STORMSHADOW_80 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Growing up I had to ride my bike around town to different convenient stores to get the different books I was reading. The first LCS was a really small hole in the wall but was a game changer for me as an adolescent. I remember getting Carnage off the rack from there. I forget the exact name of the shop, but it quickly got too big for that small shop in the 90s boom. It became Dreamworld Comics in Ventura and later moved to the L.A. area. At one point my town had 5 comic shops during those years. Final Frontier was one of my favorites that was there until 99'. Recently another shop opened up there Sterling Silver Comics. The owner of which was the manager from the oldest shop in our county Ralphs Comics. That until recently sold it's million plus inventory of books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David-Lance Roten Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Being the sentimentalist I am I've still got the first comic I ever picked off a spinner rack and the first comic I(okay, Mom/Dad ) ever bought at a comic store. Picked out the Batman in a Mountain City Tennessee drugstore in 1976. While not the first comic I ever had, this is the first one I ever got off a rack. My Mom , Dad, one of my sisters had bought me a few before without me tagging along. All things considered, not too beat up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggy Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 My first was The Comicshop on 4th Ave, Vancouver, in 1979 What do I remember most? All the hippies... This must have been before they moved to 4th and Arbutus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 If it counts: My first comic store was a convenience store called the Glowing Embers. It was in the heart of a trailer park, and was about a mile away from the farm I lived on. My favorite memory is of the lady who owned it, getting to know the 8 year old boy who rode his bike to buy comics every Wednesday. I had my paper route at the time, and spent most of the money I made delivering papers on comics. She took an interest in helping me get the books I wanted and even kept all of the books aside for me to come buy them. My first comic file! podboy66 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimjum12 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 As a youth in the 60's and 70's my choices came from Pharmacies, Book Stores, and 7-11's. My first regular source would have been a place in Raleigh called simply "The Newstand"....IIRC..... they had everything..... a combo newsstand/bookstore..... kind of a Walton's prototype. My first LCS was Bender's Books in Phoebus back in the early 80's..... it's still going strong today. You could get high grade single digit ASM's back then for 50 bucks and less. GOD BLESS... -jimbo(a friend of jesus) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STORMSHADOW_80 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 If it counts: My first comic store was a convenience store called the Glowing Embers. It was in the heart of a trailer park, and was about a mile away from the farm I lived on. My favorite memory is of the lady who owned it, getting to know the 8 year old boy who rode his bike to buy comics every Wednesday. I had my paper route at the time, and spent most of the money I made delivering papers on comics. She took an interest in helping me get the books I wanted and even kept all of the books aside for me to come buy them. My first comic file! That's pretty cool of them to start a file for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comicdey Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 That's funny - my mom wouldn't let me go to the comic shop in my home town (Fairbanks Alaska) since everyone knew it was full of druggies and hippies. I remember the shop was in the basement of a downtown business and it definitely did smell of something funky when I did go in there later on down the road. Been there Undergrounds. Drug accessories And comics. What's not to love My dad took me there a couple of times but I mainly bought my stuff from the rexall and terr was a mom and pop shop which I can't for the life of me recall where it was. Near Martha O'learies I think??? It had a rack just near the main cashier area Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatsby77 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Showcase Comics in Bryn Mawr, PA (suburban Philadelphia). I first walked in around age 11-12 in the summer of 1989. The new issue racks were dominated by that summer's Marvel Annuals (Atlantis Attacks) and the premiere wall books were Batman 426-429 (Death in the Family) along with The Cult and Dark Knight Returns. I was a weekly regular there for the next 7 years, attending signings by Al Williamson, Rick Leonardi (for Spider-Man 2099 # 1), Bernard Chang (Valiant's Deathmate tour), and others. Memorable purchases included a beat-up copy of Daredevil # 1 for $4, a 9.0 copy of ASM # 129 for $100 during that period in the late '90s when he wasn't popular, and hundreds of new issues, including Man of Steel 18 (x 6), ASM 361 (x 3), Superman 75 (x 13), New Mutants 95-100, X-Men # 1e (x 5 - d'oh!) and all the early Image books (Youngblood # 1 was "limit 5 per customer"). 1989-1996 was a great time to ride the comics wave, from the summer of the Batman movie, through McSpider-man, Image, Valiant, Ultraverse, Comics Greatest World, to Stephen Platt. There was a Detective Comics # 27 in the showcase that the owner sold around 1992-'93 to purchase a 2 million-comic warehouse that allowed him to open one of his other stores (either the one on South Street or in the Granite Run Mall -- I forget). Both of those stores are long gone, but the flagship Bryn Mawr store's still around, and it's still owned by Mike. Larryw7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Cool Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 (edited) That's funny - my mom wouldn't let me go to the comic shop in my home town (Fairbanks Alaska) since everyone knew it was full of druggies and hippies. I remember the shop was in the basement of a downtown business and it definitely did smell of something funky when I did go in there later on down the road. Been there Undergrounds. Drug accessories And comics. What's not to love My dad took me there a couple of times but I mainly bought my stuff from the rexall and terr was a mom and pop shop which I can't for the life of me recall where it was. Near Martha O'learies I think??? It had a rack just near the main cashier area Wait - you knew Martha O'Leary? I went to her daycare for a few years and we use to call her Magic Martha since she could pull off band aids without it hurting. Didn't she live right down from Denali Elementary School since I remember walking to her house from school. Old school memories. Edited September 9, 2016 by 1Cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterX Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 My first LCS was this place called Fantasia in Hartsdale, NY run by the infamous Danny Dupcak. Sometimes my friends and I would walk or take the bus over to Yonkers, where the Dragons Den was still going strong. And on really special occasions, I'd sometimes get to go to Forbidden Planet in NYC, which was great because they carried a bunch of British comic imports like 2000 AD progs and Battle. Later, I worked at Heroes World in White Plains, NY. All the comics collected during those years are long gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Cool Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Even before I ventured into my first comic shop I remember my grade school had a book exchange and you could exchange comic books. I must have had 50 comics at the time and I remember put them all in the exchange and spent a Saturday afternoon each year grabbing books I had not read from a huge pile of books. Back when reading books was more important then grades and a collection. Anyone else remember anything similar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan Boy Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 My first was The Comicshop on 4th Ave, Vancouver, in 1979 What do I remember most? All the hippies... Heh, same as I was there in this store. They had great selection on walls. Best times as a kid! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Pontoon Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 The very first comic store I went to was the Comic Kingdom run by Bill Cole. I think it was only open on specific days, and it was in some weird industrial type building. (The Colonial Village Mall in Quincy, according to Mackenzie999.) I wish I could remember the specifics of the location, but it was 40 years ago and my folks are gone and my memory of that aspect is a little hazy. I suppose I could just email him. The comics were on staggered/tiered wall units, I don’t recall going through boxes. Walking in and seeing those old books from the 60s, which at the time seemed as long ago as the turn on the century, was amazingly magical. I bought my first back issues there: Marvel Tales 1 (recommended by Bill for the young reader) FF 48-50, ASM 44 and 45. They remain in my collection, except for the FF 49 and Marvel Tales; I think I sold or traded those as a kid. I also got my Origins of Marvel Comics and Son of Origins there; they’re dog-eared now but still on my bookshelf. From Bill I found out about the local monthly show, The Sunday Funnies at the Boston Howard Johnson's and run by Don Phelps. The monthly show spoiled me a bit. When more comic shops opened up in the ensuing years, I didn’t find any of them a good source for back issues – you could always get much better deals and selection at the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaolingoat Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 The first one I went to with any regularity was the Broad Ripple location of Comic Carnival in Indianapolis in the early 80's. My dad and I made the weekly run from the west side every Saturday morning for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine48 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Here is a good link to 1974 history of the 2nd Comicshop in Vancouver, BC I shopped at including a reference to Silver Snail Comics in Ottawa, ON too: http://www.thecomicshop.ca/history/ the link is no long er available..is this rhe shop Kin worked in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comicdey Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 That's funny - my mom wouldn't let me go to the comic shop in my home town (Fairbanks Alaska) since everyone knew it was full of druggies and hippies. I remember the shop was in the basement of a downtown business and it definitely did smell of something funky when I did go in there later on down the road. Been there Undergrounds. Drug accessories And comics. What's not to love My dad took me there a couple of times but I mainly bought my stuff from the rexall and terr was a mom and pop shop which I can't for the life of me recall where it was. Near Martha O'learies I think??? It had a rack just near the main cashier area Wait - you knew Martha O'Leary? I went to her daycare for a few years and we use to call her Magic Martha since she could pull off band aids without it hurting. Didn't she live right down from Denali Elementary School since I remember walking to her house from school. Old school memories. Yep. Same Martha And her two boys She liked to take your temp recitally if you were sick...ack...not such a magi moment :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattn792 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Comics Galore, formerly of LaGrange, then Western Springs, IL (conveniently located right across the train tracks from the Starbucks I worked at in high school). Dutifully proprietorized by owner Ray. One day in...2006 or so(?)...it was just gone, and I had no idea what happened until last year's WW Chicago. I got on the topic while talking to the owner of One Stop Comics in Oak Park, and it turns out Ray's wife had fallen ill, and he needed a better set-up for insurance and such. So he sold his entire stock to One Stop and closed up. Damn shame. Many good memories, and I'll never forget the back issues that had randomly complex prices like $1.35. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Cool Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 That's funny - my mom wouldn't let me go to the comic shop in my home town (Fairbanks Alaska) since everyone knew it was full of druggies and hippies. I remember the shop was in the basement of a downtown business and it definitely did smell of something funky when I did go in there later on down the road. Been there Undergrounds. Drug accessories And comics. What's not to love My dad took me there a couple of times but I mainly bought my stuff from the rexall and terr was a mom and pop shop which I can't for the life of me recall where it was. Near Martha O'learies I think??? It had a rack just near the main cashier area Wait - you knew Martha O'Leary? I went to her daycare for a few years and we use to call her Magic Martha since she could pull off band aids without it hurting. Didn't she live right down from Denali Elementary School since I remember walking to her house from school. Old school memories. Yep. Same Martha And her two boys She liked to take your temp recitally if you were sick...ack...not such a magi moment :-) You sure that wasn't something she saved for special boys since I don't remember that happening to me (or maybe I blanked it out). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comix4Sale Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 I used to pick up my books at the local candy store until I moved to Long Island, NY. There we had a number of stores including The Realm of..., Creation and Memory Bank. At MB they would have an art contest each month for small prizes. After the first three months, the winner of all three was able to enter but not allowed to win any more. It was only fair that someone other than a teenage Joe Madureira should win once in a while. Now my store of choice is Grasshopper's Comics. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the blob Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Westside Comics in Manhattan. The owner was strange. Kind of looked like Tommy Chong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
