Heritage Auctions has revealed a new lineup of classic comic book artwork included in the upcoming Comic Art Signature Auction event, and there are truly some doozies. Among them is an iconic page from 1968’s Iron Man #1, originally owned by none other than Marvel Studios founding chairman David Maisel.
The art in question is the opening splash page from that issue, making it the very first piece of art from the very first solo Iron Man comic. The art was created by penciller Gene Colan and inker Johnny Craig. Check it out below:
Unsurprisingly, owning a true piece of comic book history like this won’t come cheap. The page is currently up for auction, with the price as of the time of publish already reaching a whopping $6,750.
“Gene created two things,” Maisel said in a press release. “He made the suit expressive and almost limber, and he was very cinematic in his art, and almost foreseeing the MCU at some point in time, almost 40 years later. The combination of it being the historic first page of the first issue, the big art of a Page 1 splash, the fun ‘What a way to start out in your own mag’ and Gene’s art was something I couldn’t say no to.”
There are several other historic pages featured in this auction event. One is artist Jerry Robinson’s cover to 1942’s Detective Comics #68. Not only is that issue the second appearance of Two-Face, the sheer fact that a piece of original art from the Golden Age has survived in such good shape is pretty notable. The same goes for Joe Shuster’s cover to 1940’s Action Comics #22.
Other noteworthy listings include several pages from Frank Miller’s seminal Daredevil run from the 1980s and Jim Lee’s cover to 1992’s X-Men #6 (which is currently bidding at an eye-watering $135,000). Clearly, collecting original comic art is not a hobby for the frugal.
Would you like to bid on this Iron Man #1 page or any of the other art featured above? Let us know in the comments.
For more, learn how the Marvel Masterworks line is making a comeback this year, see our exclusive interview about the upcoming finale of Star Trek: The Last Starship, and brush up on the 15 best Wolverine comics.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
