first trip to the comic shop.....

[realitytrip]

As I look forward to my first trip to the San Diego Comicon, I have been remembering my favorite comic moments in my life. Seeing some people post scans of their first comics has brought back some nice memories for me. I remember getting my first comic (A Star Wars 3 Pack, numbers 10-12, all of which I still have), going to the local 7-11, or Jiffy Mart, or Albertsons and getting a comic off the spinner rack. My grandfather used to take me down every Saturday morning and would let me pick out two. I read those comics to death, Star Wars, Ghost Rider, Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker, GIJOE, Conan, and many others. Star Wars brought me into comics (I would be interested to know how many people Star Wars brought into comics, and compare that with the inability of X-2 and Hulk to bring in new readers)and opened up a great new world to my young and impressionable eyes. I looked forward to those Saturdays so much. Those two books would make my week and give me an escape from a real world filled with divorcing parents and pain. I looked forward to that all week, and was devastated when something came up and we couldn't go. I tried my best, but issues slipped through the cracks and I missed parts of storylines. But one day everything changed......

 

One morning my grandfather and I were going to head out, and I noticed something different. My grandmother was coming. This was unusual, normally she left us alone to do "boy" things like buy comics or go to the movies. I asked my grandfather what was going on, and he said we were going somewhere special today. He had been driving one day and saw a new store he thought I would like. He told me it was a comic book store and that he and my grandmother were going to take me there. I was six and could not comprehend the idea of a "comic book store".

 

Then we drove there. Xeno's Comics in Jacksonville, Florida. A store at the end of a strip mall, but as we pulled up I could see a nice painting they had done on the outside. Artwork that just looked cool to me, as I didn't recognize the characters (looking back, I think it might have been Doctor Strange) that took up most of the side wall. Then we walked in. I couldn't believe it, I was in heaven! Comics everywhere! Comics on the wall, bins of comics, comics in racks, and even a chest of old comics for 50 cents each! I saw new comics on the walls that were weeks ahead of the comics I had been getting! They were up on the wall, and a clerk had them all in bins and would get the ones you asked for. The bins had back issues! I could actually get all those issues I had missed, and they were in order! Encased in plastic with a board! How cool! I saw these really big comics, that were "Graphic Novels". Who was this Captain Marvel and who cared if he died? I saw old issues on the wall behind the counter with prices of 10 and 15 cents! Whoa, the earliest comic I had seen before this was when a friend's older brother had one with a quarter price tag. Peter Parker no 1? Amazing Spiderman 161? I looked at all I could until my grandparents got tired of my wonder and made me make some hard choices. Sadly, I cannot recall exactly which books I chose that day, only that I made out like a bandit, especially from the 50 cent chest, which had several old Star Wars and She Hulks.

 

I do remember seeing some of the wall book prices in disbelief, wondering how could they be so expensive. Why was that Spiderman 50 bucks? I had seen one just like a couple months ago (in Marvel Tales, but I didn't realize they were reprints at the time, of course). Heh, Moon Knight 1 was one of the wall books.

 

Of course, going to Xeno's became a regular Saturday morning practice for my grandfather and me. I got on their saver program, which the staff loved, apparently I was their youngest saver person, and they all knew me, which was nice. I remember going there once, only to find the chest of 50 cent comics gone! No! I asked them what had happened and they said a guy had come in and bought the entire chest! Every comic in it! I couldn't wrap my head around the idea of buying that many comics at one! It seemed impossible to me, but it was a devastating shock to lose my beloved chest which I tended to raid for old comic bargains every week. They eventually moved to a mall, but they were still close enough that we could still go. We went there every week till my mom moved away. I would find other comic shops, but Xenos still has a special place in my heart. Does anybody in the Jacksonville, FL area know if they are still around?

 

My grandfather would pass away a few years later, which was very painful to me as he was more of a father to me in many ways than my father was. But I have the wonderful memories, and to this day, whenever I smell cigars, it brings back memories of my grandfather and going to the comic shop while he smoked his stogie.....

 

Wow, this got kinda personal, moreso than I originally intended , but I hope you enjoyed it and I hope some others might share their first comic shop stories.

[Bonds25]

Nice story - thanks for sharing!

[PovertyRow]

Now THIS is what I am talkin' about!

 

Seriously- a really fun to read story! And a most appreciated insight as well!

[Rickdogg]

I agree...great story there. I can just picture it.

[HighVoltage]

Reality,

 

Beautiful post - thank you for sharing. It brought back memories of time spent with my grandfather.

 

One in particular: I was spending the weekend with my grandparents - I must've been about 13. My grandfather was reading the paper & called me over to him. "Look here," he said pointing to the classifieds. It was an ad from someone selling a comic collection! I couldn't believe it!! He said, "Give 'em a ring," handing me the ad. I called & asked about the collection. It was a college guy selling his stuff & when he mentioned X-Men, I was hooked!

 

When I hung up the phone, my grandfather looked at me, "Well...?"

 

I relayed the 'college guy' info to him & that there were most likely some things I'd want to look at, but there were two negatives: It was just far enough away that I couldn't get there on my own and I had no money.

 

Now, my grandfather smoked a pipe, but my grandmother wouldn't let him smoke it in the house (occasionally the basement was ok), and when he reached for it, my heart took a jump. "Call that guy back and tell him you're coming to take a look-see," he said.

 

It was a pretty short drive to 'college guy's" house - or maybe it just seemed that way since I was in a state of euphoria - and when we pulled up, I almost fainted because my grandfather pulled a $20 out of his wallet and handed it to me. Not only was this a tremendous sum of money to me, but I always had to earn my spending money from my parents & grandparents. "Free money" was unheard of.

 

We walked up to the door, rang the bell, and a dark-haired, clothes-rumpled young man opened the door. "I'm here about the comics..." I said.

 

"Oh, sure! Yeah - come on in," rumpled-college guy said.

 

We weaved our way into the house & down the stairs to this guy's room & there he had about 6 comic long-boxes of stuff. I had never seen so many books in a person's collection! I can't recall everything he had, but I do remember that he had an almost complete run of the X-Men & I was drooling because I had just not been able to find any of those books anywhere! I'm sure I was there, looking through the stuff, longer than was comfortable for my grandfather (as we comic folks tend to do sometimes, when we're looking through boxes of stuff - we know who we are!!), but he never said a word or made me feel rushed.

 

I pulled out 5 X-Men books (101, 102, 103, 105, 108) and asked 'college guy' how much those books would be (as I was nuts for the 'new x-men' & was fairly certain I couldn't afford his #94 & I wasn't as interested in the 60's stuff at that time). He looked at them for a minute or two and said, "$4 a piece ok?" I pulled the $20 from my pocket and gave it to him. He thanked me - I thanked him & my grandfather and I left. I don't remember the drive back home, but I do remember reading the comics on the living room floor of my granparent's house & not even realizing that my Dad was standing in front of me, ready to pick me up and take me back home.

 

I still have those books today - and heck, I'm gonna take those babies out when I get home today!

 

I have early comic shop memories too, but I don't wanna hog this thread! I'll let some other folks in here & maybe come back later with those...

 

Again, thanks for your post, Reality. I really appreciated it!

 

ps: good luck at your first Con!!! I have memories of mine too... new thread, anyone? (first big Con memories?)

[Dave_Hennen]

I recall my first solo trip to the comic shop. I was probably 12 or 13 and occasionally my mom could be talked into taking me to the comic store on the East Side of Providence, RI. For whatever reason she couldn't do it this particular weekend, maybe she thought I was spending too much money on comics.

 

Anyway, I was a pretty independant kid and wasn't about to let that stop me. I jumped on a bus that took me downtown and then jumped on a second bus that took me pretty close to the comic store.

 

Iron Horse Graphics was the name of the store, but mostly they sold comics. I think the owner was an aspiring artist and that's where the name came from. They were listed in some Marvel comics from the 1970's when they used to advertise comic shops from various states. I remember they had a page of original art from one of the early Hulk books (1 through 6 don't recall which) on the wall, if only I could have pulled the trigger on that!

 

Getting there and back took most of the day, must have been a Saturday, but my mom never got wise. Lucky for me because she would have whooped my butt for taking off like that. The copy of Avengers 102 I got that day is still in my collection.

 

Great memories

dave h

[Smokinghawk]

I got hooked on Conan from the local Tenneco gas station that we used to ride our bikes to. We would all buy a bunch of Mountain Dew and candy and then ride home, feeling really independent and big.

 

One day I grabbed up a copy of Conan. They didn't have a comics rack; comics were just mixed in with the gas station magazines (I even remember the spot on the shelf it was in!).

 

It was such a cool comic book. Now, I was starting to get interested in D&D so this comic just took off in my mind. Here was this tough, slightly sad, loner who could find himself in snowstorms, deserts, caves, forests, monster's lairs, or ancient temples.

 

Conan got me hooked. I started buying it every month, and then I realized that Kee-Rex Drugs around the corner had a more "adult" title called "Savage Sword." It hooked me even more, and Ernie Chan's inks mystified me (they still do. I'd love to know more about Chan, or own an original).

 

The ads alerted me to the reality of a comic book industry. I found the local comic book store, Tattooed Lady Comics (Huntsville, Alabama) by accident, and decided to make the trek.

 

It seems like half a state away, by bike. In the sweltering Alabama summer, I would set out on my bike and ride through the sunshine, smelling cut grass and listening ti cicadas all the way.

 

Inside was the most magical place in town. TLC had the stereotypical "comic book guy" working there, nammed Allen: a big fat guy with stringy longish hair and a scruffy beard, who probably never got dates and lived at home, but to us he was a god. This guy knew ALL about comics!

 

For some reason, I got hooked on Peter Parker but never really liked ASM.

 

I subscribed to CBG and that was it--I was hopelessly addicted after that. My two best friends and I traded those newpapers until they were falling apart every week, yearning for the stuff we could never afford and talkig for hours about predictions about what would be "hot" next (example: "Shatter is gonna be HOT, man! It's the first computer-illustrated comic book! I'm reserving five copies!")

 

 

I had a canvas pouch under my bike that I'd load up with new comics and take home, bragging about how valuable my stuff was ("I have a copy of Spider Man that's worth FIVE BUCKS!")

 

My big break came when I realized that there was still one silver-age superhero that was actually still affordable to us kids: Daredevil. Me and my best friend saved for weeks to buy a F copy of #1 for $100 (each) and had it shipped to his house. I remember the excitement when he called to tell me it had arrived, and would bring it to school the next day.

 

That friend was later killed by a driver just after we both graduated high school. I still have the book and will never sell it.

 

Sometimes I still get "flashes" of that past, like when I mow the grass and start thinking about comics. Too often I get distracted by the business/economics of it ("should I spring for the Hulk 181 9.2 I can afford? Or go for the 9.4 as an investment? Or get a raw copy and take a chance? Or just buy a F copy just to say I have it and spend th erest no ASM 23?")

 

But somehow the scent of cut grass, the sound of the lawnmower, the feeling of "Saturday", or the sound of cicadas makes me feel like that 13 year old again.

 

 

 

[ultimatevenom]

But somehow the scent of cut grass, the sound of the lawnmower, the feeling of "Saturday", or the sound of cicadas makes me feel like that 13 year old again.

 

What a beautiful ending

 

 

Nice stories everyone

[drbanner]

Cool story!

 

Back in the mid 70's we were in North Dakota at my grandparents house and my mom's aunt and uncle, who lived a few houses down, were having a garage sale. My mom's cousin was selling her "...old comic books..." for 2 cents a piece - including a Marvel Superheroes 1 and X-men 23 that I bought (my parents wouldn't let me buy anymore ). Still wish I knew what all she sold, but I still have the X-men. Anyhow, one of my first official comic book shop memories is of taking the Marvel Superheroes 1 to the store in Gainesville (I grew up in FL too!) and asking the owner how much it was worth. I remember being disappointed in what he told me as it was the oldest/biggest comic I owned and I just knew it was going to be worth a ton of money, maybe even as much as ten bucks!!

[minutekev@50]

 

 

But somehow the scent of cut grass, the sound of the lawnmower, the feeling of "Saturday", or the sound of cicadas makes me feel like that 13 year old again.

 

 

 

Dang right! Being a 'Bama boy like you, I know exactly what you're talking about!

 

The nearest comic shops to us were 40 miles away in Montgomery. Mostly, it was just book stores that sold comics, but my friends and I (once we got our DL's) would make the trek just to see what we could uncover.

 

Once, We stopped at this one place Trade N' Books and I think it was under new management, or something, because this old Bat was treating us like a bunch of punks scrounging around the local library for the 'dirty books.'

Me, I was plucking the comics I wanted and placing them on a file case. She asked me 'Are you buying those?!?' in this obnoxious manner, like I had just come into her shop to wreak havoc on their stock of comics (I don't know how much havoc I could have wreaked. They were all out of alphabetical order anyway!)

 

I said, 'Yes, I am.' and went back to searching.

 

Now, my two friends, they were in the book section. I don't know what they were looking at, but they were reading from a few books. Anyway, the old bat threw them out!

 

Me, I continued plucking...

It's funny but that same day we were also unable to get into the movies to see 'Ford Fairlane' (don't ask). It was rated R and we were underage at the time.

 

When I see my friends again, we always refer to that as the day we got 'Banned from Montgomery!'

[HarrisonJohn]

My first comics came from my grandmother who would always buy me a lot of junk at garage sales. They were Hulk #'s 195,196,197 if I'm remembering correctly. I remember looking at the comic book spinner racks in every candy/drug store I went into as a kid, but I'm not sure when I found out there was a comic book store around the corner from my house. I remember being 6 years old and away at my family's summer home. I came across an ad for She-Hulk in an issue of Hulk and it was #8 being shown, yet I'd never heard of the book. I called my father and asked him if he could buy it for me at the store around the corner and he sent me issues 1-9 in the mail. Eventually I'd start going to the comic store on my own, and my interest in Hulk lessened while I became fixated on X-Men and their spin-offs. When X-Men got out of hand with all the multiple covers, crossovers, and style over substance, I started to lose interest and when "my" comic book store closed (the couple retired) I saw it as the last sign to move on from comic books, which I did. Till X2 reminded me how much I loved the characters, and I'm at the age where I'm nostalgic for the things I used to own.

[jbud73]

Ya thats what its all about. I have a very similar story and probably grew up in a similar age, which I like to call the end of the classic comics age (explain later). I was 8 years old, it was 7-11 and I was heavly into reading, I read alot, Hardy Boys Books the old hard covers with the blue spines. This lead to Greek mythology Zeus and all that.............. So there I am 7-11 spinner racks as my father pays for gas and boom New Teen Titans #12 clash of the Titans. Well Titans=Gods, in a Comic Books COOL It was 50 cents and my dad said Ok. I read it on the way home, at home and all week. sets in as it seems I caught the story line part of the way in. I go to the local corner store there are other comics, but not the same kind, the store owner says they come in once a month and that I'd have to wait a few weeks for the next issue of that comic.

 

Well moping about and down in the dumps I wait...... but next week its dad to the rescue he says that about 10 blocks away. BMX biking distance there is a comic store and that we could go there tomorrow. A Comic store??? well this sounded like progress to me. My experience is very much the same 50 cents bins comics on the wall. I remember Ironman #1 vividly was $20 Canadian. But the thing I really remember was the smell. Certain things have a smell... A hockey rink, especially indoor, the ballpark and a comic store has a particular smell And there were comics everywhere, bins, racks walls, its like a hypnotic thing. I went after that on my own on my bike, I swear I got a paper route to buy comics.

 

Now to my little theory on the end of the classic age. You see for me when a new comic became $1.00, those baxter paper early issues. (Camelot 3000 I remember it like it was yesterday) signaled the end of an era. Slowly the quarter bins and 50 cents bins started disappearing, I mean not on mass but they did. And the smell changed. The new books have a different smell, I know they keep better and all that, but the paper smell is gone. I'm not sure that the new generation of youth will ever get to experience that. I can see it a kid and their parents go to the comic store and the kids picks out 3-4 comics. $20 bucks Can you still buy and collect comics when your 8-12 yrs old. I dont think you can. I hope that newer kids get to have these memories with comic books as well as we all did

[garthgantu]

Hmmm... as a completely comic book-addicted kid starting around age 8, it's hard to pick one or two stories/memories...

- first comic book: was purchased for me by my dad at a diner where we were eating breakfast, in Bethel, CT. It was a 15-cent Jimmy Olsen. Don't remember which issue, but I already knew who Supes was, of course, and musta read that book 'til it fell apart.

 

- first 'back issue' book: was a Dell Woody Woodpecker from around 1958, 10-cent cover price (which seemed to make it truly ancient in my eyes), purchased for 50 cents at an antique store near Kent Falls, in Kent, CT about a year after the Jimmy Olsen (so I was probably 7). The real reason this one sticks out in my mind is that after buying it, I noticed that it had the name "Knutson" written at the top of the cover. Knutson is my mother's maiden name, and she and her siblings read Dell funny animal comics frequently as kids (mostly Barks duck books). I showed her the comic and she said it was one of theirs from their childhood...but they grew up in Oregon, 2,500+ miles away..! For some reason, that impressed me in an entirely different way, and made me look at comics as artifacts as well as entertainment.

 

- first comic shop: The original Comics & Comix at 722 Columbus Ave. in San Francisco. First trip musta been in 1974 at age 10. Visited that store at least 100 times over the next 5-6 years, even though we lived 200 miles from it. I remember the first trip in the door, and it's hard to even describe. Since I'd been actively collecting for about a year at that point, I was in a good position to appreciate - or more accurately, be totally overwhelmed by - what I encountered. Hell, just the smell of that many old funnybooks in one place was intense. Comic books floor-to-ceiling on every wall. 10- and 20-cent bins of recent back issues (1970-74) at floor level throughout the place. (And they were filled with Marvel monster reprint books like Creatures on the Loose, "Prez" and other second-tier DC titles, Charltons of various genres, Harveys and Archies, in VF-NM.) Spidey #4 was hanging in the window, with a price of $10 on it, I think. I watched that particular comic fade over the years from exposure to the sunlight...no one ever bought it.

We'd go there every time we visited San Francisco, my dad would give my brother and I $5 or $10 each, and three hours later we'd walk out with literally 100 comics between us.

 

Ah, the memories...!!!

[Smokinghawk]

But somehow the scent of cut grass, the sound of the lawnmower, the feeling of "Saturday", or the sound of cicadas makes me feel like that 13 year old again.

 

What a beautiful ending

 

 

Nice stories everyone

 

 

Thanks. Be sure not to miss the attachment on my post, too. It relates to the story.

 

[NewtSamson]

But somehow the scent of cut grass, the sound of the lawnmower, the feeling of "Saturday", or the sound of cicadas makes me feel like that 13 year old again.

 

What a beautiful ending

 

 

Nice stories everyone

 

 

Thanks. Be sure not to miss the attachment on my post, too. It relates to the story.

The racoon and the boy in the blond hair are brothers? The racoon mentions a father that he and the boy share.

[Smokinghawk]

Here's a thought...How many of the stores that were our first Comic Shops are still open?

 

Tattooed Lady Comics is closed. It was bought by a militant Black Muslim newspaper as an office, and then years later fell victim to city planning to become a parking lot.

 

 

[murph0]

Well, there's currently only 7 comic shops still open in Iowa.. but then again, as far as I can remember there was only 12-13 to start with a while back.

 

Brian

[Smokinghawk]

But somehow the scent of cut grass, the sound of the lawnmower, the feeling of "Saturday", or the sound of cicadas makes me feel like that 13 year old again.

 

What a beautiful ending

 

 

Nice stories everyone

 

 

Thanks. Be sure not to miss the attachment on my post, too. It relates to the story.

The racoon and the boy in the blond hair are brothers? The racoon mentions a father that he and the boy share.

 

 

Figuratively "brother-like," not literally.

 

That was art from a comic strip I created as an autobiographical story. The stories I told in it were all true, but I re-told them as if my son an I were experiencing them together (the comic was a way of passing on stories to my oldest son, now age 3). My son has latched onto raccoons as a type of personal familiar, dragging a toy raccoon with him everywhere (see attached). So in the stories I simply drew him as one.

 

Incidentally, I already have HIS "first comic book store" story too. As soon as I brought him in, the owner said "hey, we don't take those in trade!"

[jbud73]

Funny you mention the how many are still open, cause I was cruising by the comic shop within BMX distance in my post and they were closing shop taking stuff down Etc.

 

My story didnt go on to say that this shop was probably one of the worst, in terms of over pricing-overgrading and was mentioned in the worst dealers ever thread. But its been there for 30 years, I'm torn, part of me thinks JUSTICE, part of me is nostalgic and not seeing it there as I drive home, its kinda weird.

[Arty]

Very nice stories...this thread deserves a bump.