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Robert Lee Beerbohm (June 17, 1952 – March 27, 2024) was an American comic book historian and retailer who was intimately involved with the rise of comics fandom from 1966. Beginning as a teenager in the late 60s, he became a fixture in the growing comic convention scene, while in the 1970s and 1980s he was heavily involved in Bay Area comic book retailing and distribution.

Beerbohm was a consultant and author detailing the early history of comics in the United States, including rediscovering the first comic book in America, Rodolphe Töpffer's The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck. He has supplied data and visual aids as listed in the acknowledgements of over 200 books about comics.

Known as combination pugnacious businessman, archaeologist, and what cartoonist Art Spiegelman called a "feverishly enthusiastic fan," Beerbohm was an evangelist of the comics collecting hobby.

Early life

Robert Lee Beerbohm was born June 17, 1952 in Long Beach, California. In his youth, he lived in Saudi Arabia for several years, before moving to Fremont, Nebraska, where he graduated from Fremont High School. He attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln from 1970 to 1972.

Career

Robert Beerbohm Comic Art

In October 1966, while still in junior high school, Beerbohm took out his first ad in Rocket's Blast Comicollector (a.k.a. RBCC) #47, launching what has eventually become known as Robert Beerbohm Comic Art. By the 21st century Beerbohm was selling vintage American popular culture artifacts (mostly comic books) via the Internet, and setting up shows across the United States.

Beerbohm set up a booth at his first comics convention June 16–18, 1967, at the first Houstoncon. Traveling 28 hours on a Greyhound bus, Beerbohm turned 15 the first day of that show.

Beerbohm estimated from June 1967 thru April 2012 he set up at a thousand comics shows. Two strokes saw him close it all down July 10, 2018.

Beerbohm was among the first generation of dealers to traffic in original comic book art, sourcing his originals from suppliers with sometimes questionable provenance, claiming to have bought hundreds of allegedly stolen pages of Marvel and DC art from dealers set up in a hotel room at the 1969 27th World Science Fiction Convention in St. Louis.

Comics and Comix

In late August 1972, ten days following the first El Cortez Hotel San Diego Comicon, with housemate Bud Plant and John Barrett, Beerbohm co-opened Comics & Comix on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California.

In April 1973 Comics & Comix hosted the first Bay Area comics convention, Berkeleycon 73, in the Pauley Ballroom in the ASUC Building on the University of California, Berkeley campus. Berkeleycon was the first comic-con that highlighted underground comix.

During the Berkeleycon they purchased what became known as the Tom Reilly Pedigree collection of close to 4000 white-paper, never-opened NM/M comic books published between 1939 and 1945. Tom Reilly had enlisted in the Navy in 1941. His parents in affluent Piedmont section of Oakland, California kept buying one of each comic, placing them untouched on shelves in their son's bedroom. Tom was killed during a kamikaze attack in the Pacific, in 1945. His parents sealed the room. They died Dec 1972. Beerbohm and partners ended up with most of the collection through a protracted series of events taking place from April to June, 1972. Within three months they had opened three more stores, calling the company Comics & Comix.

Beerbohm, John Barrett and Bud Plant as Comics & Comix published the first three issues of Jack Katz' The First Kingdom beginning in 1974. They also published comics by Jim Pinkoski and Dan O'Neill during Beerbohm's involvement.

Best of Two Worlds

Beerbohm sold out in early 1975. He went 'solo' opening his first Best of Two Worlds early Nov 1976 at 1707 Haight St, San Francisco. By May 1977 he opened a 2nd Best of Two Worlds on Telegraph Ave near UC-Berkeley, taking over his ex-partner's old location a block apart.

On Oct 4, 1978, with partner Gary Wood, he opened The Funny Pages on Pier 30, the first high-traffic tourist location comic bookstore in America, according to Beerbohm. San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf was then one of the largest tourist attractions in the world. This location sold high-end popular culture artifacts. In 1980 Beerbohm opened a third Best of Two Worlds on 4th St in Santa Rosa. In 1982 Gary Wood sold his 50% to Robert Borden. In early 1985 Borden and Beerbohm sold 14% to Rory Root.

In February 1986 snow-melt flood waters cascaded out of the Sierra Nevada mountains, causing widespread property damage in much of northern California. Best of Two Worlds central warehouse was mostly destroyed. It contained a million comic books, half a million cards, 10,000 concert posters, 3000 pages of original comic book art, plus 90% of Beerbohm's comics fandom archives 1966–1985.

Best Comics

After Best of Two Worlds was forced by natural disaster into bankruptcy, Beerbohm went solo again with a single store in Haight Ashbury, but moved to a better location at Masonic, a major bus transfer hub. Here Beerbohm rebuilt almost from scratch once again, with signings by notable comics artists like a December 1987 Bill Sienkiewicz event and a growing relationship with Rick Griffin, who moved into the neighbourhood in 1988.

Best Comics and Rock Art Gallery

On June 1, 1991, Beerbohm, with silent-partner Edward Walker, opened Best Comics and Rock Art Gallery, an art gallery initially centering on seminal rock poster illustrator Rick Griffin in Fisherman's Wharf at The Cannery. The store's grand opening party June 1, 1991, featured bands like Big Brother and The Holding Company, New Riders of the Purple Sage, members of Quicksilver Messenger Service, It's a Beautiful Day, the Irish band Phoenix, and others. Two and a half months later, Griffin was killed in a motorcycle accident. Immediately after, the Griffin family attempted through legal means to restrict the sale of artworks through the gallery, but the lawsuit was dropped. Beerbohm and Walker closed the gallery in 1992.

Historian

As a comics historian, Beerbohm rediscovered the first comic book in America, Rodolphe Töpffer's The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck, published on September 14, 1842, in New York City, as Brother Jonathan Extra No. IX, which is in the same format as a "modern" day comic book, sans staples, which had not yet been invented. For many years, Beerbohm was working on a massive history of comics retailing from the 19th Century through to the development of distribution networks for Underground Comics and the Direct market to be titled "Comic Book Store Wars" but the book remained unpublished at the time of his death. Beerbohm maintained a Facebook group with the same title and had published a 91-page book with the same title in 1994.

Beerbohm was also fundamental on the 1971 rediscovery of the first Superman cover pencilled by Joe Shuster in 1933. The cover was the last remaining art from the very first Superman comic book produced by Siegel and Shuster to be published by Chicago-based Humor Publishing. He received the art from Russ Cochran who got the art from Bill Gaines in 1969 who re-discovered the four torn up pieces jammed up behind a drawer in his father Max Gaines' desk which had sat untouched since August 1947. In 1975, Beerbohm had Joe Shuster validate the origins of the cover during the San Diego Comic Con.

According to comic book historian Charles Hatfield, Beerbohm's contribution to the study of the Direct Market was threefold: 1.the idea that dealer speculation was at the root of the new distribution system; 2. the idea that so-called affidavit return fraud created a need for better distribution on the part of publishers; and 3. the growth of head shops as an outlet for Underground comics and a model for the Direct Market.

Death

Beerbohm died in Fremont, Nebraska from colorectal cancer on March 27, 2024, at the age of 71.

Bibliography

• Comic Book Store Wars (Fremont, Nebraska : R.L. Beerbohm, 1994. -- 91 p.)
• "The first Superman cover ever" (Comics Buyer's Guide #1165, March 15th, 1996, page 40)
• "The Big Bang Theory of Comic Book History" (Comic Book Marketplace, 1997)
• "The Mainline Comics Story: An Initial Examination" (Jack Kirby Collector #25, 1998)
• "Secret Origins of the Direct Market Part One: 'Affidavit Returns' - The Scourge of Distribution" (Comic Book Artist #6, Oct. 1999)
• "Secret Origins of the Direct Market Part Two: Phil Seuling and the Undergrounds Emerge," (Comic Book Artist #7, Mar. 2000)
• "The Illustrated Books of Frank King" (Comic Art #1, 2001)
• "Topffer in America" (Comic Art #3, 2003) (with Doug Wheeler and Leonardo De Sa)
• "The American Comic Book: 1929-Present: The Modern Comics Magazine Supplants the Earlier Formats" (Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #27, 1997 thru 49, 2019) (with Richard Olson, PhD) — Three articles grew in size and scope which were continuously expanded and revised every year by the authors covering a "Victorian Age" (1842-1890s), a "Platinum Age" 1890s thru 1934 as well as an in-depth Origin of the Modern Comic Book 1921-1970s which ran thru #40.

References

1. Rosenwald, Michael S. (2024-04-15). "Robert Beerbohm, 71, Dies; Pioneering Comic Book Retailer and Historian". ww.nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-04-21. ""I liked the presence he had in comic book land as one of those feverishly enthusiastic fans and scholars and networkers," the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman, a friend, said in an interview. "He was kind of manic. He came with a lot of enthusiasm, but that was one of his most endearing qualities."
2. ^ Rosenwald, Michael S. (April 15, 2024). "Robert Beerbohm, Pioneering Comic Book Retailer and Historian, Dies at 71". The New York Times. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
3. Beerbohm profile, Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999. Accessed May 29, 2012.
4. ^ "Fundraiser launched to help the family of pioneering comics historian, Robert "Bob" Beerbohm". Down the Tubes. 30 March 2024. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
5. Beerbohm LinkedIn profile. Accessed May 29, 2012.
6. Beerbohm, Robert. "Update to Comics Dealer Extraordinaire Robert Beerbohm: In His Own Words," Comic-Convention Memories (June 24, 2010).
7. Johnston, Rich (2022-10-18). "Buying Neal Adams & Steve Ditko Original Art From a Hotel Room in 1969". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved 2023-11-14. There was over 5000 pages in that 1969 St Louis hotel room. All 'saved from being thrown away' so they claimed so they liberated it all instead for themselves. They wanted to liberate $5 per page for every one we wanted to haul out of that hotel room stuffed all over. We only had $1200. We could easily have spent ten times that if we had it. But we were just Midwest high school students from Fremont Nebraska meeting our first New York city slickers for the first time.
8. Nolan, Michelle. "Newswatch: Pioneering Comics Retailer John Barrett Dies at 50," The Comics Journal #233 (May 2001).
9. Benhari. "First Comix Con Right On?", Berkeley Barb (April 27—May 3, 1973).
10. Beerbohm, Bob (May 4, 2022). "TOM REILLY PEDIGREE COLLECTION". Facebook.com. Retrieved April 19, 2024. A few days later as head vintage comics purchaser of our first comic book store Ye Olde Berkeley Comics Art Shoppe at the Arnheim house in Moraga Calif myself and Jon Campbell bought this collection for 40% of Guide. There were three "lots" involved of us with our store, Belmont and Selvig. We were up all night dividing up this batch of perfect shape mostly never read comic books. A tip of the ice berg which turned out to be merely the first third of this estate because a week or so later another batch of relatives walked in an equal amount of high grade NM comics to sell to us. This time we at our Berkeley comic book store absorbed the entire batch all by ourselves. When I say "we" I mean the late John Barrett, myself Robert Beerbohm and Bud Plant. We paid this second sets of relatives 60% of Overstreet #2 Guide. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 218 (help)
11. Comics & Comix entry, Grand Comics Database. Accessed Oct. 8, 2016.
12. Beerbohm, Robert (2022-09-30). "THE FUNNY PAGES". Facebook.com. Retrieved 2023-04-21. "THE FUNNY PAGES Oct 4, 1978, at Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco which at that time was the 3rd largest tourist destination attraction point in America after Disneyworld (Orlando) and Disneyland (Anaheim). had us Riding High by 1980 having opened the first high foot traffic tourist trap "mall" comic bookstore in America.
13. Johnston, Rich (2022-09-26). "From John Byrne's 1978 Uncanny X-Men to 1995's Speculator Burn Out". bleedingcool.com. Bleeding Cool. Retrieved 2023-11-11. Best of Two Worlds went out of business in 1987 due to the massive flooding of its central warehouse in Emeryville, California a year earlier.
14. Beerbohm, Robert (2024-03-12). "Facebook post". Facebook.com. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
15. Langton, Mark (October 1991). "Remembering the Cosmic Visions of Rick Griffin". The Comics Journal #145. Fantagraphics. Just before Griffin died, he, Beerbohm and partner Ed Walker had just converted the Gallery into a Rick Griffin showplace.
16. FOLKART, BURT A. (20 August 1991). "Rick Griffin; Psychedelic Artist Adorned Rock Music Posters". Retrieved 24 October 2016 – via Los Angeles Times.
17. Mason, Clark (August 22, 1991). "Dispute over dead artist's work settled". The Press Democrat. Santa Rosa, California.
18. The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on March 13, 2012. "On September 14, 1842, a New York paper, Brother Jonathan, ran an English-language version of Oldbuck (published in Britain a year earlier) as a supplement."
19. Beerbohm, Robert; Wheeler, Doug; De Sá, Leonardo (2003). "Töpffer in America". Comic Art. No. 3. St. Louis, Missouri. pp. 28–47.
20. Heritage Comics and Comic Art Auction #824: Dallas, Taxas, May 3–4 2007, Heritage Capital Corporation, p. 1.
21. "Comic Books Store Wars". Facebook.com. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
22. Bob Beerbohm (February 1, 2023). "Facebook post". Facebook.com. Retrieved April 21, 2024. The Superman #1 cover drawn by Joseph Shuster circa May 1933 was created because Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were informed they had sold a 32 page comic book (plus covers) to Chicago based Humor Publishing. I am its very first publisher in 1970. Herein lies a tale some might find interesting to learn about. In the 1981 Nemo #2 interview published by Gary Groth's Fantagraphics edited by Rick Marschall, Jerry talks way too briefly about the Chicago-based publisher of The Adventures of Detective Dan Secret Operative 48 coming to Cleveland Ohio to talk with NEA Syndicate. Some six months later Dan Dunn Secret Op 48 debuts from NEA. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 311 (help)
23. Charles Hatfield (2024-04-18). "REMEMBERING COMICS RETAILER AND HISTORIAN ROBERT BEERBOHM, 1952-2024". tcj.com. The Comics Journal. Retrieved April 21, 2024. When I think of Bob, I think of lingering research questions and claims that I believe are still important. Here are just a few: Bob maintained that the very roots of the direct market were in speculation - that is, the frantic activity of speculators who would stockpile hot comics in hopes of making a killing. He argued that speculation was not a minor byproduct or aftereffect of the direct market, but in fact its original raison d' être. In this, he spoke as a reformed or retired speculator himself. I think this is an important perspective. On a related note, Bob claimed that by the early 1970s fraud was endemic to the distribution of comic books. Many U.S. comic books were sold by wholesalers to speculators under the table, and those sales went unreported; that is, false affidavits reported the books unsold and claimed credit for "returns," when in fact the books had been sold to collectors and dealers. Routine fraud, then, depressed the sales figures for mainstream comics in the early 1970s. This seems to have incentivized publishers to begin courting the more reliable direct market (though Bob also showed that DC and Marvel were slow to do this). Of course, such fraudulent activity was criminal, hence undocumented, so this line of argument has been hard to solidify - but the idea has taken hold in comic book historiography. Many have cited it, and Bob was their source. On the other hand, Bob adamantly maintained that the direct market came about not from distributor Phil Seuling's overtures to mainstream publishers in the early 1970s (as is most often claimed), but from the effective nationwide distribution of underground comix, which he credited to the Print Mint's going national with Crumb's Zap Comix in 1968. Bob did not discount Seuling as an innovator, but claimed that the basis of the direct market was really in the alternative economy of the underground. Of course, as a dealer and retailer he had sold undergrounds alongside more mainstream fare (a practice implied in the moniker "Comics and Comix"). This line of argument might be considered a matter of semantic hairsplitting only, but for me it continues to be vital. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 129 (help)
24. Mark Evanier (March 28, 2024). "Bob Beerbohm, R.I.P." newsfromme.com. Retrieved March 29, 2024. Bob was 71 years old and the cause of death was cancer…one of many problems he'd been battling for years. Every time we spoke, he ticked off a long, long list of ailments so I don't think any of his friends are shocked by the news…saddened but not shocked. Bob and I were friends though I did not endorse all of his writings on comic book history and in fact disagreed with a lot of it. Some of you on Facebook forums witnessed some of our back-and-forth and I may write about it here in the future…or I may not.
25. "Comic Book Shop Pioneer And Historian Bob Beerbohm Had Died At 71". Bleeding Cool. 29 March 2024. Retrieved 1 April 2024.

• 1952 births
• 2024 deaths
• Comics retailers
• American comic collectors
• Comics critics
• Comics scholars
• American archivists
• Art dealers
• University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni
• California State University, East Bay alumni
• Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area
• People from Fremont, California
• American expatriates in Saudi Arabia
• Deaths from cancer in Nebraska
• Deaths from colorectal cancer in the United States