Comics used to be consigned to the bin when Mum would clean the bedrooms in my family home.
Now the first Marvel comic has been sold in an online auction for, wait for it, around $3.2 million ($US2.43 million) to a man who wishes to remain nameless, but is “an extremely passionate comic book collector and investor”.
“(It’s) arguably one of the top three comic books in the world of comics collecting,” said Vincent Zurzolo, chief operating officer of New York-based ComicConnect, which auctioned the comic.
Published in 1939, Marvel Comics #1 introduced characters including Sub-Mariner and the original Human Torch, a precursor of the character of the same name that was later a member of Marvel’s Fantastic Four. The book launched what became the Marvel universe of comics, movies, TV shows and video games.
The very well-preserved “pay copy” is especially sought-after because it bears the publisher’s handwritten notes recording how much the multiple writers and artists were paid. For example, Frank R. Paul earned $US25 for drawing the cover of a book now worth nearly 100,000 times as much.
To think I grumble about a cup of coffee at the café up the road!
