Original First Superman Comic Sells for Over $2M

More expensive than a locomotive and unable to leap a tall building in a single bound, the first issue of D.C. Comics’ Superman has sold for $2.6 million at auction, the Associated Press reports.

The 1939 comic book, which costed a dime when it was first published, sold Thursday night to someone, like Superman, who wishes to remain anonymous, according to ComicConnect.com, an online auction and consignment company.

The seller, Mark Michaelson of Houston, Texas, bought the comic in 1979 from its original owner and kept it in a temperature-controlled safe, the New York Daily News Reported.

Due to the great condition Michaelson kept the comic book, it helped increase the value as ComicConnect CEO Stephen Fishler told the AP that what really made the copy sell is that it is very difficult to find high-quality copies of Superman #1.

ComicConnect founder Vincent Zurzolo told The Hill, “this is by far the nicest copy of Superman #1 I’ve ever brought to market and is the second highest-graded copy on the census. The cover inks are rich and the interior pages supple. What a thrill that there are still undiscovered comics like this lying dormant.”

Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster and first appeared in Action Comics No. 1 in 1938. The character is said to be the first superhero in a comic book and a year later was given his own stand-alone series.

“Now you look at the comic books and you go ‘superheroes everywhere.’ You look back in the ’30s, there was no such thing. So this was literally the first superhero,” Fishler told the AP.

Earlier this year, Action Comics No. 1 featuring Superman on the cover, sold for or $3.25 million, according to ComicConnect.

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