RAKING IN THE GREEN: Hulk and Green Lantern Smash Comic Auction Records

If there's one thing I fail at this time of year, it's sitting watching my present lay under the tree, without accidentally giving it a shake or a few investigative pokes in the hopes of deducing what lies beneath the wrapping. That's how I can fully attest to curiosity killing the cat, and it's also how I know I could never be a 'serious comic collector'.

Case in point, in the recent Heritage Auctions' $4.8 million Vintage Comics and Comic Art Auction, a CGC Near Mint 9.2 graded copy of The Incredible Hulk #1 went out the door for $125,475, and the first appearance of Green Lantern, Hal Jordan in a CGC-certified Very Fine/Near Mint 9.0 copy of Showcase #22 stung it's winning bidder $59,750. The catch - been CGC graded means both are protectively sealed up, with an unwritten law of 'thou shalt not open' bestowed upon each one - I just don't think I could do it.

Sure the Hulkster and GL are iconic characters whose first issues can only rise in value, and vaguely we all know their origin stories verbatim, but I would not be able to rest until I had cracked those babies open and savoured the Silver Age fun of each, including - geekily enough - the retro ads contained within their pages.

Personally I hope the winners plop down in their favourite chair with a decent glass of O.J, the phone on silent, and enjoy reading the actual individual issues that brought an intergalactic will-powered galactic police force, and 'The Hulk' to a world where neither such property had existed before - taking a few moments to think of what that would've been like to witness - before starting back on page one. Willpower be hanged - that's what I would do.

For more auction details click here.