Redbeard

I will never be able to match the amazing finds both of you have had over the years. Unlike Sal (Dichiera) and you, I never attended flea markets and paper shows where some of your amazing tales Bob have occurred.

The best would have to be the books that were sent to me each year. It started with me buying some books from him out of a CBG ad. When I got the books, John Snyder and I spoke. I can't recall who called whom. We talked about the books we got from this seller in Colorado. We were aware they were all MH books. My first purchase were some Amazing Man issues. Well that is the only ad he ran, but around Christmas time, I sent out cards to good customers and sellers. Because of that Christmas card he contacted me and asked if I was interested in more books. No need to pay in advance he said, he'll send me the books and I should let him know what I will pay. We'll from there he sent me a box of books every year. After the first couple of years he no longer called in advance. He just shipped me the books. So once a year, surprise, a box books. Now remember, each of these books were the MH copy. I used to take the box to Dave Smith's store in Garden Grove where we would open the box. It was the greatest, opening those boxes full of MH books over the years, never knowing what surprise was inside. Many key 50's books including key SOTI books, etc. I got were sent to me. HIs name is Jim Payne. I don't know if Jim is still alive, but those days were very, very special to me.

A story of the past. Several years ago, there was a guy who called himself Al Tonti. He was trading many dealers/collectors for things he wanted offering original cover art like Science 1 by Lou Fine, Planet, I think 42, Master cover by Raboy, a Ghost Rider cover by Frazetta, a Brundage pastel painting of a Weird Tales cover, etc. The BS hit the fan when too many of us claimed ownership of the same piece of art in our collection. The guy was forging many, many pieces. The weird thing is he wasn't trying to sell them, he wanted trade. Well, I caught up with him at a Creation Con in Oakland. I took him outside and we talked. I mean to tell you the guy looked like someone that would emerge from a closet after being locked in there for the past 10 years. Very thin and very quiet type of guy. After our talk I let him go if he would return the next day at the show with what he had acquired. He did this and I took possession of his spoils. I then attempted to return the items to their rightful owners. I learned a bad lesson in this case. One of the guys I returned stuff to was such a jerk he didn't reimburse me for the shipping costs to send him his stuff. That left a very bad taste in mouth. So, when SD Comic Con came up, I went outside with Maggie Thompson, Bruce Hamilton and Russ Cochran. I wanted Maggie to run a story in CBG to eliminate the possibility of those forged pieces being resold to an unknowing collector down the road. Bruce and Russ both countered that it would create a major negative in the original art market. In the end Maggie went with Bruce and Russ opinion. Now forward to a few years ago at most. PBS was running a special on this art forger. It seems that this guy would go to small art museums in local cities, never the large galleries. He would tell them that his family was from France and after his sister's recent passing he wished to donate some original paintings to their museum. He asked for no compensation. This went on for several years until some of the local museums were claiming ownership of the same piece of art. It quickly became obvious to these museums that something was wrong. Yep, the party was forging relatively unknown French artists paintings from the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Take a wild guess who the forger was? Yep, you got it. It was the same guy who was doing the forged comic art all those many years before.

I am referring to the Book Sail and not Verzyl.

John made a huge buy from Chuck after the catalogue. He stacked up all the lesser price stuff since it was cheap including most of the unsold romance books.

I never handled most of the Actions. I did own the 23 years ago. I still have several SF Actions in the 50-60 range. Geppi had more of the Actions/Supes. I had most of the Bats/Tecs. Dave Anderson has Action 1-17 or 19. They were sold in one lot to Snyder and then to Dave. John bought them to sell to David.

Hey, I'm 74. But, I don't remember John having a cat. Agreed on the Punch 12.

Rick Evans, Rich Halegua, John Knight, Sal Dichiera, Bob Barrett, Terry Stroud, David T Alexander, Bob Overstreet, etc.

I don't recall anything else in particular, I just know someone came across a stash of this book.

Wow! How interesting. I just don't remember John having a cat. I can't reach Dave Smith since he has such a common name. I just know that Dave remarried and lives in Washington state. Last time I heard from Dave, he was a paralegal. I can't recall if Lilly (John's ex) had a cat. I can't remember where Nina lives. She was an ex-girlfriend of John's and worked sometimes at the Book Sail. She used to come to Comic-Con on occasion. She would also probably know the story. I wonder whether this occurred after John left So Ca and moved back to NY. It could have even happened after John passed and the books went to his heirs (probably his son).

John Verzyl used to like to joke around for fun. I know for a fact that John McLaughlin had the MH books in a wooden cabinet with doors in his house in Anaheim Hills. That would make it almost impossible for a cat to get in there, let alone pee on any books. Before the books were stored in that cabinet in his house, they were at the Book Sail store, and I know there was no cat in the store. John did not keep the books at his house in Orange. I really think Verzyl was pulling your leg on this one. Now I can confirm that McLauglin definitely read early issues of the pulp Dime Mystery while soaking in his bathtub. Both John and Dave Smith told me about that. Dave thought John was crazy to do this. These were incredible copies, like brand new with white pages. They were so new that John used a ruler to separate the pages and hold them while he read them. I'll see if I can reach my old friend Dave Smith, he lives in Washington now. If anyone would know, it would be Dave on this cat pee myth.

Great question, and one that is tough to answer. First, we need to distiguish that there is a difference between comic book readership and comic book collectors. That throws a kink in basing the number of collectors on the amount of new comic book sales. If we define the difference as a collector as someone that reads comic books and then saves them versus one that reads and discards comic books, then the number of collectors decreases dramatically. Since I wasn't around in the 60s when FF1 was on the stands, I can't really comment on an estimate on the number of collectors. It should be remembered by the late 1960s around 1966, we had comic book stores open nationwide. Unsold comic books were stored in back rooms, garages and warehouses which accounts for the ease of locating Marvel/DC titles from 1966 to present. However, by the late 70s and early 80s, Bob (Overstreet) told me that he was selling over 100,000 Price Guides annually. Now we know you have to be a collector to buy one of those. The number has increased dramatically with the age of big screen comic book movies. I would guess today we are around 1/2 million to a million collectors worldwide. I believe that is a high estimate. Always be aware that comic book collecting today is a global phenomenon.

WTF!?! John didn't have a cat.

I know, but you forwarded a comment from Rick Evans directed to me. Rick and I have been friends since Rick was working for Willie at Camelot. That is why I made the comment.

If you are implying that there were more collectors back then, you would be wrong by a long, long way. The hobby/business has grown in leaps and bounds. Don't forget, it is an international hobby/business today.

Fight on for ole SC...

Sounds like John. He was eccentric, so you never knew what his reaction might be.

Too, too many. My favorite though is John called me and told me he just bought something I had to see and come to his house. When I got to the house, we went into his dining room. There on the table was his new purchase. It was the original manuscript for Dracula by Bram Stoker. I was completely blown away. I was looking at the ultimate horror piece that existed. After John passed, the manuscript was sold by his heirs, and it is now in a museum where it belongs for all to see.

Probably all those early Marvels. a longtime friend Bob Cook would tell a person that had just walked up looking to sell and had put their books on his table - "Get that Marvel mess off of my table". A classic line from the past. Hi Bob...

It was a SDCC show Rich.

If you are referring to me Rick, I believe you can't sell things if you don't talk. Just raising your hands and pointing at things doesn't work. Can you imagine that at one time I was working as an accountant!!

that sounds like me...

Thx.

Sorry, but bought books from this collection much after they first surfaced.

That is indeed Richie, please note Richie still had hair!!!