Marvel Comics No. 1 Sells for $1.26 Million at Heritage Auctions

Issue is most expensive Marvel comic ever sold at public auction

DALLAS, Texas (November 21, 2019) — The finest known copy of Marvel Comics No. 1, the 1939 comic book considered the “Big Bang” of the Marvel Comics Superhero Universe, sold for $1,260,000 Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019, at a public auction of vintage comic books and comic art held by Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas. The top lot helped lead the final total for the sale to $14,937,903.

The result for the top lot set a world record for the most expensive Marvel comic ever sold at public auction and an auction house record as the most expensive comic book ever sold by the world’s largest comic book and comic art auctioneer.

Robert Crumb Your Hytone Comix #nn "Stoned Agin!" Inside Back Cover Original Art (Apex Novelties, 1971) brought $690,000 against a pre-auction estimate of $250,000+. This legendary image, which has been reproduced countless times, as a blacklight poster, on pinback buttons, postcards, t-shirts, etc., is considered the ultimate must-have item for serious Crumb collectors.

Other top lots in the sale included:

Neal Adams Batman #251 Cover The Joker Original Art (DC, 1973): $600,000

Jack Kirby and Chic Stone Fantastic Four Annual #2 Splash Page 1 Doctor Doom Original Art (Marvel, 1964): $288,000

Jack Kirby and Syd Shores Captain America #103 Cover Red Skull Original Art (Marvel, 1968): $288,000

---