On October 1st, Bruneau and Co Auctioneers is hosting a single owner comic book auction billed under the title “The Henry Anderson Collection.” Already, we’ve gotten questions about who Henry was and why his collection is worthy of its own auction, so I thought I’d take a moment to explain our reasoning!

Growing up during the Golden Age from 1938 to 1956, Henry’s generation was the first to lay hands on some of the most revered comic books in pop culture history. He started buying comics with his allowance in 1939 when he was 8 years old from his neighborhood drug store, which was located just a half a block walk away on Broad Street in Cranston, Rhode Island. Eventually, Henry began working at the store part-time, and several years later he moved to a bigger drug store in Pawtuxet Village where he continued adding to his collection. As such, Henry’s comic books coincide with the start of WWII in Europe and continue through the war’s conclusion in August 1945. As a young boy and teen living through WWII in America, he was understandably quite interested in combat and war, which was a common theme in comic books of the time. Henry stopped purchasing comics in 1947, but he kept them stored safely in two metal boxes in the decades since.

So, like many others, Henry Anderson spent his childhood collecting comic books. However, unlike many others, Henry Anderson did not throw out his comics or break up his collection over the years, and thus it remains complete and in near mint condition! How do we know these are all comics from Henry’s childhood collection? Many of them still carry his boyish signature! A diligent youngster, when his mother advised him to write his name on anything he brought into school he did, without thinking those scrawls may one day affect their collectible value. Mama Anderson should not feel too bad about her advice though; Some of Henry’s comics are so rare that even with the handwriting they are estimated to bring several thousand at auction!

A few standout titles come to mind, including D.C. Comics Wonder Woman #1 CGC Graded 5.5, D.C. Comics Detective Comics #38 CGC Graded 3.0, a selection of Fiction House Fight Comics and a selection of Fiction House Jumbo Comics.

So, you may wonder: if Henry’s comic book collection is so exceptional, why is it not graded with a CGC Pedigree? While it’s a valid question, the answer to it and the reasoning why was not up to me or anyone else here at Bruneau and Co. Basically, CGC holds four criteria for a collection to be considered for Pedigree status, they are:

  1. The collection must come from the original owner.
  2. The collection must be vintage.
  3. The collection must be of high grade.
  4. The collection must contain over 1000 comics.

While Henry’s comic books hit three of the four criteria, his collection does not number into the thousands. Only the rarest books from small collections might qualify for a pedigree, and that would be entirely at the discretion of CGC. Henry’s collection totals 150 comic book lots.

Hopefully this explains a bit about who Henry Anderson was, what makes his collection so special, what qualifies for a CGC pedigree, and why I opted for a single owner auction for his rare and beautiful comic books! Oh, and for future reference – NEVER write anything on your comic books, even just your name, even if your mom yells at you!