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The definitive Blankis-Salida thread
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113 posts in this topic

Details about Salida, CO:

Salida is a small town of about 5000 in the middle of the Rockies.  It was settled along the Arkansas river and sits in a small valley surrounded by massive 14,000 foot peaks.  It exists primarily because it’s one of the few places where you can put a town in the area. There’s enough flatland to have a railroad, homes, and agriculture.  For the most part, it’s an area for recreation on the Arkansas and in the mountains.  

Details about Frank Blankis:

Everything I know is public knowledge, either from the internet or Bruce’s original Overstreet article.  In all of my conversations with Bruce he never strayed from the original story, so presumptively it is true.  From online records Blankis has addresses in counties running up and down HWY 285 through the southern Rockies, but I can’t confirm that he actually lived anywhere outside of Salida.  He was born 8/31/1919 and died on 7/17/2007 at age 82. He’s buried in Salida. His dad’s name was Frank, so he’s at least a Jr. According to Bruce, Frank Blankis was deaf and mute and was therefore excluded from military service.  This is what reportedly led him to like war comics so much. I can find Frank’s name on the roll at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind in the early to mid-1930s, so this much checks out. Frank had 4 siblings, all of whom have passed at this time.  For this reason there isn’t much of anything to go on other than what Bruce has said. Bruce says that Frank worked at the fish hatchery.  

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I do hope that this draws out more people to share their books and stamps.  I'd like to have it consolidated into one place.  

The way that the pedigree book is being pursued, this is one pedigree that won't get much pub.  For one thing, it's low on the dollar list as far as priorities go, but more importantly Ritter wants data from the CGC census and nobody in their right mind is slabbing Salidas. 

Lingering questions I have: 

Where was the shack?  I'm working on this.  I drove to Blankis' reported addresses, one is a trailer park, one is a home with no shack, and one is now in a high-end development way outside of town.  It seems that the home is the most likely place, because it's walking distance from the shops. 

Does anyone have a list?  I'm tracking down any and every lead I can.  If anyone can get this, please let me know. 

Who got the bulk of the books?  I can check off a number of people that it wasn't, but that isn't enough. 

Why did he go to Cookie's for the first half of '53?  We'll never know. 

 

At any rate, feel free to chime in with any information you may have.  And someone feel free to do the same for any pedigree you know of.  @storypapers how about some Bethlehem stories? 

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36 minutes ago, buttock said:

I will make an exception here that I did get the Uncle Scrooge 64 from him and I have seen the US 63. Those are 1966, but were subscription books and not war books so the post-63 Disneys are definitely a thing.

I have several Uncle Scrooges that were not subscription books and were from 1963 - 1965.  They were bought from Bruce by a Scrooge collector and, while not coded, are super-white.  I also had a Christmas for Shacktown giant sized reprint that I bought from Bruce at a San Diego Con (no code but gorgeous).

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5 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

I have several Uncle Scrooges that were not subscription books and were from 1963 - 1965.  They were bought from Bruce by a Scrooge collector and, while not coded, are super-white.  I also had a Christmas for Shacktown giant sized reprint that I bought from Bruce at a San Diego Con (no code but gorgeous).

Bruce dragged those books around for years trying to sell them.  According to his article, those books were not stored with the war books.  

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50 minutes ago, buttock said:

I’ve never seen a DC war book from the collection past 1959

Me either so I think you be confident that they don't exist.

51 minutes ago, buttock said:

Bruce made a claim that there were the “purty thirty” GI Combat washtones, which would include 87, but I do not believe this to be the case.

I heard him mention these but no one other than Bruce ever saw them and, like you, I don't think they exist.

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