Set Description:
THE ZABRA COLLECTION EXPERIMENT-This experiment began in 2018 when I dismantled my entire collection with the experimental objective of recollecting and relocating all the books in the shortest time possible. And my end goal was 2025. So here is the NEW and better collection. It was a very TOUGH EXPERIMENT to part with all my original books. I am still missing some of them and I hope that they are alive and well and being well taken care of by their owners.
PEDIGREE AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS FOCUS SET-POST EXPERIMENTAL REASSEMBLED SET
13 SET OBJECTIVES AND CRITERIA
OBJECTIVE 1: COMPLETION CRITERIA- To Collect maximum Action Comics in this set.
OBJECTIVE 2: CGC PEDIGREE RECOGNITION CRITERIA- To include maximum CGC RECOGNIZED PEDIGREES.
OBJECTIVE 3: CGC UNRECOGNIZED/SPECIAL COLLECTIONS CRITERIA- To include maximum CGC UNRECOGNIZED SPECIAL/UNIQUE COLLECTIONS.
OBJECTIVE 4: NON-PEDIGREE CRITERIA- To include HIGHEST GRADED NON-PEDIGREE copies.
OBJECTIVE 5: OLD LABEL CRITERIA-To include maximum CGC OLD LABEL copies.
OBJECTIVE 6: MISSION GOALS CRITERIA: 100 % completion as soon as possible.
OBJECTIVE 7: INCLUSION CRITERIA: Pedigree and Special Collection Copies.
OBJECTIVE 8: PAGES CRITERIA- Page quality-WHITE PAGES.
OBJECTIVE 9: MINIMUM GRADE CRITERIA-CGC Certified with GRADE 9.4 and HIGHER ONLY. PREFERABLY 9.6 and 9.8.
OBJECTIVE 10: EXCLUSION CRITERIA-CGC Certified Grades UNDER 9.4.
OBJECTIVE 11: TOUGH ISSUES CRITERIA - will be considered on a case-by-case basis and may be included EVEN IF THEY ARE CERTIFIED BELOW GRADE 9.4 until INCLUSION CRITERIA based HIGHER GRADED copies become available. The lower graded copy will then drop into a SECONDARY SET.
OBJECTIVE 12: EXCEPTIONS CRITERIA- CGC Certified RECOGNIZED PEDIGREE Copies under GRADE 9.4 along with SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
OBJECTIVE 13: KEYS CRITERIA- To include ALL KEY ISSUES in this set in the HIGHEST GRADE possible.
“SUPERMAN! You, who have created not only pleasure for millions of readers, but a whole new industry for thousands of my fellow editors, artists, writers, letterers, colorists, engravers, printers, etc.---WE THANK YOU PUBLICLY!"--CARMINE INFANTINO, former DC Comics publisher
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever"
Action Comics from #300-500 are a special part of my collection. The basic principle in creation of this set was to have no book below grade 9.4 with every effort possible to assimilate books in grade 9.6 to 9.8. It is extremely difficult to have this entire set in 9.6-9.8 grade. Some key issues are within this set. My goal is to add maximum books from PEDIGREES and SPECIAL COLLECTIONS to this set. Pedigree books are superbly preserved comic book collections found in single accumulations and their origin record has been maintained. Increasing number of collectors are seeking these historic and well preserved "Pedigrees." These books are historical pieces of American Art and just holding one of these books will make you feel extra special. This is a collection of SUPER-HIGH GRADE ACTION COMICS. Every effort has been made to include the BEST available copies into this collection. A tremendous effort has been made to track and locate PEDIGREE COPIES and include them into this set. This has led to the characterization of PEDIGREE CGC 9.8 ACTION COMICS versus NON-PEDIGREE CGC 9.8 ACTION COMICS. The non-pedigree CGC 9.8 books are included in my SECONDARY SET.
The goal is to complete this set 100% as soon as possible.
"Anybody who has really looked at and studied them has discovered that comics are a unique form of communication which occasionally become art."-DENNY O'NEIL, comic book editor and writer
"When I saw NEAL ADAMS"S artwork, it exceeded my expectations. I think that provided the impetus for a lot of our subsequent success. We were feeding off of each other and the tremendous amount of enthusiasm. And having a sense that maybe we were doing something with the format that hadn't been done before."-DENNY O'NEIL, writer of Green Lantern
THE SILVER AGE OF COMICS
The SILVER AGE of comics is said to have begun in 1956. It is difficult to determine exactly when it ended but it is said that 1967 might be as good a year as any to mark the beginning of the end of the second superhero boom. Almost every DC comic book published in 1967 had lower sales. Interestingly, most of the Marvel comics managed to maintain or slightly improve their circulations. Even so, DC Comics had nine of the top ten best-selling comic books of the year namely-SUPERMAN, BATMAN, SUPERBOY, WORLD'S FINEST, JIMMY OLSEN, LOIS LANE, DETECTIVE, ACTION and ADVENTURE. All these titles featured either SUPERMAN or BATMAN. The FOURTH best-selling comic of 1967 was ARCHIE COMICS (One of my personal favorites), with nearly a half-million circulation. Marvel's top selling title, SPIDERMAN was fourteenth but climbing. Both TARZAN and MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. were still outselling SPIDERMAN and the other Marvel titles, and BETTY and VERONICA had more readers than the FANTASTIC FOUR. Of the 100 comic book titles on the stands in 1967, there were 32 Superhero comics, 20 humor comics, 14 romance comics, 11 teen comics, 8 war comics, 6 science fiction comics, 4 western comics and 4 comics based upon television series. Perhaps a greater sign of the impending troubles in the comic book industry was that ACG (American Comics Group) went out business after almost 25 years of publishing. Another comic publisher, Milson Publishing Company, began and ended its brief career all in the span of 6 months. By 1969, comic book publishers were looking for the next trend. Superheroes had peaked and were declining. War comics had lost readers along with the growing unpopularity of the VIETNAM WAR. Romance comics were having a difficult time reaching their female readership, and western comics had been out of style for years. 9 years after their last price increase, both Marvel and DC raised the prices of their comic books from 12 to 15 cents. The rest of the publishers soon followed suit. Declining sales, increasing prices, a lack of direction, and almost no new titles or characters MADE 1969 THE MOST DISAPPOINTING YEAR OF THE DECADE FOR COMIC BOOKS. Many of the long-time artists and writers who had been working in the field since the 1940s seemed to be producing their most uninspired work. The only bright spots of the year were those new writers, like DENNY O'NEIL and ROY THOMAS, and artists, like NEAL ADAMS (His Action Comics covers are amazing and amongst my favorites) and JIM STERANKO, who were trying to infuse excitement and innovation into a stagnating medium. By 1970, most of DC Comics old stable of writers from the 1940s and 1950s were gone. Two new talents were writer DENNY O'NEIL and artist NEAL ADAMS. Although DC Comics and Marvel were unquestionably the major publishers in 1970, they did not have the highest selling comic book that year. That honor belonged to ARCHIE PUBLICATIONS whose ARCHIE COMICS was selling 515,356 copies per issue. With Batman's decline in popularity, DC's top-selling title was now SUPERMAN, 511,984 copies per issue. By 1974, there were only SIX comic-book publishers-the fewest since 1936. Marvel, DC, Archie, Charlton, Gold Key, and Harvey Comics collectively published a total of 250 titles that year. In 1978 the rapid expansion of the previous three years caught up with Marvel and DC. Marginal titles were dropped as both companies tried to tighten up their lines. DC Comics was especially hard hit. Declining sales caused it to overhaul its distribution process and cut back on titles so drastically that the phenomenon become known as the "DC IMPLOSION." Of the more than 50 new titles begun by DC in the previous three years, only 6 would be spared the ax. By 1981, an interesting and most welcome phenomenon occurred in the distribution and selling of comic books. A network of several hundred specialty comic-bookstores, selling almost exclusive comics and comic-related items, had spread out across the United States. These shops were being supplied by comic-book distributors, instead of the traditional newsstand distributors. This development allowed for a distribution network and comic-book markets to grow outside of the traditional newsstand market. Indeed, one reason for the growth and success of these new comic-bookstores was the gradual attrition of many traditional comic-book distribution outlets in drug and grocery stores. The most significant event in the industry in the 1980s happened later in 1981. A California-based company called PACIFIC COMICS decided to sell directly and exclusively to this new market of comic-bookstores. The success of PACIFIC COMICS later encouraged a flood of independent comic books produced exclusively for this new collector's market and changed the entire face of the business. In 1984, the comic book market was gradually changing over from one dominated exclusively by newsstand distribution to one that also depended heavily upon the specialty comic-book network and collector dollar, not the casual reader. The "Comic Bubble Burst" occurred in 1987. The previous two years had witnessed the proliferation of literally hundreds of small and independent comic-book publishers. Collectors, speculators, and comic-bookstore owners were buying almost any new comic book regardless of merit. The motivation for such indiscriminate buying was that, should any of these new books suddenly become successful collectors' items, everyone wanted to profit. As small publishers started to turn out more and more comic books of questionable to poor quality, collectors and comic bookstore retailers cut back drastically on their buying. Within a matter of months, the demand for independently produced comic books plummeted. Only the better produced comic books survived the fallout, while many independent comic-book publishers either cut back or suspended operations.
SUPERMAN turned FIFTY in 1988. America's first superhero celebrated his FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY in JUNE 1988. SUPERMAN first appeared in ACTION COMICS # 1 in JUNE 1938 and DC Comics observed the occasion by re-issuing the first SUPERMAN story in a facsimile edition. As the 1980s came to an end, comic-books had reestablished themselves as a vital and growing medium that continues to appeal to an ever-widening and expanding audience. " It's very comforting to know that there's a god-like figure going around making things right. That's a lot of what superheroes are about. Particularly with children, finding themselves in a world that frequently makes no sense whatsoever, where their parents and teachers are often arbitrary in their actions, where it's impossible to understand why they do the things they do or why they're so cruel. To have moral concepts worked out on paper, and a world where people fight for them. I think that's a lot of what draws our audience to comics."-FRANK MILLER, artist of Daredevil and Batman.
This set includes books from the following Pedigrees and Collections:
1. TWIN CITIES PEDIGREE
Tragic story of Gary Dahlberg ‘s death. A retired bus driver in Minneapolis, Minnesota Dahlberg was killed in June 2010 when the kitchen of his home caught fire. He had been a comic book collector since he was a child, and somehow, almost impossibly, his extensive comic book collection escaped damage from both the fire and the fire fighters’ water hoses. 62 years old when he died in June 2010, Dahlberg would have been about 10 years old as the Silver Age was getting underway in the mid/late 1950s. An important and exciting time to be entering your prime comic book reading age. The collection includes extensive runs of Marvel, DC Comics, and other publishers from the Silver Age and beyond. Dahlberg was an avid — and meticulous — comic book fan his entire life. Working for a bookstore while he was in high school in the 1960s, Dahlberg was able to choose his copies before they were placed on the racks for sale. That advantage and the great care he took in handling them, plus the cool Minnesota climate, makes his comics– designated by CGC as the Twin Cities pedigree –among the best-preserved Silver Age collections to ever surface. Many books in the collection are top-census copies (determined to be the highest grade of a given issue among copies certified by CGC so far) and even among those that aren’t structurally the best, observers have been impressed with the white pages and fresh, bright cover inks — the result of that cool northern climate. Dahlberg’s family had little idea of his collection’s value. Bidders present at Heritage’s NYC auction venue in May 2011 noted that members of his family were quietly surprised at the prices realized and moved by the experience of watching other collectors affirm that what was important to Gary was important to other comic book fans as well. Dahlberg will be remembered for what he left his family and the comic collecting community for quite some time.
2. ROCKY MOUNTAIN PEDIGREE
Rocky Mountain collection was a part of an original owner collection. Rocky Mountain, so named because it is from Colorado, contains over 5,000 comic books in high-grade runs of Marvel and DC titles from the 1960’s and up. The comic books were stored meticulously for decades in a cool, dry basement, and have bold, newsstand-fresh colors and white or off-white to white pages. There are many Rocky Mountain examples that are the highest certified for their issue. One of the unique things about the Rocky Mountain pedigree is that there are photographs of it in its original state, making it one of the most thoroughly documented pedigrees. It has long run of Marvel and DC, and because of their high grades and their market acceptance, this collection certainly has special merit.
3. WINNIPEG PEDIGREE
This collection spans the 1960s to Copper Age. A large portion was brought to market by Showcase New England during the late 1990s. Dan Greenhalgh uncovered Winnipeg pre-CGC, and the original owner's name of Dennis Kjolso is written at the top of a bunch of the early issues. Known for having the owner's name written on the top of the cover of the pre-1965 issues, there are many high-quality examples of this pedigree, and there have been rumblings that these may just be the under copies of the original owner's collection.
4. THE DON ROSA COLLECTION
Accumulated by world-renowned and Eisner award-winning comic book artist, writer, and historian, Keno Don Rosa, this collection contained every comic book and magazine issued from every publisher from 1966 to the late 1980s. Don Rosa began collecting in earnest in 1962, as he purchased each comic from the newsstands, read them only once, and carefully tucked them away in optimum storage conditions, using archival boxes and a climate controlled "vault." Because they were stored in such an environment with no use of polybags, each book exhibits a brilliant sheen, deep ink reflectivity, sharp corners and a fresh newsstand appearance. Since the 1960s, Don Rosa has been recognized as one of the first comics history scholars of fandom. He has written and illustrated Question & Answer columns for the major fanzines of the 1970s, including such notable publications as Rocket's Blast Comic collector, CBG (TBG), Comics Journal, and Amazing Heroes. During the 1980s, Don Rosa gained fame as one of the world's most famous and recognized cartoonists as he worked on the Duck books for Disney and Gladstone.
5. THE MONTEREY COLLECTION
This exceptional comic collection was amassed by a private collector who lived just south of San Francisco on the California coast near beautiful Monterey. Even though his collection includes many Golden-Age and Atom-Age comic books, it is the late Silver-Age and early Bronze-Age comics that are in extremely high-grade. He began buying comics off the stands during the mid to late 1960s and was very selective when choosing which issues would be put into his personal collection. Thus, most books from this time period forward have near perfect structure quality with rich colors, full gloss and super-fresh white paper. These comics look brand new, just as they came from the publisher with many being the finest known copy.
6. NORTHLAND PEDIGREE
This pedigree was found in the State of Michigan, a cold state in the Great Lakes area. The cold climate in Michigan was ideal for storing books. This pedigree features deep runs of high grade, white page books. An interesting note is the original owner only sold off groups of books as he needed the money over a period of a few years. This collection came through Motor City Comics in the mid-90's from a gentleman who brought books to them in batches when he needed the money. The collection contained DC, Marvel, Dell, Gold Key, Charlton and there are duplicates of many issues in this pedigree as well.
7. THE CHARLESTON COLLECTION
This wonderful new collection was unveiled by Metropolis Collectibles at the 2014 Javits Special Edition ComiCon in June 2014. The Charleston Collection is named after the West Virginia capital near where the collector once hailed, this incredible find boasts exhaustive runs of some of DC Comics' rarest and most collectible titles. From the Golden straight up through to the Copper Age, including extremely scarce war and horror issues that otherwise never come to market, and some of the scarcest Wonder Woman issues of the Golden Age, this collection was a real find! The gentleman who built this run was a DC fanatic. He was such a huge fan of the publisher that he became a regular on the letter's pages of several DC titles, and was determined to build as complete a run as he could of his favorites. Starting his buying off the newsstands in the mid-1960s, the dedicated fan soon searched out back issues of Golden and early Silver Age issues to complete his run -- not an easy task in those pre-comic-shop days. What's impressive is that he was building a run of rare Golden Age and tough 1950s DCs during the mid-60s, when it was nearly impossible to find a lot of this stuff, since cons and comic shops weren't even really a thing yet outside of major cities. But somehow, he did it, including tracking down some of the toughest of Wonder Woman issues and early DC war issues that are really, really scarce. It was a true labor of love for this collector.
8. THE CLEVELAND COLLECTION
The books in this collection are from a one-owner collection originating out of the CLEVELAND, OHIO area. All books were purchased at the same newsstand from the late 1950s to 1972. Approximately, 85% of the collection was in high grade-very fine or better, with excellent page quality. The page quality is nice because they were always stored in a temperature-controlled, first floor closet. Never, over the years, were they stored in a basement or an attic. The books are from an EXCEPTIONAL COLLECTION.
9. THE SEATTLE DRUGSTORE COLLECTION
The Seattle Drugstore Collection consists of a series of Marvel, and DC comics from 1966-1971 in unread, near perfect condition. During those years, a drug store employee and collector, who's only interest was comic book covers and not the stories, set aside one of each issue before they were put out for sale on the newsstand. Careful to always set aside an issue in the middle of the stack, these books remained untouched until they were graded by CGC in 2012. All the comic books in this collection are in exceptional condition with perfect or near perfect gloss, with most appearing as they did the day of release.
10. THE DAVID TOTH COLLECTION
David Toth was a career United States Air Force MD officer who managed to keep his collection intact and stunningly immaculate through decades of moves. Stretching from the mid 50s thru the 90s, with only a small gap when he was in Medical School. David N. Toth began collecting in earnest in 1955, frequenting the comic racks of a confectionery where his mother worked. He had an affinity for Dells, Harveys, and DCs, eventually concentrating on DCs, which he avidly collected until he graduated from high school. His collecting was interrupted somewhat from 1968–72 as he pursued becoming an MD, but continued throughout moves to West Germany and five different U.S. cities. In the early 1990s, son Andrew Toth also caught the “collecting bug,” and the father-son team bought virtually every comic and comic-related item that came out. The most astounding copies are from David’s original newsstand copies from the late 1950s and early 1960s. Dr. Toth (no relation to comic artist Alex Toth) discovered that newspaper bags were a good fit for his comic books, giving him a head-start on plastic protection before specialized comic book bags became widespread.
11. THE SAVANNAH PEDIGREE COLLECTION
This collection was amassed by a single collector who resided in the Savannah area. At the age of 95 the life-long comic book collector passed on, leaving behind an incredible collection of more than 40,000 comic books. He started collecting in the 1950s and continued until his recent death. A fan of all genres, he bought everything. Action Comics, Showcase, Brave and the Bold, Batman, G.I. Combat, Our Army at War, X-Men, Daredevil, Amazing Spider-Man, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Uncle Scrooge, Heart Throbs, Weird Western and literally everything else! Although, with a complete collection of DC, he was clearly a superhero fan.
The collector’s four children were not interested in keeping the collection and sought Shelton’s help in selling it. When he arrived at the collector’s home to inspect the books, Shelton found the comics from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s stored raw on shelves and in plastic storage bins, and the books from the 80s and later bagged and in cases. According to his family, at some point the collector developed a relationship with a local newsstand distributor and was able to pick up new books directly from the warehouse as they arrived. This resulted in a very consistent collection. All of the books were clean, with no stamps or markings.
12. THE BOWLING GREEN PEDIGREE
This original owner comic book collection originates from BOWLING GREEN, in the COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY and was auctioned off in runs by SOTHEBY’S in the 1990s. It was a large, mostly high-grade collection of near-complete and complete runs of Marvel titles. As typical with many collections, the earlier issues are slightly lower grade and increase in quality as the years progress. Most of the copies can be identified by a date stamp on the cover. This copy is from THE BOWLING GREEN COLLECTION which sold at SOTHEBY'S and PHIL WEISS'S AUCTION HOUSES in JUNE 1999. It came from a single owner collection found at BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY that represented an extremely high grade run of books, which especially for the Marvel titles, were as fine a run of titles that SOTHEBY'S had seen since the famed WHITE MOUNTAIN COLLECTION. The books ran mostly from early 1950s to mid 1970s. JERRY WEIST, SOTHEBY'S comic professional, was responsible for bringing this collection to auction. These books were auctioned at WEISS'S AUCTION.
13. BOSTON PEDIGREE
This pedigree consisted of a large number of comics and came out of LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK and purchased by a dealer from BOSTON in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The best batch of the BOSTON PEDIGREE books was the first long box brought to a NEW YORK GREENBURGH SHOW at the HOTEL PENN. A gentleman who worked for VINCENT'S COLLECTIBLES was at the BIG APPLE NEW YORK CHURCH SHOWS and there was an older couple that would come to the shows and sell him books. They would come to every show and sell him books. Eventually he was invited to come over to their house. When the gentleman visited their house, he was shown a few long boxes but was not allowed to see all the books. The seller would go down into the basement and bring up a few long boxes. Nothing in the boxes was in order and there were multiple copies of books. This was the source of the BOSTON PEDIGREE books.
14. THE TONGIE FARM COLLECTION
This is from an amazing original owner comic collection from LAWRENCE, KANSAS. Lawrence is about an hour outside of Kansas City and is the home of Kansas University. The original owner started purchasing his comics from his local RAINEY'S DRUGSTORE in 1962 and read and cared for them at his family farm in Tonganoxie, Kansas. In 1975, he was interviewed in his local paper because of his amazing collection. He stopped buying comics in 1978 having accumulated over 7,000 comics over a 16-year period. The story behind the acquisition of this collection is interesting as well. Brent Moeshlin, the owner of Quality Comix, received an email from a gentleman in Kansas who had an Amazing Fantasy #15 CGC VF- 7.5 for sale. He had purchased the book off of Ebay many years ago as an investment and wanted to cash in now. He had spoken with a number of comic dealers but all of them wanted him to ship them the comic before they would send the money. So, Brent agreed to fly out to make the exchange in person. In the course of these conversations, Brent asked the gentleman if he had any more comics he was interested in selling. He replied that he had a very large collection that he had purchased from his local drug store between 1962 and 1978. The comics had been boxed up since 1999 and he wasn't sure what was in the collection, but he remembered there being full runs of most of the main Marvel titles including Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-man, X-Men, Daredevil and Hulk. The next week, Brent flew out to Lawrence, Kansas to pay for the Amazing Fantasy. After the deal was consummated, they drove over to the owner's house to look at his collection. What was found was just what the seller had described - full runs of most of the main Marvel titles and many DC titles from that era as well. The nicest part about the collection besides the completeness of the runs was the condition of the bronze age books. They were generally unread and glossy with white pages. Many of the early Marvels appeared to be in high grade as well. There were also multiple copies of the key issues from the late 1960s and early 1970s. After a short negotiation, a deal was made on the complete collection. Quality Comix brought the Tongie Farm collection to market.
15. THE MURPHY ANDERSON FILE COPY
This is the newest pedigree recognized by CGC in 2019, and amassed by industry giant Murphy Anderson, one of the pre-eminent artists and inkers of the Silver Age. In addition to a large collection of original art, Anderson saved copies of many of the DC comic books published during his tenure from the '50s through the '70s. After his passing in 2015 the entire collection was auctioned through Heritage in 2019, many CGC graded.
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