Rare Superman comic sells for $1 million
ArtsBeat reports: Up, up and away! The comics blogosphere has been buzzing over the auction of a copy of Action Comics No. 1, the first appearance of Superman. The price: $1 million.
Interest in the sale generated enough traffic to bring down the Web site of the auction house, Comic Connect, which posted a note explaining, “Due to the exceedingly high volume of traffic, the site has been temporarily replaced with this news article about the record selling comic.”
Stephen Fishler, the founder of Comic Connect, said this copy of Action No. 1 was in very fine condition. Only 100 copies of this issue of Action No. 1 are believed to still exist. Of that batch, only two are in very fine condition or better. The sale breaks the previous record of $317,200 from last March when Comic Connect sold another copy of Action No. 1, but in a lower-grade condition.
“Comic books are now in the same realm as fine art, one-of-a-kind jewels and antiques,” said Vincent Zurzolo, chief operating office and co-owner of Comic Connect. “I f you look at the impact that a piece of fine art has on the world, compared to the impact that Superman has had, I think you would have to say more people know Superman.” He added that the Man of Steel was the ultimate archetype: “He stands for truth, justice and the American way. We wouldn’t have Batman or Spider-Man without Superman.”
One of the big questions on comic fans’ minds is, Who won the auction? Alas, “both customers want to retain their secret identities,” Mr. Zurzolo said of the buyer and seller.
Another Holy Grail of comics – issue No. 27 of Detective Comics, the first appearance of Batman, is up for bid at Heritage Auctions this week. A near mint-condition copy of this comic is valued at $450,000. The very fine copy up for grabs at Heritage is already at $425,000.
Interest in the sale generated enough traffic to bring down the Web site of the auction house, Comic Connect, which posted a note explaining, “Due to the exceedingly high volume of traffic, the site has been temporarily replaced with this news article about the record selling comic.”Stephen Fishler, the founder of Comic Connect, said this copy of Action No. 1 was in very fine condition. Only 100 copies of this issue of Action No. 1 are believed to still exist. Of that batch, only two are in very fine condition or better. The sale breaks the previous record of $317,200 from last March when Comic Connect sold another copy of Action No. 1, but in a lower-grade condition.
“Comic books are now in the same realm as fine art, one-of-a-kind jewels and antiques,” said Vincent Zurzolo, chief operating office and co-owner of Comic Connect. “I f you look at the impact that a piece of fine art has on the world, compared to the impact that Superman has had, I think you would have to say more people know Superman.” He added that the Man of Steel was the ultimate archetype: “He stands for truth, justice and the American way. We wouldn’t have Batman or Spider-Man without Superman.”
One of the big questions on comic fans’ minds is, Who won the auction? Alas, “both customers want to retain their secret identities,” Mr. Zurzolo said of the buyer and seller.
Another Holy Grail of comics – issue No. 27 of Detective Comics, the first appearance of Batman, is up for bid at Heritage Auctions this week. A near mint-condition copy of this comic is valued at $450,000. The very fine copy up for grabs at Heritage is already at $425,000.
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