A rare piece of Marvel history, a publisher’s annotated copy of the first Marvel comic book, sold at auction last week for $US2.4 million ($3.2 million).

The book, Marvel Comics No. 1, published in 1939, is so valuable because it is known as the pay copy, in which the publisher recorded the payments he owed to the illustrators, said Stephen Fishler, chief executive of ComicConnect, an online comic auction house.