Later, after moving from outside
Omaha to the
Bay Area, he attended
California State University, Hayward.
Beerbohm began as a teenage comic book fan and collector, first making contact with other fans via a
comic book letter column: "Trade Corner,"
Blackhawk #225 (Oct. 1966).
Robert Beerbohm Comic Art
Early conventions he attended also included
DallasCon in the summer of 1968; and
Houstoncon, the
Detroit Triple Fan Fair, and the St. Louis World SF Convention in 1969. In 1970, along with friend Stephen Johnson he set up at Oklahoma City's Multicon,
Phil Seuling's
Comic Art Convention (the first of many appearances there), the first PhoenixCon hosted by Bruce Hamilton, the only Disneyland Hotel Comicon, another
Detroit Triple Fan Fair, and the first
San Diego Comic-Con, held at the
U.S. Grant Hotel. By 1971, Beerbohm was a regular at most national comics shows, including New York City's first
Creation Con, held on Thanksgiving weekend. In 1972, Beerbohm set up tables of vintage comics at almost a dozen comics conventions, including the first
Chicago Comicon. He has sold comics at San Diego Comic-Con every year since the first one in 1970.
Also in 1970 he acquired from publisher
Russ Cochran (who had originally received it from
EC publisher
William Gaines) the original art to the very first
Superman cover drawn by
Joe Shuster back in early 1933 for Chicago's Humor Publishing Company. The art was in four pieces and fire-tinged along the edges, from when
Superman co-creator
Jerry Siegel literally pulled it out of the Shuster family fireplace after Shuster got depressed with the first of what turned out to be many rejections. Beerbohm did not know what he had at the time, but knew it needed to be preserved on some level, so he had a couple hundred twice-up original-size poster prints made at a local printer.
citation needed This image has since shown up in many books on
DC Comics history.
citation needed
In April 1973 Comics & Comix hosted the first Bay Area
comics convention,
Berkeleycon 73, in the Pauley Ballroom in the ASUC Building on the
University of California, Berkeley campus. Berkeleycon was the first comic-con that highlighted
underground comix.
[1]
At Berkeleycon 73, Comics & Comix acquired over 4,000
Golden Age comic books owned by Tom Reilly. Beerbohm personally sold a good majority of the highest-grade items from the pedigree Reilly collection, including a copy of
Detective Comics #27 (which sold for $2,200 — the first comic book to break the $2,000 barrier).
citation needed The phenomenal sales of the Reilly collection enabled Comics & Comix to open more retail locations, first in
San Francisco (May 1973), on Columbus Avenue (down from the North Beach area on the way to
Fisherman's Wharf), and later in
San Jose and
Sacramento, making it the first comic book chain store in America.
citation needed
Beerbohm stayed with Comics & Comix until early 1975 (the chain itself lasted until 2004).
citation needed
References
-
^ Benhari. "First Comix Con Right On?", Berkeley Barb (April 27—May 3, 1973).
Beerbohm suffered long term damage to his hip joint cartilage which caused him to eventually have
hip replacement surgery in October 2009.
citation needed
In November 1976, Beerbohm opened his first solo comic book store Best of Two Worlds, its first location being in San Francisco's
Haight-Ashbury district at 1707 Haight Street, across the street from the Straight Theater. In May 1977, Beerbohm took over Comics & Comix' old location at 2512 Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, when his former partners at Comics & Comix moved to a larger location on the next block, and in October 1978 with then-partner Gary Wood he opened a branch of Best of Two Worlds, called Funny Pages, on
Pier 39/
Fisherman's Wharf. Eventually, Best of Two Worlds had locations in San Francisco's
Sunset District in Irving Street, and the Brickyard Mall in
Santa Rosa. By this time
Robert Borden had bought out Gary Wood, and
Rory Root had bought in as a 14% co-owner.
citation needed Among the employees of Best of Two Worlds at various times were
underground comix artists
Roger Brand,
Kim Deitch, and
Bruce Simon.
citation needed
During this period, in c. 1978, Beerbohm founded the "sub-distributor" Common Ground Distributors, which was initially supplied by Detroit-based distributor
Big Rapids Distribution. In 1982, Common Ground was acquired by the Midwestern company
Capital City Distribution, which enabled Capital City owners
Milton Griepp and John Davis to expand the distributor's operations beyond the immediate Chicago/Milwaukee area.
citation needed
In addition to retailing and distribution, Beerbohm again published comics during this era.
citation needed
Best of Two Worlds went out of business in February 1987 due to the massive flooding of its central warehouse in
Emeryville, California a year earlier in February 1986.
citation needed
Best Comics and the Rick Griffin art gallery
After the demise of Best of Two Worlds, Beerbohm maintained just one store. He shortened the name to just Best Comics in the Haight Ashbury, which operated from 1987–1992. That last location was immortalized in
Terry Zwigoff's 1994 documentary
Crumb, in the scenes where Crumb and his former publisher
Don Donahue are in a comic book store discussing comics.
citation needed
With his friend Steve Johnson, Beerbohm publishing five issues of the
fanzine Fanzation in 1969–1970. #3 (1969) contains a letter by Amazing Spider-Man creator Steve Ditko on creativity quoted by Dr. Fredric Wertham in his last book The World of Fanzines (1974). #5 contains articles by Ted White and Jack Promo on origins of 1950s EC fandom and fanzines. Also, articles by Jerry Bails on the origins of Alter Ego and Bill Wallace on origins of Houston fandom amongst others.
citation needed
Beginning in the 1980s, Beerbohm worked as a consultant on a number of publication related to popular culture, specifically comics and
rock music. Clients included the
Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide (1981–2013), The Big Little Book Price Guide (1980–1983), and The Underground and New Wave Comix Price Guide (1981) among many others. He has been invited back inside Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide every year since #27 1997.
citation needed
In the 1990s and 2000s, since closing down brick and mortar outlets and converting to more of an Internet presence, Beerbohm has authored and co-authored numerous articles for the comics trade press on such topics as the history of American comics, the evolution of the
direct market, and individual creators.
citation needed