When we typically hear about rare or expensive comics fetching large prices at auction it’s for something rare, an Action Comics #1 or an Amazing Fantasy #15. This case is a little different but technically still rare. An auction on Comic Connect officially concluded tonight for Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman, but not a full issue of the iconic Bob Kane & Bill Finger; in fact just the cover, and not the front cover, the back cover; and not the full back cover, a torn back cover! What did this officially CGC graded heirloom fetch at auction? Over $2600 for the highest bidder.
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Data from CGC confirms that only 36 total copies of Detective Comics have been graded by the company in the past with the highest rated a 9.2 (of which there is only one) and the lowest a .5 (of which there are four). This specific torn back cover is only rated a .1 by CGC in part because it’s only part of the issue and also because it’s only part of that. You can find a photo of what it looks like below.
It’s hard to imagine that such a poorly kept together piece of comic history could still fetch a price like this at auction, but the potential for owning memorabilia related to the Dark Knight Detective is still a landmark piece for collectors.
Batman fans got a full sampling of the character as a detective in the feature film The Batman which filmmaker Matt Reeves deliberately went out of his way to make sure leaned into that aspect of the character. He’s the World’s Greatest Detective after all.
“I wanted to do a story in which the corruption of Gotham was one of the most important aspects of the story, because Gotham is a sick place. Bruce is desperate to try and make a change,” Reeves said in an interview with Movie Maker. “He’s still stuck, to be honest, emotionally stunted at being 10 years old, because that’s a trauma you don’t get past—witnessing your parents murder in this place. He’s looking to create meaning, right? This is the only meaning he can find. … I think he imagines that if he can do this, somehow he can reverse what’s happened, which will never be reversed. This is a very human impulse, right? To try and relive something and remake it.”
“In the first meeting, he was saying, we want to lean into the ‘world’s greatest detective aspect,’ and be a detective noir movie,” The Batman‘s star Robert Pattinson added. “And, you know, normally when directors say that they just do like a mood board, and it’s just about the imagery. But I read the script, and it is! It’s a detective movie. It happens all the time in the graphic novels, but it’s always kind of on the backburner in the movies.”
The Batman is now playing in theaters, and you can find non-torn copies of Detective Comics at your local comic store (probably not #27 though).
