...And a Happy Bar Mitzvah to you!

OK, quick quiz, what do you think the coolest Bar Mitzvah gift ever would be? Well, you’re wrong, it is this:

This 1988 custom comic is considered among the rarest Superman comics ever produced -- so much so that many fans mistakenly believe it’s an urban legend. But it does exist -- a comic book commissioned by a British billionaire as a gift for his Superman fan son, in which the boy and some of his friends were written and drawn into a Superman adventure! It is believed that this book had a print run of LESS THAN 150 COPIES, because it was produced as a BAR MITZVAH PARTY FAVOR (and far fewer than that number are believed to remain in existence)!

According to the ebay posting about this recently sold comic ($1,677.00 U.S.).

Much about this book is unusual and unique. It was the first, and one of the few, comics writing jobs by DAVID LEVIN, who went on to a distinguished career in television, and both cover and interior pages feature one of the last Superman pencil jobs by the legendary CURT SWAN -- this one done three years after leaving the feature to John Byrne. It marks the only time Swan was inked by MAD magazine caricaturist ANGELO TORRES, hired by editor Joe Orlando to “plus” the likeness of the Bradman boy. You can find more details about the content and provenance -- AS WELL AS IMAGES OF INTERIOR PAGES -- since I’ve elected not to scan the interiors because I didn’t want to remove the book from the bag -- at David Levin’s blog, here.

Yep, this is a very cool comic!