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Superman comic's record price

2 December 2011

An original edition of the first comic book to feature the character Superman has sold for a world record price of $2.1 million.

Reporter

Steve Kingstone

Action Comics first edition

Report

When it appeared on newsstands 73 years ago, the first edition of Action Comics cost just ten cents. The cover design showed a well-built man in blue tights and a red cape, smashing a car against a rock.

Superman was introduced to readers as a "champion of the oppressed," who could "run faster than an express train."

Only a hundred copies of that first issue survive. And for comic buffs this one was in breathtakingly good condition.

In an online auction it fetched a little over $2 million, a world record for a comic. The buyer remains anonymous. The seller is rumoured to have been the actor Nicolas Cage.

Connoisseurs of the comic world say this type of investment has become popular during troubled economic times because rare collectibles hold their value more reliably than property or shares.

Steve Kingstone, BBC News