Original Superman comic found in attic breaks world record with $9.12M sale
It's a bird! It's a plane! No – it’s the most expensive comic ever sold!
An original "Superman" No. 1 comic, printed by DC Comics in 1939, sold for a world-record $9.12 million last Thursday, the most ever paid for a comic book, according to Heritage Auctions, which conducted the sale.
The comic was discovered in 2024 by three brothers in San Francisco, who were going through their late mother's attic and discovered a hidden trove of vintage comics purchased by their uncle between the Great Depression and World War II, according to the Texas-based auction house.
Heritage Auctions Vice President Lon Allen said the comics were previously unknown to the family, the members of which did not want to be identified.
"They're in their 50s and 60s, and their mom had always told them she had an expensive comics collection but never showed them," Allen said. "It's a twist on the old 'Mom threw away my comics' story."
The comics grading service Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) gave the "Superman" No. 1 comic a rare 9 out of 10 condition rating, despite the fact that the comic was protected only by a stack of old newspapers in a cardboard box for years, according to CGC, making the collectable their highest-graded comic ever.
Including "Superman" No. 1, there are only seven known comics with a CGC score of 6 or above, per Heritage Auctions. The comic's cover features the famous Man of Steel, promising readers "the complete story of the daring exploits of the one and only Superman" with "64 pages of action."
Superman's first appearance was in "Action Comics" No. 1, published in 1938. A copy of that comic graded 8.5 was most recently sold in April 2024 by Heritage Auctions for a then-record $6 million. "Superman" No. 1 was the Man of Steel's first title appearance.
The identity of the "Superman" No. 1 comic buyer hasn't been publicly released.
