Book News
Holy comic-book auction, Batman!
It was Batman vs. Superman and Batman won. A mint-condition copy of Detective Comics No. 27, in which in May 1939, Batman made his world debut, was sold in late February at the Heritage Auction Galliers in Dallas for a record-breaking price of $1.075 million. Yet just three days earlier headlines were made when a near-perfect sample of the comic book Action Books No. 1 — dated June 1938, in which Superman made his debut — was sold through an auction website for $1 million.
Until the recent sales, the record price for a comic book was $317,000, a high set just last year with the purchase of another copy — in less-perfect condition — of Action Comics No. 1.
Back in the 1930s, when they were first issued, both comic books sold for 10 cents. The last time this particular copy of Detective Comics No. 27 was sold, more than 40 years ago, a collector purchased it for $100.
So what should today’s comic book collectors be investing in? According to Canada’s The National Post newspaper, it’s Incredible Hulk No. 81, the 1974 comic in which Wolverine made his debut.
First Lines
Caught, by Harlan Coben
I knew opening the red door would destroy my life.
Yes, that sounds melodramatic and full of foreboding and I’m not big on either, and true, there was nothing menacing about the red door. In fact, the door was beyond ordinary, wood and four- paneled, the kind of door you see standing guard in front of three out of every four suburban homes, with faded paint and a knocker at chest level no one ever used and a faux brass knob.
But as I walked toward it, a distant street light barely illuminating my way, the dark opening yawning like a mouth ready to gobble me whole, the feeling of doom was unshakable. Each step forward took great effort, as if I were walking not along a somewhat cracked walk but through still-wet cement. My body displayed all the classic symptoms of impending menace: Chill down my spine? Check. Hairs standing up on my arms? Yep. Prickle at the base of my neck? Present. Tingle in the scalp? Right there.
The house was dark, not a single light on. Chynna warned me that would be the case. The dwelling somehow seemed a little too cookie-cutter, a little too nondescript. That bothered me for some reason. This house was also isolated at the tippy end of the cul-de-sac, hunkering down in the darkness as though fending off intruders.
I didn’t like it.
Trade Paperback BestSellers
1. The Last Song, by Nicholas Sparks
2. A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick
3. Little Bee, by Chris Cleave
4. The Lost City of Z, by David Grann
5. Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks
6. Food Rules, by Michael Pollan
7. Shanghai Girls, by Lisa See
8. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
9. The Blind Side, by Michael Lewis
10. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
Publishers Weekly
