In the Golden Age of comic book publishing, competition was extremely fierce with dozens of publishers churning out title after title. Ashcans were created to establish a copyright so a publisher could stake his claim to a title without actually having to produce a full comic. They were often published with little, if any, finished art, no word balloons, and were sometimes filled with whatever scrap paper was sitting around. They were designed to be printed and junked. Very few survived as their sole reason to exist was to be dumped in the ashcan.

Three extremely rare ashcans from DC have surfaced at auction in the Spring Special at ComicConnect. Radio Funnies #1 CGC 8.0 features the cover art to Adventure Comics #39 and is a one of a kind – DC does not have a copy in their vault.

Even though, they were the industry leader at the time, DC had to play catch-up in the patriotic genre to MLJ, with their introduction of The Shield in Pep Comics in early 1940, and to Timely, who debuted Captain America a year later. Not to be outdone, DC created their own patriotic titles – Star Spangled Comics, Old Glory Comics, and Red, White & Blue Comics. Though Star Spangled was ultimately published in October 1941, ashcans were only produced for Old Glory Comics as well as Red, White & Blue Comics. Both comics were saved from destruction by Sol Harrison, the former president of DC. These are the only surviving copies of these historically important titles as DC does not have copies in their vault.

Visit ComicConnect’s website to view the entire auction.

The auction end-dates are as follows:
Session 1 (original art, Action Comics #1 – Atomic War) June 6, 2016
Session 2 (Avengers – Detective Comics) June 7, 2016
Session 3 (Detective Comics – Life Stories of American Presidents) June 8, 2016
Session 4 (Lightning Comics – Sub-Mariner Comics) June 9, 2016
Session 5 (Super Friends – Zoo Funnies) June 10, 2016

ComicConnect has issued a last call for consignments for their next major auction. Contact them today to reserve your space. Call toll-free (888) 779-7377 or email their staff at support@comicconnect.com. Cash advances up to $5 million are available.