Nicolas Cage Sells His Action Comics #1 Issue For $2 Million Dollars

The 1938 released 10 cents comic book is the first to have broke the $2 million barrier (around £1.4 million) making it the most expensive comic in history.

By Matt Holmes /

Nicolas Cage has reportedly sold his CGC 9.0 graded copy of Action Comics #1 for $2,161,000 at auction. The 1938 released 10 cents comic book is the first to have broke the $2 million barrier (around £1.4 million) making it the most expensive comic in history and is the best ever industry standard graded copy of the 73 year old issue on the planet, given the score by Comics Guaranty Corporation. The auction took place at Comic Connect auction house, home of 4 out of the 5 historic comic issues to have broken the $1 million barrier. The auction began with a starting bid of just $1, with a reserve price of $900,000. Bleeding Cool tell us those comics are;
the previous record holder Action Comics #1 CGC 8.5 for $1.5 million in March 2010, an Action Comics #1 8.0 for $1 million in February 2010, and an Amazing Fantasy #15 (first appearance of Spider-Man) CGC 9.6 for $1.1 million in March 2011. Heritage Auctions sold a copy of Detective Comics #27 CGC 8.0 for $1,075,000 in February 2010.
The site also re-tells the compelling history of the ownership of this particular copy. Originally sold at Southeby's for $82,500 in 1992, the issue was bought by actor Nicolas Cage in 1997 for $150,000. You have to remember this was at the time that Cage was to star as the Man of Steel in Tim Burton's Superman Lives eventually unrealised movie and he has since gone on to call his son Kal-El, the Superman's birth name. In 2000, Action Comics #1, along with Detective Comics #27 and Detective Comics #1 was stolen from Cage's home. Obviously the thieves knew of Cage's love for comic books and raided the prize assets of his collection. So pissed off and not seeing the point of continuing when those were taken from him, Cage then sold his entire comics collection, which either related or not, was just days before he married Lisa Marie Presley. The story was over for Cage and Action Comics #1 until 11 years later when this April his stolen copy was uncovered in a San Fernando Valley storage locker and it is believed the police returned it to him. There is no confirmation that Cage's comics is the one that has been auctioned off today but it's widely believed it was. The Hollywood Reporter ran the story it was and the author of the piece is still standing by his story.