Comic retailer turned creator Bob Burden, who created Flaming Carrot Comics and the Mystery Men and wrote Gumby, was recently the victim of theft. In either late December 2022 or early January 2023, his storage unit in Atlanta, GA was burglarized.

“There were three short boxes of old and collectable books. One box contained a run of Tales Of Suspense from in the #50s to in the #90s. And a run of Tales to Astonish in the same number range. These were in old plastic bags that had become sort or rumpled the way old bags from the ‘70s and ‘80s get. There was a box of miscellaneous Gold and Silver with Lois Lane #2 and 3 and a nice clean copy of Cyclone Comics #1. Also, some very sharp condition copies of very early some Terry-Toons and Krazy Komics, an early funny animal Timely series. The books were single digit numbers, below #10 and they would probably grade as 7s or 8s and were beautiful books. There also was a short box of Astounding pulps,” Burden said.

It’s possible that some of Burden’s personal file copies of Flaming Carrot Comics, Mystery Men, and Gumby were taken, as well as some t-shirts.

“Back in the day, I would get a case of each book and I would select the most perfect, mint copies of each issue and they were packed ten to a GA size Mylite bag. So, if you see a batch of 9.8 and 10 Flaming Carrot Comics come into the shop, go out to the car and see what else he’s got,” Burden said.

“Also, there was a handful of Ms. Marvel #1s in nice shape. There’s no way you could distinguish these from other ones, but I mention them so if they came in with all the above items it would help identify the lot,” Burden added.

Several other units at the public storage facility were also burglarized.

Those with information about the missing books or theft can reach Burden at (310) 402-7011 or wildcraft7@mindspring.com and Detective Loyd at (470) 394-2471 or the Chamblee Police at (770) 966-5005.