Last week, my account of the various inspirations for the story of “The Collector” ended with a teaser about a recent discovery that took the comic collecting world by storm.

The same week I read about the amazing discovery of the Edgar Church Collection (and if you missed last week’s soapbox, not to worry, you can read it all here), I found a newspaper article about another discovery, this time of over 11,000 high-grade Golden Age comics in a garage outside New York City. If the Church collection had been a find in 1977, some 40 years after the publication of the first comics in its collection, how much more so was the Davis Crippen ‘D’ Copy Collection discovered almost 30 years later!

Though the Crippen Collection was smaller in number than the Church Collection, many of the books were of similar pristine quality. Uncovered in boxes in a garage in 2006, some of these books were now over 70 years old! They had been saved from the rapid deterioration that Golden Age comics usually suffered by having been stored for most of their years in a cool, dry basement in Washington DC. At the time of their printing, most of these books were regarded as disposable entertainment, much like newspaper funnies, and were therefore printed on the cheapest possible paper, high in acid content and prone to rapid yellowing. So to find 70-year old books in like-new condition, and in a garage no less, was quite simply astounding.

If you’d like to read more about the Davis Crippen Collection, there’s a nice site dedicated to it here.

The real mystery about this collection is how a few key books had made their way into the hands of collectors as early as 15 years earlier. In fact, when the discovery of the collection finally became public, collectors immediately recognized it as the source of certain highly-prized gem-condition books known as D-copies (for their unmistakable handwritten “D” on the front covers) that had been circulating amongst a small number of collectors of pedigreed comics for some time. As far as I know, this mystery has yet to be solved.

To read more about the fascinating world of pedigree comics go here.

That people are still finding caches of old comics today is exciting, like the discovery of sunken ships or pirate gold. And it led me to think what an interesting scenario this would make for a story.

Next week, my final inspirations (that I’m aware of) for the story of “The Collector”.

See you next Monday.