Rip Snortin' River City Roundup! 3 3

[buttock]

26 minutes ago, zzutak said:

I was absolutely floored by the freshness/intensity of the cover inks.    Your WSF #29 is a perfect example.  My last thought (at the conclusion of my first session with the books) was, "My wife is going to kill me when she finds out how much I just spent on funny books."

Stunning.  I bet your wife didn't mind so much after you showed her the cool books! 

[adamstrange]

[cheetah]

[adamstrange]

21 minutes ago, cheetah said:

 

 

I remember these

[vaultkeeper]

[adamstrange]

[vaultkeeper]

[vaultkeeper]

[cheetah]

1 hour ago, adamstrange said:

I remember these

They were beautiful copies.  Not up to the measure of some of yours, but the colors were great.

I was never a fan of the grease pencil marks of the pedigree but the other qualities were exceptional.

[zzutak]

1 hour ago, adamstrange said:

[RICK STARR]

Just some fantastic books being posted here from this historic and mind blowing collection. I only have a few copies, unfortunately.

 

 

 

 

 

[jimjum12]

Love this thread … how did Brian go about unveiling these ? …. at the shop ? How many boxes were involved ? I remember an ad in, I think, CBG with mostly PCH but even then they were a little beyond my reach. GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[Inaflash]

1 hour ago, RICK STARR said:

Just some fantastic books being posted here from this historic and mind blowing collection. I only have a few copies, unfortunately.

 

 

 

 

 

HOM 7 never shows up in grade! Congrats on that one especially.

Ken

[vaultkeeper]

[DanCooper]

9 hours ago, jimjum12 said:

how did Brian go about unveiling these ? …. at the shop ? How many boxes were involved ?

This was from an early Greg Manning auction catalog in 2001:

RIVER CITY COLLECTION - The River City collection first came to light in early 1998 when a widow in Sacramento, California, contacted Charlie Zimmer and Ed Hanson, tow local estate dealers, to sell some material that her late husband had accumulated. In addition to comic books, there were comic strips, pulps, toy soldiers and guns. The woman did not want to sell the whole accumulation at once, so Zimmer and Hanson bought some of the comics, most of the comic strips, and all of the toy soldiers and pulps. They referred her to Brian Peets of A-1 Comic in Sacramento, who eventually bought the remaining comics. Peets, who introduced the books at the 1998 WonderCon convention, referred to them as the River City collection, named after Sacramento, "The River City". Soon after, Ed Hanson offered some of his comics on eBay. Several comic book dealers subsequently established working relationships with Hanson to buy and sell these books.

The River City collection primarily consisted of comics from the 1950s, covering all genres with an emphasis on horror and sci-fi. The collection was disseminated through many channels and, in the case of Hanson, with no reference to River City, so it is impossible to know how many books were in the original hoard. However, it is believed that there were well in excess of 4,000. The River City collection was discovered within a few weeks of the Spokane collection, which overshadowed it. For this reason, the River City collection never received the proper recognition to which it was justly entitled.

Identification - Most River City books bear a distribution marking on the front cover, handwritten in pencil, blue ballpoint or grease pencil, consisting of an "S" or an "L" followed by month and day separated by hyphens (for example, S-9-18).

Desirability - Because the River City collection was stored in boxes in an outdoor shed, quite a few of the books exhibit signs of exposure to the elements and many have interior covers with tanned edges. Despite these problems, the majority are flat and clean with excellent page quality, deep colors and stunning gloss. The very best River City copies rival, and sometimes even surpass, the other top pedigrees. They can sell for three to five times guide or even more, as in the case of Startling Terror Tales #11, which sold for ten times guide in Greg Manning's April, 2000 auction.

 

[vaultkeeper]

[Jayman]

1 hour ago, vaultkeeper said:

Hey Vaulty! Long time no see. Great books! 

[vaultkeeper]

Hi Jay! It's great to be back.

[Robot Man]

There must be some issues with more than one copy in the collection...

[Robot Man]

There are also earlier comics that were owned by an older person that are considered part of the collection with no tell tale markings.