DALLAS — A single page of artwork from a 1984 Marvel comic book featuring Spider-Man sold at auction Thursday for a record $3.36 million.
Mike Zeck’s artwork for page 25 from Marvel Comics’ “Secret Wars” No. 8 features the first time that Spider-Man wore his black suit. The symbiote suit would eventually lead to the emergence of the character Venom.
While it’s not the first time that Marvel portrayed Spider-Man in the black suit, it is the first time that comics fans saw how he got it.
The record bidding, which started at $330,000 and soared past $3 million, came on the first day of Heritage Auctions’ four-day comic event in Dallas.
The previous record for an interior page of a U.S. comic book was $657,250 for art from a 1974 issue of “The Incredible Hulk” that featured a tease for the first appearance of Wolverine.
Also Thursday, one of the few surviving copies of Superman’s debut, Action Comics No. 1, sold for $3.18 million, putting it among the priciest books ever auctioned.
None of the sellers or buyers were identified.