A very happy 90th birthday to Lamont Larson! 0

[Duffman_Comics]

4 hours ago, nearmint said:

That's correct.  In fact, the names of those who wrote Lamont's name on the books at the store are known.

Many years ago, I was in contact with Lamont's daughter.  I invited her, Lamont, and the rest of the family to a CGC get-together at SDCC that year.  As it happened, one of Lamont's daughters was living in San Diego at the time, and the family was visiting her during the dates of the convention.  So, they all came!

Mark Haspel brought a small stack of affordable raw Larson books.  I can't remember if he asked Lamont to sign them or not.  I do remember that at one point Mark or Steve Borock had the idea of having Lamont sign one of the books, have it slabbed as a sig series, and mail it to Lamont as a reminder of his collection and our dinner together.

Assuming the book did in fact get slabbed and shipped to Lamont, and I have every reason to think it did, it's likely that the only owner of a Larson sig series is Lamont Larson!

Here's what I posted about that dinner back in 2005...

His memory was actually very good. He said that it was the druggist at the store who saw him coming in repeatedly, and offered to hold books for him. I believe Jon Berk wrote in his article that there were two people at the store who wrote Mr. Larson's name on the covers, but Mr. Larson says there were 3, the druggist and two assistants. I told him that that's how most collectors get their books these days, comic shops hold their books for them, and who knows, he might have been the first collector to take advantage of that service. He also was a fan of big little books, and still has those, which I thought was very cool. He eventually lost interest in comics when he got into Agatha Christie and Ellery Queen mystery novels. Today, he reads two newspapers every day, and TV guide every week. He and his wife go to the movies twice a week, occasionally 3.

 He did have a few questions. For example, he was curious exactly how many comics he'd had. Mark Haspel was able to tell him that he had 1,018. I later commented that that number of books made for an initial investment of $101.80, and that probably not one of his books is worth less today than he paid for the complete collection. His daughter asked me what was meant by golden age, silver age, bronze age, etc., so I explained the different eras to her.

 I explained to Mr. Larson that comics sort of grew up with my generation, and that there are now several titles that appeal to adults, not just kids. He thought that was great.

 Maggie Thompson stopped by the table, and seemed very excited to meet him. She said that fandom often celebrates comics creators, but this was a unique opportunity to celebrate a pioneer collector. That led to a discussion of how unique it is to be able to meet the original owner of an early GA collection, as most of these collections come to market only after the owner has passed away. Maggie took several pictures, so I suspect there might be a blurb about Mr. Larson in a future issue of CBG.

 

 

Thanks for the recap. Wonderful that he could be made aware how many people (now) really appreciate his collection.

[Timely]

I was also at this get-to-gether. It was a historic occasion. It was neat when I saw Lamont Larson shake the hand of Jon Berk. It was truly a night to remember! I know many pics of the event were taken that night. His daughter and granddaughter were also extremely nice people.

[woowoo]

1 hour ago, Timely said:

I was also at this get-to-gether. It was a historic occasion. It was neat when I saw Lamont Larson shake the hand of Jon Berk. It was truly a night to remember! I know many pics of the event were taken that night. His daughter and granddaughter were also extremely nice people.

Love to see the pics.

[OriginalLarson]

On 7/4/2017 at 11:43 AM, nearmint said:

That's correct.  In fact, the names of those who wrote Lamont's name on the books at the store are known.

Many years ago, I was in contact with Lamont's daughter.  I invited her, Lamont, and the rest of the family to a CGC get-together at SDCC that year.  As it happened, one of Lamont's daughters was living in San Diego at the time, and the family was visiting her during the dates of the convention.  So, they all came!

Mark Haspel brought a small stack of affordable raw Larson books.  I can't remember if he asked Lamont to sign them or not.  I do remember that at one point Mark or Steve Borock had the idea of having Lamont sign one of the books, have it slabbed as a sig series, and mail it to Lamont as a reminder of his collection and our dinner together.

Assuming the book did in fact get slabbed and shipped to Lamont, and I have every reason to think it did, it's likely that the only owner of a Larson sig series is Lamont Larson!

Here's what I posted about that dinner back in 2005...

His memory was actually very good. He said that it was the druggist at the store who saw him coming in repeatedly, and offered to hold books for him. I believe Jon Berk wrote in his article that there were two people at the store who wrote Mr. Larson's name on the covers, but Mr. Larson says there were 3, the druggist and two assistants. I told him that that's how most collectors get their books these days, comic shops hold their books for them, and who knows, he might have been the first collector to take advantage of that service. He also was a fan of big little books, and still has those, which I thought was very cool. He eventually lost interest in comics when he got into Agatha Christie and Ellery Queen mystery novels. Today, he reads two newspapers every day, and TV guide every week. He and his wife go to the movies twice a week, occasionally 3.

 He did have a few questions. For example, he was curious exactly how many comics he'd had. Mark Haspel was able to tell him that he had 1,018. I later commented that that number of books made for an initial investment of $101.80, and that probably not one of his books is worth less today than he paid for the complete collection. His daughter asked me what was meant by golden age, silver age, bronze age, etc., so I explained the different eras to her.

 I explained to Mr. Larson that comics sort of grew up with my generation, and that there are now several titles that appeal to adults, not just kids. He thought that was great.

 Maggie Thompson stopped by the table, and seemed very excited to meet him. She said that fandom often celebrates comics creators, but this was a unique opportunity to celebrate a pioneer collector. That led to a discussion of how unique it is to be able to meet the original owner of an early GA collection, as most of these collections come to market only after the owner has passed away. Maggie took several pictures, so I suspect there might be a blurb about Mr. Larson in a future issue of CBG.

 

 

Dad has the book he signed in San Diego! Such a priceless memory!

[Larryw7]

Welcome to the boards!

[woowoo]

57 minutes ago, OriginalLarson said:

Dad has the book he signed in San Diego! Such a priceless memory!

Welcome to the boards your dad is a Legend in the comic world tell him happy fathers day from someone who loves his old books

Edited June 17, 2018 by woowoo

[1950's war comics]

I always thought that Larson signed his own comics,... thanks for the history lesson all.. and Happy Birthday #90 to Mr Larson

[Azkaban]