A comic that was discovered by three brothers in their late mother’s Californian attic last year has just made a new world record at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas.
The Superman No 1 from 1939 is the highest-ever graded copy, which in itself is remarkable given that it was stored wedged in a cardboard box with a stack of old newspapers. Along with a number of other vintage comics, the Superman comic had been bought by the brothers’ uncle between the Great Depression and WWII. “Their mum had always told them she had an expensive comics collection, but never showed them,” said Lon Allen, vice president of Heritage Auctions.
So how much did Superman swoop in for? A cool US$9.12m with buyer’s premium. The comic was graded at 9 out of 10 for condition, with the cover promising readers: ‘The complete story of the daring exploits of the one and only Superman’ in 64 pages of full colour action.
Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in 1933, Superman first appeared in 1938 in Action Comics No. 1. A copy of that iconic comic sold at Heritage Auctions in April last year for US$6m – which at the time was an auction record.
“This new record may some day be remembered as an early stage of popular culture collecting’s trajectory into the upper reaches of the auction field,” said Jim Halperin, co-founder of Heritage Auctions. “The value and historical importance of these objects are becoming even more well-known to collectors all over the world.”
