Anyone have any Reilly Pedigrees they want to show?

[clayface]

I don't, but I was deeply moved by the story behind it.

[BlowUpTheMoon]

I've never heard of this Pedigree.

[RedFury]

I'm doing this from memory, so I may be slightly off on some of the details but I think this is mostly accurate.

The San Francisco collection (or more correctly the Tom Reilly collection) is a sad story. Tom Reilly lived in Piedmont, CA and began collecting comic books in 1939. When he went away to fight in WWII, he asked his parents to continue purchasing all new comics as they came out. They did so diligently, stacking the books in his bedroom, until about the summer of 1945 when word came that Tom had been killed in a kamikaze attack in the Pacific. His parents stopped purchasing comics and sealed his room, and it remained that way until their deaths in 1972. In 1973, relatives brought some of the collection to a comic show in Berkley, CA where the books were purchased by Bob Beerbohm (a dealer who is still active in the hobby). Bob subsequently purchased the rest of the collection and sold the books mostly to collectors in California.

The San Francisco books are generally considered to be on par with the Mile High (Edgar Church) collection in terms of condition and page quality. What really sets the Mile High collection apart is its size, about 18,000 books, compared to about 4,800 books in the San Francisco collection.

I am sure more details will be available this fall when Matt Nelson and Stephen Ritter publish their book about pedigrees. I know I'm looking forward to it!

[The Charlton Guy]

That really is an awesome story. Very poignant.

I am struck by how short a time we are talking about. Just thirty-three years in optimal storage and thirty-five years since "light of day". Maybe I'm getting really old, but that doesn't seem like a lot of time to me anymore.#oldie#

And hey...Welcome to the Corral RedFury!

[RedFury]

The story really resonates with me. I feel we owe WWII vets so much. This poor kid Tom Reilly, who loved comics, gave everything he had, his whole future, for us. It's just very, very sad.

I have only one San Francisco book, Feature Comics #86. It was published in March 1945, so it's one of the later books in the pedigree.

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii190/twarren71/FeatureComics086_CGCNM94.jpg

[clayface]

It's also a story about his family who waited and waited and kept on buying him comics and storing them, waiting for his return and then finally finding out he was lost....and then grieving and shutting up his room. In the best of all possible worlds, these books should have stayed in the family as a sort of family heritage and memento to his memory and his sacrifice and the war that shaped the Golden Age.

[SolitaireOne]

Wow, interesting tale! I hadn't known of that part of this pedigree's backstory either! :o

[thedude]

my only SF (Tom Reilly) book.





http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b165/toedude/Scan10007-1.jpg





and here's the famous name stamp on the back cover.




http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b165/toedude/Superman11bhigh-bc2.jpg

[fulltimer56]

VERY NICE book, thedude!! Could I maybe ask how much you paid for it? I know I will never be able to buy one like this, myself (unless I win a very big lotto!)

Thanks for letting us see it!

Linda


my only SF (Tom Reilly) book.






http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b165/toedude/Scan10007-1.jpg






and here's the famous name stamp on the back cover.





http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b165/toedude/Superman11bhigh-bc2.jpg

[thedude]

VERY NICE book, thedude!! Could I maybe ask how much you paid for it? I know I will never be able to buy one like this, myself (unless I win a very big lotto!)

Thanks for letting us see it!

Linda

sure Linda, it's one of my favorite stories anyway, I paid $1,000 for it, I bought it raw from a friend of mine who was selling, and I told him I'd love to have it as Superman is my fav character and I've always wanted a nice clean copy of Supes #11, not knowing at the time that it was a SF book, I just thought it was a nice clean copy.

Neither me nor my friend knew it was the SF/Tom Reilly until about 6 months after I had bought it, I was looking at the back and knew that the name stamp was familiar looking, so I headed over to comicbookpedigrees.com and double checked and sure enough it was Tom's book. Then I sent it to be graded. What it's worth now, I have no idea.

so that is the best way to obtain one, every con you go to if you see an above average looking copy, check the back cover for the name stamp, but also keep in mind not all of Tom's book's have the stamp on back, just the earlier ones I believe, from before 1942, but some others have the "G"- code on the front, plus some of the books don't have any markings at all.

[Quato]

Unbeknownst to Tom, his parents were buying the most beat up comics sold on the newsstand and all were trimmed and restored by someone in 1976 (Just kidding folks)!

Q

[Red Hook]

Hey hey.

Gorgeous book Dude! Like a freshly ripened banana! That is one good lookin' book!

Red

[dannyboi1]

Not to deviate, but how is the feature comics a 9.4 with a date stamp AND "1945" circled on the cover. Gorgeous books though...

[thedude]

Not to deviate, but how is the feature comics a 9.4 with a date stamp AND "1945" circled on the cover. Gorgeous books though...

I don't think CGC downgrades for markings on a book as long as they are small and unubtrusive.

I think the Feature Comics is a great looking book, I forgot to mention that some other Reilly's have date stamps as well.

[Red Hook]

In some pedigree collections, like Green River, Bethlehem and White Mountain to name a couple of SA collections... the date stamp or handwritten date is considered a valuable "identifier" to validate inclusion in the particular group.

[RedFury]

Many of the Golden Age pedigrees have distinctive markings. Some Mile Highs have markings, the Crippen D books all have a code on the top of the first page, the Detroit Trolleys have a cursive "L" on the cover, Larsons usually say "Larson" on the cover, etc. Rather than detract from the grade, I am of the opinion that these markings add to the history and provenence of the books. I love them.

[RedFury]

my only SF (Tom Reilly) book.





http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b165/toedude/Scan10007-1.jpg






and here's the famous name stamp on the back cover.




http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b165/toedude/Superman11bhigh-bc2.jpg


That is one great looking Superman 11. Absolutely beautiful.