Bob Bretall Holds the Guinness World Record for "Largest Collection of Comic Books"

The Guinness Book of World Records announced today that there's a new reigning champ for "Largest Collection of Comic Books." Bob Bretall, a 52 year old senior director at a telecommunications software company from Mission Viejo, California now holds this title. He is a private collector who has been collecting, non-stop, since July 1970.

How big is his collection? Well, Bretall has 94,268 comics and none of any of those books counted are duplicates. Bretall began his collection at the age of 8 with AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #88, written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Romita Sr. He has not missed a month of collecting since then. He currently buys ore than 140 issues a month, which add to his collection. When asked about the value of his collection, Bretall had this to say in an interview with GWR:

I do not like to emphasize the monetary aspects of collecting comics. Too many stories about comics collecting focus on how many $$ everything is worth instead of the great stories and characters. I do not do it for the money and I don’t try to rationalize it as an investment and I’m not into it to make money, I have a regular job that pays the bills just fine. I’m never going to sell any of my comics, I’ll leave that to my kids when it becomes their inheritance to do with as they will (though I hope they’ll keep at least a few of them as a remembrance).

Bretall's goal is to add AMAZING FANTASY #15 to his collection, which is the first appearance of Spider-Man, his favorite character. Sadly the issue is a bit too pricey for him. Aside form that, Bretall is a big fan of SAGA so his love for books moves outside of just the super-hero genre. Bretall is excited to be a part of GWR

It is AWESOME to be in the Guinness World Records book. Getting this record is the most extraordinary thing that has happened to me in my collecting career so far. Whenever hear about a record like this, it’s very common for them to say “I know a guy who knows a guy who has WAY more comics”. My response is that records are made to be broken, and those people with more comics should be applying to Guinness to break my record! Just remember, you cannot count duplicate comics!!

Bretall will continue to collect and share his love of comics with the world on his site ComicSprectrum. What do you guys think of his collection and how large is yours?

It's beautiful

It's awesome this guy knows the real value is in the stories and personal attachment of his collection and not how much it's all worth.

He owns 94,000+ comic books and he can't drop $5000 on a copy of AF 15? That seems strange to me.

Well considering how many comics he buys each month I would assume he has very little left over, so waiting to save that much would take quite a long time.

Maybe he doesn't want to spend 5000 dollars on one comic.

Look! Look at the those wonderful Silver Age comics! First Justice League appearance, first Justice League issue, Aquaman & Aqualad's Showcase test books, the Atom first appearance, Adam Strange comics, yellow Daredevil....

I am jealous and amazed on this guys collection! I am even honored to say that I own some of the comics in this collection.

Daaaaamn. I only have about 3,000.

Wow....94,000....

Bit of a nerd eh? Just kidding. I get where he is coming from though because I know that I won't sell any of my comics, or BIONICLES either. I will leave that for my kids to decide.

It's b-u-t-full

140+ issues a month... like.. how?

@saint_wildcard: Hehe.... "But Full" (sorry, that was a little out of character but I couldn't resist)

That man is a legend.

I hate him! I hate him but I envy him!! And I love him!! I saw that pic and I hear harps.

You know that one guy who buys everything?

That's him

He is the true comic saint.

Dude has a comic book store in his house! I can only hope to one day be financially capable of doing the same.

I salute you, sir!

How could he not have AF #15 on his collection yet? He should sell half and get that And Action Comics #1 :D

A thing of pure Beauty!

Wish I was him. On second thought, wish I had his comic collection.

It's the holy grail of comic collections.

Wow Green Lantern Hal Jordan First apperance comic and Justice League 1960's. So jealous

It's probably fair to say for most of us that he has every book that is in our collections.

Last I checked, AF 15 can go for over a million dollars. Usually it's at least a few hundred thou. I wonder what his most rare/valuable book is?

i remember when he was on and episode of DC All Access, and they interviewed him and went to his house and later in the episode they talked to the director of DC's archival library in Burbank, Ca and said that Bretall has some comics from DC that the official archive is missing, just goes to show how fucking awesome this man is.

also im super stoked on hearing that he is from SoCalifornia; pretty rad, makes me almost proud haha

can we also talk about the lucky Comic Shop owner who has this man as his weekly/monthly customer droppin' hundreds of dollars consistently at his or her shop keepin' them in business for, god knows how long. i bet the Shop Owner makes a lot of others very very jealous/envious hahaha

WOW

impressive

I think I would pass out from awesomness if I went into that room.

Slightly envious at both his collection and the fact he can afford some of the stuff he has

Nice! But didn't the Amazing Spiderman 1 video game come with a digital copy of Amazing Fantasy 15 if you collect enough comic pages? That's how I got my copy. Or does he want a physical copy of the comic?

That's so cool. I don't have an original AF #15 but I do have a reprint of it that came in a box-set when the first Spider-Man movie came out. Got that thing signed by Mister Lee couple years ago.

To think that's just a room in one man's home and it has as many, if not more comics than a LCS

I wonder does he collect trades? If so how did Guinness count those?

Oh Man, will my room/collection look the same in 30 years? XD

I buy at least 140 comics a month, too. And I have hardly time to read them all. x_x
Currently I have 2.238 issues in my collection and this does not include the trades and the tons of manga. And I started reading US comics in 2012! *lol*

I AM SUCH A FREAK!

I own like 100 single issues I think. Maybe more. I'm reallllllllllllly jealous.

He does know that he could get an issue of Amazing Fantasy 15 when he buys an early generation version of Spider-Man from the Marvel Legends toyline, right?

@blackshark: Seriously ?! Daaang, that's like 4 issues a day, how's that even possible :O

@life_without_progress: Probably doesn't want a reprint.

Here's my contribution to "reaction images from popular animated shows:"

I WANT EM ALL!!!

Look's like he does, there's some thicker-than-singles books on the shelf closest to the camera.

Wow. That's just... It's beyond words...

So, Dondave?

how do you read all the new comics? i often re-read the previous issue before reading a new one, thirty days is a long time. if he is buying so many new issues every month, it must be even more difficult to follow all the storylines with a month in between, staggered releases, delays, crossovers, etc...

if he read Infinity, i would be curious to know how he tackled that with everything else he is following

@jean_dezem Well, I buy (nearly) everything from Marvel + DC and some stuff from Image, Valiant and other publishers. I am nearly at my financial limit, but it feels so good to buy everything you want. :D

But it is really difficult to read everything. XD I am WAY behind. Currently I am reading DC stuff from January and Marvel stuff from June. I made the mistake that I did not read many comics for a few weeks and now I must deal with the huge stacks in my comic room. :D But it's okay. I am behind but that does not mean I can't have fun with the storylines. :)

@battlewingus Well, I don't know how Mr. Bretall does it, but I skim through the previous issues before I start a new one. But I admit that it is not easy to follow all these different stories. After reading an issue I do a "mental summary", so it is easier for me to remember what I read.

That's wow! I wish I had a room with that many comics.......I reallly like what he said about the value of his comics.

Utterly speechless.

Boy, I thought having close to 10,000 was a lot...it is but a pittance :( But good for him, I hope he continues the trend, and it would be great if his kids could take over adding to the collection; they could turn it into museum gallery later on.

@mrtummytumms: @saint_wildcard: @madeinbangladesh: @xwraith:

NEEEEEEEEEEERDS!!!