Batman #1-3 creator Bob Kanes personal copies 1940 Start Price USD 67,500.00 Current Price USD 67,500.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Thursday, May 08, 2008 End Time Thursday, May 15, 2008 Location West Hills, CA See more about 'Batman #1-3 creator Bob Kanes personal copies 1940' Description These are Batman creator Bob Kane's personal file copies of Batman #1, 2 and 3, bound along with Detective Comics #39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 and 45. These are some of the most influential comics of all time.  And this is a rare and unique way to own historic copies of these valuable comics. Some of the best-known comic creators simply didn't hang onto their comics very well.   Marvel legend Stan Lee's golden age collection was reportedly destroyed by flooding in his basement.   Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster went through such a financial downturn they couldn't hold onto things.  But Bob Kane's story beats them for melodrama.  Kane tried to hang onto his Batman comics and original art.  But he didn't try hard enough to hang onto his marriage, and ended up losing both.  Kane's wife, tired of his philandering, purposely destroyed as much of Kane's comics and art she could get her hands on.  And she got to just about all of them.  But she didn't get to these. These copies were bound for Kane by D.C. comics and used as reference in his studio, where Kane worked in 1939 and 1940 with artists Jerry Robinson and Sheldon Moldoff and Batman writer co-creator Bill Finger.   These copies didn't get destroyed, but got left behind when Kane's family moved.  These were headed for the trash when they were repotedly rescued by a domestic who worked for the Kane family.    They were discovered at the domestic's home decades later by dogged Batman collector and historian Joe Desris, who authenticated them as well as the story of their survival.  Desris noted in the letter of authenticity which came with the books said that the books weren't stored as well as they should have been and the pages turned brown and somewhat fragile at the edges; ideally this one of a kind volume should be conserved, or restored, but we'll leave the preferred method to the buyer.  They've been stored for the past 15 years in boxes with charcoal and salt to slow the aging process.   Desris' letter also indicates the volume's history was verified by him in a letter when Desris' collection was purchased by one of the country's foremost collectors (the letter and other provenance will be provided to the buyer.  This item and its provenance as Bob Kane's personal copies are guaranteed 100% as described.  It will be verified with experts, and Overstreet advisors, to the buyer's satisfaction.     A small note about the Batman 1.  There were more than one printing of that comic on the newsstand in 1940, and this is definitely the first edition.   These issues also feature the first several appearances of several classic villains, including the Joker and the Catwoman. Copies of golden age comics are much more scarce than silver age comics, which were not as routinely thrown away or destroyed in paper drives.  While there may be thousands or even tens of thousands of a copies of many key silver age comics, there are estimated to be only several hundred or so existing copies of typical golden age books.  That makes them not easy to find, though not impossible, either.  As a piece of comics culture, it is very hard to beat this.  And, as a reliable collectible.   People can and do spend several thousand apiece on individual copies of Batman issues from the 60s or 70s, with no guarantee (or even a strong likelihood) that more, even many more, will surface in the same or better condition.   You could seek out high grade copies of these books and, if you found them, you'd have to pay several hundred thousand dollars.  But, as seldom as high grade copies come along, they can not be more rare than these.  These are one of a kind.  Books owned by the creator at the very beginning of his creation and referenced by him and his co-creator and collaborators as they formed the early exploits of one of the best fictional characters of all time.               Place a Bid!

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