Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child's original art by Rafael Grampá could go for a half-million dollars

The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child
(Image credit: Rafael Grampá)

Rafael Grampá's original art for the 2019 one-shot Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child has finally gone on sale - and it’s doing pretty well.

Rafael Grampá

(Image credit: Chiaroscuro Studios)

Grampá's agency Chiaroscuro Studios opened sales on the pages in late March, and in the first 24 hours took in almost $200,000 with a sale of a third of the pages from the Frank Miller-written piece.

"I'm so proud of this life-changing project, to be able to be one of the very few artists that had the chance to materialize Frank Miller's visions into art and being part of his seminal Dark Knight Returns saga forever," Grampá says in the announcement.

These are all pen and ink drawings on standard comic book boards, measuring 11" x 17".

The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child

(Image credit: Rafael Grampá)

Prices on Rafael Grampá's Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child range from $6,900 to $21,500. For those who don't understand the original art market, in late 2020 a variant cover for Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child by Grampá was auctioned by Heritage Auctions for $24,000.

The eponymous 'Golden Child' of this one-shot is Jonathan Kent, the only son of Superman and Wonder Woman in this continuity. While still a child, he has immense powers - but the book's spotlight itself is stolen, proverbially, by the former Robin, Carrie, who has taken on the mantle of Batwoman.

The Golden Child is the sixth chapter in MIller's Batman saga, after the original Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, The Master Race,  and The Last Crusade. Miller has teased more volumes of Dark Knight Returns, but no further details have been announced.

You can find out more about these pages and buying them over on Chiaroscuro Studios' website.

Here's an expert's guide to collecting comic book art.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)

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