The original John Romita, Sr. Amazing Spider-Man #49 cover art, featuring Spidey dueling the deadly dual menace of Kraven the Hunter and the Vulture brought $167,300 on Thursday, Aug. 18, as the web-slinging top lot in Heritage Auctions’ $4,45+ million Signature® Comics and Comics Art auction. All prices include 19.5% Buyer’s Premium. All told, the auction had a 96.5% sell-through rate by value and 98% by total lots in the auction.
The top comic book in the auction came in the form of a restored copy of Action Comics #1 (DC, 1938) CGC Apparent VF 8.0 Moderate, offered without reserve, which realized $149,375. Demand for the few elite super-keys of the comic hobby goes up with each passing year, and attractively restored Action #1s like the present example are among some of the most coveted.
Meanwhile, a very sharp copy of Spider-Man’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Marvel, 1962) was the object of vigorous bidding before closing at $83,650, almost exactly double the Overstreet Price Guide value for the issue. “The mood among collectors seems to be to grab strong copies of major key issues before they get even more expensive,” Jaster noted. This same trend meant strong prices for Captain America Comics #1 $34,655 for a VG+ 4.5 copy) and Archie Comics #1 ($20,315).
Great original comic cover art was in evidence well beyond the marquee Spider-Man cover, as demonstrated by the exceptional $89,625 price realized for Victor Moscoso’s original wraparound cover art for Zap Comix #4 (Apex Novelties/Print Mint, 1969).
“Up until now Robert Crumb was the only underground artist whose originals had commanded this kind of price,” said David Tosh, Consignment Director at Heritage, “but this is a classic of the Underground genre and the cover to one of the most important and groundbreaking comic books, as they pertain to matters of free speech in America.”
Those collectors that wanted the original Spider-Man #49 cover art, but were priced out, had the chance at another Romita masterpiece, this time a cover re-creation from 1994 of The Amazing Spider-Man #100, one of the most iconic of all Spidey covers, which eventually went to a determined bidder for $77,675.
“This is the highest price ever paid for a re-creation, and by quite a wide margin,” said Todd Hignite, Consignment Director for Heritage. “Bidders obviously loved the image.”
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