Today we celebrate the birth of the United States of America; I thought it would be appropriate to showcase the ultimate comic book patriot: Captain America. Captain America was published by Timely Publications in Captain America Comics #1. This is the first appearance of Bucky and Cap. This comic has both origin stories. Further, this issue has the first appearance of the Captain America Sentinels of Liberty Club, who would miss that? The first issue depicts Hitler wearing his swastika jacket getting a haymaker to the floor. Meanwhile, Nazi thugs close in on Cap. Captain America Comics #1 sold for 10 cents at the newsstand in 1941. Currently, a near mint minus (9.2) copy sold in 2013 for $306,050 on ComicConnect. That is one heckuva a return on investment, my fellow Sentinels.
Captain America Born in Threat
According to Joe Simon (writer), "When the first issue came out we got a lot of ... Threatening letters and hate mail. Some people really opposed to what Cap stood for. There were threats, people loitering and intimidating us on the street near the office. The threats grew serious and police protection was posted with NYC Mayor Fiorello La Guardia giving his support" (source: Wright, Bradford W. (2001). Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8018-7450-5).
In his first comic book, Captain America Comics #1 Cap had a triangular shield. However, a superhero from another comic book had something similar. They asked Timely to change the shield, and Simon and Kirby obliged creating the iconic round shield in Cap #2. Then Stan Lee came up with the idea in Cap #3 to have Cap use the shield as a thrown weapon returning to its user. The rest is history. Cap was created by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby and Ed Herron (script) with Jack Kirby, Joe Simon (pencils) this was in 1941, just ten months before Pearl Harbor. Has this been a good investment? Has this Golden Age comic been profitable over the last 80 years?
World Events Circa 1941: Cap's World
It was a time when two great empires threatened the democratic ideals of the Western democracies. We were besieged in the Pacific by the Empire of Japan. In Europe, Germany had risen yet again to bring world war to our doorstep. Our old military was not ready, our fleet had just been destroyed in the Pacific, and our leader President Rosevelt was wheelchair bound. And then, one of these enemies had the audacity to attack America; then it was game on. Within four years we had these "warrior cultures" back on their heels, and had destroyed their vast military power. The working class of this country proved they could defeat "the warrior elite" in hand to hand combat (or any other kind of combat) from Iwo Jima to Normandy. We shocked the world with the Arsenal of Democracy. They had unleashed the "righteous might" of the American people, and the world would never be the same again. In a small way, propaganda like Cap helped speed victory during WW2. Captain America appeared in Captain America Comics #1, prior to America's entry into the war, and sold a million copies.
The success of Captain America coincides with the American Century and our growth as a nation. After the war, superheroes fell out of favor, comics went a different route. But those that invested in this first appearance got their monies worth.
Long-Term Return
- Grade 9.2 $306,050 Last sale returns negative -10.8%
- Grade 8.0 $290,000 FMV returns positive +287.6%
- Grade 6.5 $210,000 FMV returns positive +385.5%
- Grade 1.0 $35,000 FMV returns positive +682.6%
These kinds of results are typical of Golden Age keys like this. Literally, the near mint minus (9.2) has the same value as your average house $300K. It makes you want to sing the Star Spangled Banner and salute, especially if you own one. Have a happy Fourth of July, Sentinels of Liberty.
