Hulk #1 Smashes Record At $125,000+ to Lead $4.8 Million Heritage Auctions Event

Quality and depth add up to fourth best auction ever of vintage comics and comic art at Heritage Auctions, Nov. 19-21

A CGC Near Mint 9.2 graded copy of The Incredible Hulk #1, long considered one of the most difficult Silver Age Marvel comics to find in high grade, brought $125,475 as part of Heritage Auctions' $4.8 million Vintage Comics and Comic Art Auction, Nov. 19-21, in Dallas.

"Overall we're very pleased, of course," said Barry Sandoval, Director of Comics Operations at Heritage Auctions. "The market is quite strong. Collectors took full advantage of great prices on a broad and striking array of superb books and vintage art and our consignors fared just as well — we had seven consignors bring in more than $100,000 and four of those surpassed $200,000."

The Marvel line as we know it today had not been around very long when The Incredible Hulk debuted; it was Marvel's second Silver Age superhero series, appearing with a May 1962 cover date — preceded only by the Fantastic Four, which was merely on its fourth issue. Spider-Man and Thor followed before 1962 was out, but Marvel had hardly put itself on the map in the minds of superhero collectors by this point, and the whole Hulk series was no overnight success, being canceled after six issues. Needless to say, not a lot of Hulk #1s survived, and those that did were mostly in poor condition, as the midnight blue cover background ruthlessly exposed even the smallest imperfection in any given copy.

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