Earliest comic shops? 0

[jerome34]

In about 1946 I was at a used magazine store on Franklin Ave in

Minneapolis. The dealer there told me about a bookstore on

Lake street that had lots of old comics. This was John Kiester's

shop and I shopped there for comics as long as I collected comics.

(Afterwards, I shopped there for science fiction pulps.) He was

one of my best friends. He died in 1960 due, at least in part,

to having been gassed in WW 1.

[Mmehdy]

Gary sold most of his ec collection to to theo and I years later...TTA1 has always been hard to get...great books....he said " you had to be there each week they came off the stands....sf comic book company rocks....

Edited June 29, 2012 by Mmehdy

[mystrymachine]

I remember a store in Anchorage Alaska in 1972. They would buy all your back issue comics for ten cents each but they had to be in nice condition.

They would then put three books of the same genre in a bag and sell them for like a dollar a bag I think. I remember selling my collection of about 50 books to them just before my family moved to California,

It was a very popular store for the young military crowd that were into comics.

[sassemble]

 

I visited my first comic shop in Columbia, Mo., in 1975. Rock Bottom, I believe, is still in business. At age 11 I couldn't believe that they kept three months worth of issues on hand so I would never miss another one. And then a year or two later I found the box with the Marvel Triple Actions. Soon after I found the Avengers box and the obsession began.

Also, another shop that is still in business as far as I know that has been open probably 40 years in Clint's Comics in Kansas City.

[Sandflea]

In 1976, at around age 12, a friend told me about a shop that sells comics and other collectibles...the shop was named 'Comics & Company":

 

 

This shop may be the 1st such comic shop in the city of Columbus (please correct me if I'm wrong). After frequenting the shop after 2 years, I was granted the chance of a lifetime by the owner...employment! RJ was also my mentor in the hobby, and will never forget such great guidance.

 

Half of my collection came from this shop...great times...

 

[lugnuts-migration]

Bob Sidebottom’s Comic Collector Shop in San Jose. I think he started it in the 1960s. I think he used us to sort through his huge stacks of books because we’d pick some out and when we’d go to the counter he’d select which ones we could buy. We often toted comics around in old beer boxes and the bums thought we had beer. And there was Hal Verb at the Berryessa Flea Market in San Jose. Hal had tons of golden age, often taped to his van in plastic bags with condensation galore.

[comicwiz]

I was visiting Memory Lane in Toronto in 1967.

 

Great clip from the CBC archives. In it, George Henderson (Memory Lane owner - store established in 1967) claims the "business" of selling comics started as an underground movement in 1951:

 

[VintageComics]

There was a comic book store I visited on Keewatin Ave (between Yonge and Mt. Pleasant, just north of Eglington) in the late 1970's or early 1980's but I can't remember what it was called.

 

I know it sounds funny but Toronto was a mecca for comic books back in the 1980's. I hear all kinds of stories about the stuff that came through the area. Stores were well established in the 1970's and 1980's.

 

I was already trying to scope out back issues by the early 1980's by hitting book stores instead of comic stores for back issues as many book stores had a comic section in the back of the store.

 

By the mid/late 1980's I was buying from Shooting Star comics in North York and Richmond Hill. Apparently I was their best customer as I was probably spending $200-300 a week there regularly on new and back issues. Bought my first DD #1, Subby #1 and god knows what else there. The owner's name was Jim and I always wondered what happened to him.

 

 

[Bookery]

 

Bonnett's Bookstore opened here in Dayton, OH in 1939 and is still operating today with the 3rd generation of family employees. From the beginning they traded in comics 2-for-1. They still sell back-issues today, but they are pretty picked over and they don't actively seek collections, though may still pick up some stuff if it walks in.

 

A few years back the 2nd-Generation owner sold off some of the stuff he kept tucked away that came in the shop early on -- an Action #1 and multiple copies of some other golden-age keys such as Sensation #1, etc. (mostly in the g-vg range, IIRC).

 

Most people around the country that have sizeable collections of older material likely have comics with the infamous "Bonnett's cover stamp" on them... so they dealt with many thousands of comics over the years.

 

 

[goldust40]

Bonnett's Bookstore opened here in Dayton, OH in 1939 and is still operating today with the 3rd generation of family employees. From the beginning they traded in comics 2-for-1. They still sell back-issues today, but they are pretty picked over and they don't actively seek collections, though may still pick up some stuff if it walks in.

 

A few years back the 2nd-Generation owner sold off some of the stuff he kept tucked away that came in the shop early on -- an Action #1 and multiple copies of some other golden-age keys such as Sensation #1, etc. (mostly in the g-vg range, IIRC).

 

Most people around the country that have sizeable collections of older material likely have comics with the infamous "Bonnett's cover stamp" on them... so they dealt with many thousands of comics over the years.

 

 

I think David Alexander has a shedload of those on ebay.

[Hepcat]

There was a comic book store I visited on Keewatin Ave (between Yonge and Mt. Pleasant, just north of Eglington) in the late 1970's or early 1980's but I can't remember what it was called.

 

That would have been Comics Unlimited. They also carried gum cards and were responsible for my diversification from just comic collecting to collecting cards as well in 1980. It's where I bought my "Funny Valentine", "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and "Man from U.N.C.L.E." card sets. By the late eighties Comics Unlimited would move to a bigger store on the southwest corner of Eglinton Ave. and Bathurst St. and rename itself Comics Unlimited/Sports Connection. When the son Daniel took over in the early nineties, he dropped the comics. By the late nineties Sports Connection moved north to a smaller location in Vaughan where it struggled along for a few more years before closing down about ten years ago.

 

I know it sounds funny but Toronto was a mecca for comic books back in the 1980's. I hear all kinds of stories about the stuff that came through the area. Stores were well established in the 1970's and 1980's.

 

Toronto was evidently a mecca for comic shops since the late sixties anyway. By early 1979 I was frequenting Comics Unlimited, Dragon Lady and Silver Snail on Queen Street West, and Queen's Comics & Collectibles on Queen Street East, which also carried cards. I wasn't aware of the store on Markham Street for a few years yet. I also journeyed to Hamilton where Paul Kenny had a comic and card shop on James Street North.

 

I was already trying to scope out back issues by the early 1980's by hitting book stores instead of comic stores for back issues as many book stores had a comic section in the back of the store.

 

Which book stores? I found that Bakka, which advertised under comics in the Yellow Pages, was really disappointing. Were you all Marvel like everybody else in those days?

 

Edited June 29, 2012 by Hepcat

[VintageComics]

Which book stores? I found that Bakka, which advertised comics in the Yellow Pages, was really disappointing. Were you all Marvel like everybody else in those days?

 

 

I was always pretty much all Marvel except for my youngest years although Batman was one DC title I kept coming back to.

 

I grew up in Scarborough (east end) so I visited local book stores close to my home like the one just off Sheppard on Glen Watford Drive next to the swimming pool there and another at the corner of Sheppard and Birchmount in the plaza...just down the street from my high school.

 

Both had a small selection of back issues in the early 1980's at the back of the store.

 

 

[burntboy]

I can remember jumping on the #23 Central Ave bus (west Orange, Orange, east Orange and Newark) with the O'Brien Brothers circa 1960, to head to downtown Newark, NJ to find two "Used Book Stores" that they'd read heard about.

 

They were both down on market street about two blocks apart. Store #1 sold their comics 7 for a Quarter and had rows of books in low/mid grade (None of which we cared about - it was all about filling holes in your collections).

 

Marvel had not "arrived" yet and we were after mostly DC's and some Atlas books.

I bought quite a few on numerous solo outings over the years, along with Sci Fi papebacks.

 

Store #2 had stacks of newer books and in 1962 I finally tracked down a copy of FF #4 (I'd never got one from Sid's and only my cousin had a copy). He sold his comics for full cover price. His stock was prety large and he also specialized in "Men's Magazines" which we were not allowed to handle.

 

Didn't actually buy in a real comic store until the early 80's in Hackettstown, NJ.

 

 

[jjonahjameson1]

There was a comic book store I visited on Keewatin Ave (between Yonge and Mt. Pleasant, just north of Eglington) in the late 1970's or early 1980's but I can't remember what it was called.

 

I know it sounds funny but Toronto was a mecca for comic books back in the 1980's. I hear all kinds of stories about the stuff that came through the area. Stores were well established in the 1970's and 1980's.

 

I was already trying to scope out back issues by the early 1980's by hitting book stores instead of comic stores for back issues as many book stores had a comic section in the back of the store.

 

By the mid/late 1980's I was buying from Shooting Star comics in North York and Richmond Hill. Apparently I was their best customer as I was probably spending $200-300 a week there regularly on new and back issues. Bought my first DD #1, Subby #1 and god knows what else there. The owner's name was Jim and I always wondered what happened to him.

 

 

Jimmy closed up shop and moved a bit further North along Yonge Street in Richmond Hill. He now operates a very small comics/cards/dvd/computer store called Chaos Comics. Back issues are from the last 10-15 years, and there's not much in the way of wall books.

[MrBedrock]

The first true comic shop in Houston was Roy's Memory Shop, started in 1970. Fandom here had actually started in 1966 with an article about local collector Gene Arnold published in the Houston Post. From there a bunch of local collectors got together and put on the first Houston Con in 1967. Around that time Roy Bonario also started selling back issues through a record store called Harmony Hut Records. By 1970 he had done well enough to open his own shop on Bissonet, selling back issues and new comics. At almost the same time a record store across the street from Roy's also started selling back issues. This store (I believe it was called Luby's) was eventually bought by T.J. Johnson and became Third Planet in the late '70s. Third Planet is still open in a different location. Roy Bonario is still alive and selling old movie paper and records on eBay, but no longer has a shop. He is really revered here. So many of my earliest memories of comic collecting are of walking into Roy's.

[Silver Surfer]

Golden Age Collectables in downtown Vancouver began in 1974 and is still there. I still remember walking in there in the late 70's as a 10-12 year old with my buddies and seeing all the early SA Marvel's [FF#5,6,12, Avengers #1 stands out in my mind] in neat display cases and on the wall. Prices were in the hundreds of dollars and here we were trying to figure out how we could spread out $20 for new releases. Such great memories, this is why I collect.

[VintageComics]

There was a comic book store I visited on Keewatin Ave (between Yonge and Mt. Pleasant, just north of Eglington) in the late 1970's or early 1980's but I can't remember what it was called.

 

I know it sounds funny but Toronto was a mecca for comic books back in the 1980's. I hear all kinds of stories about the stuff that came through the area. Stores were well established in the 1970's and 1980's.

 

I was already trying to scope out back issues by the early 1980's by hitting book stores instead of comic stores for back issues as many book stores had a comic section in the back of the store.

 

By the mid/late 1980's I was buying from Shooting Star comics in North York and Richmond Hill. Apparently I was their best customer as I was probably spending $200-300 a week there regularly on new and back issues. Bought my first DD #1, Subby #1 and god knows what else there. The owner's name was Jim and I always wondered what happened to him.

 

 

Jimmy closed up shop and moved a bit further North along Yonge Street in Richmond Hill. He now operates a very small comics/cards/dvd/computer store called Chaos Comics. Back issues are from the last 10-15 years, and there's not much in the way of wall books.

 

Wow, good to know. I'm going to drop in and say hi the next time I'm in town.

 

I used to work at VW of Richmond Hill...so I guess he's just north of there?

[Marty Mann]

FantaCo on Central Avenue in Albany, NY...went there in the late '70's.

They also ran a really good Convention in the Empire State Plaza.

 

mm

 

[Davenport]

My earliest memory of a 'comic book shop' was "Tanner Miles", late seventies. Memory is a funny thing, but in mine he came across as a "jerk" already steeped in top dollar for his stuff. The store was good for movie posters, but I don't think I bought any comics there.

 

Fantastic Worlds, early eighties, was my 1st true comic shop. Clean, welcoming, well organized, and presented a sense of the larger "fandom" going on. (Collecting comics was primarily a private activity back then). Bob Wayne, the owner, went on the become DC Comic's senior VP of marketing.

 

My strongest memory is being at the counter negotiating a trade with Bob. He repeatedly said "No" while I kept trying to convince him of the value of my stuff against his. At some point he agreed, but I kept on selling him. A death-stare and icy "I SAID YES." shut me right up. Man, I was so embarrassed.

 

(Back to Tanner Miles. Maybe I was the jerk, constantly trying too hard to work a bargain. )

[jdjunker]

In about 1946 I was at a used magazine store on Franklin Ave in

Minneapolis. The dealer there told me about a bookstore on

Lake street that had lots of old comics. This was John Kiester's

shop and I shopped there for comics as long as I collected comics.

(Afterwards, I shopped there for science fiction pulps.) He was

one of my best friends. He died in 1960 due, at least in part,

to having been gassed in WW 1.

 

Thanks for posting--this is really interesting. What was his pricing like? Was everything used-book priced, like half off cover, or did he ask more for the older books and/or keys at some point?

 

My first comic shops were in Mpls/St Paul too. Started going to Schinder's Read More and Comic City (I think the shop an earlier MN poster was referring to), and occasionally Midway Book Store in the late 70's, probably around 1977.

 

I was always under the impression that Midway had been carrying "used" comics since at least the late 60s. Do you have any idea when they started carrying back issues and pricing them as collectibles? How about Schinders?