Comic collection stolen from Brattleboro storage locker

Posted Thursday, January 29, 2015 6:42 pm

BRATTLEBORO >> Jim Wheelock was never in it just for the money.

As a boy growing up in Brattleboro, Wheelock was first introduced to comic books when his mother, who was a teacher, brought them home to help him learn to read. He loved the artwork and stories, and the worlds that opened up to him living in a small New England town. So he saved those comics.

And as he grew up he got deeper into comic books. He graduated from Brattleboro Union High School in 1970 and went to Pratt Institute in New York City, eventually becoming a comic book artist himself.

His collection grew, not because Wheelock hoped to cash in one day, but because he believed that the comics were works of art which provided inspiration for his own art work and which were worth preserving.

Before his entire collection was stolen from a Brattleboro storage facility a few weeks ago the collection numbered in the thousands, and with titles including Thor, Superman, Spiderman and The Fantastic Four, Wheelock's comic book collection was probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now he, and some of his supporters, are putting the word out to collectors around the Northeast to be on the lookout for the stolen comics in the hope that he'll be able to recover them and be able to recoup some of the money which Wheelock hoped would help him during retirement.

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"I never thought of myself as a comic book collector in the modern sense. I was a reader, and I saved what I read because I loved them," Wheelock said. "Being an artist is a precarious lifestyle. I almost always have worked day jobs while freelancing. While I love my collection it also gave me a sense of security that I could sell parts of it if things went really bad."

He kept his collection at his mother's house in Brattleboro until he moved to Los Angeles in 1995, when he moved the comics into storage. Wheelock's collection was stolen from a storage facility in Brattleboro sometime in November. He said the police are investigating William Brown, 48, of Brattleboro, who police say entered several of the storage garages and removed items. Wheelock said the police have been looking for the comic book collection and records, but nothing has been uncovered yet. The police would not comment on the case.

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Since word went out about the collection being stolen Wheelock said he has received calls from people who say they recently purchased comics and records that fit the description he gave. Wheelock said, Brown admitted to selling comic books at a flea market in Wilmington, and also at flea markets in Hubbardston and Agawam, Mass.

Brown is facing a burglary charge and is scheduled to be arraigned in Windham Superior Court on Feb. 24.

According to Wheelock he had about 20 long white boxes stuffed with thousands of comics from the 1950s through the 1990s. Along with the well known Marvel and DC comics, Wheelock also had a collection of Zap Comics from the 1960s, and other more obscure and collectable comics. A large collection of record albums was also stolen, and several collections of the artist's own works. The comics, according to Wheelock, were in bags and had distinctive handwritten labels and were in fair to good condition.

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Wheelock first learned to draw by tracing his first comic books. After college he moved to New York City where he did some illustration and comic work and worked on storyboards for early music videos of Stevie Wonder, Ted Nugent, Hall and Oates and Earth, Wind and Fire.

Wheelock has published a number of his own comics, including works in Taboo. He recently did the art work for a graphic novel, "Inferno Los Angeles," a 136-page full color book written by Ron Bassilian that was published by NeoClassics Press.

Along with the financial implications Wheelock said the comics have sentimental value, and in many ways the collection tracks his growth from young comic book fan to working artist. He remembers spending a great day with his dad, who worked at an auto dealership on Putney Road, when he was reading Daredevil No. 1. And on the day President John Kennedy was shot he was sick in bed with a bag of comics when his mother came in the to tell him what had happened in Dallas.

"My entire collection was taken. It had great personal value and it was also part of my retirement plan," he said. "This is what was stolen from me."

Howard Weiss-Tisman can be contacted at 802-254-2311 ext. 279.