Action Comics #1 - dumb question ahead

[texasknight]

Can someone please tell me what Superman is doing to that car, and why? Looks to me like he's smashing it against rocks, and the driver is off to the side thinking to himself "What the heck is this guy doing to my car???"

[Timely]

Those guys kidnapped Lois Lane. In the story he chases down the car, lifts it up and "shakes" all the villians out of it, then proceeds to destroy the car by smashing it against the rocks. He really was SUPER from the beginning!

 

Timely

[texasknight]

As the old saying goes ... Ya learn something new everyday !

[sterlingcomics]

I thought of this as an alternate ending to that issue:

 

Sponsor: Hi there Superman, what are you doing here today?

Superman: HI there, proud citizen. I'm diligently working to remove criminals from our proud town of Metropolis.

Sponsor: Uhh, yeaahhh. Say, wouldn't you like a nice cool refreshing Klondike bar. It's really tasty! (waves it in front of Superman, and then throws it in the car).

Sponsor: Well if you really want it, you'll have to shake the passengers out of that car.

Superman: Gesh, as long as I don't hurt them, ok!

 

Scene: Cover of Action comics #1 with the following jingle:

 

"All that chocolatey coated ice cream

loaded up so thick no room for stick

What would you dooo, for a Klondike bar?"

 

Scene: Superman eating a Klondike bar.

 

OK, I've officially lost it. A victim of marketing. Good night all!

[jduran1]

Timely. What happened to all the Action 1s. There are so few of them. I am sure there was a large print run. Second question .Do you feel there are some out there that haven't been discovered. The kids who bought them assuming they were 12 would be 78 today?

[Filter81]

JDuran,

 

I think there were more than 1 million copies of Action 1 originally printed. (Which I think is actually as many copies as were printed of the 1991 edition of X-men 1)

 

Back then nobody knew they would be worth anything though and they were all thrown away when kids were done reading them. Nobody knew they'd be worth anything someday. Also, I believe many copies were recycled and donated for the war effort. From what I understand lots of paper was needed for the war, and many comic books from that time period (particularly superman and batman comics) even had little ads in them urging kids to give the paper from the books for the war effort. Anyway, this is something I heard a while back. I'm not sure how much of it is correct or how much I am remembering correctly...

 

[Timely]

I have been told 100,000 copies of Action #1 were printed. I am guessing about 100 of them are left. Are all of them found?!? I wish I knew the answer to that, but I have a feeling there are a few more to be found. I don't think any Action #1's will be found over Fine or so.

 

Timely

[JohnBull]

Why do you think there are so many more Batman 1's than Superman 1's ? I wonder, because Superman was nearly all reprint, when the message came out a few years later to send to paper drives, do you think kids kept the predominantly new Batman book and gave up the Superman one ? If so, this would seem to indicate that children were collecting comics from a very early stage, in which case there should be a few more of certain earlier issues around somewhere.

[sterlingcomics]

Timely--I've read the same thing-100 seems to be around the number of estimated copies of Action #1 (maybe from CBG?). And, as you suggested, mid grade seems to be the average grade. From what I've seen availabile, restored copies are very common due to the age of the book (and one of the few times where I think restoration is appropriate).

[panhandlefool]

JDuran,

 

I think there were more than 1 million copies of Action 1 originally printed. (Which I think is actually as many copies as were printed of the 1991 edition of X-men 1)

 

Back then nobody knew they would be worth anything though and they were all thrown away when kids were done reading them. Nobody knew they'd be worth anything someday. Also, I believe many copies were recycled and donated for the war effort. From what I understand lots of paper was needed for the war, and many comic books from that time period (particularly superman and batman comics) even had little ads in them urging kids to give the paper from the books for the war effort. Anyway, this is something I heard a while back. I'm not sure how much of it is correct or how much I am remembering correctly...

 

Actually, a lot of paper was donated for the war effort, and an early World's Finest even had a cover about paper recycling for the war. The unfortunate thing about that is that so much of the paper recycling effort actually didn't help the war - much of it was to give Americans a "feel good" thing, and a lot of that paper (as well as other major recycling drives back then) was just thrown away without going thru recycling. 65 years ago they didn't have anything approaching current recycling technology we do today. Imagine the # of copies of Action Comics #1 (and many other great books!) donated for recycling that never actually went thru the recycling process. A true waster (no pun intended!)...

[garthgantu]

Can someone please tell me what Superman is doing to that car, and why? Looks to me like he's smashing it against rocks, and the driver is off to the side thinking to himself "What the heck is this guy doing to my car???"

 

Look, he's Superman, okay? When he gets road rage, it's SUPER road-rage. 'Nuff said!

[sterlingcomics]

[Timely]

Why do you think there are so many more Batman 1's than Superman 1's ? I wonder, because Superman was nearly all reprint, when the message came out a few years later to send to paper drives, do you think kids kept the predominantly new Batman book and gave up the Superman one ? If so, this would seem to indicate that children were collecting comics from a very early stage, in which case there should be a few more of certain earlier issues around somewhere.

 

Superman #1 is a 1939 book. Batman was printed a year later in 1940. Any 1930's book is about twice as scarce as any 1940's book, on average.

I do not think the majority of people who picked up a copy of Superman #1 off the newstand realized it was a reprint of Action #1-4. Superman was the first comic to have over 1 million copies printed. Keep in mind there were 3 different printings of the book and it was a seasonal book, meaing the cover date was Summer.

Now that I think about it, I would not be surprised if many mom's through away their sons' Superman #1's in the summer. Since Sup 1 was probably on the newstands from March until June perhaps most of the copies did not even make it through that first summer, with kids out of school destroying them and moms tossing them in the garbage. Batman #1 was Spring of 1940 whick means they were bought during the Winter. They may have been stored away that Winter and many were kept stored. Just a theory!

 

Timely