Collection of every DC comic ever to hit Sotheby’s auction block

Look, up on the auction block! There’s enough comics to build a fortress of solitude.

The complete run of DC’s comics that were published since the company’s 1934 founding through 2014 is about to be up for sale. The collection features more than 40,000 comics spanning nine decades, including every appearance of Superman and Batman, as well as extremely rare promotional issues.

Sotheby’s began auctioning the comprehensive assemblage as a single lot in a private online sale on Monday, and it seems assured it’ll sell faster than a speeding bullet.

“Everyone and everything is here,” the auction house writes, from the first appearances of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash — everyone.

“The work of successive generations of the greatest comic book artists and writers are preserved in the collection,” Sotheby’s continues, including pioneers Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster and Jack “King” Kirby.

The collection was amassed by British DJ and producer Ian Levine, 66, known for popularizing contemporary Northern soul movement and accumulating one of the most respected comic book collections ever known. He took to Twitter to clarify that, while he curated the comic collection, and it still bears his name, he sold it 12 years ago and is not behind the current sale.

“The Ian Levine Collection is the holy grail for comics collectors,” said Richard Austin, head of the books and manuscripts department at Sotheby’s. “Amassed over decades of hunting, Levine’s collection embodies the passion and fandom that has defined comics culture for generations.”

DC still prints new comics, but Levine’s stockpiling has every issue from what is considered the genre’s golden age, as well as foreign reprints, anthology reprints and “ashcan” issues that were never available for sale, as they were produced to establish copyright.

“Action Comics” No. 1 currently holds the record for the most expensive auctioned comic: It was sold for $3.2 million in 2014, beating out former record-holder “Detective Comics” No. 27, which was bought for $1.075 million in 2010. A price is not listed for the Levine Collection, but it’s certainly going to be kryptonite for some comics lover’s wallet.

View Slideshow

Source: Read Full Article