The Philippine Online Chronicles

A collection of comic books, which includes the issues where Batman and Superman first appeared, sold for USD 3.5 million in an auction in New York on Wednesday.

A copy of Detective Comics No. 27, whose cover proclaimed “the exciting and unique adventures of The Batman”, commanded the highest bid at USD 523,000 plus a buyer's premium, said Lou Allen, managing director of comics for Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, which oversaw the New York Auction.

Notable comics sold include Action Comics No. 1 from 1938, featuring the first appearance of Superman, which sold for USD 299,000; Batman No. 1, which introduced the Joker and Catwoman, and sold for USD 275,000; and Captain America No. 2, which features Adolf Hitler on the cover, sold for USD 114,000.

All of these books sold for 10 cents when originally published.

The 354-book collection was owned by the late Billy Wright, a DuPont chemical engineer who had bought the issues as a boy. 44 of the books in the collection are part of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide's list of top 100 issues from the Golden Age of comic books, a period from the the late 1930s to the 1950s.

According to JC Vaughn, the associate publisher of Overstreet, most Golden Age comics were destroyed due to WWII paper drives, normal wear and tear, and mothers throwing them out. Of the 200,000-copy print run of Action Comics No. 27, about 130,000 were sold and the rest were pulped. Vaughn added that experts believe there are about 100 extant today.

"The scope of this collection is, from a historian's perspective, dizzying," he noted.

Allen called the collection “jaw-dropping”, saying that Wright “seemed to have knack” of knowing which comics to buy. Wright further kept the comics in good condition until his death in 1994.

Wright’s great-nephew Michael Rorrer, who had the comics but did not consider their value, discovered their worth after a co-worker remarked on the significance of having Action Comics No. 1.