Lost in the shuffle after the $9.12 million dollar record-shattering sale of the CGC 9.0. copy of Superman #1, were two comic book-related items also breaking the $1 million dollar barrier.
As I've written about before, there are very few comic book-related collectibles that have exceeded a sales value of $1 million. Prior to the recent $9.12M sale of Superman #1, the previous record holder was a CGC 8.5 Pedigree copy of Action Comics #1 that sold for $6M on Heritage on April 4, 2024. According to GoCollect, there are only five copies of Action Comics #1 that have sold for more than $1 million, and one of those sales may need an asterisk since it occurred in early 2022 during a market bubble known as the "comic boom." As another example, there are only five of Detective Comics #27 that have sold for more than $1 million, and two of them sold during the comic boom.
In terms of original comic book artwork, the original artwork for pg. 25 from Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #8 sold for $3.36 million in 2022 towards the tail end of the comic boom. The original artwork for the cover for Amazing Spider-Man #194 barely broke the $1 million barrier when it sold for $1.02 million in January 2025. The original artwork for the first Deadpool story page from New Mutants #98 came close to breaking $1M when it sold for $960,000 back in late 2024. The original artwork for the first in-story appearance of Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #39 sold for "only" $504,000 in April 2025.
This is all to say that it's extremely rare when a comic book-related item sells for more than $1 million which is why it was shocking when three sold for than $1 million during Heritage's Platinum auction in late November.
Not surprisingly, the Superman #1 sale for $9.12 million sucked all of out of the oxygen out of the room. On November 19, Frank Frazetta's original artwork for the movie poster for Luana (and also used for the cover of Vampirella #31) blew past the $1 million dollar barrier selling for a whopping $1.75 million:
Frazetta is arguably the most famous fantasy artist in history, with his original paintings regularly selling for well above $1 million. His original artwork for comic books has always been in high demand; for example, just six months ago, on June 27, Franzetta's original cover art for Famous Funnies #214 sold for $1,035,000 during another auction hosted by Heritage. And just two and a half months ago, this oil painting of Conan by Frazetta sold for a mind-blowing $13.5 million:
Just two days later after the sale of Franzetta's original artwork for $1.75 million, another Superman-related comic book item also broke the $1 million barrier -- this time, the original cover art for Superman #233 by Neal Adams selling for $1.5 million on November 21:
Although this image of Superman breaking chains made of Kryptonite became iconic, symbolizing the end of an old era for the character, Neal Adams infamously disliked this artwork because he had to draw it so quickly with a tight deadline; in an interview, Adams said he drew the cover in "two and a half hours" because it was due on the same day. He especially disliked the length of Superman's left leg which he had drawn disproportionately long in order to fit the layout of the page. It's hard to believe, but he even called the cover a "piece of crap."
Despite Neal Adams' personal feelings, the image became one of the most iconic Superman covers of all-time. As a measure of the cover's popularity, a CGC 9.8 copy of Superman #233 would likely exceed $10,000. Although a 9.8 hasn't sold at a public auction since 2013 (for $3,528), there are only four 9.8s on the CGC Census, and the FMV of a 9.6 is $4,100 according to GoCollect.
