a monumental achievement that stands as a testament to her dedication, passion and deep appreciation for DC Comics’ storied history,” Matt Nelson, President of CGC Comics, said in a statement. “We are incredibly honored to be entrusted with certifying this historic collection and recognizing it with the Christine Farrell Complete DC Collection provenance. This special designation will ensure that each piece is forever linked to one of the most impressive and complete assemblages of DC Comics ever created.”
Among the most valuable comics from the collection, now graded and encapsulated by CGC and offered at auction at Heritage, includes a copy of Action Comics #1 (CGC 6.0 Trimmed), Flash Comics #1 (CGC 5.0), Superman #1 (CGC 8.0 Restored) and the original cover art from Lois Lane #103.
Allen believes that, in addition to the incredible display of completionism and high-quality selection of the collection, the history and provenance of the books will play a role in attracting bidders.
“There's going to be people that are enamored with the story,” Allen said. “That's part of the collecting bug.”
Allen explained the importance of knowing the origins of a collection such as this.
“It's like what I always refer to as a fresh collection. You know, all this stuff has been locked away for 25 to 50 years, nobody could have purchased them for any price.”
Farrell’s long-time friend, comics dealer Joe Verenault, provided some insight into Farrell’s decades-long quest: “Chris loved this particular company of comics, DC, and she did it for that reason alone. The fact that it turned out to be such a hard achievement and that they became staggeringly valuable was really secondary to her. But she was very, very pleased at how appreciated it was in the hobby that she had done such a thing.”
For years, Farrell said she would never sell any part of her collection, words she stood by until the end. She cared more for the comics themselves than the value, said Verenault.
Many of the books found in Farrell’s archives, once graded, were so rare that they became the only examples and highest-graded in CGC’s census. While Allen has dealt with collections of greater quantity over the years, often when tasked with liquidating an old comic book shop, Farrell’s life work is singular.
“It’s probably safe to say I've handled the vast majority of the really great collections that have come to market in the last 20 years,” Allen said. “And putting the actual original owner pedigree collections aside and talking about a collection that somebody assembled by hand … I mean, maybe this is the best one I’ve ever seen.”
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.