Two early Superman comic books, one of which features the superhero’s first appearance, sold for more than $3 million to New Jersey auctioneer Goldin on Wednesday night.
The sales come against the backdrop of a hot auction market for comic books, with record prices hit in the past two years alone, as Artnet News reported in 2022.
“Comics are a big market,” Ken Goldin told Artnet News. “I’ve always been a collector of sports memorabilia, but when you ask a 15- or 16-year-old, ‘Who is Hank Aaron? Who is Mickey Mantle?’, only a few will know. But you ask, ‘Who is is Superman? Who is Spiderman?’, 100% will find out. You go to Europe or Asia and, again, it’s 100%”.
As superhero movies continue to be made, he says, new people will undoubtedly pick up on the subject and “gravitate where it started.”
Superman #1, published by DC Comics in 1939, grossed $1.6 million after 18 bidders battled it out for a month. The cover shows the costumed superhero floating above the rooftops of a city. It’s the first comic on newsstands dedicated to a single character and Superman has sold more comics than any other character, the auction house said, paving the way for the pop culture juggernaut with superhuman strength and incredible powers to dominate American entertainment to this day.
Written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Jerry Shuster, the comic tells the story of Kal-El, sent from his dying homeworld of Krypton to live on Earth, where he is adopted by the Kent family and named Clark Kent.
“Of everything we sold last night – sports collectibles and entertainment history – I think the best buy will be Superman #1,” said Goldin. “There are only two that are in better condition than this one. I think it’s a $5 million comic book.
DC Comics, Action Comics #1, 1939. Courtesy of Goldin.
Action comics #1, first published in 1938 by National Allied Publications, a predecessor of DC Comics, sold for $1.5 million after 18 auctions. The cover shows Superman holding a car above his head as the mobsters cower and flee. Some observers have noted a resemblance to Pollaiuolo’s painting Hercules and the Hydra (around 1475).
Also created by Siegel and Shuster, Action comics #1 was based on an earlier short story by Siegel in which Superman was a powerful villain. Their initial submissions were turned down, however, until the publisher needed a quick follow-up to the hit series. Detective comics—In where the Batman character first appeared—and found the Superman story in the discard pile. Siegel and Shuster rewrote the comic, making Clark Kent realize that he “must turn his titanic strength into channels that would benefit mankind”.
The comic has since become one of the most sought-after items by collectors, regularly breaking auction records. Only about 100 copies of the comic are known to have survived, the auction house said. One, owned by actor and Superman super-fan Nicolas Cage, was stolen from him in 2000, then later recovered and sold for $2.16 million in 2011.
“Action comics #1 was the creation of the whole superhero concept,” Goldin said. “Every superhero owes his birth to Action comics #1.”
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