I was in the U.S. Air Force and stationed at Mather AFB outside Sacramento, California in 1978 - 1981. There were no significant comic conventions in Sacramento in those days but there were fairly sizable comic shows in the San Francisco area. I made occasional trips to those shows when I could. At one of them, I first met Ron Pussell. I don't think I knew it then but Ron was the owner of Redbeard's Book Den in Newport Beach, California. If you look in Overstreet Price Guides from this period you will see Ron's colorful 2 page color painted ad with a circus theme.
Ron didn't have a lot of comics at this show. He had a small table with no display board behind it and only a few comics displayed on his table. But what struck me was the unusual fact most of his books were high grade. I had never met a dealer before who specialized mostly in upscale books, not the standard fare of Very Good / Fine. I was an EC collector in those days and I was seduced into paying Ron's asking price of $95.00 for a high grade copy of Shock Suspense #8 which I still have of course along with every other EC I've ever bought. I couldn't have paid that a few years back when I was working part time jobs after school but now I was in the U.S. Air Force and I had money in my pocket.
Flash forward to 1981. I was now stationed 60 miles east of Los Angeles at Norton AFB in San Bernardino working as a motion picture camera operator for the Air Force's audio-visual unit which was headquartered there. That was less than 3 hours driving time from Redbeard's Book Den in Newport Beach. I visited Ron in his fabulous lair on my birthday April 21, 1982.
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| An Earthman On Venus, 1951 |
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| Probably the most desirable of the many Avon sci-fi comics since the entire book except the cover is drawn by Wally Wood. This is the Cosmic Aeroplane pedigree copy as denoted by the pencil checkmark on the cover. |
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Newport Beach is a swanky neighborhood and Ron's office wasn't in some shabby used bookstore, flea market or low rent comic book store like many comic book dealers. It was in a large bank! On the right side of his office near the front door was a wood and glass display case. 2 of the comics he had in there both had Wally Wood covers, Avon's Eerie #2 and The Mask Of FuManchu both from 1951, in Ron's usual sparkling high grade. On the wall near this case were some framed up color proof prints of horror comic book covers with art by Jay Disbrow. Ron's desk was at the back of the room facing the door. On the left side of the room were 2 double sided metal file cabinets loaded with Ron's comic book inventory. Ron said he always had at least a quarter million dollars worth of inventory available. Each comic had a 4mil open top Mylar Snug that Ernie Gerber had invented a few years before. The comics were stored vertically on the shelves.
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| Of the many Charltons with Steve Ditko art, this is the most spectacular. Giant worm cover and all 5 stories drawn by Ditko. |
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I was looking for my usual pre-Marvel monster books, Charlton comics with Steve Ditko art and Avon or other 1950s science fiction comics and Ron was loaded for bear. My prize catch was Avon's An Earthman On Venus from 1951 with all interior art by Wally Wood. Ron said it was the Cosmic Aeroplane pedigree copy. I had heard of the Mile High pedigree but not this one. He explained that all the Cosmic Aeroplane books were unread. They came from the estate of an art teacher who used them as samples to show his students what to draw. You knew the book was a from this collection if it had a few check marks in pencil which had told the student which panel to draw. I was also flabbergasted with delight with 3 high grade Charlton 1950s comics with flamboyant Steve Ditko covers I had never seen before: Science Fiction Space Adventures #10, 11 and 12. Ron and I both agreed that the orange space monster on the cover of the #12 was especially eye catching. Ron had another Charlton with an outlandishly gruesome Ditko cover, This Magazine Is Haunted #16 from 1954 with the underwater zombies. I passed on this one due to money constraints. I've never seen another high grade copy of this book since then so I regret that. Of course the pick of the Charlton Ditko litter was The Thing #15 with the outlandish giant worm cover and with all 5 stories drawn by Ditko! I've never seen a higher grade of this book since then.
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| Noted in Fredric Wertham's book Seduction Of The Innocent. Cosmic Aeroplane pedigree copy as denoted by pencil checkmart on cover. |
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Another treat that I did bit the bullet on was the Cosmic Aeroplane copy of the Avon Strange Worlds #2 from 1951. I think Ron mentioned that this was a book noted by the psychiatrist Fredric Wertham in his book Seduction Of The Innocent. I had heard of the book and but I didn't know anybody went of their way to collect books mentioned by Dr. Wertham but Ron indicated they did. Ron said after I bought this book "I don't know if it's important to you but you now have one of the 2 or 3 best copies of this book in the world." Ron also showed me a high grade copy of the best book in the Strange Worlds run, #3, with the two-headed monster and with interior art by many of the EC artists. I couldn't afford that one and I've never seen another copy in high grade. Another cause for regret.
I was also glad to get a few pre-Marvel Tales Of Suspense for $30.00 each. I had rarely seen these type of books in such high grade. Ron said it looked to him like the covers had never been opened. I read these books when I got home which may have put a few minute spine stresses on them. I learned from that not to read high grade books again. Ron showed me a small box of science fiction and horror paperback books. I only remember 1 book, The Scarf by famous horror writer Robert Bloch. Ron wanted $30.00 for it. Here's where I did some show some intelligence. I could see paying $30.00 for pre-Marvel monster books but not a paperback book. Time has verified me on that. The pre-Marvels I bought for $30.00 in 1982 are worth much more than that Robert Bloch paperback is now in 2012.
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| Tales Of Suspense #17, 1961 & #25, 1962 |
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| 2 of a precious handful of high grade pre-Marvel Tales Of Suspense issues. |
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Ron showed me a 1940s Timely comic in high grade. I don't remember the title but it had the Human Torch on the cover. I was a little hesitant to handle a book I wasn't going to buy but Ron said it was ok to hold it anyway. He said it was from the San Francisco collection which I had never heard of. The backstory on this collection was a young man was collecting Timely comics prior to World War II. He enlisted in the Navy and his family kept buying the books for him and storing them in his bedroom during the war. The man was killed in the war and his family kept his bedroom with the stored comics untouched for 35 years until deciding to sell the comics.
Ron showed me another Avon science fiction that was looking for since I had seen it at an earlier San Diego Con, Avon's Flying Saucers from 1952 with the Everett Raymond Kinstler cover. Ron's copy was in uncharacteristic Very Good+ condition. I wanted the book in better condition and Ron admitted he didn't have a "condition copy" at the moment. Ron said such a copy would be expensive and joked that some of his customers were reduced to having to eat celery stalks for awhile to save money after buying some of his books.
I brought up the subject of the Mile High pedigree collection and told Ron about the rumors I had heard circulating in Denver when I had been stationed there at technical school a few months before. Ron looked at me with a weary forbearance and said he had heard that story several times before. He did show me one Mile High he had just gotten. It was a DC comic, Detective I think. It had a pure white cover and looked it just came off the printing press. Ron said another dealer in the Los Angeles area who handled Mile High pedigree comics was John Verzyl. Ron's tip proved to be auspicious as John Verzyl was to loom very large in my collecting adventures in the not to distant future.
Ron said he had a few books in his personal collection and he would be glad to show them to me if I didn't pester him with offers to buy them. I agreed, wanting to see what type of books Ron would hold back for himself. It was a small stack of juicy treasures. The only 2 I remember are the Charlton horror comic The Thing #12 with the Steve Ditko Cinderella cover and Weird Tales Of The Future #2 from 1952 with the famous Basil Wolverton cover. Naturally I've never seen these books in high grade since then.
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| Receipt from Redbeard's Book Den |
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| $1188 could buy some pretty good comic books in 1982. Nearly every book on this receipt would cost more than that now. I don't remember why the Tales Of Suspense issues aren't on the receipt. |
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Ron gave me a discount on the books I bought that day but the bill still came to $1188.00 which was the most I had ever spent on comics in a single day. He did seemed suitably impressed with me as a customer and joked that if I had money like that maybe he should join the Air Force.
I'll never forget that magic and wonderful day in Redbeard's Book Den with Ron, looking at and buying some of the best condition most sought after comic books in the world.
But I wasn't finished with visiting Ron yet. Within the next few months I made another trip to see him. This time it was in his apartment in Newport Beach where he had moved his inventory to from his office in the bank. On his desk he had a new fangled Macintosh computer with a plethora of wires hanging down the front of his desk. Another Ron Pussell first I thought; using a leading edge computer to run a comic book business with. Today those type of computers are called Mac Classics and there seems to be collectors' market for them.
I was impressed with the framed up comic book original art he had decorating his living room walls and hallway. The art was mostly covers or splash pages of science fiction or fantasy comics, not superhero books. He also had a small bookcase in his living room with Stephen King first edition hardcovers. Knowing Ron, some of them were probably autographed by King. In his bedroom on a dresser he had all the latest slipcased hardcovers from Russ Cochran's The Complete EC Library. Yes, Ron was a man after my own heart.
Ron told me he was getting back into collecting again and just bought a copy of Captain America #1 for $5,000. He had it stored in a bank vault downtown. In 1982 $5,000 could buy almost any comic book in the world so I imagine's Ron's copy was pretty nice looking.
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| Featuring Challengers Of The Unknown by Jack Kirby. |
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As Ron was eating lunch I remember he was highly critical of a new comic book price guide project that Mylar Snug inventor and comic mail order impresario Ernie Gerber was promoting. I think Ernie wanted a guide named Sold, reporting actual confirmed sales, not an average of prices reported by the Overstreet Advisors to the Overstreet Price Guide. I don't remember the details of Ron's objections but he was against Ernie's project which fell through anyway. I also remember him complaining about the heavy tax burden businessmen in America had to bear. He said he was doing pretty good at making money but the hard part was figuring out how to keep it.
This second trip was not near as fruitful as my earlier trip. Ron didn't have any pre-Marvels, Charltons or Avons that I wanted. I remember buying only 1 book, Shock Suspense Stories #7. I was hesitating over the sticker shock price and Ron said if I really wanted the book he could "get friendlier than the sticker price" so we came to terms.
The last time I saw Ron was a year or 2 later at the San Diego Con. I bought 1 book from him, Showcase #11 for $135.00 which featured Jack Kirby's Challengers Of The Unknown. I watched him sell a Marvel comic that was only in Very Good condition for $40.00 which was way above the Overstreet Guide price. After the customer walked away Ron quietly told me the guy should have waited and paid more for a high grade copy. Ron said the VG copy he just bought won't be worth much more years from now than than it was now. My sentiments exactly. Always get the highest grade copy possible. Ron help me learn that lesson and I haven't forgotten it.
