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Siegel & Shuster's 1st Superman Check Up for Auction
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Super-Menace
Mar 27, 2012, 5:45:30 PM3/27/12
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DC check paying for Superman up for auction
By MATT MOORE | Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ã Seven decades after it was cut by DC Comics, the
check sent to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for their creation of
Superman is up for auction.
Made out to the duo for $412, the check includes a line item for $130
showing that DC paid for full ownership and rights to the man from
Krypton and paved the way for comic books, TV, radio and films. But, a
legal dispute over creator's rights to the character is still far from
settled.
Stephen Fishler, CEO of ComicConnect.com and Metropolis Collectibles,
said the check went up for auction Monday through April 16. By late
Monday night, bidding had jumped from $1 to $20,500.
He said the check is a touchstone for the comic book industry because
it represents the launching of the Golden Age of superheroes.
"It is an important historic document ... related to comic books," he
said. "There is a quality to it that talks about the American dream, to
create something and be successful. Obviously, in this case, there are
two parties, both feeling that they are right."
Siegel and Shuster created Superman together while teenagers in
Cleveland, Ohio, in the early 1930s. The character's first appearance
was in "Action Comics" No. 1 in April 1938.
The check was saved by a staffer at DC Comics in the 1970s whose heirs
consigned it to ComicConnect, Fishler said, adding that it sat
undisturbed in a drawer for 38 years.
"That $130 check essentially created a billion dollar industry," said
Vincent Zurzolo, who co-owns ComicConnect with Fishler. "Without this
check being written out by DC Comics, there would be no Superman, and
thereby no Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, X-Men, or any of the other
characters that came into existence after the concept of the superhero
was born with Superman."
<http://goo.gl/euO6L>
By MATT MOORE | Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ã Seven decades after it was cut by DC Comics, the
check sent to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for their creation of
Superman is up for auction.
Made out to the duo for $412, the check includes a line item for $130
showing that DC paid for full ownership and rights to the man from
Krypton and paved the way for comic books, TV, radio and films. But, a
legal dispute over creator's rights to the character is still far from
settled.
Stephen Fishler, CEO of ComicConnect.com and Metropolis Collectibles,
said the check went up for auction Monday through April 16. By late
Monday night, bidding had jumped from $1 to $20,500.
He said the check is a touchstone for the comic book industry because
it represents the launching of the Golden Age of superheroes.
"It is an important historic document ... related to comic books," he
said. "There is a quality to it that talks about the American dream, to
create something and be successful. Obviously, in this case, there are
two parties, both feeling that they are right."
Siegel and Shuster created Superman together while teenagers in
Cleveland, Ohio, in the early 1930s. The character's first appearance
was in "Action Comics" No. 1 in April 1938.
The check was saved by a staffer at DC Comics in the 1970s whose heirs
consigned it to ComicConnect, Fishler said, adding that it sat
undisturbed in a drawer for 38 years.
"That $130 check essentially created a billion dollar industry," said
Vincent Zurzolo, who co-owns ComicConnect with Fishler. "Without this
check being written out by DC Comics, there would be no Superman, and
thereby no Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, X-Men, or any of the other
characters that came into existence after the concept of the superhero
was born with Superman."
<http://goo.gl/euO6L>
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