The First Million-Dollar Comic Book
It's a bird, it's a plane – it's the million-dollar Superman comic book!
By Marjorie Kehe / February 22, 2010 for Christian Science Monitor
It has been called the world's most coveted comic book. It's Action Comics #1, the 1938 comic book that introduced Superman to the world. There are estimated to be only about 100 copies of the book in existence, and today one of those copies sold for $1,000,000.
ComicConnect.com, which sold the rare book, notes that another copy of Action Comics #1 – in slightly less mint condition – was sold for $317,200 in 2009. In 1938, the book originally sold for 10 cents.
Action Comics #1 is "considered by most people as the most important book," John Dolmayan, a comic book enthusiast and dealer and also the drummer for System of a Down, told ABC News. "It kind of ushered in the age of the superheroes."
On its cover, the comic book shows Superman lifting a car over his head. Inside, it tells the story of Superman's birth on the planet Krypton and his arrival on Earth. It also sets the scene for the ongoing romance between Clark Kent – Superman's other identity – and female reporter Lois Lane.
The book was last sold 15 years ago for a price of $150,000. It has been in a private collection ever since. Today's buyer has not been identified.
“It’s the Holy Grail of comic books,” says Stephen Fishler founder of ComicConnect.com., who insists that it's worth every penny of the record-breaking price it fetched. “There is nothing else like it.”
Marjorie Kehe is the Monitor's book editor.
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