The Amazing Spider-Man #1

A tryout that sold

Spider-Man began as a gamble that his publisher expected to lose nothing on. Stan Lee, Marvel's editor and head writer, needed publisher Martin Goodman's approval for a teenage superhero. As Lee told it many times, Goodman agreed to a tryout only in what was to be the final issue of a science-fiction and supernatural anthology, renamed Amazing Fantasy for issue #15 (cover-dated August 1962, on sale June 5, 1962). Lee said the planned cancellation was the only reason Goodman let him present the character.

A few months later Goodman reviewed the sales figures for that issue and was shocked to find it was one of the young Marvel line's highest-selling comics. A solo series followed. The Amazing Spider-Man #1 went on sale on December 10, 1962, according to the publication date in U.S. Copyright Office filings, with a March 1963 cover date. It cost 12 cents and ran 36 pages.

The issue holds two stories. The first, 14 pages long, briefly recaps the origin from Amazing Fantasy #15 and has Spider-Man rescue John Jameson, son of newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson, from a malfunctioning space capsule. The second, 10 pages, has Spider-Man try to join the Fantastic Four and then stop a new villain, the Chameleon.

Lee, Ditko and a Kirby cover

The credits are Stan Lee for script and Steve Ditko for the interior art, with Stan Goldberg coloring. The lettering was split: Jon D'Agostino, credited as "Johnny Dee," lettered the first story and John Duffy, credited as "John Duffi," the second. Jack Kirby penciled the cover and Ditko inked it, the same arrangement used on Amazing Fantasy #15, whose cover Lee had also assigned to Kirby. Some auction descriptions credit Ditko alone with the cover; the standard index of credits gives Kirby the pencils.

Who created Spider-Man is argued to this day. Lee said he came up with the name and the idea of an ordinary teenager. Kirby said the concept grew out of an unused 1950s character he had worked on with Joe Simon. Ditko, who designed the costume, said, "I still don't know whose idea was Spider-Man," but regarded the published character as his and Lee's creation. Kirby himself said in a 1971 interview that it was Ditko who "got Spider-Man to roll." Lee eventually said that if Ditko wanted to be called co-creator, he deserved it.

Ditko's art set the series apart. His quirky style was a stark contrast to Kirby's cleaner, more dynamic work, and the stories under Lee and Ditko made Peter Parker a hard-luck, self-doubting teenager with money worries, a frail Aunt May and a bully at school, the first major teenage superhero to be the lead rather than a sidekick. Ditko eventually plotted the stories as well as drawing them. The two men stopped speaking, and Ditko left after issue #38 (July 1966); the reasons for the split have never been fully explained.

December 1962

The issue reached newsstands weeks after the Cuban Missile Crisis, which began on October 14, 1962, when a U-2 flight photographed Soviet missiles being installed in Cuba, and ended on November 20 when President Kennedy lifted the quarantine. Two days before the comic went on sale, on December 8, a newspaper strike shut down all of New York City's major papers; it lasted 114 days. The comic's new character, J. Jonah Jameson, was a New York newspaper publisher.

The space program was in the news, and the issue's rescue of an astronaut from a failing capsule fit the moment. John Glenn had orbited the earth that February, President Kennedy had promised at Rice University in September that the country would put a man on the moon within the decade, and on December 14, 1962, the Mariner 2 probe flew past Venus, the first spacecraft to send back data from another planet.

The young Marvel line was taking shape around the issue. The same month brought Iron Man's debut in Tales of Suspense #39, along with Fantastic Four #12, a Thor story in Journey into Mystery #89 and an Ant-Man story in Tales to Astonish #41.

The Curator copy

The entry here is a single copy: the Curator pedigree Amazing Spider-Man #1, graded CGC 9.8 (Near Mint/Mint) with white pages. The Curator collection is considered one of the best Silver Age collections ever found. It was built from the late 1950s into the 1980s by a museum employee, which gave it its name, and the comics were stored in tight packs on the museum's premises; its condition peaks in 1962. John Hauser acquired most of the books in the 1990s and sold many of them without a pedigree identification, so some Curator copies cannot now be identified.

The collection's highlights include an Avengers #1 in 9.4, an X-Men #1 in 9.8, a Tales of Suspense #47 in 9.9 and this Amazing Spider-Man #1 in 9.8. As of December 2023 the grading census showed only two copies of the issue at 9.8 and none higher. The January 2024 sale was the first time a 9.8 copy had come to public auction, and the auction's own catalog noted that no sale of the issue in that grade had ever been recorded.

It sold on January 11, 2024, in the opening session of a four-day comics auction, for $1,380,000, the record for the issue. That was nearly three times the previous record of $520,380, set in July 2023 for a 9.6 copy. In the same sale a Superman #1 graded 7.0 brought $2.34 million. "It was obvious this Spider-Man was an opportunity not likely to come around, and the final price reflected that," the auction's vice president said afterward.

The 9.6 copies and the climb to seven figures

Below the two 9.8s, the grading census in June 2023 showed five copies at 9.6. Their sales trace the issue's rise. A 9.6 described as the Curator copy sold at auction in November 2016 for $262,900. A 9.6 brought $336,000 in November 2022. Then on July 26, 2023, a 9.6 with white pages from the John B. Goodrich collection, held privately for 25 years, sold at auction in York, Pennsylvania, for $520,380, the record at the time.

The same July 2023 sale shows how fast value falls with grade: a copy graded 6.5 brought $32,969, and an Amazing Fantasy #15, the character's actual first appearance, brought $170,844 in 7.5.

The two top copies of the two Spider-Man keys now sit far apart. The best Amazing Fantasy #15, a 9.6, sold for $3.6 million in 2021, while the best Amazing Spider-Man #1 brought $1.38 million in 2024.

The flagship

The Amazing Spider-Man became the character's flagship and, eventually, Marvel's top-selling series. It was the only monthly series starring Spider-Man until 1976, and most of the major characters and events of the Spider-Man saga were introduced in its pages. In the issues that followed the first, Lee and Ditko introduced the Vulture (#2), Doctor Octopus (#3), the Sandman (#4), the Lizard (#6), Electro (#9), Mysterio (#13), the Green Goblin (#14) and Kraven the Hunter (#15).

The two characters introduced in #1 lasted too. J. Jonah Jameson became Spider-Man's permanent antagonist in print, and his son John later became the Man-Wolf. The series ran continuously until #441 in November 1998, was relaunched, returned to its original numbering with #500 in December 2003 and passed 900 issues in 2022.

The character's reach went far beyond comics quickly. A 1965 Esquire poll of college campuses found students ranking Spider-Man, along with the Hulk, beside Bob Dylan and Che Guevara among their favorite revolutionary icons. One student said Spider-Man was "beset by woes, money problems, and the question of existence. In short, he is one of us."

The numbers

Print run

No figure verified; not stated by the sources used

CGC census, December 2023

2 copies at 9.8, none higher

CGC census, June 20, 2023

5 copies at 9.6, 2 graded higher

Pages

36, with a 14-page and a 10-page Spider-Man story

Cover price

12 cents

Job number

V-816 (first story)

Timeline

1. Jun 5, 1962

   Amazing Fantasy #15, cover-dated August 1962, goes on sale with Spider-Man's first appearance.

2. Dec 10, 1962

   The Amazing Spider-Man #1 goes on sale, cover-dated March 1963.

3. May 1963

   Issue #2 introduces the Vulture and the Tinkerer.

4. Jul 1963

   Issue #3 introduces Doctor Octopus.

5. Jul 1964

   Issue #14 introduces the Green Goblin.

6. Jul 1966

   Steve Ditko's last issue, #38.

7. Nov 1998

   The original series ends its first run with #441 before a relaunch.

8. Dec 2003

   The series returns to its original numbering with #500.

9. Nov 2016

   A CGC 9.6 copy described as the Curator copy sells at auction for $262,900.

10. Nov 2022

    A CGC 9.6 copy sells at auction for $336,000.

11. Jun 20, 2023

    Grading census shows five copies at 9.6 and two graded higher.

12. Jul 26, 2023

    A CGC 9.6 from the John B. Goodrich collection sells for a record $520,380 at auction in York, Pennsylvania.

13. Dec 2023

    Grading census shows two copies at 9.8, none higher.

14. Jan 11, 2024

    The Curator pedigree CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $1,380,000, the first 9.8 offered publicly and the record for the issue.

The world in 1962

• Feb 20, 1962

  John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, aboard Friendship 7.

• Sep 12, 1962

  At Rice University, President Kennedy says the United States will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

• Oct 14, 1962

  The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when a U-2 flight photographs Soviet missiles being installed in Cuba.

• Nov 7, 1962

  Richard Nixon loses the California governor's race and tells reporters it is his "last press conference."

• Dec 8, 1962

  A newspaper strike begins that shuts New York City's major papers for 114 days.

• Dec 14, 1962

  Mariner 2 flies past Venus, the first probe to send back data from another planet.

• Dec 24, 1962

  Cuba releases the last 1,113 Bay of Pigs prisoners in exchange for $53 million in food.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, The Amazing Spider-Man #1 is number 10 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (32 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Spider-Man got his tryout only because Amazing Fantasy was about to be canceled; Lee said that was the only reason his publisher allowed it.
• The issue went on sale two days after a newspaper strike shut down every major paper in New York, the city where its new newspaper publisher, J. Jonah Jameson, ran the Daily Bugle.
• In the second story, Spider-Man tries to join the Fantastic Four.
• The letterers of the two stories were credited under altered names: "Johnny Dee" and "John Duffi."
• The Curator collection got its name because it was assembled by a museum employee and stored on the museum's premises.
• Until January 2024, no copy graded 9.8 had ever sold at public auction.
• In 1965 college students polled by Esquire ranked Spider-Man alongside Bob Dylan and Che Guevara as favorite revolutionary icons.