So where did actual comic book begin? Some say it was with reprints of Carl Schultz' Foxy Grandpa, from 1901 to 1905. Although others say it was Great Britain's Ally Sloper's Half Alley. In 1902, Hearst published Katzenjammer Kids and Happy Hooligan in books with cardboard covers. For a time, Yellow Kid himself was a top contender. But it depends how rigid you are in your description of a comic book. These examples, for sure, were predecessors to modern comic book, which exploded in 1930's.

The Whitman Publishing Company, in 1934, became one of pre-launchers for modern comic book. They published forty issues of Famous Comics, which was a black and white hardcover reprint. The first regularly published comic in more recognizable modern format though, was Famous Funnies. It featured such memorable characters as Joe Palooka, Buck Rogers and Mutt and Jeff.

Superheroes as we know them today took a strong foothold in 1930's. In 1938, Max C. Gaines, who was one of comic industry giants, brought "Superman" to Dell Comics publisher, Harry Donenfield. Donenfield scored comic coup of century when he published a story written by two teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster- and so "Superman of Metropolis" (the title of their short story they wrote in their own fanzine) was born. Superman was to set a standard for comic book heroes that persist to this day.

I believe near future is going to bring many more of my favorite heroes to silver screen. I have already started my own DVD collection and as more heroes get transferred from screen to round disc, I will continue to increase size of my collection. Do you think a DVD superhero collection will be worth as much as a comic book collection in future? Probably not, but that won't stop me from building my collection anyway.