Robert Beerbohm | |
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Born |
Robert Lee Beerbohm June 17, 1952 Long Beach, California |
Education |
University of Nebraska-Lincoln California State University, Hayward |
Occupation | Comic book historian and retailer |
Robert Lee "Bob" Beerbohm (born June 17, 1952) is an American comic book historian and retailer who has been intimately involved with the rise of comics fandom since 1966. Beginning as a teenager in the late 60s, he became a fixture in the growing comic convention scene, while in the 1970s and 1980s he was heavily involved in Bay Area comic book retailing and distribution.
Beerbohm has been a consultant and author detailing the early history of comics in the United States, including rediscovering the first comic book in America, Rodolphe Töpffer's The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. He has supplied data and visual aids as listed in the acknowledgements of over 200 books on comics and counting.
Beerbohm attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln from 1970 – 1972. 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).
In October 1966, while still in junior high school, Beerbohm took out his first ad in Rocket's Blast Comicollector (a.k.a. RBCC) #47, launching what has eventually become known as Robert Beerbohm Comic Art. The company sells vintage American popular culture artifacts (mostly comic books) via the internet. Beerbohm set up a booth at his first comics convention June 16–18, 1967, at the first Houstoncon. Traveling 28 hours on a Greyhound bus, Beerbohm turned 15 the first day of that seminal show.