Captain America Comic Sells For $ 3.1 M

The sale sets a new high for “Captain America Comics No. 1” and places it among the top five most valuable comics ever sold. The total price, including the buyer's premium, was $3,120,000. It was auctioned off as part of Heritage Auctions' comics and comic art events, which ran till Sunday.

 

The comic was first published in December 1940, a full year before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which precipitated the United States' entry into World War II. It contains one of the comics medium's most iconic covers, with the hero punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

 

With the now-famous story of a weak young man named Steve Rogers who is injected with a serum that transforms him into a super-soldier, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created the hero for Timely Comics, the predecessor to Marvel Comics. Cap's sidekick, Bucky, was also introduced, who would go on to become the Winter Soldier in modern times and star in Marvel Studios films and a Disney+ series. The comic was an immediate success, selling hundreds of thousands of copies per month.

There are only three copies in the excellent CGC 9.4 grade, and one of them has only been auctioned once before. (A single 9.8 copy exists, according to the CGC census, although it has never been auctioned.)

Vintage comics are becoming increasingly valuable, and this is one of just three that have sold for more than $3 million in public. “Amazing Fantasy No. 15”, which featured Spider-first Man's appearance, sold for $3.6 million in September 2021, breaking the record for most expensive comic. Before the current mania for comics and comic art, an “Action Comics No. 1” sold for $3.2 million in 2014.

A few more have joined the $2 million club. A copy of “Marvel Comics No. 1” from 1939 sold for $2.4 million last month, and two editions of Action Comics, as well as a “Batman No. 1” from January 2021, went for $2.2 million.