We tell you why a copy of the Marvel Comics #1 comic strip was auctioned for $2.4 million It is a historical document and, in addition to containing annotations in the hand of one of the editors, it introduces some of the Marvel characters for the first time.

This article was translated from our Spanish edition.

Marvel

Every story has a beginning.

For Marvel it is Marvel Comics #1 , a cartoon published on August 31, 1939 by Martin Goodman and his publisher, Timley Comics . With stories written and drawn by artists such as Bill Everett, Carl Burgos and Ray Gill, it represents the foundation stone of what would become Marvel Comics years later.

A copy of that first edition sold for $2.4 million at auction last week. In addition to the historical value that the first edition has, it is the "copy of payments" (used by the publisher to record what was owed to each of the collaborators) with annotations in the handwriting of the editor Lloyd Jacquet . In its 68 pages, short stories of some of the characters that would end up being part of the Marvel legacy appear: the Human Torch , Angel , Submariner , Ka-Zar and Masked Raider . For collectors, the copies in which the characters appear for the first time have a special value. The record for a comic book auction is held by Superman, Action Comics #1 sold for $3.18 million; although a single page of the Secret Wars #8 comic book was auctioned off for $3.36 million for being the one that first shows Spider-Man in the symbiotic black suit that would give rise to Venom .

Although the characters that appear in Marvel Comics #1 are not as emblematic, the fact that the issue contains annotations from the publisher catapulted its value in the auction organized by Comic Connect . As you can see in the video, the specimen is in perfect condition and was acquired by a private collector outside the United States who did not want to reveal his name.

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Eduardo Scheffler Zawadzki

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