The Birth of Superman

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

To vary the topics of my articles, I know a good solution: to visit Heritage Auctions Galleries, the important auction house of Texas which always finds objects that one does not find elsewhere, or that nobody other would dare to try to sell.

This evening, I was not disappointed, and thus you either, because their sale of May 22 in Dallas makes us attend the birth of Superman!

In June 1938, Siegel and Shuster created the well-known Superman. To this end, they obtained from DC Comics company the creation of a magazine, to be named Action Comics. Detective Comics magazine published by the same company existed since the previous year.

It was skilful: the two reviews resembled each other, and made a competition which plays the profit of their single editor. The immediate success of Superman carries out Detective Comics to introduce Batman as early as 1939. One will find of course all necessary information in Wikipedia.

Let us return to the collectors and to our sale: it is not a chance if Heritage precisely makes start the golden age of the comics in 1938. Let us examine the most important lots presented by the auction house.

There is especially a n° 1 of Action Comics, in almost mint condition, with a minimum bid of 85 K$ (lot 41001). One sees in cover Superman, the very serious air, raising with arms raised an enormous car in the presence of two terrorized passers by. Like Gargantua before him, Superman, as of its birth, was very strong.

One finds also other "incunabula" of the comics, like the n° 27 of Detective Comics, with Batman in cover (lot 41024, minimum bid 40 K$), the n° 1 of 1939 of the Superman magazine (lot 41072, minimum bid 16 K$) and other reviews of the time whose covers resemble each other so much that it is supposed that they also come from the same source of production.

To close this article, let us announce that the monthly magazine Comics Buyer's Guide chose to use in its price guides the results obtained by Heritage (press release of the auction house, April 28).

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The sale confirms the excellent health of this market. The top lot, number 41001, rose to 115 K $. That with Batman (41024) made 65 K $ and the lot 41072 sold at 28 K $. All items in this category seem to sell easily.
The above prices include the costs.

These data are not available for free access. Being too excited to wait for a possible press release (imagine the scene!), I registered the site of Heritage Auction for your best convenience !