Scoop has learned that attorney Mark S. Zaid, owner of EsquireComics.com, has acquired a copy of the historical ashcan comic, Action Funnies. The copy was purchased from a private collector and is one of only three known copies of the Action Funnies ashcan that have ever been available to the public. The other two known copies are both owned by Gary Colabuono, a long-time ashcan collector and expert.

"I was ecstatic to obtain the copy of this book which is not only historically significant to the creation of comic books but also holds important legal meaning which to me, as an attorney, is a double prize," said Mark.

Ashcans were prototype books produced by publishers to secure the trademark for a particular title and never to be offered for sale. At most a few copies would be produced and, they were not intended to survive the passage of time.

The ashcan for Action Funnies, which was the original name for what ultimately became National Periodical's flagship Action Comics, features black and white artwork for what eventually was used as the cover for Action Comics #3. The interior contains ten pages of stories from Detective Comics #10.

The public existence and history of this book was first brought to light in 1985 by Comic Buyer's Guide. This particular ashcan copy has a unique history. The cover is marked lightly in pencil with the notation "Detective Comics, Inc" and "872-A", and is stamped "Property of Stephen Browne" and dated "Feb 15 1957" in small blue letters on page one. Mr. Browne, then a college student, was given the book in the 1950s by officials at D.C. in gratitude for a thesis he authored in response to Dr. Fredric Wertham's 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent.

The book will be added to Mark's private collection that includes several ashcans including the only known copy of the 1940 ashcan comic Crack Comics #1.

For more information visit: http://www.esquirecomics.com/index.php?page=collection&collection=4.