The original drawing that marked the first appearance of the hero Iron Man in Marvel Comics comics was auctioned on Tuesday, July 7th, for a record price of 3,875,000 dollars.
Heritage Auctions, responsible for the event, announced that the original artwork by Don Heck, from the first page of issue number 39 of Marvel’s ‘Tales of Suspense’, published in March 1963, was sold on the same Friday.
“A fantastic image and a historic book come together for a record price,” said Joe Mannarino, director of comics and comic art at Heritage Auctions in New York, in a press release. He added that “very few of Marvel’s opening pages are known to exist. When one appears, the market is ready to react.”
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Mannarino detailed that the auction was extremely competitive, with a total of six interested parties raising their bids even after the value surpassed the 3 million dollar mark.
The final price set a new world record for the highest amount ever paid for an original work of comic book art. The previous record, at $3,360,000, was held by a piece by Mike Zeck from issue number 8 of ‘Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars’, from 1984, which depicts the first appearance of Spider-Man’s black suit and was sold in January 2022.
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