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Seven many years after he grew to become hooked on Superman, Gary Prebula’s assortment of graphic novels and comics has a everlasting house on the College of Pennsylvania library. It took a crew effort.
By Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes Employees
Gary Prebula blames his mom for his seven-decade-long comedian guide obsession. He was three when his dad and mom ventured out on New Yr’s Eve, leaving him together with his grandfather. His mom purchased a Superman comedian guide to maintain the precocious toddler, who had simply began to learn, occupied. When his dad and mom returned house simply after 1:00 a.m. they discovered Prebula nonetheless awake, rereading that comedian guide, whereas his grandfather slept.
“I used to be addicted instantly,” he says. It grew to become a continuing of his childhood—every week, he’d stroll three miles to the nook retailer in Butler, Pennsylvania, allowance in hand, to purchase the most recent superhero points. In 1963, at age 12, he plopped down 12 cents to purchase the primary situation of The Wonderful Spider-Man #1, the character’s solo-debut after Stan Lee launched the teenage superhero within the Wonderful Fantasy collection the yr earlier than. Marvel’s The X-Males #1, one other Lee creation, additionally price him 12 cents that yr.
Over the many years, the value of a comic book guide modified, however Prebula’s weekly ritual didn’t. He stored on shopping for comedian books and later graphic novels, too, by adolescence, his commencement from the Wharton Faculty of the College of Pennsylvania in 1972, and his transfer to Los Angeles for grad faculty in movie, and a profession writing, directing and producing exhibits (together with early actuality TV exhibits), whereas educating movie programs at Cal State-Lengthy Department for 40 years. When Gary and his highschool sweetheart, Daybreak, married as teenagers in 1969, she knew he liked comedian books. But it surely wasn’t till 1994, she says, when he had bins of comics shipped from the outdated coal room of his mom’s Butler, Pa. basement to their LA house, that she totally appreciated the massive and rising measurement of his assortment.
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Within the mid-Eighties, Prebula discovered a brand new provider to feed his behavior: Golden Apple Comics. Invoice Liebowitz, a CPA, actual property govt, and yo-yo champ opened the shop as a 400-square foot hole-in-the-wall in 1979. By the point Pebula grew to become a daily, Golden Apple was in bigger quarters on Melrose Avenue and was incomes a repute because the “Comedian Store to the Stars,’’ with legends reminiscent of Lee, creator Neil Gaiman and writer-illustrator Todd McFarlane, now the president of Picture Comics, changing into regulars. About 50 to 100 new comedian guide titles could be delivered each Wednesday, and sure prized prospects, together with Prebula, could be given a sneak peek. Children, he recollects, would pound on the home windows, desirous to get a have a look at the brand new arrivals because the grownup VIPs strolled the stacks.
The concept that youthful generations continued to hunt out comics thrilled Prebula, however in his sixth decade of gathering, one thing started to gnaw at him. He had amassed practically 80,000 comedian books, and now needed to make good on his lifelong ambition to share his assortment and fervour with future generations.
Gary Prebula purchased lots of his donated comics for 12 cents every, after they had been first issued.
Courtesy Penn Libraries
Reality is, regardless of his Wharton diploma, Prebula had all the time been extra an fanatic than a profit-driven collector; he by no means offered his comedian books for a revenue and had even written his identify in his prized Spider-Man #1–one thing a collector aiming to maximise a problem’s worth wouldn’t do. Positive, he was a child when he did it, however he had a motive. He hoped that in 100 years, somebody would flip by it and surprise, “Who the hell is that this man?” he explains.
Prebula wasn’t the one one serious about the way forward for his assortment. Ryan and Kendra Leibowitz had been working Golden Apple since 2004, when Ryan’s dad died of a coronary heart assault at simply 63. So slowly, over time, the couple began speaking to their getting older “Wednesday warrior” common about what he deliberate to do with all these comedian books.
The Leibowitzes may have made some cash promoting Prebula’s assortment. However they had been thrilled he deliberate to donate it to the College of Pennsylvania’s library as a result of the college, as he put it, “gave me my life.’’ Kendra had labored with nonprofits, together with the New York Metropolis AIDS stroll, in her life B.C.—earlier than comics—and noticed a chance to get into the giving recreation once more. Daybreak Prebula, who confides she as soon as believed Gary’s “assortment may very well be offered ultimately to assist us after we obtained older” was additionally on board with the donation.
It seems that donating comedian books—not to mention 80,000 of them— is not as simple as writing a verify to your favourite charity, significantly if you wish to maximize your tax advantages and guarantee your assortment is on the market for examine.
And Prebula’s comics weren’t exactly donation prepared. Many followers of comedian books will take important measures to maintain their collections in high situation, together with storing comedian books untouched (of their authentic clear luggage) in climate-controlled rooms with low lighting. The worth of comics goes up in the event that they’re in pristine situation–they’re sometimes assigned quite a lot of 1 to 10, indicating how “new” they may look and the way nicely they’ve been preserved. For instance, one copy of X-Males #1 with the primary ever appearances of Magneto and Professor X in Prebula’s assortment is graded at 6.0 and price $22,000, whereas one other copy he had is graded at a 4.0 and price solely $13,000. (In contrast, a mint situation X-Males #1 graded as a 9.6 offered for $800,000 in June of 2022.)
Although not in mint situation, lots of Prebula’s comics had been well-preserved (after retrieving the books from his mom’s coal basement, he constructed a particular room below his patio that was cool, with a dehumidifier). However he hadn’t organized his holdings methodically, say, by style or collection, the way in which somebody apprehensive about future students—or donations to a library—would possibly. As a substitute, he’d put them into bins after he learn them. That meant the hoard would require important time to kind and catalog. Not all universities or museums have the assets to undertake that kind of venture, making it extra probably that they’ll decline the gathering—or worse, take it and relegate it to storage for years.
A library accepting the gathering was key, not solely as a result of Prebula needed the problems to be learn and studied, but additionally due to the tax guidelines in the case of donating artwork and collectibles. The donor’s charitable deduction on his 1040 is restricted to the price of the collectible-i.e. 12 cents for The Wonderful Spider-Man 1 or The X-Males #1—until the merchandise is given to a not-for-profit that may use the present to additional its charitable function. In that case, the deduction is the same as the market worth of the collectible. Plus, every merchandise valued over $5,000 will need to have a written appraisal by a licensed appraiser ({qualifications} matter right here, and the valuation methodology must be well-documented). Moreover, donors should file Kind 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions, with their tax return to assert a deduction.
All this made freely giving Prebula’s assortment a serious enterprise. And to complicate issues, his eyesight was failing.
The assortment was shipped to Ryan and Kendra Leibowitz’s home–it took two cargo vans full to the brim to make that transfer. Then, they started the laborious work of organizing and cataloging the comics. At first, Ryan went by every field and located the problems that he believed had probably the most cultural or historic significance or had been price probably the most. They shipped these 561 single comics in six small bins to Philadelphia in early 2023. Then, they centered on magazines, outsized comedian books and the subsequent tier of useful points. That was a much bigger enterprise, so that they used a mix of volunteers and paid assist to separate the comics into batches. They despatched a second and third cargo to Philadelphia, including as much as 4 pallets of bins, later final yr.
In the meantime, the Leibowitzes had arrange the Golden Apple Comic & Art Foundation, which acquired IRS certification as a tax exempt basis in November 2021. Its mission: “to protect, safeguard and showcase personal collections to make sure that comics, books, artwork, and collectibles are secured for future generations to take pleasure in.” (It paid a number of the sorting prices for the Prebula assortment.)
It’s a tiny charity, however has a help record that reads like a Who’s Who of the comedian world, together with actor Keanu Reeves, who signed 50 prints from his personal comedian guide collection, BRZRKR–that raised $10,000 for the inspiration. Kevin Easton, who created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Tom Waltz signed a Final Ronin print (a TMNT comedian guide miniseries), which raised $4,000. And Frank Miller, identified for his comedian guide tales within the Daredevil collection (he created the character Elektra), screened his documentary, FRANK MILLER: AMERICAN GENIUS, turning over a majority of ticket gross sales.
The inspiration isn’t only a Leibowitz household manufacturing. Kevin Smith, finest identified for such comedy movies as Clerks, Mallrats, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Again, is an affiliate board member. (Smith is a bona fide comedian guide fan and owns a comic book guide retailer in Purple Financial institution, New Jersey.)
Kendra Leibowitz says the Golden Apple basis goals to behave as a center man, discovering library properties for added personal collections and getting them prepared for donation. In a single occasion, she says, there’s a great pulp assortment (these are low cost fiction mags printed till the mid-Fifties and named after the fabric they had been printed on) that she’s making an attempt to position. That has resulted in quite a lot of hours on the telephone. It is nonetheless early, she says, however she’s hoping Bowling Inexperienced College—with its well-known tutorial division and library specializing in American widespread tradition—could be . She hopes to ultimately construct a database of what universities and museums need and don’t desire and to open somewhat museum—possibly a cell one—to make comedian guide artwork and historical past accessible to followers and future followers. “So many superb creators are gone,’’ Ryan says, “and we would like the subsequent era to know what we did.”
The Prebula donation is a giant deal for the Penn library, too. Sean Quimby, director of the library’s Jay I. Kislak Heart for Particular Collections, Uncommon Books and Manuscripts, says pre-Prebula, the gathering held simply 20,000 comedian books and 4,000 associated supplies, together with graphic novels and compilations.
The gathering is now going by extra processing, by each librarians and by an appraiser employed by the Prebulas. (Whereas the gathering is price north of $500,000, it’s as much as the appraiser to find out its closing worth for tax deduction functions.)
Quimby expects the gathering to change into out there “in some kind” by subsequent yr. He doesn’t thoughts that it isn’t in good situation—comics are sometimes printed on extremely acidic paper, making them susceptible to wreck. However they’re in ok situation for use for analysis, educating and public exhibitions. “Whereas we home extraordinarily useful and uncommon issues, we aren’t only a repository for costly stuff,” Quimby says. “We’re not simply an attic.”
That is excellent news for Prebula, who desires his assortment to be seen and used. It was, he stated, “very painful…to provide the comics away.” He admits that he could not sleep the evening earlier than all his bins had been moved to the Leibowitzes. He was tempted to maintain The Wonderful Spider-Man #1–the one he had signed– however he did not.
Daybreak Prebula obtained on board with husband Gary’s large comedian guide donation plan, regardless that she had as soon as thought the gathering would assist fund the couple’s retirement.
Ethan Pines for Forbes
Anyway, Daybreak, now 73, and Gary, now 74, have a brand new retirement venture: golf. However they’re not simply swinging golf equipment–in December 2019, they, together with their son and daughter-in-law, purchased the Slippery Rock Golf Membership and Occasions Heart in Pennsylvania, with 183 acres, 18 holes, a full-service restaurant (The Twisted Oak Tavern) and areas for weddings and occasions. As we speak, Daybreak manages the membership–which is able to flip 100 in a couple of years–with assist from the Prebulas’ son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. (Their grandson additionally works there.) Additionally they personal a B&B–the Applebutter Inn–two miles away.
Gary, for his half, retains busy staying true to his roots. He’s ending the third guide in a younger grownup guide collection with plans to jot down extra and promote the collection to a writer. “For somebody who has been studying and gathering comics books for practically 70 years, he ought to know one thing about what younger adults need to learn,’’ says Daybreak.
As for the comics at Penn, Gary says, “Sometime, I am going to go go to them.”
