El Sorprendente Hombre Araña #128, Graded by CGC, Sold for Record $35,000

An international copy of Spider-Man published in Mexico, titled El Sorprendente Hombre Araña #128 and graded by Certified Guaranty Company® (CGC®), was sold in a private sale for a record amount. This copy was graded CGC 6.5 and sold for $35,000 on November 29, 2022. This amount more than doubled the previous raw price of $15,600 for an estimated 2.5 grade sold by Heritage Auctions in October 2022.

"Since CGC’s announcement regarding the certification of international comics, we’ve witnessed more and more collectors delving into this fascinating, largely untapped market," said CGC President Matt Nelson. "What makes the sale of El Sorprendente Hombre Araña #128 in CGC 6.5 so special is the price paid in relation to its grade. Not a single American comic book from the Bronze Age has ever fetched this amount of money in CGC 6.5, a testament to both the book’s cool factor and its relative rarity. There are so many international gems out there. This is only the beginning."

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Marvel Comics had licensed the Spider-Man reprint rights to international publishers, and La Pensa Publishing held the license in Mexico to publish El Sorprendente Hombre Araña. The title was so popular it began publishing biweekly to keep up with local demand, and eventually they ran out of Marvel material to reprint. La Prensa made a deal with Marvel that allowed them to create their own, all-original Hombre Araña stories to publish between reprints. The first original issue was El Sorprendente Hombre Araña #123, with writer Raul Martinez and artist Jose Luis Duran.

Issue #128 from May 1972 featured the marriage of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy in a dream sequence — despite the character having been killed by the Green Goblin in the American books. La Prensa continues with its own continuity, in which Gwen Stacy was still alive, for 45 issues, until the publisher closed in 1974 and ended with issue #185. The license was transferred to OEPISA, which continued to publish original stories until 1979.

CGC International Comics

CGC follows the same grading standards for international comics as it does for American comics. For some terrific examples of CGC-graded international comics, check out the CGC Gallery of Certified International Comic Books.