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[Biff!Bang!Pow!!]

  I am mainly interested in the olden days before "comic book stores" when you peeked in to see that circular , spinning wire rack with the metal sign on the top that read " Hey Kids , Comics !"
The days when the now high dollar eBay collectibles were just brand new 10-12 cent comic books to read and enjoy.
I am talking about you fellow "old guys" that used to hop on your bike with a pocket full of change and scoured the corner markets, mom n pops and liquor stores in your neighborhood !

[FinFangFoom]

Oh yeah , don't get me started ! 
Back in the 60s I took many detours on my way home from school to hit my favorite stops . I can only remember the names of a few ( getting old) ...but Oh yeah !

   I have a story for just about every comic I still own : where I got it, when I got it.
My favorite stops were liquor stores along a main street I walked to get to  school.
I never failed to stop on my way home.  None of them had any new comics but they were anywhere from 2 or 3 years old to  a few months old --all 10 cents each.

[crashryan]

I remember buying most of my comics off the wire rack in the Owl Drugstore in Snohomish, Washington. I was always excited when we went shopping in the nearby city (Everett) where a big drugstore called Pay 'n' Save displayed their comics on magazine racks. It was there I saw my first "Fantastic Four." It was the Puppet Master's first appearance. I remember thinking, "What an ugly cover!" I was turned off by the huge balloons surrounded by thick lines and by the sickly pale color scheme. So I passed it up for "Flash" and "Green Lantern," which seemed much classier. I really knew how to call 'em.

The Tower comics came out while I was in high school and I immediately fell in love with "THUNDER Agents." For some reason our local comics distributor didn't carry them. To buy Towers we had to talk Dad into driving us twenty miles to a little town in the foothills which was serviced by a different distributor. Consequently I missed a few issues and was very sad.

[narfstar]

I was raised very rural. I was between two towns both less than 1000 population. In the town where my dad lived, where I went most often, was a spinner rack I spun many times. The other town had a drugstore with the old fashioned soda counter. It had long wooden racks with comics and magazines. I so remember haunting both to get all six of the books that came when Tales to Ast, TOS and ST split and later Kirby's 4th World. We went once a month to the supermarket in the city. They had the Charlton Action Heroes and Cracked Magazine. I do not remember any of them carrying the quarter comics from Tower, MF or Milson. I got those elsewhere. I remember the local barbers allowing me to swap comics. They did not care what they had so long as they had something.

[paw broon]

As I said somewhere else on CB+, prior to 1959 American comics weren't distributed in Scotland/U.K. So as a pre-teen who loved comics and read anything he could get his grubby paws on, I only experienced British and occasionally, Australian comics.  (Apart from the odd newspaper section or DC that someone had been sent from a relative in N. America.)  Spinners were seldom seen in newsagents and in Airdrie, a fair sized Scottish town, 12 miles from Glasgow, there were a few newsagent shops which had comics - Beano, Dandy, Eagle, Marvelman, School Friend, etc. and pocket libraries such as Super Detective and Thriller Picture Library.  The shop I remember best was next door to the Pavilion Cinema and was run by 2 older ladies (well I thought they were old!) and had a wooden couuter with newspapers, mags and some piles of comics.  Above their heads were suspended  various publications on a string.  This shop was special because you could sometimes find Aus. comics and to me they were exotic.  Imagine the excitement generated by one of those early Frew Phantom covers on a wee boy who was not that aware of Ameican superheroes.
By the '60's, american comics were available in local shops and spinners weremore visible but  some of these shops were simply too small with not enough floor space to have them and comics were piled on the counter.  Distribution was patchy so you never knew when a new bundle would turn up but fortunately, comics didn't really feature continued stories, so as long as I got my Batman fix, I didn't care.
Later when I was working, I discovered a 2nd hand shop in Bridgeton, Glasgow (no go area after dark and none too safe at times in broad daylight) that had PILES of old comics and that is where I made acquaintance with Kirby's 4th World and got back into the comics I had given up for a while because I was supposed to be "grown up".

[FinFangFoom]

 Great thread ! You guys are starting to get my brain sparks firing again !

  crashryan --- I grew up in 1960s Compton , CA and I share a similar experience trying to coerce my dad into taking me to a couple of stores way out of my neighborhood.
DC and Marvel comics were only sold at big name stores like Thrifty Drugstores and Sav-on Drugs which were pretty far from my home. My only chance to see new comics was when my folks went shopping.

  For some reason none of the local neighborhood markets carried new books, much less DC or Marvel .
Even way back then I got the impression that store owners could get these cheap so they stocked up and sold them for 10 cents.
This got me very familiar with 3/4 cover Charlton, Tower & AGC comics. 

  When you mentioned Tower comics it brought back a flood of memories with Dynamo , Thunder Agents , No-Man etc.  There was only one little neighborhood market near my best friends' house that sold Tower Comics. The part of town it was in was mainly Hispanic and the market sold primarily mexican foods .
I never even considered going there to look for comics  ! It was called "La Paloma" and it was on Willowbrook ave in Compton.

   My best buddy was hispanic so he used to go the "La Paloma " market a lot with his mom.
One day I went to visit and he pulled out his newest batch of comics.  What a thrill it was to see  Thunder Agents , Dynamo , No-Man, Undersea Agents for the first time...and these had full covers !
I asked him where did he find them and he said : " let's go there !" 

  We hopped on our bikes and pedaled as fast as we could to the store. Once inside he took me to the wooden magazine rack where there were all kinds of mexican wrestling and boxing magazines & novela magazines. Off to one side near the bottom was a section with tons of mexican comics .  this was the first time I saw " Kali-Man " comics.  Mixed in that pile where a bunch of Tower comics with  " 10 cents" rubberstamp marked on the cover.
That day I walked out of there with warren magazine EERIE #17 , 3 Tower  Thunderagents and a No-Man comic. That "La Paloma" market was the only place that I ever found Tower comics !

[Captain Audio]

The town I live in looked much like the worst sections of Gotham city when I was a youngster. No bull, wooden water tanks on crumbling old buildings, deserted warehouses, Civil War era mansions on the ends of the main street, the wreckage of a blown up WW2 era factory still standing , and a run down railway station near the center of town.
Over the old pool hall there still stands a 19th century bell tower. Spooky enough for vampires to hang out in.

My uncle owned a family dry cleaning store (with steam pressing and hat blocking service) on a side street across from the movie theatre. A couple of doors closer to the tracks was an old shoe store that also sold used household items. There were two large tables loaded down with ancient comic books. You could pay three cents for a comic book then once you finished it you brought it back for two cents credit on your next purchase.
More recent comics in better condition might be priced at five cents.

[bowers]

When I was a young kid in Spokane,WA , all the supermarkets had a table and benches or chairs next to the comic spinners. Our parents could do their shopping and know exactly where to find us when they were done. My favorite place to buy was a Walgren's near Northtown. Close to my house and TWO spinners! As a teen, I would walk past the Nevada St. Pharmacy on my way to school. Every Wednesday morning there would be a bale of comics left at the door before the shop opened. I was able to sneak a peek at what I would be buying on my way home that afternoon. For used comics, everyone went downtown to the thrift shops or, my personal mecca, Clarke's Old Book Store. An eight foot table of used comics, stacked high and dirt cheap. After the owner got to know you, you were allowed in the back room where all the Golden-Age and pulps were kept. Cheers, Bowers

[Captain Audio]

A childhood friend had it made so far as comic books went.
His grandfather was a distributer of comic books and every month or so when his trucks picked up unsold comics from their route he would send my friend two issues of each comic, one to read and another sealed in plastic to add to his collection.

[Powder Solvang]

Man oh man!
This thread is dredging up some fond memories for me! Thank you all!
I the 1960's my parents sent me to a school in a Lutheran church in downtown Greenville, SC.
Every day after school I would ride a city bus to Inman's Pharmacy where my Mother would pick me up. I perused the comic book rack at Inman's while waiting for her to show up. I made a lot of acquisitions there including my first Flash comic (#174), my first Justice League (#57) Showcase 75 (The Hawk And The Dove) and Captain America 100.
Across the street from Inman's was The Pickwick Pharmacy. The Pickwick was THE COOLEST PLACE IN TOWN if you were a kid! It consisted of two buildings in a strip sopping center with an archway between them. One side was a toy store. That's where I got my Batman Utility Belt, G.I.Joe gear and Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. The other side was a drug store with a comic book rack.
Inman's is gone now but The Pickwick remains. (but without toys or comics)

http://www.flickr.com/scmikeburton/3293631186/in/set-72157600037299382

www.thepickwick.net

[narfstar]

People became more willing to go farther and the little locals went away. The one place I mainly got comics is an insurance agency now. I have not checked in many years to know if the other place is still a little store or not. Greenville is big enough that you had a lot of choices Powder. But back in the day, a small town had a couple grocery stores, a drug store, a few gas stations, a hardware store and more. Now they do not even have a single gas station.

[jimmm kelly]

My father never had a car until he was in his 50s and I was a teen. I walked everywhere. Once I was in my teens, I started to walk further and further beyond our neighbourhood and I discovered Mom and Pop stores that got their comics in weeks earlier than the ones in my area. So it became my habit to walk for miles in search of new comics.

I still don't have a car and I've never got my driver's license. So I walk or bus everywhere (used to cycle but not much anymore).

Not too sound too arrogant, but I think our planet would be better off if more people followed that example.

[paw broon]

Not quite on topic.  This article on "My Little Underground" should be of interest, given the decline in the outlets for comics as mentioned by narfstar:-
http://g1rm.wordpress.com/2014/08/17/what-do-comic-retailers-offer-in-the-21st-century/

Because, in the UK comics could be found in many newsagents throughout the country.  There was a huge range of titles and genres which slowly disappeared with the shrinking of the UK comics publishing sector.  Direct distribution took away comics from most of these outlets and  fans could only find their fix in dedicated comic shops.  And as there were no more spinners, no more piles of comics on counters throughout the land, readers of comics just stopped.  Unless they were near one of the population centres with a comic shop.  Even if you were, you might not know it was there.  Newsagents carried fewer and fewer British comics because the industry was imploding. 
Not like the '50's and '60's. 
One of the other places to find comics back then was The Barras in Glasgow.  A rambling, clarty, at times smelly, sprawling market near the centre of Glasgow.  Some of the thousands of stalls had piles of 2nd. hand comics - mostly American.  Even pre-distribution, American comics occasionally turned up via the docks or the American base.  Even today there is a comics stall. Here's the website, the section on its history:-
http://www.glasgow-barrowland.com/market/history.htm

[jimmm kelly]

So no comics in train stations in Britain anymore?

[Powder Solvang]

Greenville is big enough that you had a lot of choices Powder. But back in the day, a small town had a couple grocery stores, a drug store, a few gas stations, a hardware store and more.

True enough. My cousins lived in nearby Easley, SC which at that time was a small town. And while Greenville certainly had more places that sold comics my cousins had easier access. Easley then consisted of a small downtown business district surrounded by a few residential blocks. As a result they could easily walk or bike to the stores. I needed a lift from an adult. Easley has grown a lot since then and now covers a greater area with a lot of neighborhoods too great a distance from shopping centers for little kids to easily access them.

[paw broon]

jimmm, no.  Most big train stations have a branch of WH Smith and in some you might find Judge Dredd Megazine and the off DC Thomson collection plus those toddler comics wrapped in polythene with a toy included.  Even the WHS in my local high st. has the British DC and Marvel reprints, Commando, Beano, Megazine and that's about it. 

[Coleoptere]

Here in the Philippines, a local bookstore and publisher, National Bookstore, often reprinted issues of American comics. Some comics were also available at the newsstands. Today, National still sells comics, but mostly trade paperbacks and manga. And most comics are in specialty stores.

[stubby]

Hi, I grew up in rural Alabama and comics was 8-20 miles away. I first found comics at the local 5 & 10 (V-J Elmores) they had a wooden rack that was low to the floor and I was 7 years old, so it worked great for me. Could get Superman, Batman and all of their titles. Fox and Crow was a favorite and also Sugar & Spike. First comic I ever read was Justice League 13. First comic I bought was World's Finest 129 (I own both issues now). Later I found several places that sold comics in spinner racks but had to wait a few years to be able to get comics from the top of the rack. A few years later I found Marvel Comics at a local Mom & Pop store where I went to school. That day I found Spider-Man 10, 14 and 21, Avengers 5, Fantastic Four 23, 30, 33 and 35. Thor 140, 142 and 144.

[narfstar]

Yeah stubby graduating from DC to Marvel was common for those our age at that time. I have found that many of us have the fondest memories of the DC more so than the marvels.

[jimmm kelly]

I came from a rough neighbourhood so a lot of kids my age got into drugs and gangs when they graduated from DC.

I didn't. And I didn't get into Marvel either. Not that one leads to the other--but probably in my mind at that time it seemed a slippery slope and I thought it better to stay away from one for fear of the other.

Side note: In fact Sonny Bono set me straight. They showed this fillm in school where Sonny warned us off of pot and that was good enough for me.

Sure I tried the odd Marvel comic like CONAN THE BARBARIAN and HOWARD THE DUCK. But I was timid about getting in too deep with the Marvel super-heroes for where it might lead.

I became disillusioned with DC around 1968 when I was ten--but that was because I thought their comics were getting a bit too grown-up and too radical for my taste. Plus I was saving up for a chemistry set. The comics I tried during this down period (which lasted a couple of years) were Archie, Harvey and Gold Key--not Marvel.

By the time I came back to DC, they were at the right level for my age. I wish they had stayed that way.

[narfstar]

Interesting Jimmm

[K1ngcat]

Till I was about 13 I lived in a small area of Essex (now I think probably considered part of "Greater London") called Chadwell Heath.  It had three newsagents that sold comics in wire racks, but they all seemed to have different suppliers. 

The one in the middle of the High Street, nearest Woolworths, used to have comics from a particular publishing house (somebody else here will know the name) that included a couple of characters started up by Jack Kirby - I remember The Fly, and a Captain America lookalike (The Shield?) who appeared under the title The Double Life Of Private Strong. 

Up the other end of the road was a shop that always had IW/Super comics so I got titles like Plastic Man, Blue Beetle, The Spirit, Phantom Lady and assorted others.  And across the road, right by the cinema was a little shop that stocked Charlton, I remember going there regularly to look for Space Adventures when they began to debut Captain Atom.

[73042helloworld]

I've been using CB+ for a few years now with very few comments, but have decided to address this subject because I think that I'm pretty typical in some things and unique in others. 
My first comic books were read to me by my mother when I was three or four in the mid 1940s.  All I remember of them were two characters -- one with a steel hat with wings on it wore a red shirt and the other wore a blue outfit with a yellow (golden) metal helmet.

We moved from the Ozarks to Washington state when I finished the first grade in 1949 and across the street from our first home was a gas station that sold comic books.  It was there I met the heroes of DC, Fawcett, Quality and Dell.  I remember a small (digest size) western that, in retrospect reminds me of Kid Colt, but my favorites quickly became the Marvel Family from Fawcett.

We returned to Piedmont, Missouri after a year and lived in town instead of up in the hills.  That's where comics became a necessity.  I'd hop on my bike, ride downtown to the Ben Franklin 5-and-10 and stand by their comic stand reading for an hour or so, then go next store to Childress Drug Store and do the same and finally to Toney's Drugs down on the next corner for more reading.  I could only buy one comic a week because my allowance was 25 cents and the Saturday Matinee was 10 cents (same price as a comic) and a soda-pop was a nickle.  We kids NEVER missed the matinee because of the cliffhanger serials show in those years.  (Incidently, Piedmont has grown to about 1900 population in 2010.)

There were two second hand stores that sold coverless and 3/4 cover back issues.  The coverless were a nickle and the 3/4 were seven cents.

In 1956 , we again moved to Washington state and there I found ways to make money loading hay for 75 cents and hour for 2 or 3 months in the summer and consequently found that all the grocery stores and drug stores in town of Shelton, as well as the hotel sold new comics.

When the re-boot era began in 1985, I tried to continue but felt cheated by DC and never really cared for Marvel, but held on at DC until the next big boot by DC and then decided that was enough.  I began hunting back issues and trading.  I already had all of the CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED (my all-time favorite).  I got bored and eliminated most of my collection (stupid me) and scanned the remainder.  I have spent the last 20 years collections scans of a lot of stuff from what is now called public domain and that's why and that's how I came to CB+.

[jimmm kelly]

On Canada Way, I remember that the second-hand book and comics store was opposite Mrs. Ryan's drugstore (where the new comics were sold). To get from our house, on the edge of Vancouver, to Burnaby, where Mrs. Ryan's and the second-hand store were located, my sister and I had to cross Boundary Road.

I had to go with my sister (two years older than me), because Boundary Road and Canada Way were both very busy streets, not that safe for a little kid. In the second-hand store, my sister bought the MAN FROM UNCLE paperbacks. I don't remember what price they were--maybe ten cents. I recall a regular-size comic would sell for 5 cents, if it had a cover--but 2 cents if it was coverless.

That was a dusty and gloomy store--not very big but packed with books and magazines--and the comics were right at the back on the floor. The man who worked there was also dusty and gloomy--but this might be my childhood imagination playing tricks on me.

This was in the 1960s. The prices went up to 10 cents, when the cover price of new comics also went up in the early '70s. But I don't believe that store lasted very long into that decade.

[crashryan]

I commented earlier on my youthful comics buying but everyone else's memories have brought back earlier memories. I was in fourth grade when we moved to Snohomish, Washington, where I bought comics at the Owl Drugs. We moved to Washington when Dad retired from the Navy and was looking for a new job (he'd joined up very young and was still in his forties after 22 years in the service). Up until then the family had bounced around a bit.

I first got into comics through newspaper strips. We lived in the Philippines from 1954-1956. My folks would buy the Sunday Manila Times, an English-language paper with a big Sunday comics section. The strips I remember best are Brick Bradford and The Phantom. I went crazy for comics and that's when I first started trying to draw them (age 9--not a child prodigy!). I never lost my love for newspaper continuity strips. Who knew that 30 years later I'd be drawing a couple of them?

We next spent nearly three years in Alabama. That's where I started buying comics. Or rather, where my parents started buying comics. My folks would buy comic books for my brother and me when we went shopping. My first love was Dell TV/movie adaptations. To this day they, and adaptations of novels like the Zane Grey stories, are my favorite comics.

I don't remember Fawcett comics and I don't remember horror comics of any kind. Mom would've nixed them, anyway. I don't recall seeing a Charlton until we moved to Washington. The drugstore didn't carry them, but being a retiree Dad had commissary privileges. We'd go to buy groceries at the naval base in Seattle. Its commissary had a big comics rack with all kinds of stuff, including Charltons.

Guess what--I could tell the difference even then. Already an art freak--Bill Molno and Charles Nicholas were no match for Alberto Giolitti and Wallace Wood!