A spectacular collection of over 11,000 Golden Age comic books from a wide
variety of genres has been discovered in the garage of a 19th century
house just outside New York City. The original-owner comics collection has the
greatest range and depth of any such collection to have been discovered during
the past three decades. Now the entire collection is headed to the auction
block, to be offered to the comic collecting public with no reserves.
The comic books, the great majority of them unread, were bought off the
newsstand by a previously unknown collector named Davis Crippen. He started at
age eight, but his collection really picked up steam a year later, in 1939.
Inspired by a family friend's collection of Big Little books, Davis decided that
from then on he would buy and keep every single new comic book as it came out.
He followed through on his plan. At first using money from his paper
route and allowance, and later shipping comic books back from college at the
University of Michigan, Davis continued to buy comics until his marriage a
decade and a half later. He kept the books in the cool, dry, and very large
basement of his family's Washington, D.C. home.
While Mr. Crippen has not
been identified until now, a small part of his collection has already achieved
notoriety among savvy collectors, apparently without his knowledge. When these
books entered the marketplace in the early 1990s, they came to be known as
“D Copies” because many had a handwritten “D” on the
cover. They were also distinguished by a handwritten code on the top of the
first page: several digits followed by several letters and then several more
digits. The precise meaning of the code remains a mystery.
Another
mystery is how those comic books made their way into the marketplace.
After Mr. Crippen's death last year, his younger son catalogued the
collection, which his father had boxed up and stored in the garage and basement
of his New York home after his own parents' house was sold in the 1970s. The
family then contacted Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries about selling the
collection.
Mr. Crippen's heirs were stunned when Lon Allen, Director of
Sales for Heritage's Comic Division, recognized the handwriting of the codes and
realized he had discovered the source of the “D Copy” books.
Allen considers the “D Copy” comics that had already attracted
eager collectors to be just the tip of a vast iceberg. In a recent press
release he said “It wasn't known they were part of a much larger
collection, certainly not one of this magnitude,” he said. ”When
you examine some of the other famous pedigrees you would have to rank this among
the best. The date range of 1938 to 1954 gives it a far larger time span than
the Tom Reilly/San Francisco or Lamont Larson collections, which were limited to
the 1930s and early 1940s. Also, many of the other famous pedigrees focused only
on #1 issues or certain specialized genres or publishers. Not so with Mr.
Crippen, who bought absolutely everything.”
“Comic
collectors had wondered if there were any great Golden Age collections left to
be discovered, and many doubted that was the case,” Allen continued.
“Well, this is essentially the Golden Age collector's dream come true --
11,000 comic books, almost all in high grade, all 'original-owner,' that is to
say, bought by the same person at the time of publication. And here's something
we do not say lightly: the depth and breadth of the collection is second only to
the Edgar Church/Mile High collection, the most famous hoard in all of
comics.” The Mile High collection made history when it was discovered
during the 1970s.
“Previous pedigrees - even the Edgar Church
books - were usually disbursed largely by private sale to a select few,”
Allen said. “At the very least, one or more dealers got to select the
cream of the crop before the collecting public at large had a shot at them. Not
so here - every comic consigned by the Crippen heirs will be put up for auction,
giving collectors across America and around the world an equal chance at every
book in the collection.”
“It's already obvious that hundreds
if not thousands of these comics will stand as the best known copy before all is
said and done,” added Ed Jaster, Vice President of Heritage Auction
Galleries. “The very first batch that we sent to CGC for certification
resulted in the finest known copy of the rare Suspense Comics #3,
certified VF 8.0, in fact it's the only pedigree copy of the issue known to
exist. Then there's Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #1, CGC-certified
FN+ 6.5, a book that's almost impossible to find in a higher grade. Or take
Detective Comics #35, CGC-certified FN- 5.5 - just one unrestored copy of
that book has ever attained a higher grade.”
“We can say
without fear of contradiction that every single Golden Age collector will find
something he or she wants here,” Jaster added, “especially as the
entire collection is being offered without reserves. While all eyes are on the
superhero books, and Mr. Crippen certainly collected a lot of them, there will
be sports, Western, and romance books that all but the most dedicated collectors
will not have seen before. Not to mention crime comics, promotional giveaways,
Christian comics, war comics, funny animal books, teen humor, science fiction,
TV and movie adaptations... if you've given up on ever being able to complete
some of these runs in high grade, think again. The next few months will be a
great time to be a Golden Age collector.”