Robert maintained extensive connections with fellow collectors, dealers, and authors. His distinguished reputation as a scholar and collector, along with his remarkable expertise in the field, led other collectors to assess his collection at a significantly high value, with some estimates reaching multimillion-dollar figures. Several books within the collection could be valued between $10,000 and $50,000. Individual issues of titles such as Weird Tales can command prices as high as $1,000, representing a smaller fraction of the over 1,000 other comics in his collection. Replacing these numerous lower-value items could require many years. In 2018, the collection was appraised at a fair market value of approximately $1.5 million in Canadian dollars. Conducting a thorough inventory of the collection could assist in refining this estimate, potentially enhancing its overall value.
The strength of the collection lies in its extensive holding of works illustrating the dispersion of the vampire motif in sensationalist fiction and modern subcultures, ranging from rare pulp periodicals such as Weird Tales to comic books, mass-market paperbacks, LGBTQ2+ and pornographic treatments, manga, and spin-offs from modern and contemporary movies and television, e.g., Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, and the like.
The overall theme of Robert’s collection is fugitive or ephemeral; much is dramatically illustrated. The work of Anne Rice is represented in fine first editions, with many inscribed to Robert himself.
The collection encompasses rare books, novels, anthologies, comics, pulp fiction, periodicals, and mass-market paperbacks, including older and contemporary first editions. The primary early book is a first edition—a fair copy—of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). Numerous later editions, variations, and releases have emerged, alongside many modern imitations and subsequent creations that arose in response to the success of the original story.
The collection includes approximately 500 additional non-fiction works encompassing subjects such as anthropology, literary criticism, psychology, and his writings on vampirism across different cultural contexts. The majority of this material is quite contemporary.
Pulp periodicals, comics, and pulp fiction represent a significant reservoir of largely unexamined literature related to the vampire theme. Curating this collection was one of Robert’s fervent interests; recreating it would be virtually unfeasible, even with boundless financial resources. The condition of these items is rated as good to very good.
There are over 3,000 comic books, including the Tomb of Dracula Marvel Comics Series and pre-code (before 1954) comic books. Most are collectible and include graphic novels.
The comics collection contains 500+ non-fiction works, such as anthropology, literary criticism, psychology, and his books on vampirism in various cultural contexts. Nearly all this material is relatively modern or new.
Early Dracula films and many more modern films, such as Interview with the Vampire, are represented by VHS and other formats, posters, and other ephemeral advertising art. The small group of known “standard” rarities I was shown were mostly good copies, though some had accompanying jackets or paper wraps that were manifestly very uncommon in commerce.