Whether the theft was committed by a guest at the party, a hired worker, someone who came in through a different means—none of that is established in the public record. Cage filed the theft report on January 21, 2000. The investigation was assigned to Detective Hrycyk.
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THE BOOK THAT WAS TAKEN: ACTION COMICS NO. 1
To understand why this particular comic warranted the level of attention it received—from collectors, from dealers, from an LAPD detective who would spend eleven years on the case—it is necessary to understand what Action Comics No. 1 actually is and why it occupies the position it does.
Action Comics No. 1 was published by National Allied Publications, a corporate predecessor of what eventually became DC Comics, and went on sale on April 18, 1938. The cover was dated June 1938, a common practice in the newsstand era of placing a future date on periodicals to extend their shelf life. The cover price was ten cents. The print run was approximately 200,000 copies, which sold out, indicating an immediate commercial success.
The issue was an anthology comic, sixty-four pages in length, containing eleven separate features. The Superman story, written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Joe Shuster, occupied thirteen pages—the first thirteen pages of the issue. It was not the entire book. It was, however, the feature that gave the issue its identity and its significance.
The creators of Superman were both from Cleveland, Ohio. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had met at Glenville High School and developed the Superman concept over several years before finding a publisher willing to buy it. Their early versions of the character went through significant evolution—the figure began as a villain with mental powers, was later reimagined as a hero—before arriving at the version published in Action Comics No. 1.