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UPDATED: My Nominee for the "First Great Comic Collector"
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359 posts in this topic

47 minutes ago, HouseofComics.Com said:
2 hours ago, DavidTheDavid said:

Excellent stuff, very interesting and readable. This deserves a bigger outlet than the forums. Hey, why not get it published in Overstreet?

What a great idea! Perfect landing spot for this.

Yes, Overstreet would be an excellent venue for this! (I feel the theme for Overstreet 50 in two years should be "The Collectors" and this would fit right into it!)

Who is going to play Dave Jay in the inevitable movie?

And who will play the narrator in it - sfcityduck? hm

GREAT STUFF Duck!

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On 3/9/2019 at 10:15 AM, PopKulture said:

Is this a classic case of "methinks thou doth protest too much?"  hm

Nope.

Dave's "Raising Hell" was published in 1963. 

The only review I know of the book occurred in a 1967 issue of the Berkeley Barb, an independent newspaper like the Village Voice.  The reviewer was Ed Denison, a writer and musician who was also the manager of Country Joe and the Fish, and who is now an environmental and marijuana activist and attorney.  

Ed knew of Dave.  They grew up in the same area.  Amongst many other things in the review, Ed wrote this:

Quote

 

When I was a child on the fringes of the hard guys in Bethesda, Maryland, one rumour that was told me as I squatted on the sidewalk in front of the People's Drugstore one rainy evening was that Beer Dave was writing a book about Bethesda that told it like it was, and someone was publishing it, and soon Bethesda would be famous.  

Well time passed and I was sent to military school after breaking into the bowling alley, and the Bethesda scene dried up under the pressure of an expanding middle class and cold war politics, and I forgot Beer Dave's book.  

A couple of months ago I put an ad in the Barb for free movie scripts for the Fish.  Most of the replies were conventional hippy scripts, but one was as novel by Dave Jay in a tired yellow cover with drawings of chicks with huge breasts standing in front of three motorcyclists in leather jackets.  

It took a long time to start reading the book and about a week more to realize it was Beer Dave's book about the scene I had wanted to partake in when I was in High School.

Then excitement hit as familiar people and events began to turn up, and then the old anger I felt against the police and the school authorities, and the helplessness, the absolute powerlessness returned together with memories of breaking windows and overturning cars, trying to make chicks, and living in a torment of hatred.  Beer Dave really brought it back for me.

... The heroes are the lower class -- the motorcycle gangs who wept at Brando flicks and tore up the theater -- the hard guys who swore at the teachers and blew up the principal's house, the people whose history is found in a few headlines and sensational detective story magazine issues.  The generation who were setting the stage for the beatniks.

Dave was one of them, I suspect like myself very much on the fringe of it all, and he must have spent years writing this book for the events and their aftermath span the years from 1954-1960 at the least.

 

http://voices.revealdigital.com/cgi-bin/independentvoices?a=d&d=BFBJFGD19670609.1.11&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-"dave+jay"--------------1#

Yep.  Dave Wigransky really was known as "Beer Dave" in the D.C. area in the 1950s.  

A Bethesda College reunion website for the class of 1961 includes this message:

Quote

How many of you remember "Beer Dave," a notorious Hot Shop habitue who wore a black leather motorcycle jacket festooned with beer can openers?  OK, so it's probably a niche group; but just in case you ever wondered about Dave, he went to California and wrote a book called Raising Hell, " . . . a contemporary novel [1963] of modern juvenile delinquency told from the standpoint of the delinquents themselves, under the nom de plume of Dave Jay" (real name Dave Riskinski?). 

http://bcc61.com/newsletters/newsletter_10-08.htm

There's no doubt that Dave was bit wild in the 1950s, but how wild was he?  Is he another case study supporting Wertham's argument?

And, more importantly, did he stop collecting?

Edited by sfcityduck
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3 hours ago, DavidTheDavid said:

Excellent stuff, very interesting and readable. This deserves a bigger outlet than the forums. Hey, why not get it published in Overstreet?

I would have thought Alter Ego would be a more obvious home for this than Overstreet, but agreed it needs a bigger audience.

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"Raising Hell" was a fictional account of Beer Dave's exploits.  

But, it's not the only book that talks about some of Beer Dave's adventures.  And the other book is not fiction at all.

In the mid-1950s, Dave made the acquaintance of guys who were members of the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad.  One of those squad members, Daniel Knowles, has published a book detailing some of the stories of the squad, including their partying.  They drank a lot of beer.  Knowles recalls that he had "befriended Beer Dave at the Hot Shoppe one time, and Beer Dave was a trusted cat.  He was named Beer Dave because he drank beer."  Knowles also recalls that Beer Dave had "throngs of admirers at the Hot Shoppe" and that they had a lot of good times together.  The "Hot Shoppe," for those not in the know, was this drive-in:

Image result for Hot Shoppe Chevy Chase

It sold beer.  Beer Dave liked hanging out there.

Knowles recalls that "Dave usually knew what he was talking about because it was said that he had graduated from BCC High School with the highest score anyone ever had in about 1952, and I had no doubt that was true."  

But, Knowles mainly tells lots of stories about excessive drinking and minor mayhem that might have amounted to delinquency in the 1950s, but didn't really do any lasting harm to anyone.  My favorite recollection he has of Beer Dave is this:

Quote

 

One day, a bunch of us from the squad and Beer Dave and maybe some other met at the Hot Shoppe and drove down to the storm sewers by a creek near Somerset on Dorsett Avenue near Wisconsin Avenue.  After parking the cars and carrying some cases of beer, we walked over to the creek that led into the sewer system that served Chevy Chase village.  ... There had been a rumor that a skeleton a long time ago had been found in the storm drains where we were now, and everyone was on the lookout for any bones that might be lying around, but none was found.

You could stand up in most of the tunnels, and it was mostly dry at the time because it had not rained for a while.  We walked around and talked and drank and walked about a mile through the large tunnels and saw hardly any water.  Someone told Beer Dave that there were rats down in the tunnels, and Beer Dave going up to a lot of the cats and pinching their behinds, pretending that he was a rat, and he was doing his share of giggling also.

This was to be the last day that we ever saw Beer Dave ....  We saw him walking down the street with a beer can in one of his rear pockets.  He had big pockets, and there was another can in his other rear pocket, and then had two cans in his regular pockets and he was holding another can, which he, of course, was drinking, and before he got out of our sight, he turned one last time and bade us a last fond good-bye and he waved to us and said in a clear crisp voice, "Dig youse guys later."

 

 

 

And so we too leave the part of our story where Dave Wigransky was known as "Beer Dave."  

But, the big question remains, with all of his drinking and partying in the 1950s, did he give up collecting?

 

Edited by sfcityduck
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51 minutes ago, OtherEric said:

I would have thought Alter Ego would be a more obvious home for this than Overstreet, but agreed it needs a bigger audience.

Overstreet stays in people's hands for a year (or more for those who buy it every other year or otherwise irregularly) is my thought. Plus, the Pop Hollinger story in Overstreet had a giant effect on me when I read it as a middle schooler. So this fits in with that, IMO.

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Did Dave give up collecting in the 1950s?  

Nope.

In fact, like a lot of comic collectors who enter their later teen-age years and twenties, he doubled down on collecting by taking up record collecting.   A lot of us get into music when we're in our teens, and branch out to collecting records.  Dave was no exception.

The fact that Dave put out a 45 record of his own in 1956 shows that he'd been recording collecting for a while before then.  Why?  Because the record he put out was what is known to record collectors as a "break in" record.  The classic example for guys my age is "Mr. Jaws."  These records usually feature a narrator telling a story with soundbites blended in from various popular records.

The other reason we know that Dave had been collecting records for a while before 1956 is that he was dealing records in adzines.  At the time, record collecting was a much more advanced hobby then comic collecting.  Musical recordings had been around a lot longer than comics and the record collecting community was already organized, with an active used record market, adzines, and auctions.  Dave was part of that.

In the Spring 1956 issue of International Discophile, we see Dave running his own record auction:

Auction.png.55b4e4c2bff9bb13ae52998e40c52a12.png

The records he was auctioning were Jazz and even some folk.  He clearly knew what he was doing.  

Edited by sfcityduck
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Dave not only knew what he was doing, he quickly became a bit of a legend in his chosen area of jazz record collecting. 

He wrote a couple of books (one of them about Irving Berlin, another about Al Jolson), wrote a bunch of articles for the International Al Jolson Society (IAJS), and was the IAJS's first researcher.  On the message boards of Al Jolson collectors (yes, they exist), Dave is referred to as Dave Jay, and he is still spoken of with awe.  An original edition of his self-published "Jolsonography" is considered a major trophy.  He is credited with a quote that Jolson fans revere, "An Al Jolson doesn't come once in a lifetime.  He comes once."  One of Dave's friend's, Maynard Bertolet (who was once considered to own the largest vinyl collection in the world, but has recently died and his collection sold), authored a very nice "memorial" to Dave for one of the Jolson collector journals (yes, those exist also).  

There's no doubt that Dave remained an active record collector until the day he died.

"Ok, ok," you say, "but, what about comics?"

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I'm pleased to advise you that there is ZERO doubt that Dave Wigransky stayed a comic collector into the 1960s, including having meaningful interactions with comic industry figures in the 1950s and with the founders of modern comic fandom in the 1960s.  

That story comes next.

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9 hours ago, HouseofComics.Com said:

Overstreet stays in people's hands for a year (or more for those who buy it every other year or otherwise irregularly) is my thought. Plus, the Pop Hollinger story in Overstreet had a giant effect on me when I read it as a middle schooler. So this fits in with that, IMO.

Can you recall what edition of Overstreet had the Pop Hollinger story in it? I'd like to revisit it.  :foryou:

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3 minutes ago, PopKulture said:

Can you recall what edition of Overstreet had the Pop Hollinger story in it? I'd like to revisit it.  :foryou:

It’s #12.  You can read it here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100720191229/http://members.cox.net/buster44/3/popstory.txt

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Did I say ZERO doubt?  I meant Xero doubt!

But, first, let's look at the checklist for Dave Wigransky with regard to the factors I identified as relevant to whether he was a "Great Comic Collector":

  • The extent of the person's enthusiasm and love of comics and collecting;  [CHECK - Dave clearly loved comics!]
  • The length of time the person collected comics;  [CHECK - Dave started collecting in 1941 and kept going for at least 20 years]
  • The breadth of the the person's comic collection; [CHECK - Dave collected all genres and his collection numbered 5,000 to 6,000 comics by 1948, and he kept on going strong]
  • The quality of the person's comic collection; [CHECK - Dave kept his comics in great shape, and his collection covered the GA]
  • Whether the person has sought out comic book back issues to fill in gaps in their collection, as opposed to just buying comics off the stands;  [CHECK - He bought back issues to fill in holes in collection, especially 1938-1942] 
  • Whether the person has engaged in comic collecting strategies which go beyond just the normal for comic collectors (normal being buying new off the stand and buying back issues from bookstores);  [CHECK - Dave might have been the first collector to place classifieds in national magazines, pulps, and newspapers]
  • Whether the person deals comics;
  • Whether the person has been a market maker;
  • Whether the person has taken the next step to collect original art;  [CHECK - Dave collected comic book and cartoon original art.]
  • Whether the person has shown the enthusiasm to take advantage of publisher sponsored fan interaction opportunities (e.g. letters to the editors, joining publisher sponsored fan groups like Sentinels of Liberty or Supermen of America, entering contests, etc.);  [CHECK - Dave joined comic groups like the Shield Junior G-Men and entered contests]
  • Whether the person has directly communicated with comic creators (artists, writers, editors) or publishers;  [CHECK - Dave sent and received correspondence from industry professionals and developed relationships with them.]
  • Whether the person has created or availed themselves of opportunities to interact with other fans (fanzines, adzines, conventions, networking);
  • Whether the person has gained a significant depth of knowledge about the comics they buy (first appearances, creators, importance to comic history); [CHECK - We've seen that Dave indexed his comics and proposed to write a book on the history of the medium]
  • Whether the person has gained a significant depth of knowledge about the comic business;
  • Whether the person has shared their knowledge with other comic collectors;
  • Whether the person has advocated in favor of comics and/or comic collecting; [CHECK - Dave was probably the most famous anti-comic censorship advocate of his time]
  • Whether the person has authored articles on comics or comic collecting; [CHECK - Dave wrote the seminal rebuttal of Wertham's attacks on comics, and saw its arguments repeated in newspapers and Timely/Marvel editorials]
  • Whether the person has created or published amateur comics;  [CHECK - Dave authored an amateur comic housed in the National Comic Society archives.]
  • Whether the person has attempted to or become a professional comic creator; [Can't verify this, just a suspicion]  and  
  • Whether the person has done other acts to further comics or comic collecting (a catch-all).

Have we proven enough to deem Dave the "First Great Comic Collector"?  I think we already have.  But, let's address the remaining un-checked categories, and bring this story to a close.  

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So the remaining categories we've yet to check off are:

  • Whether the person has created or availed themselves of opportunities to interact with other fans (fanzines, adzines, conventions, networking);
  • Whether the person has gained a significant depth of knowledge about the comic business;
  • Whether the person has shared their knowledge with other comic collectors;

That first bullet point was really hard to satisfy until the 1960s.  And I never thought that Dave Wigransky would ever check that box.  Until, that is, I took another look at the birth of modern comic fandom.

One of the key events in the birth of modern comic fandom was the birth of comic fanzines.  The first modern comic fanzine is generally considered to be Jerry Bails' Alter Ego which first came out in 1961.  But, Alter Ego was not the first fanzine to turn a serious focus on comics.  The Science Fiction fanzine Xero ran an on-going series on comics entitled "All in Color For a Dime" starting with its first issue in 1960.  In fact, to help find subscribers for Alter Ego, Julius Schwartz loaned Bails his copies of Xero and Bails wrote to everyone in the letter column for Xero to see if they'd subscribe to the first issue of Alter Ego.  Simply put, the history of Xero and Alter Ego are tangled together.  And I'm here to tangle them a little further.

Now the "All in Color for a Dime Series" of articles initially were of the nostalgic fan looking back appreciation type.  Don Thompson's first article in the series was basically an appreciation of Captain Marvel.  But, that pattern was broken with the publication of Xero 8 in 1962, which featured as the "All in Color for a Dime Series" contribution the article "The Education Of Victor Fox” by Richard Kyle.  Kyle's piece was unlike anything published before.  It did not ooze fond nostalgia, instead Kyle engaged in a serious critique of the Fox comics output and basically claimed they were a disgrace to the comics industry.  Kyle's article has been referred to as the first serious comic collecting article, and Kyle himself went on to create Graphic Story World.  

What's interesting about Richard Kyle's article, however, is that Kyle included a footnote because he learned very late in his drafting process that he'd gotten some facts wrong.  The footnote begins:

Quote

After this article was completed and in Lupoff ’s hands, I discovered a letter by Ron Graham in Alter-Ego, a comic book fan magazine published by Jerry Bails of Inkster, Michigan, indicating that Wonderworld Comics had an earlier incarnation as Wonder Comics, and featured “Wonder Man” rather than “The Flame.” Neither my memory nor the great stack of Fox comics Bill Thailing had lent me were of any help.

So, the back story on the very first serious article about comics to ever appear in a fanzine is that the author got some key facts wrong, learning that only late in the drafting process from a letter to another fanzine.  That's sort of an interesting sidelight that again shows the tangled history of Xero and Alter Ego, and standing alone, it would seem nothing more than a minor footnote.

But, then Kyle made a statement in his footnote that almost made me fall out of my chair when I read it:

Quote

 I asked for more information from Mr. Graham, and he referred me to David Wigransky of Washington, D.C.

When I first saw this, I thought:  You are frigging kidding me!  The very first serious article about comics to ever appear in a fanzine, and to correct his mistake and get correct information Richard Kyle, one of fandom's founding fathers, is referred to Dave Wigransky for the straight scoop.  Unbelievable!  And you know what, Richard Kyle did contact Dave Wigransky, and Dave replied!
 
 

 

Edited by sfcityduck
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So on the list of factors, there's only three I can't check off:

  • The extent of the person's enthusiasm and love of comics and collecting;  [CHECK - Dave clearly loved comics!]
  • The length of time the person collected comics;  [CHECK - Dave started collecting in 1941 and kept going for at least 20 years]
  • The breadth of the the person's comic collection; [CHECK - Dave collected all genres and his collection numbered 5,000 to 6,000 comics by 1948, and he kept on going strong]
  • The quality of the person's comic collection; [CHECK - Dave kept his comics in great shape, and his collection covered the GA]
  • Whether the person has sought out comic book back issues to fill in gaps in their collection, as opposed to just buying comics off the stands;  [CHECK - He bought back issues to fill in holes in collection, especially 1938-1942] 
  • Whether the person has engaged in comic collecting strategies which go beyond just the normal for comic collectors (normal being buying new off the stand and buying back issues from bookstores);  [CHECK - Dave might have been the first collector to place classifieds in national magazines, pulps, and newspapers]
  • Whether the person deals comics;
  • Whether the person has been a market maker;
  • Whether the person has taken the next step to collect original art;  [CHECK - Dave collected comic book and cartoon original art.]
  • Whether the person has shown the enthusiasm to take advantage of publisher sponsored fan interaction opportunities (e.g. letters to the editors, joining publisher sponsored fan groups like Sentinels of Liberty or Supermen of America, entering contests, etc.);  [CHECK - Dave joined comic groups like the Shield Junior G-Men and entered contests]
  • Whether the person has directly communicated with comic creators (artists, writers, editors) or publishers;  [CHECK - Dave sent and received correspondence from industry professionals and developed relationships with them.]
  • Whether the person has created or availed themselves of opportunities to interact with other fans (fanzines, adzines, conventions, networking);  [CHECK - Dave shared knowledge with fans for use in fanzines]
  • Whether the person has gained a significant depth of knowledge about the comics they buy (first appearances, creators, importance to comic history); [CHECK - We've seen that Dave indexed his comics and proposed to write a book on the history of the medium]
  • Whether the person has gained a significant depth of knowledge about the comic business;  [CHECK - Dave knew about the business history from talking to people who lived it]
  • Whether the person has shared their knowledge with other comic collectors; [CHECK - Dave contributed key knowledge to the first serious article about comics to ever appear in a fanzine]
  • Whether the person has advocated in favor of comics and/or comic collecting; [CHECK - Dave was probably the most famous anti-comic censorship advocate of his time]
  • Whether the person has authored articles on comics or comic collecting; [CHECK - Dave wrote the seminal rebuttal of Wertham's attacks on comics, and saw its arguments repeated in newspapers and Timely/Marvel editorials]
  • Whether the person has created or published amateur comics;  [CHECK - Dave authored an amateur comic housed in the National Comic Society archives.]
  • Whether the person has attempted to or become a professional comic creator; [Can't verify this, just a suspicion]  and  
  • Whether the person has done other acts to further comics or comic collecting (a catch-all).  [CHECK - Dave is still inspiring comics fans like me]

Two of those categories concern dealing comics.  There's no information that I yet know of that Dave ever sold comics.

 

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