The Zabra Collection-PRIMARY SET
Action Comics 163

COMIC DETAILS

Comic Description: Action Comics #163 Universal
Grade: 8.0
Page Quality: OFF-WHITE TO WHITE
Pedigree: Edgar Church (Mile High)
Certification #: 0007076007
Owner: Zabra

SET DETAILS

Winning Set: The Zabra Collection-PRIMARY SET
Date Added: 12/18/2013
Research: See CGC's Census Report for this Comic

Owner's Description

ACTION COMICS #163 CGC 8.0-THE MILE HIGH PEDIGREE (EDGAR CHURCH)

Publisher: DC
Cover Date: December 1951
Aprox. On Sale Date: October 19, 1951
Cover Price: $0.10
Page Count: 40
Editor: Mort Weisinger

Cover Credits:
Artist: J. Winslow Mortimer


4 Stories
1.Superman: "The Girl of Tomorrow"
2.Tommy Tomorrow: "The Junkman of Space"
3.Congo Bill: "The Bandit Ghost"
4.Vigilante: "The Strangest Posse in the World"

Cover art by Win Mortimer. The Girl of Tomorrow starring Superman, pencils by Wayne Boring, inks by Stan Kaye. The Junkman of Space starring Tommy Tomorrow, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by John Fischetti. The Bandit Ghost starring Congo Bill, art by Ed Smalle. The Strangest Posse in the World starring Vigilante, art by Bob Brown. 44 pgs. $0.10. Cover price $0.10.

The most remarkable collection of vintage comic books ever discovered. The Mile High's immense size and extraordinary grade influenced a major shift in both price structures and the comic book grading standard itself. It is the benchmark against which all other collections are compared.
This took years to happen after the collection was discovered in 1977.

Edgar Church (November 28, 1888 – 1978), was a comics collector and artist who worked independently and eventually for the telephone company in Colorado illustrating commercial telephone book advertisements, precursors to Yellow Pages advertisements.

Church kept thousands of miscellaneous periodicals in his Colorado home to use as references for his art. From these magazines he would clip images which he would store in one of hundreds of labeled boxes. The collection of comic books that he amassed, later known as the "Edgar Church collection" or the "Mile High collection", is the most famous and valuable comic book collection known to surface in the history of comic book collecting. The collection consisted of between 18,000 and 22,000 comic books, most of them in high quality grades, and was discovered and bought in 1977 by Chuck Rozanski of Mile High Comics. About 99% of it was later sold by him to various collectors. The collection is famed for holding the highest quality copies of many Golden Age comic books. Edgar Church was married twice and had one child with each of his wives. Church died in 1978 at age 89.

The story about this wonderful collection is as follows:

The year was 1977, the place was in the "Mile High Comics" store operated by Chuck Rozanski, Denver, Colorado. He received a call from someone stating he wanted to sell his large accumulation of comic books. Apparently, he had tried other dealers and none were willing to travel to his home to view the collection. Chuck Rozanski was willing to check it out. Reportedly, the seller already had a price in mind, $1800 cash, for 18,000 comic books. After some time had elapsed, and with help from Burrell Rowe, Chuck purchased the collection.

The comics were stored in the basement, which was dry, dark and cooler than the rest of the home. They were located in what appeared to be a large pantry located in the center of the basement. The pantry was approximately 6 feet by 8 feet with painted shelves all around the walls. When the Churches opened the door, Chuck was almost floored at the sight of almost a solid wall of comic books stacked to the ceiling. All the shelves were stacked solidly, and there were dozens of neat stacks of comics on the floor. Immediately, he could see that the comic books appeared to have been brought and stacked without having even been read. Clearly, this would be a good investment of $1800.
  
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