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Action Comics 1
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Action Comics 1
Action Comics #1 (cover dated June 1938) is the first issue of the original run of the comic book/magazine series Action Comics. It features the first appearance of several comic-book heroes—most notably the Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster creation, Superman—and sold for 10 cents (equivalent to $2 in 2024). It is widely considered to be both the beginning of the superhero genre and the most valuable comic book in the world. Action Comics ran for 904 numbered issues (plus additional out-of-sequence special issues) before it restarted its numbering in the fall of 2011. It returned to its original numbering with issue #957, published on June 8, 2016 (cover-dated August) and reached its 1,000th issue in 2018.
On August 24, 2014, a copy graded 9.0 by CGC was sold on eBay for $3,207,852 USD (equivalent to $4,260,000 in 2024); it was the first comic book to have sold for more than $3 million for a single original copy.
Action Comics #1 was an anthology, and contained eleven features:
Published on April 18, 1938 (cover dated June 1938), by National Allied Publications, a corporate predecessor of DC Comics, it is considered the first true superhero comic. Though today Action Comics is a monthly title devoted to Superman, it began, like many early comics, as an anthology.
Action Comics was started by publisher Jack Liebowitz. The first issue had a print run of 200,000 copies, which promptly sold out, although it took some time for National to realize that the "Superman" story was responsible for sales of the series that soon approached 1,000,000 a month. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were paid $10 per page, for a total of $130 (equivalent to $2,904 in 2024) for their work on this issue. Liebowitz later said that selecting Superman to run in Action Comics #1 was "pure accident" based on deadline pressure and that he selected a "thrilling" cover, depicting Superman lifting a car over his head. Christopher Knowles, author of Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes, compared the cover to Hercules and the Hydra by Antonio del Pollaiuolo.
In January 1933, Jerry Siegel wrote a short prose story titled "The Reign of the Superman", which was illustrated by his friend Joe Shuster and self-published in a science fiction magazine. It told the story of a bald villain with telepathic powers. Trying to create a character they could sell to newspaper syndicates, Siegel re-conceived the "superman" character as a powerful hero, sent to Earth from a more advanced society. He and Shuster developed the idea into a comic strip, which they pitched unsuccessfully.[citation needed]
National Publications was looking for a hit to accompany their success with Detective Comics, and did not have time to solicit new material. Jack Liebowitz, co-owner of National Publications, told editor Vin Sullivan to create their fourth comic book. Because of the tight deadline, Sullivan was forced to make it out of inventory and stockpile pages. He found a number of adventurer stories, but needed a lead feature. Sullivan asked former coworker Sheldon Mayer if he could help. Mayer found the rejected Superman comic strips, and Sullivan told Siegel and Shuster that if they could paste them into 13 comic book pages, he would buy them.
The original panels were rewritten and redrawn to create the first page of Action Comics #1:
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Action Comics 1
Action Comics #1 (cover dated June 1938) is the first issue of the original run of the comic book/magazine series Action Comics. It features the first appearance of several comic-book heroes—most notably the Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster creation, Superman—and sold for 10 cents (equivalent to $2 in 2024). It is widely considered to be both the beginning of the superhero genre and the most valuable comic book in the world. Action Comics ran for 904 numbered issues (plus additional out-of-sequence special issues) before it restarted its numbering in the fall of 2011. It returned to its original numbering with issue #957, published on June 8, 2016 (cover-dated August) and reached its 1,000th issue in 2018.
On August 24, 2014, a copy graded 9.0 by CGC was sold on eBay for $3,207,852 USD (equivalent to $4,260,000 in 2024); it was the first comic book to have sold for more than $3 million for a single original copy.
Action Comics #1 was an anthology, and contained eleven features:
Published on April 18, 1938 (cover dated June 1938), by National Allied Publications, a corporate predecessor of DC Comics, it is considered the first true superhero comic. Though today Action Comics is a monthly title devoted to Superman, it began, like many early comics, as an anthology.
Action Comics was started by publisher Jack Liebowitz. The first issue had a print run of 200,000 copies, which promptly sold out, although it took some time for National to realize that the "Superman" story was responsible for sales of the series that soon approached 1,000,000 a month. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were paid $10 per page, for a total of $130 (equivalent to $2,904 in 2024) for their work on this issue. Liebowitz later said that selecting Superman to run in Action Comics #1 was "pure accident" based on deadline pressure and that he selected a "thrilling" cover, depicting Superman lifting a car over his head. Christopher Knowles, author of Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes, compared the cover to Hercules and the Hydra by Antonio del Pollaiuolo.
In January 1933, Jerry Siegel wrote a short prose story titled "The Reign of the Superman", which was illustrated by his friend Joe Shuster and self-published in a science fiction magazine. It told the story of a bald villain with telepathic powers. Trying to create a character they could sell to newspaper syndicates, Siegel re-conceived the "superman" character as a powerful hero, sent to Earth from a more advanced society. He and Shuster developed the idea into a comic strip, which they pitched unsuccessfully.[citation needed]
National Publications was looking for a hit to accompany their success with Detective Comics, and did not have time to solicit new material. Jack Liebowitz, co-owner of National Publications, told editor Vin Sullivan to create their fourth comic book. Because of the tight deadline, Sullivan was forced to make it out of inventory and stockpile pages. He found a number of adventurer stories, but needed a lead feature. Sullivan asked former coworker Sheldon Mayer if he could help. Mayer found the rejected Superman comic strips, and Sullivan told Siegel and Shuster that if they could paste them into 13 comic book pages, he would buy them.
The original panels were rewritten and redrawn to create the first page of Action Comics #1: