The Amazing Spider-Man No 1, $1.38m (£1.09m) at Heritage Auctions.
More than 5500 bidders worldwide racked up a premium-inclusive $20,338,429 sale total and set a number of records – thanks to scarce highest-graded examples of key titles.
One of only two copies of The Amazing Spider-Man No 1, graded CGC Near Mint/Mint 9.8, achieved a new high of a premium-inclusive $1.38m (£1.09m).
The comic book, which hit newsstands in March 1963, just seven months after Peter Parker and his web-slinging alter-ego debuted in Amazing Fantasy No 15, was making its first auction appearance at Heritage.
The Dallas firm said: “This landmark book came from CGC’s Curator Pedigree and sold for nearly three times the amount realised by the CGC Near Mint+ 9.6 copy that sold in July 2023 for $520,380.”
Superman No 1, $2.34m (£1.85m) at Heritage.
Meanwhile, one of only two copies of Superman No 1 graded Fine/Very Fine 7.0 took a premium-inclusive $2.34m (£1.85m) at Heritage, close to a record high for the first issue of the Man of Steel’s solo book.
A bidding battle over the single highest-graded copy of 1942’s All Star Comics No 8, featuring the debut of Wonder Woman, drove its final price to a premium-inclusive $1.5m (£1.19m).
Showcase No 4, $900,000 (£711,000) at Heritage.
Kicking off the Silver Age of comics was 1956’s Showcase No 4, which introduced Barry Allen’s Flash. A bidding war helped this book graded Near Mint+ 9.6 race to its final premium-inclusive price of $900,000 (£711,000), smashing the previous high of $179,250.
Not far behind was the world’s highest-graded copy of The Brave and the Bold No 28, in which the Justice League of America debuted. Heritage billed it as a “stunning Near Mint+ copy” and it realised a record-setting $810,000 (£639,900).
The “nicest copy of Incredible Hulk No 1 Heritage has ever offered”, a CGC Near Mint- 9.2 example, took an auction record of $825,000 (£651,750). And a Silver Surfer No 1 from the Boston Pedigree, graded CGC Near Mint/Mint 9.8, hit a new record of $132,000 (£104,280).
Pulp appeal
Comics had company in this extensive sale. Heritage has offered but a handful of copies of the October 1912 All-Story, in which Edgar Rice Burroughs introduced readers to ‘Tarzan King of the Jungle’. The copy in this auction, the “finest unrestored copy Heritage has ever offered”, sold for a premium-inclusive $264,000 (£208,560), “shattering a pulp record once held by The Shadow”.
