Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Action Comics #1 - McClure File Copy Superman Man of Tomorrow


Before Action Comics #1 contained e first appearance of Superman his creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster pitched the character in a couple of different ways, first as a bald supervillian bent on world domination and second as The Superman a daily comic strip which was submitted to McClure news syndicate. 30 days worth of stripes were created. Back before comics became popular the money for artists and writers was in daily newspaper strips. McClure syndicate liked the strip so they used it to help sell Superman to virus papers across the country. This was all done before Action Comics #1 changed the world.

The story of this strips becomes even more historically importsnt whenyou realize that these strips were actually cut and used by DC to create Action Comics #1. Most collectors are not aware that in fact the story of Superman as told in Action Comics #1 was intended to be a daily newspaper strip.


So what is the MCClure file copy?  Well McClure syndicate created a book that they used to sell Superman to the various newspapers across the USA. All 30 Superman strips or a months worth of publication are contained within this book.

Salesmen would carry this book and show it to the newspaper men thus selling Superman before the comic strip went live, which was scheduled for January 16, 1939.


The strips contain the first origin of Superman. Action #1 had limited space so that origin was reduced to a few panels thus cutting it short. The book which is very rare, only a few in existence also contains Shusters cover art that would be used in Action Comics #7

These book sells for about $60,000 in mint condition when they actually come up for sale, which is rare.
There is currently one up for auction on eBay, check it out HERE, your chance to own a piece of history.

Please let us know how you like the "Stories of Action Comics #1"

Good luck on your hunt.

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