A month ago in this post, I shared with you a mystery from my early days of collecting comic books. I went into a store in West Los Angeles and bought a ton of back issue Charlton Comics…one perfect condition copy of everything they'd published for two years. I couldn't figure out how or why someone thousands of miles away from the company's offices would or could assemble such a collection.
About a dozen of you sent me your guesses, none of which made me say, "Aha! That's probably it!" But then yesterday, I received an e-mail from a reader of this site named Miron Murcury. Miron sent me some scans and this message…
I have a possible and plausible answer to your question. As you can see in the scan of the inside front cover to Peacemaker number 4, Charlton had an (a-hem) "advertising office" in nearby Pasadena, CA at 495 So. Arroyo Pkwy. Murray Bothwell is the listed ad rep. The address now houses a K-9 Loft.
We'll probably never know for sure but that comes closer to a believable solution than anything that ever crossed my mind. It makes sense that a firm handling advertising sales for Charlton might receive copies of all the comics they published. It makes sense that someone at that firm — maybe Murray himself — might think, "We don't need all these comics sitting here in boxes" and take them to a used book store and trade them in. Or just give them away to someone they thought might appreciate them.
The address in Pasadena is (I looked it up) is about 24 miles from the bookshop where I bought those comics but that doesn't mean Mr. Bothwell or someone else working there or someone they gave them to didn't trade then in over in West L.A. Unless someone comes up with a more likely scenario, I'm going to hold onto this as the probable answer. Thank you, Miron.