Superman comic fetches record US$1 million

A very rare, first edition Superman comic book in top condition sold today for a record US$1 million (RM3.4 million) in a public sale held by website ComicConnect.com.

Owners of the website said the book, Action Comics #1, was first published in June 1938 and introduced the crime-fighting superhero to fans, describing how he was born on a different planet and came to Earth. It also introduces his alter ego Clark Kent’s love interest, Lois Lane.

Stephen Fishler, ComicConnect.com founder, said the comic is one of only around 100 in existence and that a scant two or three are in a similar unrestored, high-grade condition.

“If not this book, it may be 10 or 20 years before another one like it would be offered,” Fishler said.

Fishler said the book was last on the market 15 years ago when it fetched US$150,000. The current buyer remained anonymous.

The US$1 million is more than three times the previous record of US$317,000 that ComicConnect fetched for a lower-grade Action Comics #1 book last year.

Back in 1938, the comic sold for US10 cents.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Museum offering to buy Cockroaches

A Houston museum is offering 25 cents per cockroach to fill an exhibit about the wonders of insects that eat decomposing things.

The Houston Museum of Natural Science wants 1,000 American cockroaches, which grow to 2 inches long, can fly and thrive in the city's sub-tropical climate, said museum entomologist Laurie Pierrel on Wednesday.

They will be part of an exhibit polishing the image of bugs that feed off decaying organic matter and in so doing add to the general cleanliness.

"They're decomposers, a bit like a trash disposal," Pierrel said. "If we didn't have cockroaches, there'd be so much more trash around."

Roaches are widely believed to be dirty, disease-carrying creatures, but that is unfair, she said.

"They are very clean like a cat," Pierrel said. "They clean themselves all day."

There is the matter that they often enter houses through the sewer system, and that troublesome organic matter from there can stick on their feet, but only until they clean it off, she said.

The Houston Chronicle on Wednesday had a frontpage illustration of a homemade roach trap to capture the bugs without touching them.

Pierrel said she will be outside the museum the next three Saturdays with a bucket for the bugs and money for the sellers.

What will the museum roaches eat? Pretty much what they would get scavenging in the average home.

"We usually throw in a box of cake mix, some pieces of apple, some pieces of orange, cat food, dog food -- our insects eat well," Pierrel said.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Serial Lingerie Thief Arrested for Stealing 4,000 Women's Underwear

Police found more than 4,000 pieces of lingerie in the home of a Japanese construction worker who used climbing skills developed on his job to steal women's underwear.

Police believe that Shigeo Kodama, 54, amassed the 3,977 panties, 355 bras and 10 pairs of stockings over a six-year period. He was arrested in February after he stole underwear from two houses, and police later raided his home.

"Since he was a construction worker, as long as he had a place to put his feet he was able to climb, so he had no trouble getting up to the second floor of apartment buildings," a police spokesman in the western Japanese city of Hiroshima said.

"He didn't steal any other kinds of clothing. But as long as it was underwear, apparently anything would do," the spokesman added.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Man jailed for stealing women's hair

SYDNEY - An Australian man who worked as a baggage handler for the national airline Qantas was jailed for at least two years on Friday for stealing hair from women's luggage to satisfy a sexual fetish.

Rodney Lyle Petersen, 30, pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court to 50 counts of theft, Australian Associated Press reported.

The court was told that Petersen would rummage through lost or delayed luggage that he was returning to passengers. He collected the hair from brushes and clothing, then put it inside plastic slips and record the women's personal details.

Police said he had catalogued the hair in more than 80 bags.

Petersen's lawyer told the court that his client did not mean to frighten the women because they were not meant to find out.

The court was told that Petersen suffered from a range of sexual deviances.

He was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail, with a non-parole period of two years.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]