FAIRBANKS — Mike Wheat has spent the past four decades in passionate pursuit of humble literature.

The retired city wastewater treatment plant operator has scoured garage sales, haggled with 12-year-olds and even dug through garbage dumps. All of it has been done in the happy quest to find old comic books.

On Thursday, the record likely will show that it was time well-spent. That’s when the gem of his vast collection — a rare copy of Batman No. 1 from 1940 — is expected to fetch more than $40,000 at auction.

“It’s time to start selling,” said the 62-year-old Fairbanks man, who wears a long beard and a quick smile. “My wife has been bugging me for years. It’s gone from ‘When are you going to sell these?’ to ‘Are you going to sell these?’ to ‘You’re not going to sell these, are you?’”

Online bidding for Batman No. 1 had already climbed to $35,000 on Friday, and the process will finish with a live auction on Aug. 5. The sale, offered through Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, can be tracked online at http://www.ha.com.

The comic has a backstory that would make any junk collector proud.

Local businessman Ron Jaeger said he purchased an old dresser at a Fourth Avenue garage sale for $25 in the early 1970s, then tossed it in a storage space for a few years. When he finally dug it out, he noticed one of the drawers didn’t slide easily.

Beneath the drawer and a quarter-inch piece of plywood were three comic books and a few old issues of the News-Miner. Jaeger doesn’t know whether they were in a false bottom or served as a ridiculously valuable spacer for the balky drawer, but the haul included a copy of Batman No. 1, Superman No. 17, and an old issue of a Red Ryder Western comic.

Jaeger was put in touch with Wheat in 1974, who had a reputation as an avid comic collector. The three comics went for a quick $300.

Jaeger said Wheat gives him occasional updates on the rising value of Batman No. 1 when they run into each other in town. He joked that the sale looks worse with each passing year.

“This is starting to make me look like more and more of an idiot,” said Jaeger, now a civilian employee at Fort Wainwright.

A well-preserved classic

Barry Sandoval, director of comic auctions and operations at Heritage, said the auction house has handled many copies of Batman No. 1, but he said Wheat’s copy is notable because the low humidity and cool temperatures in Fairbanks have kept the paper in excellent condition. Old comics were printed on notoriously cheap newsprint, but the pages in Wheat’s copy remain crisp and white.

“If we got a Batman No. 1 from Texas or Louisiana, if you opened it up after 70 years the pages would start to crumble,” Sandoval said.

Comic condition is professionally graded on a scale of 1 to 10. Wheat’s copy has been graded a 5.5 — a middling score for a newer comic, but impressive for a vintage copy.

Popular comics often had runs of a half-million copies in that era, but almost none of them survived. Sandoval said fewer than 300 copies of Batman No. 1 are thought to exist, and the auction house said only 16 have been graded in better condition than Wheat’s copy.

“I see how most comics from that era look,” Sandoval said. “Most 70-year-old comics are in pretty rough shape.”

Batman’s first appearance came in 1939, when he was featured as a character in Detective Comics No. 27. Wheat’s copy is notable because it’s the first solo spin-off for the character and includes the original appearance by two of his key foes, the Joker and Catwoman.

Wheat also acquired Batman Nos. 2-5 over the years, and they’ll also be sold during the upcoming months. The second and fourth issue, which are also part of Thursday’s auction, are expected to fetch more than $5,000 combined.

Although Wheat has been thrilled to own the early Batman comics, they aren’t the focus of his collection. He’s more interested in the Silver Age comics published after 1956, including his favorite character, Green Lantern.

Wheat has viewed his Batman comics as an investment, and said it feels like the right time to sell.

“I just decided it’s time for someone else to have it,” he said.

Passionate about comics

David Mollett, who owned The Comic Shop during the 1970s, said Wheat has always had a legendary enthusiasm for comics. The concept of comic collecting was still young during that era, but Wheat would routinely come in and buy 10 or 20 of everything on the shelves.

“We had to put restrictions on the guy,” Mollett said. “He’d come and get everything, and all the poor little kids would come in and there wasn’t anything left.”

Wheat worked as a mechanic at Independent Rentals when he began seriously collecting in the early 1970s, before going on to a 30-year career at the city wastewater treatment plant. He retired in 2007.

Wheat said he rarely reads comics, although he thinks their storytelling is underrated. He’s a collector mainly because he loves the classic artwork and sense of history they provide.

“It’s truly the only American art form,” he said. “All other art forms come from some statue or painting that came from somewhere else. Comics were started here, done here, came from here.”

Wheat has traveled the country pursuing his passion for comics, and even used to pluck unsold bundles out of the landfill when he saw something that caught his eye.

The value of comics has grown tremendously, fueled partly by the growing profile of characters like Batman, Spider-Man and Iron Man in popular movies.

Wheat has about 16,000 comics in his private collection, with about 35,000 more duplicates and others that he’s in the process of selling. Many are in storage, although the most valuable copies are locked away in a separate location.

Wheat plans to pay some bills with his Batman windfall, and pursue one of his other passions, attending NASCAR races. But he said most of the proceeds will be funneled into an unsurprising investment.

“Other comics,” he said. “I’ll probably fill in some more of my collection.”

Contact staff writer Jeff Richardson at 459-7518.