Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: fiction house, sheena

Eldon's Copies of Four Issues of Jumbo Comics, Up for Auction

The Golden Age comic book collection that collectors call the "Eldon Pedigree" has become popular with collectors, but there's an interesting twist.

As we've noted in posts about Lamont Larson, the Promise Collection, and Edgar Church among others over the years, provenance has always been important to serious comic book collectors.  Comic books are more than the sum of their contents, and sifting through the echoes of comics history, which includes the readers who bought them, is valuable. The stories of the people who created, published, distributed, sold, and purchased comic books throughout the decades helps us understand what the world was like during those times.  This is why CGC denotes a number of comic book pedigree collections on their labels.  The Eldon Pedigree collection is every bit as interesting as some of the more famous comic book pedigrees, particularly because the backstory comes with an unexpected twist.  There are copies of four issues of Jumbo Comics from the Eldon Pedigree at the 2024 July 7-9 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122428 at Heritage Auctions.

The Eldon Pedigree was officially designated by CGC in 2019 in an announcement that included five newly recognized pedigree collections.  Details about the scope and nature of the collection had been emerging in recent years as collectors connected and compared notes on the internet.  The collection had become noteworthy to vintage comic book buyers because it is readily identified by the handwritten name "Eldon" on the cover or elsewhere on the comics. One prerequisite of a pedigree designation is that the collection must primarily have been accumulated by an original owner who bought the comic books off the newsstand. But in a fascinating plot twist, it would appear that the backstory for this pedigree, as described by CGC, focuses on the wrong original owner.

Incredibly, based on years of accumulated evidence on the CGC forums and elsewhere, it can be conclusively determined that there were three comic-collecting Eldons who wrote their names on the covers of their comics during the Golden Age and whose comics have come to the attention of collectors.  Most confusingly, two of these comic book readers wrote their name "Eldon" in cursive on their comics, lived in neighboring midwestern states, and went on to serve in the Korean War, and this is the crux of the questions about the background of the Eldon Pedigree. Fortunately, the details and differences between the comic books owned by the three Eldons can be determined from mailing labels and filled-out coupons on the comic books and from a close examination of the handwriting among other elements.

Eldon John Hamman, (1934-1987) of Rock Rapids, Iowa had a subscription to True Comics in the late 1940s via his father.  Of course, the mailing labels and a handwritten full name "Eldon Hamman" (along with his sister Iva's name) on at least one occasion definitively links these comics to Hamman. A close look at the handwriting on these comics reveals that the "E" and "l" almost always connect together at the bottom, and that the handwriting overall has a relatively smooth, confident style.  As of this writing, there appears to be no conclusive evidence that any Eldon Hamman comic books besides issues of True Comics have come to market.  It is Hamman who has been linked to the Eldon Pedigree by CGC, but because of these details, this appears to be an error.

Eldon Dedini (1921-2006) was a noted cartoonist whose work appeared in Esquire, the New Yorker and Playboy among others.  In 2010, Philip Weiss Auctions sold a number of comics from what was described as Dedini's "massive collection" of late 1930s to early 1940s comic books which he purchased off of the newsstand, many in high grade and with many keys present.  These comics usually included a prominent number code on the cover, sometimes without a name, sometimes with Dedini's full name "Eldon Dedini" hand printed in block capitals , and sometimes with just the last name "Dedini" used as well.  There is little room for confusion between known comics from the Eldon Dedini collection and the other Eldons due to obvious handwriting differences, the very prominent number codes, and no known examples of first-name-only usage.  That said, if the true scope of the collection is as Weiss described in 2010, the Dedini collection might someday merit a pedigree of its own.

Eldon M. Tuffentsamer (1928-1978) of Morton, Illinois had wide ranging interests in a number of publishers including Fiction House, Lev Gleason, Fawcett, DC Comics, and Marvel among others from roughly 1940-1945.  Tuffentsamer wrote his name in a printed handwriting style in many of the earlier issues of the collection, before switching to cursive.  His cursive style always loops the "E" at the bottom rather than connecting it to the "l" as Hamman did, and is often a somewhat more cramped style.  There are a number of elements that connect Tuffentsamer to this much larger body of comics, including the use of "Tuffy" (likely a nickname based on his last name) on some books, "Eldon M. T." (first name plus initials) and even his full name can also be found.  Critically, there is at least one instance of his cursive style on the front cover and a coupon filled out in his printed handwriting style on the back cover of the same comic which links both styles to Tuffentsamer.  The signature on his 1946 draft registration card also perfectly matches the cursive writing on his comic books.  Outside of the True Comics issues linked to Hamman and the distinctive elements of the Dedini comics, a large body of evidence supports linking all other Eldon comic books to Tuffenstamer as of this writing.  In other words, Eldon M. Tuffentsammer is "the correct Eldon" of the Eldon Pedigree.

Tuffentsamer was a lifelong resident of Morton, Illinois and an army veteran of the Korean War.  Prior to entering the service in November 1950, he had worked in the auto repair shop of the Morton Ford dealership. According to military records, he was seriously wounded in action by a missile in October 1951 in North Korea, returning to duty the next January.  He reached the rank of Corporal before his August 1952 discharge. Eldon married in 1951 and the couple had five children.  He served as a police officer in Morton 1960-1977, following in his father's footsteps in that regard, according to 1940 census records.  It appears that Eldon Tuffentsamer may have passed his love of comic books on to at least one of his children.  A 1969 Peoria Journal Star profile of his 14 year old son Ricki, a carrier for the paper, lists one of his hobbies as "commercial cartoon type drawing."

By some accounts, Eldon Tuffentsamer's comic book collection had surfaced among the collector community by the mid-1980s, and it has gained stature over the past decade or so as collectors have begun to understand the scope of the collection.  Featuring issues of a historic Golden Age title from an important pedigree collection, there are copies of four issues of Jumbo Comics from his collection at the 2024 July 7-9 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122428 at Heritage Auctions.

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