Q 01/05

Action Comics #1 was cover-dated June 1938, but on what date that year was it actually published?

A) June 1

B) April 18

C) January 5

D) March 3

Answer · why

B) April 18

It was a 68-page anthology with eleven features; Superman took up only the first 13 pages. Roughly 100 copies are thought to survive.

Q 02/05

What was the print run of Action Comics #1?

A) 200,000

B) 500,000

C) 1 million

D) 2 million

Answer · why

A) 200,000

It sold out, but it took the publisher a while to work out that the Superman feature was why sales soon approached a million a month.

Q 03/05

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were paid $10 a page for the first Superman story. What was their total fee?

A) $260

B) $650

C) $130

D) $1,300

Answer · why

C) $130

Contrary to legend, that fee was for the story, not the character; they signed the Superman copyright away for nothing in a separate March 1938 contra...

Q 04/05

In what year did a single comic book first sell for $1 million at auction?

A) 2005

B) 2001

C) 1998

D) 2010

Answer · why

D) 2010

A CGC 9.0 copy then sold on eBay in 2014 for just over $3.2 million, the first single comic to clear $3 million.

Q 05/05

Which publisher put out Captain Marvel Adventures, the Golden Age's best-selling superhero title?

A) Timely

B) Quality

C) Harvey

D) Fawcett

Answer · why

D) Fawcett

Fawcett's hero outsold Superman, which is partly why DC sued. Dell's licensed Disney comics outsold all the superheroes anyway.