My very first salary went on buying a (by no means mint) copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 for GBP 50, back when my dream job and lifestyle was to live in a mud hut in Africa and send Spidey scripts to Stan Lee in New York.

The recent $15 million private sale of Action Comics #1 – the comic that introduced Superman in 1938 – demonstrates the extraordinary investment potential of rare comics.

This shattered the previous $9.12 million record for Superman #1 set just months earlier, representing a 64% increase.

Market Context and Comparisons

The American classic comics market shows remarkable resilience, with key issues consistently appreciating. Action Comics #1 copies have climbed from $150,000 in 1996 to $2.2 million in 2011, reaching today’s record.

Other valuable specimens include Amazing Fantasy #15 (Spiderman’s debut) at $3.6 million (a personal note on that, below) and Batman #1 at $2.2 million.

The French Perspective

While France reveres comics as the “ninth art,” French classics command different values. The record for original comic art belongs to Hergé’s rejected Tintin cover for The Blue Lotus (€3.2 million/$3.8 million in 2021). However, published French comics rarely approach American prices – original Tintin drawings typically fetch €200,000-€500,000, with Asterix pages selling for under €350,000.

The View From The Beach

This record sale signals several trends:

• Scarcity premium: Only ~100 Action Comics #1 copies survive from 200,000 printed

• Cultural significance: Superman created an entire genre, enhancing investment appeal

• Provenance matters: Nicolas Cage’s stolen-copy narrative added value through notoriety

• Market maturation: Comics increasingly viewed as legitimate alternative investments

The French market, whilst culturally significant with 40.8% of European market share, operates differently – emphasising artistic merit over speculative investment, supported by government policies protecting book pricing and cultural status.

On a personal note, it was only last term I was teaching the kids in my school how the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 took the painting from revered provincial European art to global masterpiece status, and embroiled Picasso in the police investigation, all in the same year Machu Picchu was “discovered”. (My school is like no other.)

And on an even more personal note, about that Amazing Fantasy #15 sale.

Back in nineteen bow and arrow, my very first salary went on buying a (by no means mint) copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 for GBP 50, back when my dream job and lifestyle was to live in a mud hut in Africa and send Spidey scripts to Stan Lee in New York.

Well, here I am in Africa, and I get to write TNPS from here, so good enough for me!

I sold the Spidey classic a few years later for about GBP 250 – thinking I was the king of comics investors with such a ROI.

I can only wonder how much that not-mint-but-pretty-good-condition copy might be worth today.

This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.