Captain America Comics #1
Captain America Comics #1 San Francisco Pedigree (Timely, 1941) CGC NM 9.4 Off-white to white pages. Not just one of the most sought-after comics in the hobby, but one of the nicest copies ever seen of it, and from one of the most famous collections! That combination puts this among the most desirable comic books Heritage has auctioned to date.
The distributor markings combined with the "Tom Reilly" stamp in the middle of the back cover identify this as being from the storied San Francisco pedigree collection. Many a Golden Age collector ranks this pedigree near the top, with some putting it behind only the Edgar Church/Mile High hoard. And the story of the collection being brought into a show in Berkeley, California in 1973 has entered collecting lore. However, this Captain America #1 has not been seen by the hobby at large since that day, nor was it ever certified until now.
We have always loved Bob Overstreet's description of the significance of this book: "Simon & Kirby's most classic creation; a patriotic paragon that set the comics market reeling. A trend setter." And Jim Steranko summarized the impact: "the classic heroic figure -- the comics had found a reason to exist... Captain America was an unprecedented success. The first issue sold out. The super hero business became the comic publishers' Holy Grail."