MUMBAI: ComicConnect.com, an online auction site, sold an extremely rare, highest graded copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, the Marvel comic book by legends Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, that introduced the world to the web slinging, wall crawling superhero known as Spider-Man for $1.1 million. The sale of this legendary comic is second only to the Guinness World record 8.5 VF+ Action Comics #1, which marks Superman’s 1938 debut that was also sold by www.ComicConnect.com last year for a whopping $1,500,000.

"The late 1950s and early 1960s are considered the Silver Age of comic books. The sale of this book crushed all previous records. Up until today’s $1.1 million sale, the record sale price of a comic book from this era was $250,000," says ComicConnect.com CEO Stephen Fishler.

ComicConnect.com COO Vincent Zurzolo added, "The buyer of this amazing comic wanted to own the very best. The Amazing Fantasy #15 9.6 is the very definition of the very best."

When Amazing Fantasy #15 hit the stands in 1962, it cost a mere 12 cents. Fishler acquired the coveted copy of the comic about 25 years ago, and sold it for $2,500. In 2000, he re-acquired the book and quickly sold it for $140,000 after it had been graded as a CGC 9.6 NM+ on the 10-point grading scale created by Fishler. Today, that scale is used universally to evaluate the condition of comic books.

"People have often wondered how much this near-perfect condition book would sell for, and today we found out," explains Zurzolo. "There are very few books and characters that can dictate this kind of price and Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15 is one of them."