Welcome!

Welcome to Comic Book Pedigrees, the first and only website dedicated to pedigreed comic books. Pedigrees represent some of the most beautifully preserved vintage comic books in the world; famous, mysterious, and sought after by savvy collectors for decades.

These pedigree collections were found in attics, closets, garages, storage units, even barns. Sometimes they were found wrapped in paper, stored in cedar chests or file cabinets, or just sitting in piles on a shelf. They were amassed mostly by kids, but a few were adults, even women. Some bought only #1 issues, or they favored particular genres, characters or companies. A couple of them even worked in comic book publishing.

All of these owners had one thing in common; they were conscientious about the condition of their comic books. By luck or design, each of the collections featured in this book survived many tests of time; paper drives, puberty, and especially Mom, who never understood why her child would save such things. Some of the owners survived to see their collection become legendary, like Lamont Larson. Others never knew.

Every person who loves vintage comics fantasizes about finding the next great collection. But the clock is ticking. The kids who bought Action #1 on the newsstands in 1938 are now in their ‘80s. The undiscovered collections out there are dwindling with each passing year. Who knows what remains? Perhaps there is still one more to rival Edgar Church’s extraordinary hoard. Perhaps you will be the one to find it.

The Billy Wright Collection Unearthed in Virginia

The newest pedigree to hit the market is a Golden Age collection recently discovered in Virginia. The Billy Wright collection consists of approximately 340 high grade comics from 1936-1941, and contains most of the key issues from that era, including Action #1, Detective #27, and Marvel #1. Besides the presence of so many scarce, valuable key issues, this pedigree stands out because of how early it is. Only a handful of all the pedigreed collections in the world boast so many books from the mid to late-'30s, like the Larson, Mile High and Lost Valley.

Heritage Auctions is selling the Billy Wright collection this year, with an estimated value in the millions of dollars. Read more about it here.

Help Build The Pedigree Database

You can now search our massive database to see what pedigree copies of your favorite comics have been uploaded, and which are available to buy or bid on. Anyone can add their own pedigree comic scans with our simple uploading system, as well as link pedigree books to their sale or auction page. This database will continue to grow with your help, so if you own any of the estimated 100,000 pedigreed vintage comics out there, we’d love to see them on the website.

We'd like to extend a big thank you to Heritage Auctions for contributing the pedigree scans from their archive. Heritage has auctioned thousands of pedigreed comics over the past ten years, and is currently offering the new Billy Wright pedigree in 2012 at ha.com. Comiclink has also joined the list of contributors, providing us with hundreds of pedigrees they offer each month in their auctions at comiclink.com.

If you notice an error on any listings, please notify us and we'll correct them immediately.

Three Silver Age Pedigree Collections Unearthed in 2011

In the span of less than 4 months, three fresh Silver Age pedigree collections have come to market. The first was the Savannah pedigree, featuring complete runs of DC and Marvel, with a focus on the ultra-rare DC war and romance genres. Following closely on its announcement came the Suscha News pedigree, chock-full of near perfect '60s comics, and finally the Twin Cities pedigree, a fresh, white paged collection boasting full runs of Marvel and DC from 1960-up.

This is extraordinary, considering that since CGC opened its doors over a decade ago, only six pedigreed collections have been recognized by them, and all but one are Golden Age (Central Valley, Palo Alto, Lost Valley, Vancouver, Northford, and Rocky Mountain).

TWIN CITIES PEDIGREE – Paul Litch, Vice-President of CGC had this to say about the collection: "When I saw the Twin Cities books I was astonished by how nice they were. The collection runs the scope of Silver Age Marvels and DCs and goes all the way to some stunning Copper Age books – beautiful books, beautiful preservation. Once collectors see them, they’ll understand why we decided to give them a pedigree designation on the CGC label."

For more information regarding the Twin Cities pedigree, go here.

SUSCHA NEWS PEDIGREE - Vincent Zurzolo, COO of Metropolis Comics, had been waiting 13 years to find another pedigree collection comparable to the Oakland collection he unearthed. "What makes the collection so special is not only the fact that the books are in overall spectacularly high grade condition with very rich inks and gloss and reflectivity that is so high it hardly makes sense, but that the books go back to the mid-1960s and go all the way up to 1976, therefore actually surpassing the Oakland collection on both its beginning and end dates."

For more information regarding the Suscha News pedigree, go here.

SAVANNAH PEDIGREE – This collection was discovered by Shelton Drum, owner of Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find in North Carolina, and consigned to Heritage Auctions in its entirety. “I was amazed by the consistent quality of the comics from 1959 and up,” Drum said. “While quite a few people have extensive collections of superhero comics from that era, almost nobody bought every genre. This collection also has all of the science fiction, horror/mystery, romance, and war comics, as well – lots of books you don’t usually see as a dealer or a collector. This guy bought everything! He collected DCs and Marvels as well as the other publishers like Charlton and Dell.”

For more information regarding the Savannah Pedigree, go here.

Our Forthcoming Book On Pedigrees

"The Book" is moving close to completion this year. Our 600 page, full-color book will cover 48 of the best comic collections from the Golden Age, including Larson, Cosmic Aeroplane, Allentown, and the colossal Edgar Church/Mile High collection. Each chapter will contain the pedigree’s backstory, charts and graphs analyzing its content, and the original list. Check out our update on the progress of this massive book, over seven years in the making.

We've listed summaries of 48 Golden Age pedigree collections on the website, a snapshot of data that will be greatly expanded in the book. You can visit our official CGC thread to view book updates as we progress, and even take a sneak peek at the book’s Allentown chapter. The Allentown pedigree collection gave us the highest graded Detective #27 in existence when it was discovered back in 1987.