Tessie the Typist #1 Graded by CGC Realizes Record High
Posted on 4/26/2023
A classic “Good Girl Comic” from 1944, which is graded by Certified Guaranty Company® (CGC®), recently sold for more than 10 times its previous sale. It led the way in Heritage Auctions’ Timeless Good Girl Art Comics Featuring Dan DeCarlo sale on April 20, 2023.
Tessie the Typist #1 with a Davis Crippen (“D” Copy) pedigree graded CGC 7.5 (lot 83311) realized an impressive $5,520. This exact copy was previously sold by Heritage Auctions for $478 in 2006. It now holds the record for its grade as well as the second-highest price for any example of this comic — narrowly trailing a CGC 9.6 that Heritage sold for $5,975 in 2018.
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Originally published by Timely Comics in 1944, Tessie the Typist was among a specific category of Timely books known as “working gal,” which also included “Millie the Model” and “Nellie the Nurse.” This particular copy is from the Davis Crippen collection, which numbered roughly 13,000 issues and contained near complete titles from every company and genre between 1940 and 1955. About 2,000 books were stolen from the Crippen house in 1991 and assimilated into the market as the "D" copies, named for the distinctive penciled code written at the top of the first page of each comic.
The term “Good Girl Covers” was coined in the 1930s, referring to covers with provocative images of attractive women. By the 1950s, these covers came under fierce scrutiny, which led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority.
This is the second in a series of Good Girl comic auctions held by Heritage. The previous auction, on February 9, 2023, saw a copy of Seven Seas Comics #4 graded CGC 9.2 sell for a record-setting $81,000.
Other CGC-certified comics in this auction included:
- a Cindy #37 graded CGC 6.0 (lot 83006) that realized $1,440
- a Joker Comics #40 graded CGC 6.0 (lot 83097) that realized $1,320
- a Teen Comics #22 graded CGC 9.4 (lot 83307) that realized $1,320
- a Joker Comics #12 graded GCG 5.5 (lot 83082) that realized $810
- a Patsy Walker #2 with a Davis Crippen (“D” Copy) pedigree graded CGC 8.5 (lot 83273) that realized $720
- a Joker Comics #7 graded CGC 3.5 (lot 83081) that realized $660
- a Nellie the Nurse #2 graded CGC 9.2 (lot 83204) that realized $660
- a Georgie Comics #32 graded CGC 5.5 (lot 83046) that realized $660
- a Jetta #7 graded CGC 2.5 (lot 83078) that realized $660
- a Comedy Comics #7 graded CGC 5.0 (lot 83016) that realized $660
Prices realized include a buyer’s premium.
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