A Hand-Colored Strip of ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ Sells for $480,000

Sundays were happy days for everyone because of the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Even though the strip was discontinued in the mid-1990s, many still remember the lovely comical bits of the boy and his tiger. It was fun to read what they were up to in articles about all sorts of important things – it was a breath of fresh air! And one lucky man still gets to enjoy a small part of the antics today!

Fan Buys Calvin and Hobbes Strip

One very lucky fan of the comic strip gets to relive the memories over and over because of a recent purchase he made. The person remains unnamed, but recently he purchased a hand-colored Sunday strip that ran on May 24th, 1987. He paid the sizeable amount of $480,000 at a Heritage Auctions’ Comics & Comic Art Signature sale.

Sold Comic Strip Broke the Record

A previous record for a sale of a Calvin and Hobbes strip was set in September, when a 1992 February strip was sold for $216,000. The recent purchase of the unnamed fan not only broke this record but tied it as the most valuable original newspaper strip ever sold at an auction.

Black and White Unpublished Strip

Lee Salem, the late editor of Bill Watterson’s creator of the Sunday strip, sold another one from his collection earlier for $120,000. Watterson drew the black-and-white illustration in 1988, but it was never published. The strip depicts the loving duo sitting back-to-back, reading a newspaper about some outrageous take of a woman marrying an Alien Elvis clone.

Calvin and Hobbes can easily be considered one of the most beloved Sunday strips that ever was, and as Charles Solon, an animation writer, said – no strip has been able to fill the space since its publishing was stopped. Many people remember the cute antics to this day, and those lucky enough to have purchased a memorable strip can relive the memories every day!