The Thrifty Grocer Collection 1 1

[Frisco Larson]

Sometime in the mid 90s, I acquired a small stack of comics that were all from the Atlas Superhero revival era, from a local collector friend. There were other publishers present from that era, but the Atlas Comics were the only ones I was interested in. As I recall the details he told me of his purchase of this peculiar collection, I remember him saying he basically got them as the original owner had left them packed away, shortly after receiving them from his father, who just so happened to own a grocery store. After getting the comics from his father, the youngster read each of them once, then put them in a box with paper leafed between each comic. When one box was full, he started another. Now my memory isn't 100% clear on how exactly my friend obtained them, but I seem to recall him saying he got them from that original owner sometime in the early 80s. I don't know (and NEVER knew) what state the collection came from, the name of the family or even the grocery store, but over the last 25+ years, I have kept all of the books together, not selling a single one of them. The books are: Captain America 76, 77, & 78, Human Torch 36, 37 & 38, Men's Adventures 28, Sub-Mariner 33 & 34 and Young Men 24, 26, 27 & 28! For reasons unknown, the boy only got the two issues of Subby, which most Atlas collectors know lasted over a year longer than any other revival title. Besides those last 8 Subby issues, the boy was only missing Men's Adventures 27 and Young Men 25. One might conclude then that he enjoyed the Atlas Comics. For nearly two decades I had no name for this collection ... until one day I pulled them out and the name just came out of the box with the comics: The Thrifty Grocer Collection. Now I bet that sounds a bit odd, but there IS a reason for it! You see, the grocer seemed very willing to let his boy read comic books ... he even provided the boy with a seemingly tremendous supply of them ... with one small stipulation ... that his dad would remove the covers of each comic and send them back for credit! That's right, the Thrifty Grocer Collection is all basically High Grade, Unread ... Coverless copies! Make no mistake though, I was VERY pleased to be able to obtain them! At that point in the mid 90s I seldom saw those books (pre internet) and when I did, they were usually raggedy and chippity. THESE book were like new .... but without covers, so it was kinda weird, yet extremely fresh in hand. I just snapped a few pics of two issues, in artificial light, so not the best. Maybe I'll redo them later, but for now, I'll start with the issue that started the Atlas Superhero revival, Young Men 24!

[Frisco Larson]

Young Men 24

[Frisco Larson]

Young Men 27

[Frisco Larson]

That's all that I had a chance to get pics of today. I'll likely photograph the entire collection, featuring splash pages from each story. Even if this collection doesn't get much interest, it might be fun for some to see the interiors. Thanks to all who take a look! 

[thehumantorch]

On 10/7/2022 at 6:21 PM, Frisco Larson said:

Young Men 27

The books are beautiful.  Flat and clean and with incredible page quality.

[Frisco Larson]

On 10/7/2022 at 7:45 PM, thehumantorch said:

The books are beautiful.  Flat and clean and with incredible page quality.

Thank you so much! I'm happy that there are others who can appreciate what these are. Being a HUGE Bill Everett fan, it was the first time I'd seen these issues with interior colors and inks looking so newsstand fresh! Some of Everett's BEST art came out in the 50s, in my opinion. 

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Thanks for posting. You never saw these books back in the seventies and eighties and to get a semi complete collection even if cover less must have been awesome.

[Frisco Larson]

On 10/7/2022 at 9:08 PM, 50YrsCollctngCmcs said:

Thanks for posting. You never saw these books back in the seventies and eighties and to get a semi complete collection even if cover less must have been awesome.

I was wide-eyed for sure when the lid came off that box! I was SO lucky that he stuck these aside for himself to enjoy, because he would occasionally set up as a dealer! When we started wheeling and dealing, he knew I was a Timely, Atlas, Marvel guy who was just grabbing up whatever Timely & Atlas superhero I could find. It was very fortuitous for me that we had gotten together to swap some books! 

[shadroch]

My early comics always were obtained from a kid with a wagon full of coverless comics.  He sold them 3/10cents and bought them for two cents each.  I'm not sure when I learned comics came with covers.

[MattTheDuck]

I'd be very, very happy to have these kinds of books in my collection.  Congrats!

[Frisco Larson]

On 10/8/2022 at 1:22 AM, MattTheDuck said:

I'd be very, very happy to have these kinds of books in my collection.  Congrats!

Thanks! In hindsight, I wish I had bought some of the other titles, as I recall seeing a few Batman issues from the same period and those were relatively inexpensive. These Atlas issues were quite a bit more. 

[comicjack]

Those are some great looking coverless with nice paper and popping colors 

[Electron]

Lots of great stuff in those pages, and the condition is truly remarkable! What a cool collection to have. Kudos to you for snapping them up in a time when many collectors might have passed due to no cover. Way to go geek!

[Robot Man]

I have a couple similar coverless copies of those myself. I would be happy as heck to find more. Great art (especially the Everett) and stories. Nice score!

I long ago hit a guy with a similar stash. I bought every EC he had as well as a number of other titles including Atlas. 

Edited October 8, 2022 by Robot Man

[comicginger1789]

Normally I would never want to own or be fascinated by anything without the cover or incomplete…but these are on another level. Even without the story. The story is a delightful cherry on top and I’m glad they went to someone who has kept them together for the last 25ish years 

[RareHighGrade]

Great story.  After reading how the books were all in pristine condition, my jaw dropped when I got to the part where you started identifying them, including Cap 74!  But then I got to the punchline about the covers missing.  Darn!!  But then again, it's probably a good thing because if the covers had been on them, they would likely be residing in the collections of Fischler, Sartre or Bedrock.  In any event, the ones you posted are beautiful!  

[Frisco Larson]

On 10/8/2022 at 6:44 AM, comicjack said:

Those are some great looking coverless with nice paper and popping colors 

Thanks @comicjack I really appreciate that! I just shot a few pics of other issues, as I felt the lighting of the first few I shot didn't show the page quality very accurately.

[Frisco Larson]

On 10/8/2022 at 7:56 AM, Electron said:

Lots of great stuff in those pages, and the condition is truly remarkable! What a cool collection to have. Kudos to you for snapping them up in a time when many collectors might have passed due to no cover. Way to go geek!

Thanks RJ! You've seen 'em up close (and perhaps will again very soon) and you know how fresh they are! Oh, btw, I got tired of calling them the "white page coverless books!" 

[Frisco Larson]

On 10/8/2022 at 9:45 AM, Robot Man said:

I have a couple similar coverless copies of those myself. I would be happy as heck to find more. Great art (especially the Everett) and stories. Nice score!

I long ago hit a guy with a similar stash. I bought every EC he had as well as a number of other titles including Atlas. 

You bring up an interesting point and a thought that has swirled around in my head over the years! There were a LOT of other books from what I was told, and my friend (a DC man) only really grabbed DCs and the Superhero Atlas books, but he said there was a mix, essentially spread across all relevant publishers of that time period. So, my passing thought over the years is, "Where are all of those other comics???" Certainly, the guy knew enough to offer them to other people beyond my friend!!! There aren't any identifying markings on the comics, just that they are flat, clean copies with very nice page quality. If someone say 'purchased a batch' with uniformly consistent characteristics as this collection, I'd tend to believe that they came from the same original source. 

[Frisco Larson]

On 10/8/2022 at 1:11 PM, RareHighGrade said:

Great story.  After reading how the books were all in pristine condition, my jaw dropped when I got to the part where you started identifying them, including Cap 74!  But then I got to the punchline about the covers missing.  Darn!!  But then again, it's probably a good thing because if the covers had been on them, they would likely be residing in the collections of Fischler, Sartre or Bedrock.  In any event, the ones you posted are beautiful!  

Thanks so much Peter! Yeah, as I was writing out the story, it occurred to me to keep the reveal of the coverless nature for the end, figuring if I said so up front, most people may just stop reading right there. And that would be a shame, as it's always struck me as a neat, working man's pedigree type of story. Kind of funny too, in that it has the qualifications of being a pedigree in most regards (yes, except the covers being gone) as they came from the exact same source, they were meticulously stored away and preserved and as I understand it, the collection was hefty in size. You're very likely spot on in that if these comics didn't have their covers neatly removed and were stored away in the same manner, they'd have very likely grabbed MAJOR LEAGUE attention when they finally made their way to market! Almost CERTAINLY a pedigree if there were other key books included!