The mail today brought me the catalog from Heritage's next stupendous offerings of fantasy and science fiction featuring The Robert and Diane Yaspan Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy. It has me salivating already.

If we must find comics connections (aside from the fact that many of these items either inspired comics or were adapted into comics form), I'll note Lot #56762, First hardcover editions of five volumes written by August Derleth but illustrated by Clare Victor Dwiggins (aka "Dwig"), a cartoonist of delightful images.

And there's lot #56911, George Lowther's novel The Adventures of Superman (1942) -- signed by both Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (estimated at $3,000-$4,000). Too pricey? There's two more copies, unautographed, one estimated at $500-$700, the other at $400-$600.

But it's fun just to look at some of these items (lots of them autographed first editions in the SF field) -- and I'm getting a boot out of the collection of mystery titles, too.

It's a rich auction, with two copies of what at one point, at least, was the Grail of fantasy collectors: The Outsider and Others. And more, more, more, including original manuscripts by iconic creators, correspondence from some of them, and the like. Wow. Time to savor ...