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Today at Heritage Auctions Platinum Session Auctions, Captain America Comics #1 band Joe Simon and Jack Kirby beginning in 1941, part of the San Francisco Pedigree collection, rated CGC 9.4, went under the hammer. And from proxy bids alone, he already has almost two million dollars in offers. This is Captain America’s first appearance, in an excellent note from over eighty years ago, at a time when no one was preserving these posts. Heritage Auctions previously sold this copy in August 2019, when it sold for $915,000. Just with the current offer, it is 50% more in four years.
Captain America Comics #1 San Francisco Pedigree (Timely, 1941) CGC NM 9.4 Off-white to white pages. Not just one of the most sought after comics in the hobby, but one of the finest copies ever seen, and from one of the most famous collections! This combination puts it among the most sought-after comics Heritage has sold at auction to date.
The private label combined with the “Tom Reilly” stamp in the middle of the back cover identifies it as part of the famous San Francisco Pedigree collection. Many Gilded Age collectors rank this pedigree near the top, with some placing it behind the Edgar Church/Mile High hoard. And the history of the collection shown in an exhibition in Berkeley, California in 1973 has entered into the traditions of the collection.
We have always loved Bob Overstreet’s description of the importance of this book: “Simon & Kirby’s most classic creation; a patriotic paragon that rocked the comic book market. A trendsetter.” And Jim Steranko summed up the impact: “the classic heroic figure – the comic books had found a reason to exist…Captain America was an unprecedented success. The first issue sold out. The superhero business became the holy grail of comic book publishers drawn.“It may have been a bestseller, but that doesn’t mean copies are readily available now. Heritage has sometimes gone an entire year without offering a single copy in any quality. Please zoom in on our scans at your heart’s content, and if your mission is to find a loophole, you’ll be hard pressed to do so.Comparing this copy to other Captain America Comics Issue 1s in our archive pay special attention to the back cover – the spine of this issue still seems to have some sort of smudging or darkening, but on this copy from San Francisco the quality shines through. And this is true even compared to other pedigree copies, of which we have offered a few in our time. It is particularly worth noting that the Mile High copy is no competition for this specimen, being both a few lower and restored grades. The two specimens that are equal or ahead of this one on the CGC census are also pedigrees: specimens 9.8 Allentown and 9.4 Denver.
We’ll keep an eye out to see what Captain America Comics #1 strikes when that hammer finally lands.
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