$130 check that bought rights to Superman on auction (current high bid: $45k)

In 1938 Detective Comics purchased the rights to Superman from his creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster for $130 (click image above). This check is now on the auction block and the current high bid is $45,500.

(Via Illustration Art)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

goldenearth

You’d probably have to be quite the Superman fan and also have a lot of money in order to motivate yourself to purchase this item.

Me? I’m more of a HULK fan with very little money
awgrbr

$130 1938 dollars in 2012? about $2,100… superman was a steal.
- Mister44
  
  To be fair- no one had any idea how big him and comics in general would become.
yrathbone

What’s the title that went for $210?
- Mister44
  
  Looks like the other three amounts are for:
  
  June Detective Comics (D.C.)
  June Adventure
  June Fun
  - yrathbone
    
    I wonder if that was for Slam Bradley. It would be funny/sad if DC paid more for Slam than for Superman.
- Marktech
  
  What’s the title that went for $210?
  
  From the Hollywood Reporter story:
  
  “The check includes a notation breaking down the payment as $130 for Superman, $210 for the June, 1938 issue of Detective Comics at $210 and $36 each for Adventure Comics and More Fun Comics.”
noah django

where are you getting this $130 figure? did you even bother to look at what is printed on the check? here, I’ll help:
- Mark_Frauenfelder
  
  Here, I’ll help you, Noah.
  - noah django
    
    derp. and now the comment above mine makes sense. i’ll just crawl back in my hole now.
    
    obviously I don’t have experience with a check itemized like that. whelp.
BombBlastLightingWaltz

The person who wrote the check was left handed.
- chgoliz
  
  ?? I see no indication of that. What makes you think that?
  - BombBlastLightingWaltz
    
    Im no graphologist but the slanting script suggests lefty.
anharmyenone

Jane Austen sold _Pride and Prejudice_ for 110 pounds sterling.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Sounds like Jane was a better negotiator.
666beast1

Anyone know who’s selling the check? I would hope it was Schuster’s family.
mongo

Why did the two of them endorse the check twice each?
ATXinventor

hmmm, anyone knows how much of the 70 years of copyrighted rights are benefiting the creators artists? I bet about a fair amount, don’t you think?