The original comic book art that introduced Marvel readers to Iron Man has sold for a record $3,875,000, according to UPI Odd News and Heritage Auctions.
Heritage Auctions said the piece was Don Heck’s original artwork from page 1 of Marvel’s Tales of Suspense No. 39, published in March 1963. The artwork was sold Friday.
Joe Mannarino, Heritage Auctions’ New York-based director of comics and comic art, said the sale was driven by strong competition and described the page as a historic image from an important book. He said very few early Marvel splash pages are known to still exist.
The final price set a new world record for the most paid for a piece of original comic art. The previous record was $3,360,000 for a Mike Zeck page from 1984’s Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars No. 8, which shows Spider-Man’s black costume and sold in January 2022.
