The original drawing of a character now splashed across movie screens worldwide may be bound to smash an auction record. Deadpool and Wolverine, starring Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, aka Wade Wilson, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, aka Logan, has become the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, with $824 million. So, the owner of the original drawing that introduced the Deadpool character has been persuaded to part with the artwork. 

Artist Rob Liefeld’s cover art for New Mutants No. 98 introduced the Marvel Comics character, who is also called “merc with a mouth” because he is a mercenary who cracks a lot of jokes. It is now up for sale at Heritage Auctions with a $7.5 million asking price. If it sells, it could beat the current record price for any comics artwork: $6 million, paid for a Frank Frazetta painting at the same auction house last year.

Rob Liefeld, cover art for New Mutants No. 98. Courtesy Heritage Auctions.

The anonymous seller picked the piece up nearly two decades ago and, according to Heritage, has declined numerous offers to buy it since then. But, said the seller, with the film’s runaway success, “The time is right.” 

While some of Marvel’s other comics were thriving, Leifeld said, New Mutants was hanging by a thread in 1990, so the publisher told him to fill it “with whatever energy, ideas, and creativity you have, because we are going to turn the lights off, otherwise. This is kind of like the last chance.”

It was 23-year-old Liefeld’s last chance, too, in a way; his father was fighting a long battle with cancer, and his parents were broke. “New Mutants was my ticket,” he told the publication Comic Book Resources.

Deadpool was, to say the least, a big success. The very first fan letter about the new character read: “I love him. He looks cool, is obviously the best at what he does, and he has a great attitude. And he’s funny. He reminds me of Spidey, both visually and with his wisecracks. Deadpool is basically Spidey wielding instruments of death rather than webs. But it works!”

While the movie has proven to be a box office smash, with a commanding 96 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, not everyone loves it; NPR’s Justin Chang called it a “self-cannibalizing slog,” and the AV Club’s Jesse Hassenger said that the stars only manage to “battle superhero bullshit to a stalemate.”