Three Brothers Found a 1939 Copy of ‘Superman No. 1’ in Their Mother’s Attic. It Just Became the Most Expensive Comic Book Ever Sold

Last year, three brothers began clearing out their late mother’s house in San Francisco. Throughout their lives, she’d mentioned owning a collection of rare comic books. But she didn’t know where it was, and the brothers had never seen it, so they weren’t sure whether it really existed, reports the Hollywood Reporter’s Andy Lewis.

But when the brothers reached the attic, they found a stack of comic books in a box of old newspapers. And “rare” turned out to be an understatement. Their mother owned a near-pristine copy of Superman No. 1 from 1939—the first issue of the Man of Steel’s solo comic.

Now, the family has sold it for $9.12 million—making it the most expensive comic book ever auctioned.

The brothers, who’ve chosen to remain anonymous, contacted Heritage Auctions a few months after they found the comics. <a href="https://comics.ha.com/heritage-auctions-press-releases-and-news/lon-allen-barry-sandoval-promoted-to-vice-president-of-heritage-auctions.s?releaseId=3571″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Lon Allen, vice president of the Dallas-based auction house, traveled to northern California to examine their discovery.

“It wasn’t like we said, ‘Let’s go find that comic book,’” the youngest brother, 57, tells the Hollywood Reporter. They’d waited several years after their mother’s death to clear out her house. “It was more, ‘Let’s get that dumpster and just fill it up.’”

According to an October statement from Heritage Auctions, the attic comic book collection included five early issues of Action Comics, the series Until this month, the record for the most expensive comic belonged to a 1938 copy of Action Comics No. 1, containing Superman’s debut. Heritage Auctions sold it in 2024 for $6 million

Superman No. 1 was issued in 1939, after National Allied Publications had become Detective Comics, Inc. (which later became DC Comics). It tells the origin story of Clark Kent, a baby rocketed to Earth from the doomed planet Krypton. The book sees Kent grow into a big-city reporter who uses his otherworldly powers to fight crime and injustice as Superman.

Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) graded the brothers’ copy of Superman No. 1 a 9.0 on its <a href="https://www.cgccomics.com/grading/grading-scale/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>10-point scale, according to a recent statement from Heritage Auctions. San Francisco’s cool, damp climate might have helped preserve the book. “If it had been in an attic here in Texas, it would have been ruined,” Allen said in the October statement.

Quick fact: What does a 9.0 rating mean?

According to CGC, items rated 9.0 are “very well-preserved [collectibles] with good eye appeal” that have “a number of minor handling and/or manufacturing defects.”

The brothers’ mother purchased her issue of Superman No. 1when she was 9, per the Hollywood Reporter. She and her teenage brother had pooled their money to buy some comics from the newsstand. Superman No. 1cost them 10 cents, reports CNN’s Lianne Kolirin.

Comics “became a treasured refuge” for his mother and uncle, said the youngest brother in the October statement. The children lived in a small apartment without a lot of money, “but they had each other and a shared love for comic books,” he said.

Years later, his mother and uncle decided to pass the comics down to her sons, given that his uncle had no children. She hid the box of comics in her attic for safekeeping, and eventually she forgot about it.

“It was just in an attic, sitting in a box,” Allen tells the Associated Press’ Jack Brook. “Could have easily been thrown away, could’ve easily been destroyed in a thousand different ways.”

Though it’s breaking records, this copy of Superman No. 1is more than “just a comic book,” the youngest brother said in October.

“This was never just about a collectible,” he said. “This is a testament to memory, family and the unexpected ways the past finds its way back to us.”