-History of Comics (Pedigree books)- SAN FRANCISCO/TOM REILLY - The San Francisco collection walked into Berkeley Con 73, the first underground comic convention Easter Weekend, 1973. The show was held at the UC Berkeley in California that weekend. Sunday afternoon, toward the end of the show, and elderly couple walked into the front area with a large palette of comics. Nick Marcus and Mike Manyak, two dealers participating in the show, spotted the comics first. As they went through the boxes, Manyak and Marcus couldnt believe their eyes. In the boxes were deep runs of DC, Quality, Timely, and others in stunning grade. Because Manyak and Marcus were Timely purists, they pulled out every Timely and purchased them: Sub-Mariner #1-13, Human Torch #1,2,4-9,11-15, Captain America #1,18,19,21-24, Mystic #5,6 and Young Allies #1-5. Strangely, no Marvel Mysterys were present in the boxes. Shortly thereafter, the dealers room was alerted of this cache, and Robert Beerbohm, Dave Belmont, and Robert Selvig approached the couple. After pulling them into a side room and pouring over the full runs of early superhero golden age in Near Mint condition, the three dealers proceeded to feverishly bid on the collection. Apparently overwhelmed by the fervor the couple left with the books, but did leave their phone number and address. Soon after, the dealers traveled to the couples home and gave them a 1972 price guide to value their books. After a couple of days the couple called Comics and Comix (a shop in Berkeley owned by Beerbohm, Bud Plant, and John Barrett) and informed the dealers they were willing to part with their accumulation for 40% of the 1972 guide. The deal was consummated and the collection was divided between Beerbohm, Selvig, and Belmont. The collection contained many keys, as well as deep runs (including Marvel Mysterys, which were mistakenly given to the neighbors kids), but many large gaps existed; Beerbohm felt there was more to come. Sure enough, a second call came about two weeks later. Apparently, the younger sister of the elderly couple had another accumulation of Golden Age comics. A deal was made, this time for 60% of guide, and purchased by Beerbohm. The second batch filled in many gaps from the first, but still more gaps existed. Inevitably, a third call was received from a woman on the east coast who had the final batch. By this time the 1973 guide had come out; 60% of it was paid for the third accumulation. Finally, the collection was complete. The original owners name was Tom Reilly. As the story goes, Reilly began reading comics in the summer of 1939, and by 1940 was faithfully buying every major company on the newsstands. Because of this, runs from 1940 and on were virtually complete. In 1942 Reilly was drafted into the service and asked his parents to buy comics for him while he was away. In order to achieve this the owner of a local store stamped all of Reillys books on the back cover with a rubber stamp, ready for Mr. or Mrs. Reilly to pick up when necessary. Tragically, Tom Reilly was killed toward the end of the war during a Kamikaze attack. As a result, all titles in the collection ceased once his parents found out about his death, sometime in 1945. Stricken with grief, Reillys parents sealed up his room and left it untouched for the next thirty years. The collection was saved in this room until his father died in December 1972, at which time the comics were split up between relatives. Robert Beerbohm was responsible for most of the initial sales of the San Francisco collection. They were all sold within a year of the original purchase. No large chunks were purchased directly by any collector, and as a result, San Francisco books are spread out everywhere. On an interesting note, the name San Francisco is misleading. At no time were the books of this pedigreed collection in San Francisco. One source feels the proper name should be the Tom Reilly collection, named after the original owner. IDENTIFICATION-There are two ways to identify a San Francisco book: 1)the rubber stamp of the name Tom Reilly or 2)the penciled arrival date. Unfortunately, many of the books were not stamped until 1942 when Reilly left for war. Many of the keys lack the stamp and are sitting unknown in collections. Those that do have the stamp exhibit it on the back cover, usually in the lower left corner. The other method to identify a San Francisco book is by the consistent arrival date present on the front cover. A G followed by a date can be found on most of the San Francisco books. The G stands for GILBOY, the name of the distributor for the particular store from which the Reilly books were purchased. Due to the early discovery of this collection no original list was made. One must rely solely on either the rubber stamp or arrival date to identify a San Francisco book. DESIRABILITY-Many would rate the San Francisco collection as second best, due to the quantity (near-full runs of all titles from 1940-1945) and quality of books in it. San Franciscos have supple, white pages and exhibit beautiful colors and very rich gloss. The San Franciscos from 1942 to 1945 represent the best of the collection, due to the fact that Reilly never got a chance to read them, and thus damage them. Most of these copies are Near Mint to Mint. Although many San Francisco copies are technically better in grade than some Mile Highs, the colors and overall appearance is not as fresh. Still, the quality of a San Francisco copy is relatively unsurpassed, and copies fetch on average 3x to 4x guide in the market.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 10:23:00 +0000
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