Superman’s Debut Sets Record & Al Jaffee Inspires Laughter in Mad Magazine

By Amanda Sheriff & J.C. Vaughn

ComicConnect Announces Sale of Action Comics #1 CGC 7.0 for $5M

Metropolis/ComicConnect has sold an Action Comics #1 CGC 7.0 for $5 million, marking a record high for the book in that grade. It was offered on their website as a direct sales item rather than in auction.

That marks another high-grade record for Superman’s first appearance in 1938’s Action Comics #1, which remains one of pop culture’s most valued collectibles. This latest sale also continues Metropolis/ComicConnect’s ongoing “Year of Superman,” that started with the private sale of Action Comics #1 CGC 9.0 for $15 million, which they reported in January 2026. That sale stands as the highest price paid for a comic book. It was also the first time that a comic book has topped the most expensive baseball card ever, with a previous record of $12.6 million for Mickey Mantle’s 1952 rookie card.

ComicConnect also set new sales records in April with original art from the acclaimed “Death of Superman” story arc from 1992. Their “Death of Superman” Special Edition Art Auction closed with over $10.2 million in sales. Dan Jurgens’ cover art for Superman #75 joined the ranks of million-dollar art when it sold for $1.875 million, and the original art for the issue’s “Bloody S” Superman logo set a new record for comic production art when it went for $552,000.

Metropolis/ComicConnect has a long history with Action Comics #1 sales. Since its founding, the company has been setting new sales records for Superman’s debut, including the first $1 million sale of a comic back in 2010. ComicConnect set a new record for Action Comics #1 in 2021 when they sold a CGC 8.5 copy for $3.25 million in a private sale. They also hold the record for the famous Rocket copy (known for the rocket stamp the original put on the cover), which they sold for $3.55 million in a private sale in 2023.

“Our companies conduct millions of dollars in private sales every year,” Metropolis/ComicConnect President Vincent Zurzolo said. “There’s still something special about handling the safekeeping of a real pop culture artifact, and it’s always satisfying to know that another copy of Action Comics #1 has found a good home!”

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Al Jaffee: MAD Magazine’s Longest-Running Contributor
Since the launch of the satirical magazine in 1952, many comic greats have contributed to the sheer lunacy that is MAD. One such luminary, Al Jaffee, was MAD’s longest-running contributor after his more than six-decade run with the magazine.

Born on March 13, 1921, Jaffee studied at the High School of Music & Art in New York City in the late 1930s, alongside future MAD personnel Will Elder, Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, and Al Feldstein. He got his start in 1941 working as an artist for Marvel’s precursors, Timely and Atlas Comics. While at Timely, Jaffee co-created the humor features “Inferior Man” and “Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal.” During World War II, Jaffee worked as an artist for the military, drafting the original floor plan for the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. While working at the Pentagon, Jaffee met his future wife Ruth Ahlquist. In 1946, Jaffee returned to Timely editing the publisher’s humor and teen comics, including Patsy Walker.

Jaffee’s work first appeared in MAD in the late 1950s, but he left shortly thereafter following editor Harvey Kurtzman’s exit. He contributed to Kurtzman’s humor magazines Trump and Humbug, before returning to MAD. For MAD #86 (April 1964), Jaffee created his longest-running feature, the fold-in. When folded vertically, the image on the page would reveal a new “hidden” picture and caption. Among the earliest fold-ins were gags about the Elizabeth Taylor-Eddie Fisher-Richard Burton love triangle and The Beatles’ departure back to England. The fold-in became one of MAD’s signature features, appearing in almost every issue of the magazine from 1964 to 2019.

In the half-century between 1964 and 2013, only one issue was published without new material
by Jaffee.

Since its introduction, fold-in subjects have also dealt with the 1970s gas shortage,
revelations about the CIA bugging American citizens, Guitar Hero, teen pregnancy, and Jay Leno leaving The Tonight Show. Jaffee received a Special Features Reuben Award for his
fold-ins and they were later collected into the books Fold This Book! and The Mad Fold-In Collection: 1964–2010. His last original fold-in appeared in the June 2019 issue, with his final original work for the magazine coming in the December 2023 issue. Throughout his career with MAD, Jaffee’s work appeared in 500 of the magazine’s first 550 issues, a total unmatched by any other writer or artist.

­Along with winning several National Cartoonists Society Awards and being named Reuben Awards Cartoonist of the Year in 2008, Jaffee was also inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013. Jaffee died in April 2023 at the age of 102 years old.

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Amanda Sheriff is Editor-Digital for Gemstone Publishing. J.C. Vaughn is Gemstone’s President.