It’s only been four days since a 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, the first appearance of Superman, sold for a record $1 million at auction, but that figure has already been surpassed by $75,500. Not surprisingly, the culprit is the first appearance of Batman - a 1939 edition of Detective Comics No. 27. Again, both parties involved in the sale chose to remain anonymous, but it was revealed that the comic was purchased by the seller in the late ’60s for $100. Not too shabby.

Apparently, Adam West’s Batman wasn’t driving prices into the stratosphere, but if current box office is any indicator, fans seem to by migrating towards characters who have more human vulnerabilities—and Batman is tops on that list. So, for now, the holy grail of comic book collecting appears to lie with him. And who knows when, or if, high quality copies like this will ever be sold back to back again.

There are some rather elitist book collectors who look upon comic book collectors as odd step-children. They think that "true book collections" must hold only antiquarian, or only modern first editions, or only award winners, or only collections of a particular author, or only author signed books, or only books related to a specific subject... or only... The list of "acceptable" collections - those that are worthy of being referred to as book collections at all is quite long and seems to be limited only by the imagination of the collector. I recently reported about a collector who has 400 volumes of the same book! Comic book collectors, in my opinion are also book collectors who are just as obsessed about their collections as your "regular" book collector.

With the very high auction prices being realized on rare comic books, I suspect these collectors may well move into the main stream. Who needs elitism anyway? I have always balked at pigeon holing folks. It just goes against my natural inclinations.

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