The Incredible Hulk No 1, £14,000 at Bamfords.
The Incredible Hulk, created by legendary duo writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, was the second title launched during the Marvel Age, just a few months after The Fantastic Four No1 first appeared in late 1961.
The original Hulk run was cancelled after only six issues, however, with the charcater appearing in other Marvel titles instead. Hulk became a regular feature in the anthology title Tales to Astonish in 1964 but was given his own title again in 1968.
At Bamfords’ (24.75% buyer’s premium) sale on September 13 in Derby a copy of The Incredible Hulk No 1 was estimated at £8000- 12,000 in ‘The World’s Finest’ Comic Book Auction - Silver to Modern Age Marvel, DC and Indie Comic Books.
It came CGC Graded 5.0 (very good/fine - halfway along the scale up to 10) and sold for £14,000.
Quality control
Copies of this debut comic do come up relatively often at auction so condition is a crucial factor to value. Perhaps just 27 copies are known to exist with a CGC grade at or above 9.0, with four at 9.4 and none above.
Also offered in the UK, in May this year a well-worn example took a hammer price of £6000 in a Comic Book Auctions timed online sale, while another made £7500 at Newcastle saleroom Anderson & Garland in the same month. They were British issues.
The Incredible Hulk No 2, £2100 at Bamfords.
Back at Bamfords, a copy of The Incredible Hulk No2 - when his skin turns to green - CGC Graded 4.5, sold for £2100.
UK editions of Marvel comics can be identified by the price in pence - 9d for The Incredible Hulk No 1 (like Bamfords’ copy) - and are generally less popular with US collectors. Stateside-based comic collectors are prepared to shell out big six-figure sums for the most well-preserved versions.
In 2016, the ‘Northland Pedigree’ (Northland collection) CGC 9.2 copy of The Incredible Hulk No 1 sold for $375,000 (about £277,500). In November 2018 Heritage in Dallas sold a 9.2 rated copy at $280,000 (£218,750). However, in January last year it emerged that a private collector had bought a copy for $490,000 (£360,000) on the Comicconnect.com auction site.
Vincent Zurzolo from the New York firm said at the time: “Highly graded copies of Hulk No 1 are notoriously hard to find, due to the cheap paper used and the smudging of the grey colour on the front cover.
“This particular book is graded 9.0 Very Fine/Near Mint on the CGC scale. There are only seven higher-graded copies in existence, and it’s quite rare to see one come up for sale.”
