A mysterious comic collector, made headlines on March 13th, after paying a record $317,000 USD for a rare original copy of the first comic featuring Superman, his girlfriend Lois Lane, and magician, Giovanni 'John' Zatara.

Sold in an internet auction through Comicconnect.com, the superhero classic attracted over 89 bids in two weeks.

The comic book generated a lot of interest for several reasons - It was not only the first Superman comic every published, but also, the first superhero comic ever created. Also, while there are about 100 believed to still exist, they rarely come up for sale. To top that, this one was one of the few 'unrestored' copies, which means it was in great condition, and had not been bound or patched up together.

The seller, who also did not want his name disclosed, was not the original owner, but had purchased it from a second-hand comic store for 35 cents in 1950, when he was nine years old. He forgot all about it until 1966, when he found it in the basement of his house and has held on to it since, believing it would increase in value one day - and boy was he right!

Superman was conceived by two childhood pals - Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster. Jerry did the writing, while Joe took care of the illustrations. However, unknown to most people the original Superman was not a superhero, but a villain. That didn't do too well and it was only after several reincarnations that the first Superman comic hit the newsstands in 1938, priced at a mere 10cts - paving the way for many more superheroes and heroines.

source: cnn.com, sfgate.com, telegraph.co.uk