CentaurMan

Way too young. Very sad. I'm glad he was able to enjoy his last months with friends and family.

Very sorry to hear of his passing. An absolute giant of a collector and a man.

Oh wow, Rick, just now seeing all of this, going to the boards to see whose collection this is. My heart aches for you, buddy. I don't "need" those books in CC, per se, but I'll do my part to make sure the loss of one Centaur under-bidder won't lead to a profound revaluation. Even forgetting the horrible circumstances for a moment, your accomplishment in assembling these books deserves full compensation. Please let me know when/if you'll be in Chicago for the con this summer.

rarehhighgrade's quote "He was the most kind, generous and thoughtful person I ever had the pleasure of doing business with" is beautifully said and 100% accurate. I haven't brought myself to tell my daughters yet. They're going to be so sad. Every year when they dressed up at the Chicago con, they did it partially so show off to him & the entire Verzyl clan, who would take pictures and ooh & aah over them. They even would send us framed pics afterwards. He was a genius in many ways, but he was an even better person. We miss you, John.

The world was a better place with John Verzyl in it. My wife and daughters loved the man. He was so wonderful to them, whenever he visited Chicago, and even sent them Christmas gifts knowing their interests. We love you, John.

Fantastic to check in on this thread. Wonderful books! And a big thank you to Gator and buttock and all the other boardies who helped me knock the publisher out. I kinda don't know what to do with myself now that it's finished.

I don't need it and am sitting this bidding out. My copy is a restored 1.0 (amateur), brutal technical condition but reasonably presentable, so I'm not going to go nuts paying for the upgrade. I consider this one of the true toughest Centaurs, harder than the Keen Komics #1.

Once upon a time I would've called it possibly the rarest Centaur, based on the fact that Jon Berk said it to be true. But since then I've seen four copies for sale, including this one, plus the one Jon owns, plus a copy in a bound volume, which is more than I can say for a dozen other Centaurs that virtually seem not to exist. So I'm saying "top 15 rare". Which, for Centaurs, is still pretty much impossible.

Well, with those rather agressive BIN prices for raw books that appears to be bordering on the low-grade side, it almost makes the Heritage prices look like a bargin. Especially for the Keen Comics with a BIN price of $2,500. That Keen Comics is crazy rare, definitely one of the 15 toughest Centaurs. But to find it in that condition? Unheard of. It's a large oversize book and is usually totally beat up. I think it sold for a fair price.

If you want to talk 1) rarely seen and 2) great color scheme take a look at this one. It's striking for how they decided to make the logo area transparent instead of a solid banner of color, like they did in virtually all their other books back then.

Ha!! I just JUST pulled my scan of that book because it fit the theme. Not as nice looking as yours, though. Here's another, from the same era:

Hmmm, best color design on a Centaur cover.... That Funny Pages #40 might be the winner. There are a few other choices, though, I think. One came just two issues earlier:

I'll keep it going with one more (thanks, buttock!), the equally if not more tough 3rd-to-last issue. I love the colors in this one.

And the much tougher 2nd-to-last issue:

The final issue: