The Incredible Hulk #1

A monster with a heart

Marvel had launched the Fantastic Four in 1961, and Stan Lee noticed that the team's most popular member was its monster, the Thing. 'For a long time, I'd been aware of the fact that people were more likely to favor someone who was less than perfect,' he said, pointing out that readers remember Quasimodo, not the handsome heroes of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He cited Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as influences, and he also compared the Hulk to the golem of Jewish folklore.

Jack Kirby had his own reasons. 'I thought the Hulk might be a good-looking Frankenstein,' he said. 'I felt there's a Frankenstein in all of us.' He also recalled being inspired by the sight of a mother, in a burst of hysterical strength, lifting a car off her trapped child.

In the story they made, the scientist Bruce Banner is exposed to gamma rays while saving the life of Rick Jones during the detonation of an experimental bomb, and from then on he transforms into the Hulk. Later writers have read the character as a product of the Cold War and the fear of nuclear attack. The name itself came from an earlier comic character, the Heap, a large green swamp monster.

Why the Hulk was gray

In the first issue the Hulk is gray. Lee chose the color because he thought gray was scary and because it did not suggest any particular ethnic group. But colorist Stan Goldberg had trouble getting gray to print consistently, and the issue shows the Hulk in different shades of gray, and even green, from page to page.

After seeing the published issue, Lee changed the Hulk to green, and he was green from issue #2 on. For about two decades, reprints of the origin story were recolored green, which made the gray original even more distinctive.

Collectors look for another quirk of production. Because of inconsistencies in how the issue was cut at the printer, most copies do not show the Hulk's full right big toe on the front cover; a copy that does is prized.

Six issues and out

The original series was short. Lee wrote all six issues; Kirby penciled the first five, and Steve Ditko penciled and inked the sixth. The series was canceled with issue #6, cover-dated March 1963.

The character did not go away. The Hulk was one of the founding members of the Avengers in Avengers #1, dated September 1963. A year and a half after his series ended, he became one of two features in Tales to Astonish, starting with issue #60 in October 1964, with art by Ditko and later Kirby. With issue #102, in April 1968, the book was renamed The Incredible Hulk, and the title ran until 1999.

A live-action television series, The Incredible Hulk, ran from 1977 to 1982, carrying the character into live-action television.

The climb of a Silver Age key

Hulk #1 has long been regarded as the toughest of the major early Marvel Silver Age keys to find in high grade. One CGC 9.2 copy shows how fast the market moved: it emerged decades ago from the Hollywood shop Collectors Book Store, sold at auction for $125,475 in 2009, and then sold for $320,000 in June 2014, a record for the issue. At that time there were four copies at 9.2 and one at 9.4, held by a well-known collector of high-grade Marvel books.

On December 15, 2021, a CGC 9.0, one of 13 universal-label copies at that grade, sold for $490,000, a new record for the issue. On January 14, 2024, a CGC 9.2 with white pages sold at auction for $825,000, the highest price this page could verify.

In June 2025 a CGC 9.2 with off-white to white pages sold at auction for $780,000, the top comic book of that sale. The same auction sold a CGC 7.5 for $78,000, a CGC 6.5 signed by Stan Lee for $34,800, a CGC 5.5 for $30,000 and a CGC 5.0 for $19,200. In September 2026 a CGC 6.0 sold at auction for $34,160.

What the census shows

Very few copies survive in near-mint condition. The printing technology and paper of 1962 make high grades rare, and the census has grown only slowly at the top: four copies at 9.2 in June 2014, seven at 9.2 by April 2025. A single copy has graded 9.4, and none has graded higher.

That means the 9.2 copies tracked on this page are tied for second-best in the world, not the best. In 2014 the lone 9.4 was reported to be in the collection of a well-known high-grade Marvel collector.

The numbers

Print run

No verified figure found

Census, June 2014

4 at CGC 9.2, 1 at 9.4

Census, December 2021

13 universal-label copies at CGC 9.0

Census, April 2025

7 at CGC 9.2, 1 higher (9.4)

Original series

6 issues, May 1962 to March 1963

Timeline

1. 1961

   Marvel publishes Fantastic Four #1; the Thing's popularity inspires the Hulk.

2. May 1962

   The Incredible Hulk #1, cover-dated May 1962, introduces a gray Hulk.

3. Mar 1963

   The series is canceled with issue #6.

4. Sep 1963

   The Hulk joins the Avengers in Avengers #1.

5. Oct 1964

   The Hulk becomes a feature in Tales to Astonish #60.

6. Apr 1968

   Tales to Astonish is renamed The Incredible Hulk with issue #102.

7. 1977

   The live-action Incredible Hulk television series begins, running to 1982.

8. 2009

   A CGC 9.2 copy sells at auction for $125,475.

9. Jun 2014

   The same CGC 9.2 copy sells for a record $320,000; the census shows four at 9.2 and one at 9.4.

10. Dec 15, 2021

    A CGC 9.0 sells for a record $490,000.

11. Jan 14, 2024

    A CGC 9.2 sells at auction for $825,000, the issue's top verified price.

12. Apr 2025

    The CGC census shows seven copies at 9.2 and one higher.

13. Jun 2025

    A CGC 9.2 sells at auction for $780,000; four lower-grade copies sell in the same auction.

14. Sep 2026

    A CGC 6.0 sells at auction for $34,160.

The world in 1962

• Feb 20, 1962

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

• Mar 2, 1962

  Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a single NBA game.

• Apr 21, 1962

  The Century 21 Exposition opens in Seattle, with the Space Needle.

• Jul 10, 1962

  Telstar, the first commercial communications satellite, is launched.

• Aug 5, 1962

  Marilyn Monroe is found dead at 36.

• Oct 22, 1962

  President Kennedy tells the nation about Soviet missiles in Cuba, in the depths of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

• Oct 28, 1962

  Nikita Khrushchev announces the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.

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 Incredible Hulk #1 is number 14 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 (24 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Hulk is gray only in his first issue; printing problems made Lee switch him to green.
• Lee picked gray partly because it did not suggest any particular ethnic group.
• The name 'Hulk' was inspired by the Heap, an earlier green swamp-monster character.
• Collectors prize copies whose front cover shows the Hulk's full right big toe, since many were trimmed off at the printer.
• Hulk's own comic was canceled after six issues, months before he helped found the Avengers.
• The same CGC 9.2 copy sold for $125,475 in 2009 and $320,000 five years later.