Candy was inextricably linked to my comics habit back then, both when others bought comics for me and also when I started buying comics on my own. I suppose that's inevitable given that most of my comics were from candy stores. Some of the candy I associate with comics:




I don't think this was the manufacturer back then, I seem to recall a plainer wrapper.




Couldn't get enough of the Mint Juleps, and the related candy the Now or Laters (grape was my favorite).


One of the smallest candy stores in my neighborhood had the best egg cremes (unfortunately their comic inventory was limited--hardly any Marvels, and for DC just the Superman books. Lots of Archies). Back then my fervent aspiration was to own a candy store so I could spend all day eating candy, drinking egg cremes, and ordering and reading comics. 

Candy is linked to my earliest comic buying as well. As I've related, the first time I bought comics I was heading to the store to buy candy after doing chores at the house where my Mom worked part-time. I'm sure I was planning on stocking up on candy and a pop, but when I got to the store there was a comic book rack that beckoned to me with covers featuring Batman. As best I can put together I bought two 30 cent comics and a 25 center which would have left me with about 12 cents left over from the dollar that Mrs Pfeiffer gave me. I'm betting that went into penny candies, which were still a thing at the time.

I'd never heard of Now & Later until I was in college - the company is based near Chicago; I lived in NJ, so they probably didn't get to my area when I was younger. But a friend of mine started driving an ice-cream truck that also sold candy, and he was initially confused by kids asking for "narlaters". Once he figured out what they were saying, he sold a ton of them.

I don't really associate any candy with comics, but I do remember the flavor of the gum that came with baseball cards.

For the longest time  we weren't allowed to stray more than a block from where we lived. My mother would've had a heart attack if she'd known how many times I walked to the various candy shops that were many blocks away. 

The Candy Kitchen in my hometown of Denison Iowa was THE best newsstand in town. That's where I bought most of my comics and what leftover change went into candy or gum cards.

Yeah, I still remember the smell of the bubble gum that came with those cards.

It's now a cafe. Nice, but not what I grew up with.

They even made some of their candy.

I liked the wax harmonicas and the little wax bottles with Coke in em.

They still made Cherry Cokes from the fountain syrup too.

Those same owners knew my dad and granddad too.



This is the corner where the Candy Kitchen used to be. The original owners have passed but it was sold to another family and is now Reiny's Candy Kitchen. They've done a good job updating it and making it beautiful, but, it's not the place I knew and loved and spent every nickel I had.

If you crossed the street on the right side of the photo, there was another building similar to the one in the picture. My great grandfather and his business-partner, Mr. Balle, built it together in the late 1800's. At the turn of the century it was the single largest general store in the Midwest. They were both multi-millionaires. It's now a mini mall and restaurant.

Ditto

There was an old woman I bought my comics from at the Candy Kitchen. I think it was her husband on the other side in the back that smoked the big stogies, had racing forms, men's magazines, pipe tobacco, etc.

I think he ripped me off one time on "sales tax."

The barber shop and the dentist's office will appear soon enough both mini-treasure troves of comics...