Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Bell Features, canadian comics, Nelvana

Iconic and Rare 1945 Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Up for Auction

The very rare 1945 Nelvana of the Northern Lights one-shot has become the most iconic and famous Canadian comic book of the Golden Age.

Probably the single most historically famous comic book published in Canada during the Golden Age and certainly featuring the most famous Canadian superhero from that era from our modern perspective, the 1945 Nelavana of the Northern Lights one-shot comic book has often been called the Action Comics #1 of the Canadian Golden Age.  In the sense that it's rare, valuable, and the Golden Age Canadian comic book that would most often come to mind as desirable for most serious comic book collectors, the comparison between Nelvana #nn (Bell Features, 1945) and Action Comics #1 certainly holds true.  With its iconic and instantly recognizable cover by Adrian Dingle, it has become the symbol of its time and place in comic book history.

While that comparison holds true symbolically, we can elaborate on it a little bit to better put it in perspective for collectors who might not be familiar with the details. The Nelvana of the Northern Lights 1945 one-shot is perhaps technically more like the Superman #1 of the Canadian Golden Age, but 15x more rare, and as if Action Comics #1 didn't feature a Superman cover. Similar to Superman #1, the Nelvana of the Northern Lights 1945 one-shot collects several of her earliest adventures in one comic book.

Heritage has never sold a copy of Nelvana's first appearance in Triumph-Adventure Comics #1, and that debut Triumph-Adventure Comics issue does not feature a Nelvana cover anyway. Triumph-Adventure Comics #2 does have a Nelvana cover, but Heritage has likewise never sold a copy, and that issue and all her other Triumph-Adventure Comics appearances are so rare that they almost never come up at auction.  There are also only a handful of Nelvana covers from the Golden Age. As rare and desirable as Superman #1 has become, you can usually count on at least one copy, and usually more than one, to come up for public sale every year.  But with the Nelvana one-shot, you might only get one shot at a copy in a decade.

Inspired by stories brought back from the Arctic by artist Franz Johnston, artist Adrian Dingle created the comic book Nelvana as an Inuit demigoddess and protector of the North. Nelvana debuted before Wonder Woman and has become far and away the most famous Canadian superhero of the Golden Age.  The Canadian animation studio Nelvana was named after Nelvana of the Northern Lights in 1971, which brought a burst of attention to the Nelvana character and other Canadian Golden Age comics beginning that year.  In 2013, research into Nelvana by Hope Nicholson, Rachel Richey, and others, along with a successful Nelvana collection Kickstarter, brought the popularity of the character to new heights in the modern era.

There are only 12 entries for Nelvana of the Northern Lights on the CGC census, with only three higher than CGC 6.0.  Heritage has only sold one copy of this comic book previously, a CGC 3.0 in 2015 for 10,456.25. Considering its rarity, its iconic cover, and the unique place it holds among serious Canadian Golden Age collectors, the Nelvana one-shot is inarguably one of the most desirable comic books in this category.  There's a Nelvana (Bell Features, 1945) CGC 6.0 copy up for auction in the 2025 March 13 Canadian Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40290 at Heritage Auctions. Based on the historic numbers, it might be a long time before a higher-graded copy hits the public market.

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