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1938 Superman Comic Sells For $1M
slasher999 writes in to note a new world record sale for a comic: an instance of Action Comics #1, 1938, sold for $1 million at auction. Both the buyer and the seller remain anonymous. This comic marked the first time a superhero went to work in a city, and the first time a man flew without mechanical aid.
Superman is not a man. He is an alien from the planet Krypton. So this is NOT "the first time a man flew without mechanical aid."
You're absolutely right. Well, presumably he had the retconned ability to fly at the time.
Not totally convinced by the argument that flight was a cost reduction thing for the animated series though. This was pretty high quality work, and flying would mean they couldn't use the rotoscoping technique they used for most of the animation.
> If we actually entered a post-apocalyptic world where the
> dollar was useless, you'd quickly find gold to be equally useless
No, that doesn't follow.
There have been many situations in history (frequently involving the near-certain imminent collapse of a government) wherein currency rapidly lost all its value. In each and every case, gold was still valuable.
Gold is inherently rare. Nobody knows how to make counterfeit gold. Unless some brilliant physicist discovers an affordable way to do transmutation, that's always going to be the case.
Gold also has a distinctive appearance that makes it easy to tell apart from other metals, even at a glance. ("Fool's gold" may look sort of like it might possibly contain gold ore, but you can't refine it and get anything that looks even vaguely like refined gold.)
These features give gold a durable value that has outlasted innumerable currencies and governments.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.