Heritage Auctions recently auctioned off the highest-graded copy of Marvel Comics No. 1, originally issued in 1939, for a hefty $1.26 million USD. This pristine copy received a 9.4 rating out of 10 by Certified Guaranty Company and so far, only two other copies that have received a rating of 9.0 or higher. Previous to being auctioned, it was owned by a Pennsylvanian mailman who was a big comic book collector.
In Marvel Comics #1 (cover-dated Oct. 1939) we get the first appearances of the Human Torch and costumed detective the Angel. It’s also the first generally available appearance of Bill Everett’s mutant anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner, created for the unpublished movie-theater giveaway comic Motion Picture Funnies Weekly earlier that year.
The initial comic quickly sold out of all 80,000 copies, prompting pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodman to produce a second printing, cover-dated November 1939 and identical except for a black bar in the inside-front-cover indicia over the October date, and the November date added at the end. That issue sold a whopping 800,000 copies, which prompted Goodman to begin assembling an in-house staff, hiring Funnies, Inc. writer-artist Joe Simon as editor.
