While cleaning out their late mother’s California attic last Christmas, three brothers make a life-changing discovery under a pile of faded newspapers: one of the first Superman comics ever printed.
An original copy of the June 1939 first edition on the adventures of the Man of Steel, it was in remarkably pristine condition.
It has now become the highest-priced comic book ever sold, fetching $9.12m (£7m) at auction.
Texas-based Heritage Auctions, which hosted Thursday’s sale, called it “the pinnacle of comic collecting.”
Heritage said in a press release that the brothers found six comic books, including Superman #1, in 2024 in the attic under stacks of newspapers inside cardboard boxes and surrounded by spider webs.
He waited a few months before contacting the auction house, but once he did, Heritage Auctions vice president Lon Allen met with him in San Francisco within a few days, according to the auction house.
The brothers, who have decided to remain anonymous, are “in their 50s and 60s, and their mother had always told them she had an expensive comics collection, but she never showed them,” Mr. Allen said in Heritage’s press release.
“It’s a twist on the old ‘Mom threw away my comics’ story.”
Heritage said his mother had kept the comic books since she and her brother bought them between the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II.
Mr. Allen said Northern California’s cool climate is perfect for preserving old paper.
“If it had been in an attic in Texas, it would have been ruined,” he said.
This led CGC, a large third-party comics grading service, to give this copy of Superman #1 a 9.0 rating on a 10-point scale, up from the previous record of 8.5.
And at a selling price of more than $9 million, including buyer’s premium, Superman #1 easily beats the previous highest-priced comic book ever sold by $3 million.
Action Comics No. 1, the 1938 work that first introduced Superman, sold for $6 million last year.
The youngest brother said in a Heritage press release that the box had been left forgotten in the back of the attic.
“As the years passed, there were many losses and changes in life,” he said. “The demands of daily survival took center stage, and the box of comics, once set aside with care and intention, was forgotten. Until last Christmas.”
He said: “This is not just a story about old paper and ink. It was never about a collectible.
“It is a testament to memory, family, and the unexpected ways in which the past comes back to us.”