Bill Blackbeard

(April 28, 1926 – March 10, 2011)

Bill Blackbeard was a writer, editor, anthologist, and comic strip historian. He was born in Lawrence, Indiana, and died in Watsonville, California.

Before he amassed what was probably the world's largest collection of newspaper comic strips, he was a writer for fanzines and pulp magazines, including Weird Tales. His fanzines included Queen Anne's Revenge, Minac 8.5 (with Redd Boggs), Newspinkle, Journal of the V. F. B. M. for CAPA and Scrimshaw with Ellie Turner. He was also an editor of the LASFS Newsletter. He was a member of LASFS, APA-L and the Cult.

He started collecting comics as a twelve-year-old boy in California, where he grew up, and he never stopped. His collection eventually amounted to seventy-five tons and an estimated three million or more items. Most of that collection is now housed at Ohio State University, at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum.

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Person

1926—2011

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