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Post by EdoBosnar on May 19, 2019 3:50:15 GMT -5
Until I discovered an actual comic book shop, I depended on the spinner racks and magazine stands in a number of grocery, convenience and drug stores in the town/smallish city closest to our home, Woodburn, Oregon. That and a big department store called Fred Meyer in Salem (well known to most Pacific NW residents): Back then, Fred Meyer stores had large, well-stocked book & magazine sections, with several spinner racks for both comics and paperbacks. That was always my favorite place to go for comics. When I was about 12 going on 13, I discovered my first comic book shop, also in Salem, called Rackafratz. Not only is it long gone, but when I visited my sister last summer, we passed by its former location a few times, and even the original buildings are no longer there - they'd been torn down for new development.
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Post by Farrar on May 20, 2019 22:01:48 GMT -5
What a great topic! Icctrombone , looks like we were at opposite ends of Manhattan as well as on opposite sides. I grew up all the way uptown, in Washington Heights. Here's a photo (from Google Maps) of the corner where there was a newsstand. Based on this photo the newsstand is no longer there but it would have been right near where that bus stop sign is. I think there was a Nedick's on that corner (where The Children's Place store is). When we three kids were very little my mother often bought us along with her when she was shopping, banking, etc., and she'd get us comics from this newsstand to keep us from becoming too cranky. We started out with stuff like Woody Woodpecker; Chip 'N' Dale; Donald Duck comics that featured his nephews; and of course Harvey Comics' Casper, Wendy, and Spooky. However once I discovered the Batman TV show, I became a superhero fanatic. It was at this newsstand that I got one of my earliest superhero comics, Wonder Woman #166 (WW vs. Egg Fu the 5th!).
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Post by Farrar on May 20, 2019 22:16:43 GMT -5
A few years ago I had the bright idea of visiting the neighborhood I grew up in and in particular the 4 or 5 candy stores where I'd bought comics when I was a kid. All of those candy stores were gone. However this bodega, which was a block and half away from where we lived, was still there, although it was closed/boarded up. This is a photo I took a few years ago (and Google Maps shows the store is still closed). This bodega had a spinner rack but it didn't sell any of the comics I read back then, that is, the DC and Marvel superhero stuff. IIRC this store sold Charlton and Tower comics, plus a lot of Archies. There were also usually some coverless comics in the spinner rack, but again, since they weren't Marvel or DC I wasn't interested. I sometimes bought an Archie or two from this bodega but usually we neighborhood kids just went here to buy soda, potato chips, and ice cream; or our parents would send us here to buy cold cuts.
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Post by beccabear67 on May 20, 2019 22:54:41 GMT -5
My Mom would send us to the corner shop for milk or bread and usually we'd get a nickel or dime each to buy candy, but sometimes we'd take a load of empty bottles back for the deposit, and then I would get one comic book for 20cents or more. It had a spinner rack. It closed some time in the late '80s I think and was replaced by an office building. A kid I went to school with who was in a punk band took a couple photos outside of it; only photos I have of it. I would buy comics at other places but don't have any fuzzy memories of a Safeway supermarket, a drug store in a mall, or another across the street from it. In town, a fifteen minute bus ride away, there was one big newsstand that had the comics and b&w comics magazines, plus another place with a fairly large selection of British comic papers and sweets. We might go there on the way to or from a movie. The first comic shop I knew about was in the late '70s that also sold sf books (Astonishing Books & Comics). Then another up the same street opened (Island Fantasy) with a lot of the back issues from that store when it closed... the first back issues I bought were Marvel Premiere #47 & 48 from a cheapo box of comics (no bags even). My first bagged back issue ($2 I think) was X-Men #42, 'Death Of Professor X'... I think I liked the Frank Zappa ad in it more than the actual (by that time obsolete) story. That shop moved a couple of times and by the time it closed up there were two other shops operating and those are still going (Curious Comics and Legends).
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Post by Reptisaurus! on May 21, 2019 0:20:34 GMT -5
Look at you guys with your fancy comic book stores. When *I* was growing up All *I* had was a spinner rack in a newstand/smoke shop where you could pay a quarter to go down in the basement and see the boa constrictor.
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Post by Icctrombone on May 21, 2019 6:01:04 GMT -5
What a great topic! Icctrombone , looks like we were at opposite ends of Manhattan as well as on opposite sides. I grew up all the way uptown, in Washington Heights. Here's a photo (from Google Maps) of the corner where there was a newsstand. Based on this photo the newsstand is no longer there but it would have been right near where that bus stop sign is. I think there was a Nedick's on that corner (where The Children's Place store is). When we three kids were very little my mother often bought us along with her when she was shopping, banking, etc., and she'd get us comics from this newsstand to keep us from becoming too cranky. We started out with stuff like Woody Woodpecker; Chip 'N' Dale; Donald Duck comics that featured his nephews; and of course Harvey Comics' Casper, Wendy, and Spooky. However once I discovered the Batman TV show, I became a superhero fanatic. It was at this newsstand that I got one of my earliest superhero comics, Wonder Woman #166 (WW vs. Egg Fu the 5th!). I would use Google maps but I don't quite remember the street names to the places I used to go in the Village. I plan to make it out there to get some pix of them. Nice abandoned Bodega there ...
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2019 7:07:24 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure that Cei-U! can help me on this ... in my hometown in Burien WA there is a Comic Book Store that I go about 4-6 times a year called Ancient Comics and I park my car at Huckleberry Restaurant that located near it. I go to that Restaurant about 2 times a week and still do. That's is where their meals are huge and I eat half and take home the other half. Huckleberry Square and Ancient Comics are neighbors and they get along just great. I go to this store about 4-6 times a year and now my days of getting comic books are near to the end. For a treat ... I get their Huckleberry Pie with Huckleberry Ice Cream about 2-3 times a month. It is a very noisy place full of gamers and I just get myself a comic book or two for myself and for gifts for friends. They been in business for nearly 20-30 years and haven't slowed down yet. It's a small bookstore and they have pretty much everything under the Sun. Great Pie at Huckleberry's My personal Favorite!
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Post by brutalis on May 21, 2019 10:00:52 GMT -5
Must be true when they say you can never go home. Around the neighborhood I grew up in during the 70's I had 4 stores I routinely shopped each week. 2 Korean "grocery" markets and a Circle-K convenience store and a little family owned liquor/candy/cigarette store. Only 1 Korean market remains up and running. All the other stores closed down over 20 years ago. Of my high-school years and early college years when I found comics at the used bookstores and newly created LCS's around the schools I attended: NONE are there anymore and have all been closed for over 15 years. There is only 1 LCS which remains in town from over 15 that were here during the 1980's: All About Books and Comics. The actual store itself has moved 4 times in the last 30 years while as others closed up shop a few new small one's have managed to open.
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Post by The Captain on May 21, 2019 10:23:39 GMT -5
Look at you guys with your fancy comic book stores. When *I* was growing up All *I* had was a spinner rack in a newstand/smoke shop where you could pay a quarter to go down in the basement and see the boa constrictor.The bolded part sounds vaguely dirty. Care to elaborate?
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Post by dbutler69 on May 21, 2019 11:11:52 GMT -5
I wish I could send some pics, but I am a thousand miles away from where I grew up, and so not too likely to take and pictures of my childhood comic shop.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,528
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Post by Confessor on May 21, 2019 12:55:31 GMT -5
I wish I could send some pics, but I am a thousand miles away from where I grew up, and so not too likely to take and pictures of my childhood comic shop. Google Street View is your friend. Google has photos of everything...everywhere...ever. **looks suspiciously around**
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 21, 2019 13:01:38 GMT -5
I wish I could send some pics, but I am a thousand miles away from where I grew up, and so not too likely to take and pictures of my childhood comic shop. Google Street View is your friend. Google has photos of everything...everywhere...ever. **looks suspiciously around him** Even giant green rabbits.
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Post by urrutiap on May 21, 2019 13:06:45 GMT -5
My comic book "stores" that i went to when I was a little kid in the early 1980s were the grocery store and the drug pharmacy stores.
I lived in Spencer, Nebraska; Dupree South Dakota so it was just the grocery stores and pharmacy stores where I got comic books and Mad Magazine and old Cracked Magazine.
My personal favorite comics back in the day were NOW Comics' Ghostbusters and Terminator while i had a few personal favorite Marvel stuff from Alpha Flight, Conan, Elfquest, Spider Ham, Power Pack, Uncanny X Men and Spectacular Spider Man and whatever issues were available of Marvel's Star Wars
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Post by Rob Allen on May 21, 2019 14:02:47 GMT -5
Google Street View is your friend. Google has photos of everything...everywhere...ever. **looks suspiciously around him** Even giant green rabbits. Where's the green one? The giant rabbit near me is white:
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 21, 2019 14:07:24 GMT -5
I used to go to two different towns to get comics. During the summer a buddy and I would ride our bikes to Rupert one day and to Burley the next. During the school year I only went to Burley on the weekend with my Mom. This used to be a Rexall Drug on the square in Rupert. It had a spinner rack. We didn't always go to this one because it was across the tracks. So it was the last stop if we hadn't found everything. Currently Ridley's Market. Used to be a Safeway. When it was a Safeway it had a spinner rack. I can't find a very good pic of B & B. B & B Market was a locally owned convenience store. It was ground zero for comic books in Rupert. Great spinner rack. I actually worked there the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore year of college (the last time I lived at home). Building has been empty for over a decade.
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