Hake’s Americana (15/18% buyer’s premium) recently discovered a copy of Detective Comics No.27 (May 1939) in a collection whose original owner had purchased all of the comics new off the shelf during the 1930s and ’40s.
The comic, above, sold on March 13-15, was complete, unrestored and was CGC rated 5.0.
A February 14-15 sale held in Lynbrook (Long Island, NY) included another early appearance of ‘The Bat Man’, a July 1939 issue that the vendor had bought for $20 in a ‘tag’ sale.
This was not an officially graded copy and was far from perfect. A previous owner had written her name across the title banner, the pages were ‘tanned’ and the centrefold loose, but the cover featured both the Caped Crusader and the debut of his mad scientist foe, Doctor Death. It was bid to $47,500 (£33,930) in a sale held by Philip Weiss (15/20% buyer’s premium).
Sold for $45,000 (£32,145) in the same sale was a copy of Showcase No.4, which in October 1956 saw the first appearance of Barry Allen as ‘The Flash’ in the cover artwork by Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert. This copy, above, in good overall condition but with some off-white pages, had a CGC rating of 6.5.
