Back in 1975, a man by the name of Mario J. Sacripante was walking out his building in Queens NY, when he spotted a trunk on the curb waiting for trash pick up. Thinking nothing of it, he took it in. Maybe he thought he could use one, and since it was going in the trash anyway nobody would care. When he opened it, to his surprise he found a bat treasure trove.
It turns out that Batman creator Bob Kane had lived in the same building as Mr. Sacripante back in the 30’s. And the trunk had once belonged to him. The treasure chest includes original Bob Kane sketches, gag panels, art class notebooks and an incomplete copy of Detective #27, as well as the proofs for pages 2-6! A proof page in comics is a test run of the uncolored page. These rare pages will be auctioned off, part of Heritage Auctions' Signature Vintage Comics & Comic Art Auction on February 24.
"Holding some of these pages next to the printed comic I was struck by the details of the art that are better visible here," said Barry Sandoval, Director of Comics Auction Operations at Heritage. "Very little original comic book art from the 1930s has survived, so this is probably the closest a collector would ever get to owning original art from one of the most collectible comic book stories ever."
Several copies of Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of "The Batman" have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The pages will no doubt sell for as much if not more.