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Photo inside Cherokee Book Shop 1965!!!

Started by Mutant Manatee,

55 posts in this topic

Larryw7

Larryw7

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Gary Carter and Pat Calhoun often talked about this store in Comic Book Marketplace. Calhoun mentioned getting a nice copy of BATMAN #11 for 3 bucks. He said EC's were a buck apiece, and Barks Duck books could be found in the cheap bins. Those were the days. :cloud9:

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jools&jim

jools&jim

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Mark Evanier's comments re: the Cherokee suggest that not everything was as quite as gilded as it now seems:

 

"But Burt presided over the comic book division, which was upstairs and open whenever Burt felt like being there. You’d sometimes go in and be told Burt was off surfing…so too bad. Even when open, the business revolved around Burt’s whims. No prices were marked. You had to ask him and he’d charge you whatever his mood (and his estimate of your desperation to own that issue) told him to charge. Some fans went to enormous lengths to get on Burt’s alleged good side, which I’m not sure I ever saw. Most of the time, I’d see him barking at kids to unbutton their jackets. He treated every one of us as a potential shoplifter..."

 

We had an old-school store like that here in Baltimore for years. There was actually a sign near the cash register which read: "PRICES MARKED ON BACK ISSUES MAY CHANGE WHEN YOU BRING THEM TO THE REGISTER". So it seems that great books combined with bad customer service and people skills have been with us in the hobby for a VERY long time...

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jools&jim

jools&jim

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Here's another first-hand account of the Cherokee:

 

"...Our favorite haunt was the Cherokee Bookstore - specifically the section upstairs, where the old comic books were sold. Hundreds of 1950's and 1960's comics were filed away in boxes for sale for 25 or 50 cents each. The really good stuff, however, the 1940's issues, were in plastic bags on the walls or displayed under a glass case. I distinctly recall viewing the first issue of Superman given pride of place under the glass and thinking, "Who on earth could afford paying $750 dollars for an old comic book?" I'm sure somebody did, however, and has seen his investment improve in value greatly since then.

 

The upper floor of Cherokee Books was presided over by a countercultural-looking fellow named Bert (we referred to him as Bart), who used to annoyingly practice at playing a flute. An early predecessor of the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons, he sat in an area surrounded by really clever adaptations of the Phantom plastic model made up to look like comic book characters not commercially available as plastic models (Green Lantern, the Golden Age Flash, etc.). One had to suffer through the flute playing to admire them. Like the Simpsons character, Bert had a haughty, dismissive attitude about his young clientele. We hated him, we admired him, we wanted his comic books and those models..."

 

Read more here...

 

http://wesclark.com/am/hollywood_blvd.html

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jools&jim

jools&jim

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Cool image. I blew it up a bit and sharpened it.

 

 

cherokeebookstore1965l.jpg

Pictures like that help to remind me that, despite all the bullscheiss that's accrued around this ridiculous hobby over the years, our little corner of the world would be a much poorer and much less pleasant place without it...

 

 

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comix4fun

comix4fun

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Cool image. I blew it up a bit and sharpened it.

 

 

cherokeebookstore1965l.jpg

 

Junk. They don't have a single Saga #1.

 

 

 

They are in the midst of discussion about how the Tec 27 bubble is about to burst since the Adam West Batman TV show has been cancelled.

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