NEW YORK — A May 1939 comic book featuring the first appearance of Batman netted $68,500 at auction.
Detective Comics No. 27, considered the finest unrestored copy offered for public sale, brought the highest price Saturday at a sale of comic art that totaled $1.7 million, Sotheby's spokesman Matthew Weigman said.
The Caped Crusader was not the only one drawing high prices: A copy of Action Comics No. 1, the 1938 comic book where Superman first appeared, sold for $46,000 to a private American collector. The first comic devoted to the Man of Steel, Superman Comics No. 1, sold for $18,800.
And a Sunday newspaper strip of Flash Gordon brought in $27,600, for full-color original art that ran Feb. 10, 1935. Original art from a 1950 Peanuts strip brought $6,900.
Four thousand comic books came from the collection of Jerry Buss, owner of the Lakers.
