Wow! Thats how DC Studios co-chief andSupermanwriter-director James Gunn reacted toa Vermont Public radio story about Christine Farrelland her lifelong quest to collect every book DC Comics ever published. But it might just as well have been a response toHeritages initial auction of Farrells legendary and once-mysterious assemblage, which surpassed all expectations by realizing $5,261,617 when it ended Oct. 26. There wasnt a single comic left on the spinner rack. Nearly 1,800 bidders worldwide collected every one of the 489 comics and original works of art offered in theOct. 25 and 26 The Christine Farrell Complete DC Collection: Comics & Comic Art SignatureAuction. And many of those historic books set auction records, which comes as no surprise to Heritage Auctions Vice President Lon Allen. Christines journey to gather these iconic comics has gifted us not only a legendary collection but also a moment to celebrate the rich legacy of comic history, said Allen. Watching so many of her pieces find new homes was truly special, and were grateful to Christine for her vision and thrilled by the extraordinary excitement from collectors who recognize just how invaluable these pieces are. This auction and those to follow will be remembered for years to come. Heritage will presentbooks from Farrells collectioninto the summer of 2025. This auctions initial top lot comes as no surprise:a trimmed and restored CGC Apparent Fine 6.0 copy of 1938s Action ComicsNo. 1, the most important comic ever published that introduced a Superman awaiting his big-screen return in Gunns reintroduction to the mythic Man of Steel. There are but 81 copies of Supermans debut in CGCs population report, among them 36 restored copies. Its valuable and historic no matter the condition, and sold for $324,000. Farrells copy of Flash ComicsNo.1, graded CGC Very Good/Fine 5.0, placed second in this momentous auction, realizing $174,000, the second-highest amount for which this Golden Age gem has sold at auction. Anda copy of More Fun ComicsNo. 52, graded CGC Fine 6.0, featuring the debut of the Spectre, realized $132,000, second only to the CGC Very Fine+ 8.5 copy sold at Heritage in 2022. Not far behind DCs original speedster was a far lesser-known and far harder-to-find book that smashed its previous auction record:a CGC Near Mint+ 9.6 copy of 1938s New Adventure Comics No. 27 that bears the vaunted Mile High Pedigree. The cover, by Creig Flessel, makes this a must-have among collectors, as he was among the earliest DC illustrators and is best known for drawing the Sandman. But the comics interior renders it historic: Readers who opened the book got their first look at Superman, seen in a black-and-white ad for Action ComicsNo. 1, which shared a publication date with New Adventure ComicsNo. 27, June 1938. A bidding war over this trophy resulted in a record price of $168,000, exactly 10 times more thanthe comic books previous high-water mark. Farrells collection was rife with such rarities because of her enduring determination to chase down every last DC title. Chief among them wasone of nine known copies of Double Action ComicsNo. 2, which is such a rare book there has long been some disagreement about whether it was one of a handful of ashcan copies made purely for trademark and copyright registration (as DC noted in its 75th-anniversary history The Art of Modern Mythmaking) or a limited-distribution test product made to see whether customers would buy black-and-white reprints of other comics. Farrell didnt care either way: The book, deemed an ultimate 10 on the Photo-Journal Guide to Comic BooksScarcity Index, was a DC title, so it had to be in her collection, no matter how long it took to track it down. Her fortitude was another collectors good fortune: Farrells beloved CGC Fine/Very Fine 7.0 copy of Double Action ComicsNo. 2 found a new caretaker on day one when it realized an auction record $132,000. Heritage hadnt offered a copy since 2008, when it realized $16,730. Two early copies of Action Comicsalso got in on the record-setting action Friday, when issuesNo. 8andNo. 23each realized $84,000. Action ComicsNo. 8 is graded CGC Very Fine 8.0 and was the first high-graded copy Heritage has ever offered during its long history as the worlds premier comic book and comic art auction house. Superman might have been the most famous superhero on the planet, but he was not yetAction Comics perennial cover boy in the issue that introduced his super-hearing. Action ComicsNo. 23, here also graded CGC Very Fine 8.0, ranks among the titles most significant issues, as it introduced Lex Luthor (a murderous would-be supreme master of the world trying to start a world war, with a full head of red hair, and not yet identified by his first name). Here, too, is the first time readers heard about The Daily Planet, previously known in the comic books as The Daily Star. Another landmark book from Farrells assemblage realized a record-setting $84,000:the Mile High Pedigree copy of New Adventure ComicsNo. 25graded CGC Very Fine/Near Mint 9.0. This book rates a Scarce 7 on the Photo-Journal Guide to Comic BooksScarcity Index,yet Farrell wound up with the sole highest-graded copy on the CGC Census, with its nearest contender a CGC Very Good/Fine 5.0. Heritage sold a Very Good 4.0 copy earlier this year for $2,880. There were nearly a dozen works of original art in this auction, with at least one new Heritage record among them:Harry G. Peters unpublished page from theWonder Womanstory, Nuclear, the Magnetic Menace,which dates from the late 1940s. This page, unseen for decades and long thought lost, realized $40,800, a new Heritage high-water mark for the artist who was the first to draw William Moulton Marstons character and is often regarded as the unheralded co-creator of the Princess of Themyscira. For further information, visit www.HA.com.