Pokémon Go was all the rage at this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego
July has come to a close, and this means a couple things. One, summer’s almost over. And two, Comic-Con International in San Diego just ended. This year marked the 47th year of the comic-based extravaganza. While it started from humble roots in 1970, with an event that drew about 100 people, Comic-Con has become a pop-culture phenomenon, celebrating not just comic books themselves, but many related and tertiary subjects. Comic book influence on the movie and TV industries is huge. And ever since Hollywood took to bringing graphic novels to the silver screen, comics have gone mainstream. Recent conventions have drawn over 130,000 visitors, with many celebrities in attendance either providing Question & Answers, promoting new work, or simply to enjoy the show.
Comic-Con 2016 will likely be remembered as the year of Pokémon Go. Released two weeks before the show, the augmented reality game on your phone quickly became one of the most popular mobile games ever, amassing more downloads in its first week than any preceding app or game, and in twenty-two days reaching an estimated 50 million downloads, more than Instagram or YouTube in the first six months of 2016. Comic-Con’s core demographic aligns pretty much perfectly with that of Pokémon Go’s, and this year, Pokémon made big waves. An event originally planned for 500 people was moved to Comic-Con’s equivalent of a “main stage,” accommodating 6,000-7,000 people, and became the convention’s last major event.
It remains to be seen how comic book stores that exhibited at Comic-Con 2016 did in terms of financial success. Comic-Con is known to outside observers for its celebrity question and answer panels and the elaborate costumes show-goers don of their favorite comic book, movie, and TV characters, not as a place to buy comic books. However, those who attend the show aren’t outside observers, and it’s hard to imagine passing up the opportunity to have your stock on display for such a large concentration of your target audience.
We cover Comic-Con at Rare Book Hub because at the core of it, Comic-Con is based on comics, a type of work on paper. They are easily the most popular collectible today falling under the umbrella term works on paper. And though they may not carry the prices that many older books and manuscripts do at auction and with dealers, they’re catching up. According to the website Comic Book Resources, three distinct comic books have sold for at least $1,000,000, with the holy grail, “Action Comics” #1, featuring the debut of Superman, breaking the $1M mark on four separate occasions. In 2014, a copy sold for $3.2M. As the market grows and comics gain in popularity, the number of items reaching this vaunted threshold will only increase.
We already know where comic fanatics and super geeks will be next July. They’ll be at Comic-Con 2017.
Sotheby’s, July 14: Henry De La Beche. "Awful Changes," 1830. $6,000 to $9,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 11]. Flight Plan, Complete Original Printing Signed by Buzz Aldrin. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Thomas Alva Edison. Documents Establishing and Ending the Edison Electric Railway Company. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Richard P. Feynman. Feynman's Lectures on Gravitation 1-16, Including the Original Transcriptions of Lectures 12-16 by Morinigo and Wagner, With Richard Feynman's Manuscript Notations, 1971. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 9]. A Group of Manuals and Mission Documents used by Stuart Roosa as a member of the Astronaut Support Crew. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [BYTE: The Small Systems Journal]. A collection of early foundational issues of Byte: The Small Systems Journal, with rare hardcover editions. $5,000 to $8,000.
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000
