BERKELEY, CALIF. — Amazing Fantasy #15 featuring the first appearance of Spider-Man vaulted to $228,000, including buyer’s premium, at PBA Galleries’ Halloween event on October 31, Strange Tales: The Steve Ditko Sale. It was won by an East Coast private collector. The sale offered 100 lots of signature comic books, many of which were from the personal collection of the enigmatic and idiosyncratic artist of the Silver Age, as well as handwritten letters, original art and ephemera. Amazing Fantasy #15 was a watershed moment in which Ditko’s protagonist strayed far from superhero conventions, replacing stalky heroes with what catalog notes portray as “rail-thin, squinting malcontents, placing Peter Parker [Spider-Man’s alter ego] in a constellation of sneers, jabbing fingers and angry eyebrows.” Much more about this comic and other highlights in the sale in an upcoming review.