Comic Book Auction: Richie Rich, ‘Sugar and Spike’ and everything nice for comic collectors, & Batman, too

For comic collector, non-superhero Golden Age titles hold nostalgia – and value (But Golden Age superheroes still rule!) Detective #27-BATMAN at auction, too.

BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES, February 20, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Philip Cole’s comic book collection is so famous that it has its own name: the PACole Collection -- more than 1,000 graded books that have been coveted, by collectors for decades.

They’ll have a shot at owning some of these prized books when ComicConnect hosts the PACole Collection as part of its Event Auction 57, starting February 26.

Event Auction 57 will also feature the Jon Berk collection, the first sale from his collection since the comic historian died in 2023; the Puget Sound Collection, which includes an Amazing Spider-Man #1; and an unrestored Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman, which may garner over $2 million, according to Vincent Zurzolo, president of ComicConnect.

“This is one of the top two most important comics ever published,” Zurzolo says. “It hit newsstands in March 1939, just 11 months after the debut of Superman in Action Comics #1.”


Less of an attention-getter, is his Richie Rich collection, a non superhero title that still holds cachet. It’s where his love of comic books began as a kid.

“In the collection is the first comic I ever bought – Richie Rich,” says Cole, 61, who lives in Wilmington, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. “I was maybe 9 or 10. I remember taking my allowance and paper route money and visting to newsstands.”

He would also sneak peeks at the comics kept by his brother. One of them was a Golden Age DC title, Sugar and Spike, featuring the misadventures of two toddlers who communicate via “baby talk” with each other but not to adults.

“ I thought, ‘Let me try to put together a collection of Sugar and Spike,’” Cole says.

“Just before we were married in 1985, I dragged my wife, to a comic book show,” Cole recalls. “There was a table with two guys from New Hampshire selling their new comic book. I bought #2 and #4 and had them autograph. I wanted to buy #1 but Karen said, ‘No way you’re spending $100. Who wants a comic book about teen-age mutant ninja turtles?’”

When their three children had finished college and tuition was in their rear-view mirror, Cole decided to take a more strategic approach to collecting as an investment.

“This collection encompasses incredibly rare Golden Age titles, runs of classic pre-Code horror titles and nearly every early Marvel key issue,” Zurzolo says. “The CGC Registry lists over 7,000 collections, and the PACole Collection is ranked #90.”

Marvel superheroes are well represented, with first appearances of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk and X-Men. There’s a rare run of early issues of Detective Comics (DC) featuring some of Batman’s early adventures, along with some from the late-‘30s, pre-Batman. “These rarely come up for sale,” Zurzolo says.


Cole considers his copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man, one of the gems of his collection. “They are not necessarily rare, but everyone wants one,” he says.

Also part of his collection: Mad #1-#10, from before it became Mad Magazine. But he’s particularly proud of his collection of EC (Entertainment Comics), which “I looked longingly at as a child,” Cole says.

In the 1950s, EC began publishing horror, science fiction, military fiction and satire under the leadership of William Gaines, later of Mad Magazine fame. “Gaines kept back 12 of every book EC published between 1950 and 1955 in mint condition, and he sold them off in the early ‘90s,” Cole says. “I have 19 Gaines file copies, one autographed by one of the famous artists, Al Feldstein, who died in 2014.”


He had also stepped away from a career leading software engineering for the defense contractor Raytheon. Now that he has time, he wants to make sure there’s money to do what he and Karen want to do. Having decided to “rip the Band-Aid off” and sell his entire collection, he reached out to several auction/consignment houses and selected ComicConnect because of its size, customer service and reputation in the industry.

Cole kept one graded item: Archie #136 (1963), because the cover ties in with his martial arts training. A third-degree black belt in karate, he teaches at the Academy of Traditional Karate.

Joanne Levine
Lekas & Levine PR
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