Vintage comics in unbelievably pristine conditions brought home record sales figures at the latest Heritage Auctions event with a near-mint (9.4 CGC) copy of 1941’s Captain America Comics #1 selling for $3,120,000 and a near mint copy (9.2 CGC) of Fantastic Four #1 selling for $1.5 million.
The ultra-rare first appearance of Steve Rogers as Captain America hailed from the San Francisco Pedigree Collection (the finest copy of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon’s comic book Heritage Auctions has offered up to the public in two decades), and Cap joined Spider-Man and Superman as the only other heroes whose debut issue fetched over $3 million at auction. The sale of Captain America Comics #1 also represents the fourth-highest price ever paid for a comic book at auction.
Captain America and his co-creator also set another auction record during the first session of Heritage’s April 7-10 Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction®, when the splash page from August 1964’s Tales of Suspense #59 (Captain America’s first solo Silver Age story) sold for $630,000. That lofty figure is the highest price ever paid at auction a piece of Kirby’s original art, besting last year’s record sale of Kirby’s cover for Fantastic Four #86 for $480,000.
Speaking of the Four, Stan Lee and Kirby’s foundational first issue of Fantastic Four from 1961 was the second-highest price ever paid for a non-Golden Age comic.
Heritage Auctions Vice President Barry Sandoval was understandably pleased with the record sales, saying that “Every time I looked up during the comic art portion of the session, a new record was falling, and with the comic books, that trend continued. We knew this was a selection of truly exceptional material, and we’re thrilled bidders agreed with that.”
Check out both precious comics below, provided by the good people at Heritage Auctions.
