The Dark Knight Soars
Detective Comics No. 27, featuring the first appearance of Batman, sells for world record $1.5 million at Heritage Auctions.
DALLAS -- An unrestored issue of Detective Comics No. 27, featuring the first appearance of Batman, sold for $1.5 million, November 19 at Heritage Auctions, becoming the most expensive comic book starring the caped crusader.
The highest previous price for a similar issue was $1,075,000, realized 10 years ago at another auction at Heritage.
The record-breaking Batman comic was graded "fine/very fine 7.0" by Certified Guaranty Company (CGC), making it one of only two 7.0 copies in the world. "I'm not at all surprised at the result," Barry Sandoval, Heritage Auctions vice president said of the sale. "After all, this is one of the best copies you will ever see of one of the most important comic books ever published."
Featuring the artwork of Bob Kane, the comic book showcases one of the more distinctive and memorable covers of the entire Golden Age. Kane's art and the story by Bill Finger, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate," launched arguably the most popular and prolific superhero career in comic book history.
The Detective Comics sale came during the first session of Heritage Auction’s four-day Comics & Comic Art event, which runs through November 22 and features the so-called “Alfred Pennyworth Collection”, a Batman-centric collection from Randy Lawrence. His Batman No. 2, from 1940, sold for $63,000 during the same session. Lawrence's collection made headlines when it was stolen out of Florida self-storage unit two years ago.
