Postcard - Eugene, Oregon

"Night lights atwinkle over downtown Eugene, Oregon at day's end."

Early 1980s?

Lynn Hansen's Beatles Collection

Lynn Hansen didn't just collect undergound and Newave comix, he also acquired anything to do with the Beatles.

This article isn't really quite accurate:

First, Lynn didn't leave a will regarding his estate, so far as I know. The earthly possessions he left behind were distributed by his father, Ralph. It so happened that Ralph and I had met independent of Lynn at a librarian conference in Eugene, Oregon about ten years before Lynn died. By 1995 Ralph was retired. I think he had been Head of Technical Services at Boise State University.

Being not all that familiar with Lynn's comix and music collections, Ralph approached a few of us who were Lynn's friends and asked our advice. That Lynn's comix would go to Washington State University seemed a natural choice, since he had been a generous donor when I worked at WSU and was building the collection.

But the Beatles collection was a different kind of problem. Lynn had a zillion bootlegs, which would've made selling the stuff problematic for those of us not as schooled in the nuances of the trade. WSU seemed like a good home for the Fabs material, and the school accepted them.

An inventory of the collection can be found online at the WSU website.

A couple years after acquiring the collection, WSU held an exhibit of some of the material.

Secondly, Lynn and I did not meet at comics convention. Rather he first contacted me in 1981/82 when I was living in Seattle and he was in Idaho Falls. We quickly became regular correspondents as he ordered copies of every comic I published. We first met in person around 1983-1985 in Idaho Falls at his place. Over the years he was our house guest here in McCleary several times.

OK, I've set the record straight now. And even after all these years I still miss the guy and continue to wonder about many of the little mysteries he left behind.