ComicConnect is in the final days of the Winter Mega Monthly Auction – with vintage titles closing on February 10-12, 2025, starting at 6 PM ET. This includes a selection of Underground Comix as part of the John Silverstein Collection.

Silverstein began his collection straight from the 1960s source, as he first sought out the counterculture in his native Toronto. “It wasn’t easy,” he said. “It wasn’t as if titles like Thrilling Murder, Dead on Arrival, or Zippy the Pinhead were sitting next to Spider-Man on the shelf of my corner store where I’d first discovered comics.”

Instead, Silverstein’s early excursions took him to Toronto’s downtown Head Shop before starting to expand the collection by mail order from the main Underground publishers. The collection sports extensive first and early printings of titles and runs from the Print Mint, Last Gasp, Kitchen Sink, Rip Off Press, and others. Naturally, that includes Robert Crumb works such as vintage poster lots, a first printing of Zap Comix #1, and a CGC Authentic Autograph Zap Comix #2 signed by Crumb. 

There’s also a scarce copy of 1967’s Vietnam that has Civil Rights pioneer Julian Bond joining Underground creators like Harvey Pekar, Dan Clowes, Trina Robbins, and Richard Corben. The auction also contains rare copies of the banned Air Pirates Funnies #2 and counterculture classics ranging from Mickey Rat to Gothic Blimp Works to Harvey Kurtzman’s Help.

“I’ve always been careful about handling my comics,” Silverstein said. “Never folded a cover back, always inserted them into plastic sleeves when I finished reading them, and stored them vertically in sturdy cardboard comic boxes – and then in a dry dark cupboard where they’ve been living for decades!”