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Books

Marvel Comics No. 1 has sold for a staggering figure

If you have a spare million up your sleeve, it turns out the second-hand market for comics is a better investment than a house.

An anonymous comic book collector had paid out $2.4 million for a copy of Marvel Comics No. 1. The first edition of the comic would originally have sold for 10 cents (around $2 today) back in 1939. Lucky for us, a digital version is available through Marvel for a buck 99. 

The comic book ‘that started it all’  was last at auction in 2019, when it sold for 1.26 million, now doubled in value, it will be interesting to see how the value goes up if and when the new owner decides to auction it off.  First published in October 1939 by Timely Comics, the comic introduced some of the lesser-known characters like the original Human Torch, the Angel, the Masked Raider, and Namor the Sub-Mariner. In essence, because Human Torch appears first in the list makes him  Marvel Comics first superhero.

Marvels First comic
Credit: Marvel

Its hefty price tag comes done to not only holding the No. 1. but also down to the fact that is a ‘pay copy’, in which the publisher writes in what they owed illustrators, adding to the comic book’s rarity.  Marvel’s website lists the pencilers as Carl Burgos, Al Anders, Bill Everett, and Paul Gustavson, with Burgos, Anders, and Everett also getting writing credits, in addition to Ben Thompson. 

It would be nice if the original contributors were paid royalties for reselling, but who knows, maybe in the near future, they will be.