Book News
$317,200 for rare comic book.
A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman recently sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous owner had bought it secondhand for less than a buck.
It is one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book, probably a testament to the volume’s rarity and excellent condition, said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of the auction site and its sister dealership, Metropolis Collectibles.
The winning bid for the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, whose cover features Superman lifting a car, was submitted by John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System of a Down, according to managers at .
Dolmayan, who is also a dealer of rare comic books, said he acquired the Superman comic on behalf of a client, whom he declined to identify.
“This is one of the premier books you could collect,” he said. “It’s considered the Holy Grail of comic books. I talked to my client and we made the move.”
Dolmayan said the client has “a small collection, but everything he has is incredible.”
Only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are known to exist, and they seldom come up for sale.
Fishler said, “Maybe in a booming economy, it would have done a hundred grand more, but in this economy, I think the price is great.
The previous owner had purchased it in a secondhand store in the early 1950s when he was 9 years old.
He paid 35 cents.
latimes.com
First Lines
True Detectives, by Jonathan Kellerman
“Alleged air-conditioning,” said Darius Fox. “What’s your take, John Jasper? Motor pool morons on bake or broil?”
Jack Reed laughed and used a meaty, freckled forearm to clear sweat from his face. Scanning the night-darkened dumpsters and buttsides of shuttered, low-rent businesses that lined the alley, he sucked on his Parliament and blew smoke out the cruiser’s window as Darius kept the car moving forward at ten mph.
Ten years ago, to the day, the Manson Family had butchered Sharon Tate and whole bunch of other people. If either Fox or Reed was aware of the anniversary, neither thought it worth mentioning.
Crazy Charlie’s crimes might as well have been on another planet; big-ticket outrage on high-end real estate. Fox and Reed’s Southwest Division shifts were filled with nonstop penny-ante crap that sometimes blossomed into stomach-churning violence. Reality that never made the papers because, as far as they could see, the papers were works of fiction.
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