‘You’re going back to the dawn of superheroes’: Rare Superman comic book stolen from Edmonton store

EDMONTON – A local comic book store is hoping a superhero will step in to help them after a rare comic book was stolen from the shop earlier this week.

The owner of Happy Harbor Comics noticed the store’s copy of issue No. 3 of the original Superman series was missing on Wednesday.

Jay Bardyla says he went to grab the book for a customer who had shown a particular interest in it, but it wasn’t there.

“We took a quick search around the store to see if it had been set aside or misplaced. It’s not around anywhere so that’s when we knew it had been stolen,” says Bardyla.

The comic was originally worth 10 cents when it came out in the winter of 1939. If it was in mint condition Superman No. 3 would be worth about $30,000. Bardyla says the copy in his store isn’t in great condition, it has tears and noticeable splits, but it’s still worth about $2,000.

“It’s a pretty rare book these days. You’re going back to the dawn of superheroes,” he says. “There’s not a lot of these books left and certainly not a lot that are in very good condition.”

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READ MORE: Rare copy of Superman comic book fetches $3.2M

The comic was kept out of reach of customers, but it wasn’t locked up. Bardyla says someone would have to go to a bit of effort to steal the book.

“It would take me effort. I can’t reach it and I’m 6’3″. For somebody else to get it they’d have to put some effort into it,” he said. “We didn’t want it to be that kind of thing that’s just ostentatiously locked away in a cabinet with tiny lights.

“We want it to be very easy and free and feel that people can be a part of this and it’s not something that’s so detached or above them.”

Happy Harbor Comics has had the comic book for about two years. Bardyla says staff are monitoring Kijiji and other buy-and-sell websites, as well as other comic book shops, in hopes the rare comic will be returned.

“To my knowledge there’s not another copy of Superman No. 3 kicking around Edmonton so if it shows up at another shop, pawn shop or a flea market … hopefully if they see it they’ll let us know.”