Someone has already bid $80,000 on a near-mint copy of Suspense Comics #3 from 1944, with a cover by Alex Schomburg. This is the type of comic book that led to the moral panic resulting in a senate hearing on the rampant sexual perversion and violence in comics and the collapse of the comic book publishing industry, as chronicled in David Hadju’s excellent book, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America.
In 2015, a copy of Suspense #3 in similar condition sold for $173,275.
Here’s a complete scan of the issue, in case you are interested. There’s nothing lurid inside, other than some light homoerotic bondage.
From Heritage Auctions’ website:
Suspense Comics #3 Mile High Pedigree (Continental Magazines, 1944) CBCS NM- 9.2 White pages. This white-hot Golden Age issue, driven by the “classic” Nazi bondage/torture cover by Alex Schomburg, has been climbing the list of Overstreet’s Top 100 Golden Age Books for years. It’s currently at #26, up from #38 in 2012, and #63 in 2007. It’s no surprise that the Mile High Copy is the finest known, but that there is a Mile High Copy at all will be a surprise to some. Until recently the common opinion was that a Mile High Copy of the iconic issue didn’t exist! Overstreet rates it “scarce”, and Gerber goes even further, assigning it a “9” or “very rare”! CGC hasn’t certified a higher grade than VF 8.0 for the book, although we have been fortunate enough to have offered the impressive Pennsylvania Copy in 2015, a CBCS VF/NM 9.0, which realized a record-setting $173,275! But the Mile High takes it up even another notch! L. B. Cole provided interior art. Overstreet 2016 NM- 9.2 value = $100,000. CGC census 4/17: 0 in 9.2, none higher.
