The comic book in which your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man debuted sold this week for $1.1 million. That’s a lot of dough for a comic that originally sold for 12 cents. But Amazing Fantasy #15, the issue Spidey first graced comic book pages, is a comic issue of legend, held in very high regard among comic book geeks around the world.

I’ve always been a Spider-Man fan, more so than any other hero and growing up I remember first learning about Amazing Fantasy #15. There’s something enigmatic about that issue, something almost magical. I used to own several reprints of the issue back home in Australia, and while it was awesome to hold his origin story in my hands, it still wasn’t the Holy Grail of Spider-Man Comics: an original copy.

I recall snapping up Marvel’s spin to release Amazing Fantasy #16, #17, and #18 many moons ago. Clearly, it was an effort by Marvel to make more bucks off the character’s name and legend, but the storyline was a transition of what happens to Peter Parker from the closing frame of Amazing Fantasy #15 to the opening page of The Amazing Spider-Man #1. Call me a sucker for buying into it, but I loved the connection and transition the Marvel crew made — if anything, it paid tribute to the enigma of Amazing Fantasy #15, without tarnishing the reverence fans have for it.

Amazing Fantasy #15 was first published in 1962, depicting the origin of Spider-Man. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the character was a smash, and would literally become the face of Marvel Comics for decades. The cover, which was drawn by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, shows Spidey with a villain in one arm while he swings from his web with the other and is one of the most recognizable covers in comics history.

So, I guess my point is simple:

Anyone got $1.1 million I can borrow?

[Source: Huffington Post]