Posted in: Comics, Vintage Paper | Tagged: fantastic four, jack kirby, stan lee

Ahead of New Movie, Fantastic Four #1 CGC 9.6 Sets $2,040,000 Record

The highest graded copy of the debut of the World's Greatest Comic Magazine, Fantastic Four #1 CGC 9.6, has just set a record at auction.

Published Thu, 12 Sep 2024 12:25:07 -0500

by Mark Seifert

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Article Summary

Fantastic Four #1 CGC 9.6 sells for record price at Heritage Auctions' September 2024 event.
This Marvel milestone introduced Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing.
The previous record for Fantastic Four #1 was set by a CGC 9.2 copy sold for $1.5M in April 2022.
CGC 9.6 copies of Fantastic Four #1 are exceedingly rare, with only two in existence and none higher.

A copy of Fantastic Four #1 CGC 9.6 White pages has just been sold for a record $2,040,000 at this afternoon's session of the 2024 September 12 – 15 Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction #7379 at Heritage Auctions. The November 1961 cover-dated comic book by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee was released on August 8, 1961, and is the beginning of what became an integrated Marvel Universe of superheroes in the Silver Age. The issue introduced the team of Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), the Invisible Woman (Sue Storm), the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), and the Thing (Ben Grimm), who gained superpowers after being exposed to cosmic rays during an unauthorized rocket mission into space. The title went on to become a Marvel cornerstone franchise over the subsequent decades. There are only two CGC 9.6 copies on the CGC census, and none higher.

This result is the highest price ever paid for a copy of Fantastic Four #1, at least in a public sale. The previous record-holder was a CGC 9.2 copy, which sold for $1,500,000 in April 2022. In 2008, one of the two census-topping CGC 9.6 copies changed hands in a cash/trade deal valued at around $450,000. By comparison, the first appearance of Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15 CGC 9.6 (four entries in CGC 9.6, none higher) sold for $3,600,000 in September 2021, a Silver Age comic book record. The record price for a Silver Age DC Comic book was set by a copy of Showcase #4 CGC 9.6, the first appearance of Barry Allen as Flash, which sold for $900,000 in January 2024.

Broken down by era, the top of the top sales of the vintage paper market are as follows:

Pulps: All-Story October 1912 (first appearance of Tarzan), VG, January 2024 sale for $264,000.
Golden Age Comics: Action Comics #1 (first appearance of Superman) CGC 8.5, April 2024 sale for $6,000,000.
Silver Age Comics: Amazing Fantasy #15 (first appearance of Spider-Man) CGC 9.6, September 2021 sale for $3,600,000.
Bronze Age Comics: Marvel Spotlight #5 (first appearance of Ghost Rider) CGC 9.8, January 2024 sale for $360,000.
Copper Age Comics: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, CGC 9.8, December 2021 sale for $250,000.

Fantastic Four #1 (Marvel, 1961) CGC NM+ 9.6 White pages

If you called this the most desirable Silver Age comic ever to be auctioned, you would get no argument from us. A scintillating copy of the comic book that launched the Marvel Age! We can't imagine a nicer copy, and CGC hasn't certified one yet! The colors, the white background of the cover, the corners, the spine, the white pages – all mark this as a near perfect copy. In our history, we've never sold a higher-graded copy than a 9.2 – most recently in 2022, and that book fetched a tidy $1,500,000! This 9.6 gem is being offered for the very first time!

From a rarity factor, CGC has certified a mere eight copies higher than VF/NM 9.0 – and only two as high as NM+ 9.6, with none higher – which makes this issue much rarer than Amazing Fantasy #15, of which CGC has certified 15 copies nicer than 9.0.

Of course, the importance of this issue simply cannot be overstated. After lagging behind DC in popularity and sales in the 1940s, and being dominated by its rival throughout the 1950s, the worm started to turn for Timely / Atlas / Marvel with this brilliant creation from the formidable minds of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Essentially, all things Marvel yet to come started right here. More and more collectors are giving this book its due, as evidenced by its value jump in the latest edition of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, an impressive 17% over the previous year, by far the largest jump of any of the top-rated books on Overstreet's Top 50 Silver Age Comics list.

In this issue is the origin and first appearance of the Fantastic Four, Marvel's first superhero team, as well as the first appearance of their lifelong foe, Mole Man. And while Jack Kirby was already a revered name in comics, and Stan Lee had been contributing scripts for nearly 20 years, this is the issue where the legend of Stan Lee sprouted wings. Together the duo of Lee and Kirby blazed a trail of excellence in storytelling in large part due to their 101-issue association with the Fantastic Four title. Overstreet 2024 NM- 9.2 value = $350,000. CGC census 9/24: 2 in 9.6, none higher.

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