Australian Penthouse

From Superman and Tintin to our very own The Phantom, mint comics can prove a solid investment.
Illustration: Oliver Bland

Story: Andy Round

If Superman and Batman were to scrap it out, who would you bet on? Earlier this year, that became a million-dollar question when 1938’s Action Comics #1, featuring the first appearance of Superman, sold for US$1 million. Then, just a few days later, Detective Comics #27, containing the 1939 debut of Batman, went for US$75,000 more.

Typically, Superman came back fighting. Within a month, another copy of Action #1 hit the market. It was in excellent condition and sold for a staggering US$1.5 million. As headline writers around the world had it, “Holy kryptonite, Superman!”

“The string of million-dollar sales was the catalyst, but this was the ultimate copy, the highest grade ever known,” says ComicConnect’s Stephen Fishler, the man who sold that first outing of the Man of Steel. “It’s graded condition was 8.5 out of 10, and the person who owned it had refused hundreds of offers over the past 17 years, but I managed to buy it and sell it on.”

Like his favourite superhero, the identity of the comic’s new owner remains anonymous, but here’s some insight from Vincent Zurzolo, Fishler’s business partner. “Today’s successful entrepreneurs were yesterday’s comic geeks,” he says. “They don’t want a Van Gogh or a Picasso. They want collectibles that mean something to them. Superman, Spider-Man and Batman are pop-culture icons now. The fact that Superman was the first superhero means [the $1.5m issue] is the holy grail of comics.”

George Pantela runs Melbourne’s GPAnalysis, a worldwide ‘stock exchange’ of comic book sales. It’s the biggest comic information-pricing service online, reporting on almost a million books and monitoring more than US$200 million in sales.

“The million-dollar sales are incredible, but what impresses me more are recent increases in high-grade ’60s and ’70s comics,” says Pantela. “For instance, Spider-Man’s first appearance in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15 in high-grade condition commands six-figure sums. Even the ’70s comics that nobody thought would be collectible and were traded for a few dollars in the ’80s and ’90s are generating interest. Now, we’re seeing high-grade key issues of titles such as Incredible Hulk, Green Lantern, The X-Men and the Fantastic Four selling for five figures.”

One of the owners of that Spider-Man debut is Sydney collector George Xanthis, who has more than 20,000 books. “Of these, I would say about 100 are valuable, and the others you can pick up for anywhere from 50c to AUD$5,” he says. Since Xanthis started collecting 15 years ago, he’s seen the market improve dramatically. “There are better stories these days, more big-budget comic book-related movies, and trade paperbacks that have complete storylines so you can just buy one book rather than a whole heap of comics.”

Condition, of course, is key to value and Pantela’s site only monitors the prices of comics independently audited by the Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) in the US, which assess condition, grade books and then lock them in tamper-proof plastic ‘slabs’. “When the CGC process started 10 years ago, it drove prices up. Way up,” says Pantela. “With records of how many books they grade available for free online, a way of calculating rarity was possible.”

Pantela collected horror and science-fiction produced by notorious US publisher EC Comics during the 1950s, but sold his collection in 2002 to finance his love of original comic art. “It was amazing seeing books I collected as a kid for AUD$20-$50 sell for more than AUD$100,000. It was a reflection of the skyrocketing prices of comics.” Three years ago, Pantela helped a New Zealand lawyer sell a copy of 1942’s Wonder Woman #1 that had been discovered in her father’s office when he died. At auction, it achieved US$25,000.

So if you want to collect comics, where do you start? Jim Papagrigoriou, manager of Sydney’s Kings Comics, is the man with a superhero plan. “Buy what you like,” he says. “Comics are meant to be enjoyed not handled with gloves and displayed like relics. Buying comics now to sell them in the future is a pipe dream. These days, print runs are substantial and you’ll find many collectors out there with the same books being stored up for future gain. The reason why books from 1938 to 1970 are worth so much to collectors is their scarcity. Unlike today’s market with its collector mentality, comics were read and shared, not stored in acid-free bags and sold down the line.”

According to GPAnalysis’s Pantela, there are three types of comic buyer in Australia: those who collect mainly ‘raw’ or ungraded American titles, a growing market for CGC-certified books, and those who collect Australian published comics such as The Phantom.

Ah yes, The Phantom–an Aussie legend since 1948 and the longest-running comic book in the country. The man behind the ‘Ghost Who Walks’ is Jim Shepherd, who took over Sydney’s Frew Publishing in 1991. He directs covers, writes editorials and supervises everything Phantom-related. When Penthouse spoke to him, the 1,603rd issue of The Phantom had just gone to press. Thirty-one issues are published every year–including annuals and specials–selling up to 45,000 copies per issue to avid readers, at least 20 per cent of whom are over 40.

“How much would a perfect condition first edition be worth now? About A$30,000,” he estimates, speaking from an office packed with collectibles that would make any Phantom Phan salivate–ranging from 1950s rubber skull rings to box-fresh 1940s water pistols. “I know of an American collector who bought a near-complete set from #1-999 (minus seven issues) for AUD$132,000… but that was in 1986. I know of only four or five complete collections. And I have two of them. They’re in a safe place. Not here. I have original artwork on the office wall here and I get regular offers of AUD$10,000 for it.”

Shepherd began accumulating his personal stash in the 1980s, placing adverts in newspapers, attending country fairs, being given collections by “some amazing people” and, on one occasion, tracking down a mint set in Hobart. “Then, after eight years, one day I had them all.”

Of course, it’s not only caped crusaders that inspire comic collectors. Original Peanuts art is a regular favourite at Heritage Auctions, one of the world’s biggest online comic auction sites. As an example, a strip featuring Snoopy as the Red Baron sold for US$101,575. “It’s interesting because the strips ran for 50 years and there must be thousands of them out there, but they are popular at auction because Schultz seemed to have tapped into every neurosis of modern times,” says Heritage’s comic specialist, Barry Sandoval.

Old European comics and artwork are also commanding big bucks. Last year, original 1932 cover art for Tintin in America sold for US$1.2 million at the Artcurial auction in Paris. “There is no shame in collecting comic strips now,” Eric Leroy, the auction house’s comic expert tells us.

The last word goes to Sandoval: “Many of the major collectors of comic art in the US are baby boomers. Recently, Heritage sold a huge part of the comic collection belonging to actor Nicolas Cage. Barack Obama has also said he used to collect comics. He was fond of Conan the Barbarian and Spider-Man. It’s hard to imagine other US presidents admitting to collecting comics, but it shows how far the medium has come in terms of popularity.”

THE LOCAL SCENE

So to what extent is the comic book tradition alive and well in Australia? John Retallick has a radio program, blog and a good idea about contemporary comics.

“The comic-book tradition in Australia is alive and well in terms of creativity,” he says. “We have quite a few artists and writers working for a range of larger American companies, doing Star Wars comics and the like.

“At the moment, a Sydney woman named Nicola Scott is the artist on Wonder Woman. She actually was almost cast as Wonder Woman in a TV series a few years back.

“But in general terms, the scene is flavoured from city to city. Melbourne is arty comics, Sydney is more about getting the work to the wider public or having it optioned for movies, while Perth and Adelaide have some great creators doing interesting mini-comics.

“There are also a couple of award-winning manga creators. Queenie Chan from Sydney is working with Dean Koontz (who has sold over 30 million books) and Madeleine Rosca’s books have won awards in Japan.”

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