The noteworthy Batman collection of comics, known as the Alfred Pennyworth Collection, is heading to auction. The collection was amassed by Randy Lawrence over the course of 60 years and will be sold in Heritage’s Comics & Comic Art event on November 19-21, 2020.

This collection, which contains over 1,000 issues of Batman and Detective Comics, was almost lost to Lawrence. In early 2019, the collection made national headlines when it was stolen from his self-storage unit. He spent nearly two years working almost single-handedly to get the comics back. Now that they are back in his hands, Lawrence consigned them to Heritage.

The collection’s Golden Age issues will be available in the November auction. They include Batman #2 CGC 9.0, #6 CGC 9.4, #20 CGC 9.4, and #39 CGC 9.6, and Detective Comics #140 CGC 8.0. Lawrence collected a nearly complete run of Batman after #2 and Detective Comics after #37 and many of the books in the sale are among the highest graded copies to hit the market.

Among the featured books is Detective Comics #134 CGC 9.6 which is not only the highest graded copy by CGC but is also the first one that Heritage has offered over a 9.0 grade.

The Silver and Bronze Age issues will be offered in Heritage’s January 2021 signature sale. Additional titles, most of which are more modern, will be sold in their Sunday sales beginning in January.

“Randy was diligent in building his collection,” Aaron White, a consignment director in Heritage’s comics and comic art category, said. “He was devastated when the books were stolen, but earlier this year he called me and said, ‘I got the books back and I would feel more comfortable selling them now, so it doesn’t happen again.’”

Lawrence began collecting comics in the spring of 1965 when he was a kid. His father bought him the comics, which turned into a lifetime hobby of collecting Batman comics. In January 2019 Lawrence visited his storage unit to find that all of his comics had been stolen. As the police investigated, Lawrence posted the inventory of graded titles on comics message boards and it started making headlines across the country. Then a comic store owner in Phoenix caught a man trying to sell a handful of the stolen books. He was arrested and eventually the stolen books were returned to Lawrence. For a brief period, he started collecting again before deciding to sell them through Heritage.

“I wish my father had been around,” Lawrence said. “I get a little emotional. This whole thing was really because of him. I don't know if I ever would have read a comic or bought a comic. It was all because of that Sunday morning, waking up with those comics on the floor. He would have kept me sane the whole time the comics were gone, and he would have relished their return.”