As detailed in our Industry News section, comics from Flaming Carrot and Mystery Men creator Bob Burden’s personal collection were stolen from his storage area, to which, perhaps ironically, he had moved them for safety when a serious storm was approaching the Atlanta area. After the storm, he had already moved many issues back to his home, but some remained in the storage area.

In that sense, at least, it could have been worse.

Not only a veteran comic book creator and collector, Burden is also a former retailer with significant collecting experience. He said there was no chance that the thief or thieves knew what was in his boxes.

“I’m sure they just got lucky. There’s chicken wire about the units and then about five more feet up to the roof. They must have looked down and seen the comic long boxes. Guy might have been a TMNT fan when he was 14, that’s now a 28-year-old who’s made a lot of wrong life choices,” Burden said. “Not that the Turtles drove him to crime, but a once-upon-a-time collector would have known what a long box would contain and that comics can be valuable. Might as well have been Spider-Man fan for all we know.”

Scoop: Did you have insurance?
BB: Yes, a special collector’s insurance. A company called Eastern Insurance. They insure antique and collectable weapons, guns, samurai swords, etc. That’s how they started out I think, but they insure all collectables.

Scoop: We wish you luck. Insurance can problematic.
BB: I’ll let you know.

Scoop: What do you see your hopes of getting things back?
BB: If it comes in to a show or store in one big lot or a few lots there’s a better chance it will get recognized. There are a lot of books that will stand out. The Cyclone #1 is not a common book. 1940, I think. How many nice copies still exist? Less than 10? Less than 20? And the condition was nice, a solid book, not falling apart.

Scoop: Those early Terry-Toons and Krazy Komics in high grade would be hard, too.
BB: Issues under #10, almost non-existent, and in high grade? Impossible. One item that would likely stand out a lot is a rare, signed B&W photo by Jeffery Silverthorne. It’s gruesome, one you can’t “unsee” it once you’ve seen it. I’ve had it for years. I don’t remember how I got it, perhaps a gift or in a box-lot of items at a flea market or garage sale, but, as a fan of Wee Gee, Mapplethorpe, etc., I recognized it as having some value. It is an overhead shot of a young girl in the morgue, sewn back up after an autopsy.

Scoop: What did you feel when you first saw that you had been robbed?
BB: Shock. The storage unit, we lifted the door, and it was topsy-turvy. A few days before, everything was in order and stacked up and now it looked like a hurricane hit it. I knew there were a lot of good items in there and was frantic to see what was left.

Scoop: How has this affected you now?
BB: Right now, this whole thing is something that occupies your life. Every hour, for days and weeks. This kind of thing definitely makes you re-access your life. This hobby, collecting comics and stuff, the hobby of creating comics, writing stories, drawing, going to conventions and meeting other comic fans, other creators – it was a wonderful and richly fulfilled life – all that seemed to be blown out the window when this hit me. At least for now. However, I have no intent to wind up like Emperor Norton, going mad after losing everything speculating on the price of rice.

Scoop: Are you still drawing at all?
BB: Mostly writing, now. I still draw. Love to draw. I feel I could do some more Carrot books. But I just can’t sit all day and draw like I did 20 and 30 years ago. And there are so many good artists out there now. But I’m good at writing, at least so they tell me. And I want to do more stuff. Sure. I have a million ideas. And I have to stay working. If you give up – when you go and retire – that’s what makes you get old. If you keep working, keep doing, I think that’s how you live a long life. I remember Dave Sim telling me 30 years ago, that the answer for heartbreak – the way he handles it – is to bury yourself in your work, so that’s a good medicine for this.

Scoop: That seems like good advice for many folks.
BB: When something like this happens, the whole world around you changes. You have been invaded, personal stuff, files and archives gone, and your luck has nosedived. The essence of things shifts. The perspectives, the colors, the tones, the taste of everything alters. It’s sort of nightmarish. A shock to your mental infrastructure, and you question everything you’re doing, everything you have been doing. It’s hard to cook something, or watch TV, and stay focused. Your mind keeps slipping away to the disaster.

In a challenging situation like this, I think it’s good to focus on what’s left, what you still have, not just possessions. I mean your accomplishments and victories in life, your friends, loved ones, having a roof over your head, food on the table.

Scoop: Crime is getting bad these days.
BB: I still sleep with a gun by my bed, and have one in my pocket when I go out, especially to the storage place. For about five or seven days last week they had no attendant there at the place all day.

Scoop: You have to deal with it the best you can.
BB: Yes. It’s really all just stuff. When you think about all the years of pinching pennies and going a little further for the 3-cent cheaper gas, it kind of makes you ill. Last night I was thinking about who has it worse: someone who had a lot of stuff and lost everything or somebody that had very little and lost it all. There’s no answer of course. And this hit will probably be about 45 grand for me, all things considered.

Scoop: That’s a lot of comics.
BB: Not just comics. Other stuff too. A box of archival t-shirts, my own personal stash. The box was there, empty. Paperback collections. Pulps. My old files and archives. Posters, mid-’60s Haight Asbury era posters, a bunch from the punk rock era.

Scoop: How do you deal with a blow like that?
BB: I don’t know. Last night I was thinking about all the others out there, the others whose luck ran out or fate just tapped them on the shoulder, and about people who have it worse. Right now, in the Ukraine somewhere, there’s a young mother waking up, frozen to the bottom of a ditch, with their only living child clutched to her, and in the background her blown out apartment building and her husband, another child still lying dead upstairs. All she has left in the world is a comb, an aluminum pot and one shoe.

Somewhere there’s a just-retired man with his whole retired life ahead of him, sitting in the hallway of a medical building with a piece of paper that’s telling him he’s been diagnosed with stage four cancer.

I’ve met people with stories that survived Kosovo, survived the Nazi concentration camps and who still have the numbers on their arms… the Rwanda massacres….

I talk to people, I talk to strangers, listen to their stories. I figure any one of them might have a good story. On a train out of Manhattan to Long Island about 10 or 15 years ago I sat by a guy who had a gruesome scar, and with the scar came a story. I don't pry or badger people. if you don’t want to talk about things that’s fine. But then, sometimes it’s good to talk about things.

Anyways this fellow, this poor soul had survived the Rwanda Holocaust over there. And as an adolescent spent three days in a pile of bodies that contained his dead mother, father, and his two cousins. What do you say to that? Nothing. Nothing, nothing you can say. It’s good you’re getting on with his life? I think I said: “Misery is endless, empathy not so much.” He smirked and nodded.

Scoop: Back to your comics. What will you miss the most?
BB: The Krazy Komics and Terry-Toons covers were just great. Really cool logos and all. Nice, fat, old Golden Age comics. The Cyclone Comic #1 was great, too. There’s probably a t-shirt I’ll miss the most, though. They got my box of archival t-shirts. The box was laying there empty. This shirt was one I got at the Airborne Reunion in Taccoa, GA about 20 years ago, and it was signed by a bunch of the guys. Even some Band Of Brothers guys. And Jake McNiece, the guy who came up with the Indian Face paint and mohawks for the D-Day jump. He was a character and would have made for a great graphic novel.

Scoop: The greatest generation.
BB: Yeah. Now I was never a paratrooper, but I went up there to the reunion a couple of times. They had a real show, a field day with displays of WWII gear and souvenirs, reenactments, helicopters flew in and hovered as they deployed teams of guys.

Scoop: Given the rarity of your comics, it would seem that they’re bound to turn up sooner or later.
BB: Yeah, they will. The other worst part of all this is all the time I’ve spent dealing with it. Moving stuff out of the comprised unit, handing out flyers at conventions, inventorying things, going to local shops, calling all my old friends in the business. And the third worst part is how embarrassing it is. It was back and forth in my mind about even going public. The police claimed to have some leads and I hope they weren’t just saying that to keep me from pestering them, but after a week or two and nothing, I decided to go public. It’s hard, but you’ve got to not let what people think of you guide you actions and decisions.

Scoop: Well, you have some things here that will stand out if they pop up. They may walk into a show or a shop and someone who reads this can put two and two together.
BB: That’s it. That’s what I’m hoping for. All this stuff should have been my retirement assets. I don’t have a big 401K and all. Even with the insurance I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff gone that I’ve not taken into account. Maybe about five boxes of vintage paperbacks, some good hardbacks, vintage toys, mint early ’60s lunchboxes. I always liked garage sales and antique shows.

Scoop: Any advice for others in storage units?
BB: Maybe put sheets over comic book long boxes. You can probably rig up a camera/alarm system. Don’t take people to your unit to sell to them. Friends or strangers. I never did that. 

Editor’s note: Following our conversations with Bob Burden after he discovered the theft, he provided the above interview to Scoop. We have only altered it to match our style.