Here’s the Check That Was Used to Purchase the Rights to Superman

Today, we take a look at the actual check that was used to purchase the rights to Superman for decades.

This is the debut of “Inside the Museums,” a feature where I spotlight some of the really cool pieces of pop culture history that we actually have access to look at.

For this first piece, let’s take a look at the actual check that Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz used to acquire the rights to Superman from Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster back in 1938. The check recently sold at an auction for $160,000.

Here is the check…

Notice that it is more than the $130 that they got for ownership of Superman, as it also details their payment for stories in More Fun, Adventure Comics and Detective Comics. They had just short stories in the other two magazines, but had two stories, including a 13-page Slam Bradly tale, in Detective Comics #14…

You can see the details on the check in this close-up…

What an amazing (and sad, of course) piece of pop culture history.

Okay, folks, feel free to send me suggestions for other cool pieces of comic book history that it’d be interesting to see displayed here.