Marvel Comics #1 Sells for $223,500 at ComicLink
One of the most important comic books ever published has sold for $223,500, as a CGC 2.5 copy of Marvel Comics #1 changed hands in ComicLink’s Summer Featured Auction. The 1939 Golden Age landmark attracted 70 bids before the auction closed on August 26. The copy carries the Cookeville Collection pedigree and is certified CGC 2.5 with a Universal label, cream to off-white pages and no restoration.
Published by Timely Comics, the company that would eventually become Marvel, Marvel Comics #1 introduced readers to the original Human Torch, Jim Hammond. Unlike Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four, Hammond was an android capable of engulfing his body in flames.
The issue is also significant for the first published, publicly distributed appearance and origin of Namor the Sub-Mariner. Namor had previously appeared in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1, but that publication was never publicly distributed. Marvel Comics #1 also contains the first appearances of Ka-Zar, Angel, Jungle Terror and the Masked Raider.
ComicLink describes Marvel Comics #1 as one of the “Big 3” Golden Age comic books alongside Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27. The title would become Marvel Mystery Comics beginning with its second issue, while the Marvel name eventually became the identity of the publisher itself decades later.
The copy sold this week stands out not only because of the issue’s importance, but also because of its provenance. It comes from the Cookeville Collection, a pedigree collection consisting of nearly 5,000 comic books dating from the late 1930s through the early 1950s.
According to ComicLink, just 42 copies of Marvel Comics #1 have been certified by CGC as unrestored, and this example is one of only three graded CGC 2.5. CGC’s broader Population Report currently lists only 76 certified examples of the issue across all categories. Marvel Comics #1 originally hit newsstands in 1939 and sold approximately 80,000 copies, according to CGC. More than eight decades later, surviving examples remain among the most closely watched Golden Age books whenever they reach the market.
The $223,500 Marvel Comics #1 was the highest-priced comic highlighted by CGC from the ComicLink sale. Another major Marvel key, a CGC 9.8 copy of Marvel Spotlight #5 featuring the first appearance of Ghost Rider, sold for $177,300. Other notable results included a CGC 9.4 Fantastic Four #5 at $100,001, a CGC 9.4 Human Torch #1 at $88,000 and a CGC 1.0 Batman #1 at $67,000.