Superman’s first appearance sells for $6 million, becoming world’s most valuable comic

A comic book featuring Superman’s first-ever appearance has sold for $6 million, making it the most valuable comic edition in existence.

Texas-based Heritage Auctions said Thursday that the “Action Comics No. 1” print from 1938 surpassed the previous record comic sale, held by a copy of a “Superman No. 1” sold privately for $5.3 million in 2022.

The previous record for a comic sold at auction was $3.6 million for a copy of “Amazing Fantasy No. 15,” featuring the debut of Spider-Man, also held at Heritage.

The Action Comics version that sold this week is part of a collection known as the Kansas City Pedigree that emerged in the late 1960s and which consists of almost 250 first-run issues published from 1937 into the 1940s.

No information about the buyer was immediately available. Other famous holders of Action Comics No. 1 have included actor Nicolas Cage, who had his copy stolen in 2000; and Lebanese billionaire Ayman Hariri.

Superman was created by writer Jerry Siegel and illustrator Joe Shuster in the early 1930s, and appeared in several early semblances until Action Comics published the version most familiar with audiences today in June 1938. Action Comics No. 1 sold for 10 cents — equivalent to about $2 today — in a run of about 200,000. Publisher National Allied Publications was a predecessor to DC Comics, which owns the rights to Superman today.

Heritage’s auction took place in Dallas, though online bidding was incorporated. A total of more than $25 million-worth of comics had been sold through Saturday; the auction ends Sunday.