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Sotheby’s has launched “DC Complete: The Ian Levine Collection”, a private online sale featuring every comic book published by DC Comics from 1934 to 2014, including complete runs of “Action Comics”, “Detective Comics”, “Superman” and “Batman”. The company’s golden age was from 1938 to 1955. In 1938, “Action Comics” introduced a figure who would come to define the genre: Superman. Editor Vin Sullivan chose to run the feature after the publication’s lead artist and writer, Sheldon Mayer, rescued it from the slush pile. “Action Comics #1” (June 1938), the first comic book to feature the new “superheroes”, proved a major sales hit. About 100 copies of “Action Comics #1” are believed to exist, but only a handful of those are in good condition. The company quickly introduced other superheroes and, in May 1939, Batman made his first appearance in “Detective Comics #27”. Superman’s premiere in “Action Comics #1” was so overwhelmingly popular with readers that National Allied Publications soon launched a new magazine devoted to the character. “Superman #1” was groundbreaking: never before had an entire comic book been devoted to the adventures of a single character, and Superman’s alter-ego, Clark Kent, also had the distinction of being the first hero-character to feature in more than one comic magazine. By issue #7, Superman was being hailed as the “World’s Greatest Adventure Strip Character.” Following his success in “Detective Comics”, Batman received his own title in Spring 1940, a publication that also introduced the likes of The Joker and Catwoman.