First comic store

[RedFury]

Mine was R&B Comics, a small two-store chain in Abington and Montgomeryville, PA, back in 1984. I still remember the feeling of wonder when I first walked through those doors.

[blutobc]

1977, The Great Escape, Nashville

 

Still my LCS to this day

 

Yep, that was my first true comic book store too. 1st visit in 1980. I was in comic book heaven.

 

However, my 1st place to buy a comic was "Tom's Cigar" store in my hometown circa 1972. He was kind enough to place the comics right next to the girlie magazines.

It was the kind of place where the smoke was so heavy and the lights so dim that no crusading gal or girly-man would ever have entered to complain about the set-up.

 

1st place to see a back-issue comic was 1976, Green Acre's Flea Market in Maryville, TN. Picked up a VFish copy of Captain America #110 and my love for old comics and Captain America began. :cloud9:

[joeypost]

We had a little cnady shop on the corner by us that had 2 spinner racks full of comics. Can't remember the name of it to save my life.

 

Firat back issues I purchased were off Richie Muchin out of his van at the Aqueduct Flea-Market in Queens NY.

[Mister_Comics]

For me, way back when I was a kid, it was SUPER's. That was around 1955. Bought almost all my comics from there. DC's, MARVEL's, Charton's, DELL's, CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED. We had a few other mom & pop stores in the nieghborhhood, but SUPER's had all the new books that came out. SUPER's was part drug store, part comics and mags. It was just down the block from the school that I went too. A couple times during the week after school I would go there and get all the new books that came out. The store closed in '72. A lot of the mom & pop stores were starting to close back then. By the 80's they were all gone. But a couple of comic book stores openned near by that I would go to often. There was also the newsstand that sold comics. Not as many comics as the stores had but you could as least get most of the DC's and MARVEL's. To me it seems it was easier for a kid to get comics then it is today. The only place you see nieghborhood stores today are in the small towns. And then there is the internet. Kind of taken the fun out of comic collecting for me. Miss those old days of comic collecting.

[Jayman]

First store I bought a comic in was a little mom and pop store named "Hydes" in Silver beach, NJ.

During the 70's that is where I got most of my Bronze Horror, Warren and Skywald mags.

 

My first "official" comic book only store was the Passaic Book Store, Passaic NJ which was an awesome store to see back in the day...ah, memories...

[seank]

When I was 13, we lived in Hawaii for six months or so. My brother and I were recently into comics and getting into them more and more. The first true comic shop we went to was in Hawaii. We also used to go to the local swap meet every weekend or two and spend our allowances on comics. There was a vendor who sold old books. I remember getting a Daredevil 50 and loving it because it was the oldest Daredevil I'd ever seen. That was a special book for a long time.

[jimjum12]

Tales Resold located in Raleigh, NC

and still exists today.

 

 

 

My first regular stop for comics was a newstand near North Hills Mall in Raleigh starting in 67 (?)....FF 75,ASM 58,AVENGERS 56,DD 45,SUBBY 8,IM 8,HULK 109,THOR 155 were among my first.I didn't actually see a comic store until the early 80's .My first convention was aruond 1974....I was BLOWN AWAY. Those were the days....pure collecting, no worries about speculation,etc. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[Rommin]

Titan Books and Comics. What a cool place it was Mainly only because the only other place to buy comics was off the spinner rack or at the flea market!

 

There was a large awesome store near North Lake Mall (for you in the area) which ran circles around all others around here, but I forget the name of it. All I remember is, when it was time to buy back issues, we went there FIRST!

 

-B

[PeasOfCrap]

The Jokers Child, Fairlawn NJ 1989

 

its still there and i even wrote a letter about it when i first discovered comics to The Tick and got published.

[nearmint]

I bought new comics for years from a local convenience store called U-Tote-Em, but the first "real" comic book store I visited was Fantasy Illustrated in Garden Grove, CA, probably around 1979. The store has been closed for years, but the owner, Dave Smith, still uses the same business name selling predominantly pulps via mail order. He now lives outside of Seattle.

 

There was also a shop in Fountain Valley, CA called "The Land of Oohs & Ahs" run by a strange character named John Fulce. He eventually sold the store to his assistant manager, who later sold to Mile High Comics during Chuck's ill-fated attempt to take over the Southern California market.

[Rich_Henn]

Growing up in Bumphuck NY, where the sheep are scared and the cows are nervous, there are no comic shops.

HOWEVER...the one small store in the center of "town" did have a rack screwposted into the wall just on the left side of the entrance door as you came in.

There were Richie Rich, Jackie Jokers, Hotstuff comics...a few marvels and DCs.

 

My Dad would get me the Harvey stuff (remember UNICEF? ) and I remember getting Marvel Double Feature 24, which happened to be the last issue of that series but ended on a cliffhanger. Reprinting some of the ToS I think...but i never found out how Captain America and Black Panther escaped from Barron Zemo. To this day, I never was able to read the last part of that story.

 

Mom would get me comics from the flea market with no covers, but this store had a few older comics behind the counter (for whatever reason, I don't know...unreturned?) which is where I picked up spider-man comics for the first time and the first spidey story I ever read was a Marvel Tales reprinting the story where he's looking at his blood on the slide in the microscope, losing his powers and it ENDS! CLIFFHANGER!

(of course we would later learn he had the flu...)

That was what...1975 I think that I had that comic? 1976 latest?

 

It wasn't until I was in Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester NY that I discovered EMPIRE COMICS.

 

THAT was my first foray into a comic shop and I never wanted to leave.

My Dad, on the other hand, couldn't get me out fast enough. A 2 hr. + drive back home, he was always in a hurry and was pretty much "get in and get out of there. You've got 10 minutes!"

 

 

[the blob]

West Side Comics in Manhattan was on the way home from school. Typical shop with a creepy owner. Back then, of course, tons of older stuff because this was the 70's and 80's. Priced aggresively, although there was always some stuff worth reading in the 3/$1 box. Apparently he would get tons of silver age comics because back then collections walked in the door as kids moved out of their folks' apartment in the projects nearby or whatever and he'd get a steady stream of janitors selling him boxes of comics tenants threw out. Had an AF 15 up on the wall for a long time as well as the typical SA keys. He'd rarely pay more than 5 cents each for anything.

 

I remember one time he ticked some guy off with a lowball offer and the guy sat out in front of his store giving his comics away rather than selling them for 5 cents (or less). I was like 10 or 11 and the guy kindah creeped me out (fear of abduction or whatever) so I only took a few, didn't want to further tick him off by being greedy. at the time I was into hulk (got some worthless late 70's issues) and x-men (got some beat up later byrne issues), so, of course, I skipped over the nice early 70's Spideys he had in the box. Dumb dumb dumb.

[DrWatson]

I think it was called the Hobby Shop in Knoxville. Most of my books were purchased off the spinner rack at Carl Ownby's General Store and Stewart's Drug Store.

[the1stfo]

Collector's Choice, also in Knoxville on the strip around 1989. Originally went there looking for baseball cards but once I started looking at the comic books my baseball card hobby ended.

[DrWatson]

Collector's Choice, also in Knoxville on the strip around 1989. Originally went there looking for baseball cards but once I started looking at the comic books my baseball card hobby ended.

I remember them. They also had a store in Cleveland, Tennessee. I had a mail order subscription service through them for years. That's where my two Uncanny X-Men 9.9s came from along with a slew of 9.8s.

[the1stfo]

The best thing I got from there was an ASM 300 for $1.00 I think I forced my dad to take me to their Cleveland store at some point but that may have been somewhere else. Have you had any books that you bought there slabbed and come back restored? This happened to a friend of mine on two books from there.

[cloudofwit]

1977, The Great Escape, Nashville

 

Still my LCS to this day

 

 

As a 14-year-old in 1981, I bought my ASM #1 from them at their booth at the Atlanta Comics and Fantasy Fair. Until I had it slabbed in 2005, it still was in its bag from that day, along with their sticker on it.

[Rich_Henn]

1977, The Great Escape, Nashville

 

Still my LCS to this day

 

 

As a 14-year-old in 1981, I bought my ASM #1 from them at their booth at the Atlanta Comics and Fantasy Fair. Until I had it slabbed in 2005, it still was in its bag from that day, along with their sticker on it.

 

What grade did it get? :think:

[innocuous]

Ralph's Comic Corner in Ventura, CA, 1981. He literally was in the back corner of an antique shop. The new comics were in spinner racks. He could fit no more than 3 or 4 customers at a time.

[paperheart]

supersnipe in NYC, summer 1975 or 1976. biggest purchase was VFish copy of ASM #23 for $3.