Original cheque that bought Superman comic character sold with $160,000

Arts & Culture

Apr 17, 2012

The original cheque used to buy the Superman comic character from its creators Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster has been sold in an online auction for $160,000.

Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster from Cleveland were paid $130 for all the rights to Superman by Detective Comics, later known as DC Comics.

The pair later tried to win back the rights to Superman in court, as it became part of a global industry.

The ComicConnect website has not revealed who won the auction.

“The concept of the superhero was born with Superman,” Vincent Zurzolo, the co-founder of ComicConnect, told Reuters.

“That $130 cheque essentially created a billion-dollar industry,” he added, with other characters such as Batman, Spider-Man and X-Men following in the footsteps of the Man of Steel.

Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster from Cleveland were paid $130 for all the rights to Superman by Detective Comics

ComicConnect told Reuters that when the first Superman movie came out in 1978, Joe Shuster was so poor he was working for a delivery company.

It was a box-office success followed by four more Superman films and a Supergirl version. Another is due for release in June 2013.

Although $130 is around $2,300 in today’s money, it is a tiny fraction of what the character has earned since then.

The heirs of the creators Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster are still involved in court battles with DC Comics as they try to reclaim their rights to the character.

The original cheque also paid the pair for earnings from other characters they were also working on for the company.

ComicConnect says the cheque was used in a court case in the 1970s, the last time Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster themselves tried to get the rights to Superman.

After their victory a DC Comics employee was told to throw away the court papers, but he held on to the cheque, recognizing its significance.

Early comic books collection featuring Batman and Superman sold for $3.5 million

Feb 23, 2012

A collection of early comic books has been sold for $3.5 million at auction in New York.

The trove of 345 comics had been bought by the late Billy Wright from Virginia when he was a boy.

A copy of Detective Comics No. 27, which was sold for 10 cents in 1939 and featured Batman’s debut, got the top bid on Wednesday – raising $523,000.

The “jaw-dropping” collection was found last year when a relative of Billy Wright was clearing a basement in his house.

Batman first appearance was in Detective Comics in May 1939

“This really has its place in the history of great comic book collections,” said Lon Allen, managing director of comics for Heritage Auctions, which was overseeing the sale.

Lon Allen described the trove as “jaw-dropping”, adding that Billy Wright seemed to have a knack of buying the right comics at the right time.

Another book – Action Comics No. 1 from 1938 featuring the first appearance of Superman – fetched $299,000.

This remarkable collection might never have seen the light of day, as Billy Wright never mentioned it to his family when he was alive.

The neatly stacked comics – all in good condition – lay untouched in his home in Martinsville for 17 years.

Experts say the comic books collection is all the more valuable and significant because the books were kept by a man who bought them as a boy.

detective comics

The original cheque used to buy the Superman comic character from its creators Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster has been sold in an online auction for $160,000.

A collection of early comic books has been sold for $3.5 million at auction in New York.