Batman #239, February 1972
It’s surprising — and definitely a miss — that only a few “Christmas” superhero stories have had made much impact in the comic book format.
But of the ones that do exist, Batman’s “Silent Night, Deadly Night” (Denny O’Neil) is one of the key holiday classics for Silver Age/ Bronze Age fans.
I’m not sure I had ever seen an original page from this story prior to acquiring this one, a few short weeks ago. None have ever been offered by Heritage Auctions for sale, and their database is a reasonable bellwether for historical availability, at least in this century.
Did I wildly overpay? Probably. Did I pay the right price? Possibly. Do I want to get into a bidding war with someone else who wants this page and find out?
Nope.
And that, my friends, is how you have unexpectedly large bill come due during holiday season.
Great page, legendary story, and the sweet spot of my superhero comic book reading era.
There was nothing I could do.
Welcome to Day 11 of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.
Oddly, you can only find this classic story in two reprints beyond the original — this 1974 DC treasury, and the sixth and final volume of DC’s Batman Showcase black and white reprint series.