The iconic cover art to one of the all-time masterpieces of comic books just sold for a staggering $155,350.

A collector who chose to remain anonymous bought the original Watchmen No. 1 cover art by artist Dave Gibbons at a Heritage auction in New York yesterday via phone bid. Other art from the dystopian superhero series brought in large sums as well, as the Watchmen No. 2 cover sold for $38,837.50, the Watchmen No. 3 cover for $22,705, and the color guide to Watchmen No. 1 sold for $7,767.50. (All prices include Heritage’s standard 19.5 percent buyer’s premium.)

Long considered one of the greatest works in the comics medium generally and the superhero genre specifically, Watchmen was scripted by acclaimed writer Alan Moore and published by DC Comics in 1985, although Moore's relationship with the company has been fraught with controversy in recent years, particularly after the the series was adapted into a feature film and spun off into a prequel series against Moore's wishes.

The six-figure sum for a single comic book cover is part of a recebt price explosion for high-profile original art in the comics market. In this same auction, the John Romita-drawn cover to 1973’s Amazing Spider-Man No. 121 sold for $286,800, and last July the Todd McFarlane-drawn cover to 1990’s Amazing Spider-Man No. 328 sold for $657,250 at another Heritage auction – a record high price for a piece of American comic book art.

The *Watchmen *art at yesterday's event was consigned by former Wizard magazine Publisher Gareb Shamus, who bought all 12 Watchmen covers in one lot at a Sotheby’s auction in 1993 at what seems, in retrospect, to be a bargain price.

“I was sitting next to Gareb when the covers came up for bid and the price — at the time — was not cheap,” former art dealer Scott Dunbier told Wired. “I remember telling him he really should buy them, that this was a piece of comic book history that would never be available again as one lot.”

Shamus did, and later purchased the Watchmen No. 1 color guide (which again, just sold for over $7,700) from Dunbier for $50. “That seemed like a lot at the time, as things like that typically went for only $5 or $10,” Shamus said. “But it was Watchmen, so I figured, 'Eh. I've got the covers. I'll get this.'"

Shamus publicly displayed all the covers at the WizardWorld Philadelphia convention in 2009. Now, he says it’s time for someone else to have them.

“I enjoyed owning them. There was an immense amount of pride of ownership in that,” he told Wired. “If you buy something you enjoy, you can never go wrong. I’m a collector. The fact that something might appreciate in value is just a bonus.”

The artist, Dave Gibbons, hasn’t seen the covers since he drew them in 1986. “My experience with original art was that a lot of the money pages went quickly, and then you were left with potato pages after the meat was gone,” Gibbons said. “So when [Comic Showcase store owner] Paul [Hudson] offered to buy each Watchmen issue off me, complete, that seemed like a really good idea to me.”

The problem for Gibbons? He never specifically discussed the covers as part of the deal. “Covers were just thrown in with the art from the original issues,” he said. “I'm too embarrassed to tell you how much I got for them. But I will tell you [that] a whole issue was less than 10 percent of what individual pages are going for now.”

Interior Watchmen pages now sell for $6,000 to $30,000 each, but Gibbons says he has no bitterness. “I've always been of the opinion that a deal's a deal, and it seemed a good idea at the time. You can never cry over spilled milk. The deal I had with Paul Hudson was perfectly fair. We both entered into it thinking it was going to be a good idea for us. It perhaps didn't turn out that way. But it's all under the bridge.”