Two of the most highly sought-after and exceptionally rare comics set new auction records for the UK when they were offered for the first time ever in the country on June 8^th. Superman #1 sold for £97,890 against a starting price £20,000. The comic is exceptionally rare with a current ranking of #3 on Overstreet’s list of the Top 100 Golden Age comics, which is a ‘holy grail’ in comic collecting. The Golden Age ran from 1938 to 1956 and was a period when the concept of the ‘super-hero’ was created and many well-known characters were introduced, including Superman, Batman, Captain America, and Wonder Woman. An event cited as the beginning of the Golden Age was the debut of Superman in 1938 and his popularity helped make comics a major arm of publishing, which then led rival companies to create superheroes of their own. 

Superman #1 arrived in 1939, one year after his first appearance in Action Comics #1 which demonstrated his fast rise in popularity. Creating a comic book for a single character had not been done before and this therefore set a precedent. Superman was also the first ever hero character to appear in more than one comic magazine. It was the first time DC included a letters column for fans to write to the Editor, which also proved very popular.

The issue retells the origin of Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, with new material and the Superman pin-up on the back cover is the first pin-up in comics.

The second exceptionally rare comic was Batman #1, also from the Golden Age and considered the 5^th most important Golden Age comic. Having first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in 1939, this was Batman’s first solo-titled comic and featured the first appearances of two of his most famous foes – The Joker and Catwoman. The issue saw the publication of four stories, including The Joker, The Giants of Dr. Hugo Strange, The Cat and The Joker Returns. The stories are believed to have been written by the American comic book, TV and film writer Bill Finger (1914-1974) and it had a classic cover image by Bob Kane (1915-1998), the American comic book writer, animator and artist, who co-created Batman and most early characters for DC Comics. It was dated 1940 (was graded 3.0 (RESTORED C-3) by CGC) and sold for £31,375 over five times its starting price of £5,000.