Guides · 5 articles

Record sales & industry news

Documented record sales and industry events from 2012 to today, with dates.

News
Comics industry timeline, 2012–2025: the events that shaped the market
The years from 2012 to 2025 saw the founding of CBCS (2014), the biggest single-issue print run since 1993 (Star Wars #1, 2015), the deaths of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (2018), the pandemic distribution shutdown (2020), Marvel and DC leaving Diamond (2020–2021), a run of record auction prices (2021–2024) and Diamond's bankruptcy (January 2025). This timeline lists the documented events that mattered for collectors, year by year.
Updated Sep 14, 2026
News
The Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy (January 2025) explained
Diamond Comic Distributors, for decades the near-exclusive distributor of comics to comic shops, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 14 January 2025 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland. The filing followed the loss of its exclusive Marvel and DC business in 2020–2021 and years of falling volume, and its businesses were sold through the court-supervised process during 2025. For collectors the direct effects were on new-comic supply chains and retailers, not on back-issue values.
Updated Sep 14, 2026
News
The most expensive comic books ever sold: documented record sales
The record for a single comic is 6 million dollars, paid for a CGC 8.5 copy of Action Comics #1 (1938) at Heritage Auctions in April 2024. Other documented milestone sales include a CGC 7.0 Superman #1 at 5.3 million dollars (private sale, 2022), a CGC 9.6 Amazing Fantasy #15 at 3.6 million dollars (Heritage, September 2021), a CGC 8.5 Action Comics #1 at 3.25 million dollars (ComicConnect, April 2021) and a CGC 9.4 Captain America Comics #1 at 3.12 million dollars (Heritage, April 2022).
Updated Sep 14, 2026
News
How Marvel and DC changed comics distribution in 2020–2021
In June 2020 DC Comics ended its relationship with Diamond Comic Distributors and began shipping to comic shops through Lunar Distribution (and, initially, UCS Comic Distributors). In March 2021 Marvel announced it would move to Penguin Random House, effective 1 October 2021, with Diamond reduced to a wholesaler. Together the two moves ended Diamond's 25-year near-monopoly on the direct market and set up its 2025 bankruptcy.
Updated Sep 14, 2026
News
Stan Lee (1922–2018) and the market for Stan Lee signed comics
Stan Lee, born Stanley Lieber on 28 December 1922, co-created the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men and the Avengers as Marvel's editor and writer, and died in Los Angeles on 12 November 2018, aged 95. In his last decade he signed enormous numbers of comics at conventions, many under CGC's Signature Series programme, so witnessed Stan Lee signatures are common; the value of a signed book depends on the book itself, the label, and the pairing of signer and issue.
Updated Sep 14, 2026

Record sales & industry news

Comics industry timeline, 2012–2025: the events that shaped the market

The Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy (January 2025) explained

The most expensive comic books ever sold: documented record sales

How Marvel and DC changed comics distribution in 2020–2021

Stan Lee (1922–2018) and the market for Stan Lee signed comics