Known as combination pugnacious businessman, archaeologist, and what cartoonist Art Spiegelman called a "feverishly enthusiastic fan," Beerbohm was an evangelist of the comics collecting hobby.
By the 21st century Beerbohm was selling vintage American popular culture artifacts (mostly comic books) via the Internet, and setting up shows across the United States.
Beerbohm was among the first generation of dealers to traffic in original comic book art, sourcing his originals from suppliers with sometimes questionable provenance, claiming to have bought hundreds of allegedly stolen pages of Marvel and DC art from dealers set up in a hotel room at the 1969 27th World Science Fiction Convention in St.
[7] In late August 1972 (ten days after the first San Diego Comic-Con at El Cortez Hotel), with housemate Bud Plant and John Barrett, Beerbohm co-opened Comics and Comix on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California.
[9] During Berkeleycon, Beerbohm, Barrett, and Bud Plant purchased what became known as the Tom Reilly Pedigree collection of close to 4000 white-paper, never-opened "near mint/mint" comic books published between 1939 and 1945.
His parents, in the affluent Piedmont section of Oakland, California, kept buying one of each comic, placing them untouched on shelves in their son's bedroom.
[citation needed] On Oct 4, 1978, with partner Gary Wood, he opened The Funny Pages on Pier 30, the first high-traffic tourist location comic bookstore in America, according to Beerbohm.
[12] In February 1986 snow-melt flood waters cascaded out of the Sierra Nevada mountains, causing widespread property damage in much of northern California.
[13] After Best of Two Worlds was forced by natural disaster into bankruptcy, Beerbohm went solo again with a single store in Haight Ashbury, but moved to a better location at Masonic, a major bus transfer hub.
Here Beerbohm rebuilt almost from scratch once again, with signings by notable comics artists like a December 1987 Bill Sienkiewicz event and a growing relationship with Rick Griffin, who moved into the neighbourhood in 1988.
[16] Immediately after, the Griffin family attempted through legal means to restrict the sale of artworks through the gallery, but the lawsuit was dropped.
[22] According to comic book historian Charles Hatfield, Beerbohm's contribution to the study of the Direct Market was threefold: 1.the idea that dealer speculation was at the root of the new distribution system; 2. the idea that so-called affidavit return fraud created a need for better distribution on the part of publishers; and 3. the growth of head shops as an outlet for Underground comics and a model for the Direct Market.