Bob Beerbohm, one of the earliest comic book retailers and a comic historian who "contributed significantly to comic history and early art preservation," died March 27, Bleeding Cool reported. He was 71. Beerbohm was also the author of Comic Book Store Wars.
He began buying, selling, and trading comic books as a teenager in California during the late '60s, then co-founded Comics & Comix Store #1 near the UC-Berkeley campus in 1972 with Bud Plant and John Barr. The shop went on to host comic conventions, and become the first comic book chain store, Bleeding Cool wrote.
Best of Two Worlds was Beerbohm's first solo comic bookstore, opening in 1976 and later expanding with other partners. The company went out of business in 1987 due to the massive flooding of its central warehouse in Emeryville, Calif., a year earlier. He also bought and dealt in original art.
In recent years, Beerbohm wrote for Bleeding Cool, and was still posting about comic book history on the day that he died. Many colleagues and friends in the comics word shared their memories, including:
"Well, one of my personal Comic Dealer Gods has passed away," said Harry Knowles. "I've known Bob Beerbohm all 52 years on planet Earth that I've existed. He was friends with my Dad way back in the earliest days of San Diego and Berkeley cons. Back when Leonardo DiCaprio was in diapers crying in the shop."
Paul Gravett recalled: "His was a life of passion in pursuit of the deeper history and knowledge of comics, not least the discovery of America's first comic book, Rodolphe Töpffer's The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck. What contributions he made--and yes, he was a descendant of the renowned British cartoonist Max Beerbohm. He also founded the Platinum Age List, which continues to this day and also at Platinum Era Comic Books & Periodicals... we all stand on the shoulders of giants and Bob was truly a giant himself."
"I found Bob to be an amazing source of information about the earliest days of comics retailing, and he had fascinating stories to tell about so many of comics' greats," Cliff Biggers said. "I am thankful he shared as much as he did while he still could, and I will miss seeing his informative and provocative posts here."
Dennis L. Barger Jr. observed: "If you did not have the fortune to meet, know, follow and read the amazing comic history contained in the mind of Bob Beerbohm, you have truly missed out, much like the ones that did are missing him today. Rest well, sir, your work here is done. I can only imagine what stories we will never hear and are lost to time."