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Post by beccabear67 on Jul 16, 2020 12:48:26 GMT -5
The first few times in a comic shop I was far more drawn by back-issues. There were new comics on a rack, but to me the Marvels all looked like 'reprints' with those diamond top left corners and funny UPC boxes. The first time I did notice the new display might've been seeing Star Lord Special Edition #1 and Marvel Fanfare #1? Or when my Micronauts and Ka-Zar subscriptions ended and I still wanted to follow them? I did probably get some non-newsstand things like a Hembeck magazine, or Comics Journal and Elfquest, but new comics got more of a yawn from me when there were back-issues to look through! Later though when there was Pacific, regular sized and in color... and then Eclipse, that got kind of exciting!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2020 13:33:27 GMT -5
I remember when I was still in single-digits and didn't care about things like high-grade condition, so I'd take something like a Treasury Sized edition, and go read it outside, with me sitting on the pavement and the book opened on the road. (It was safe to read books there). And I'd spill sherbet all over it. Turn pages with greasy fingers from eating chips.
Then I got anal and started to bag and board and go 'pristine' so too bad.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 16, 2020 15:25:51 GMT -5
I remember when I was still in single-digits and didn't care about things like high-grade condition, so I'd take something like a Treasury Sized edition, and go read it outside, with me sitting on the pavement and the book opened on the road. (It was safe to read books there). And I'd spill sherbet all over it. Turn pages with greasy fingers from eating chips.
Then I got anal and started to bag and board and go 'pristine' so too bad.
Thoughts and prayers.
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Post by brutalis on Jul 16, 2020 15:32:14 GMT -5
Then I got anal and started to bag and board and go 'pristine' so too bad.
Beware the Howard Hughes syndrome. There is no coming back 😊
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Post by tartanphantom on Jul 17, 2020 9:17:42 GMT -5
Then I got anal and started to bag and board and go 'pristine' so too bad. Beware the Howard Hughes syndrome. There is no coming back 😊
We'll know for sure when Rags starts wearing Kleenex boxes as shoes...
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Post by tonebone on Jul 23, 2020 16:02:03 GMT -5
I remember when I went to the dentist's office when I was about 10... after the horrifying appointment, you were offered a look through the "Treasure Box", a cardboard box decorated to look like a Treasure chest, complete with lid. Usually, is was stocked with toothbrushes, finger puppets, stickers, etc. As I was digging through, looking for the absolutely best prize, I could see something at the bottom of the box. A picture of a spaceship or space or something. I dug out the weird item, and it was a comic book... what I would now know as a trade paperback... squarebound and thick. It was a Gold Key Star trek Enterprise Log, Volume 1. Man was it cool.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 23, 2020 17:19:58 GMT -5
I remember when I went to the dentist's office when I was about 10... after the horrifying appointment, you were offered a look through the "Treasure Box", a cardboard box decorated to look like a Treasure chest, complete with lid. Usually, is was stocked with toothbrushes, finger puppets, stickers, etc. As I was digging through, looking for the absolutely best prize, I could see something at the bottom of the box. A picture of a spaceship or space or something. I dug out the weird item, and it was a comic book... what I would now know as a trade paperback... squarebound and thick. It was a Gold Key Star trek Enterprise Log, Volume 1. Man was it cool. Worth the visit to the dentist!
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Post by tonebone on Jul 24, 2020 7:56:29 GMT -5
I remember during the summer of 1976, my favorite recent comics acquisition was Captain America's Bicentennial Battles... it was a thing of beauty, with each tabloid sized page featuring incredible battle scenes with Cap and everything from bad guys to crazy outer space scenes. But, at heart, I was a DC kid... Superman was my favorite, and why wasn't HE celebrating the country's birthday? So at some point, I went with my dad to the little mom-and-pop grocery store on the corner of Main Street, and in their meager newsstand, there it was, SUPERMAN SALUTES THE BICENTENNIAL! Tabloid sized, with a pic of Superman holding a freaking bald eagle on his arm, surrounded by the stars and stripes... all for $1! After begging my dad to blow a whole dollar on a comic book, I snatched it up and clutched it to my chest! We get into the car, and I can't wait any longer to crack this bad boy open! To my surprise (shock? Horror??) Superman only introduced the stories, which were all tales of Revolutionary war heroes, Colonial spies, and a guy who created a one man submarine during the Revolution. I had been cheated by the oldest game in marketing... the bait and switch.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jul 24, 2020 15:00:25 GMT -5
I remember during the summer of 1976, my favorite recent comics acquisition was Captain America's Bicentennial Battles... it was a thing of beauty, with each tabloid sized page featuring incredible battle scenes with Cap and everything from bad guys to crazy outer space scenes. But, at heart, I was a DC kid... Superman was my favorite, and why wasn't HE celebrating the country's birthday? So at some point, I went with my dad to the little mom-and-pop grocery store on the corner of Main Street, and in their meager newsstand, there it was, SUPERMAN SALUTES THE BICENTENNIAL! Tabloid sized, with a pic of Superman holding a freaking bald eagle on his arm, surrounded by the stars and stripes... all for $1! After begging my dad to blow a whole dollar on a comic book, I snatched it up and clutched it to my chest! We get into the car, and I can't wait any longer to crack this bad boy open! To my surprise (shock? Horror??) Superman only introduced the stories, which were all tales of Revolutionary war heroes, Colonial spies, and a guy who created a one man submarine during the Revolution. I had been cheated by the oldest game in marketing... the bait and switch. Yep, DC pulled the ol' "Tomahawk Two-step" with that issue! Now I happen to like Tomahawk, but any kid who bought that book under DC's deceptive cover art definitely got scalped.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 24, 2020 16:54:39 GMT -5
I remember during the summer of 1976, my favorite recent comics acquisition was Captain America's Bicentennial Battles... it was a thing of beauty, with each tabloid sized page featuring incredible battle scenes with Cap and everything from bad guys to crazy outer space scenes. But, at heart, I was a DC kid... Superman was my favorite, and why wasn't HE celebrating the country's birthday? So at some point, I went with my dad to the little mom-and-pop grocery store on the corner of Main Street, and in their meager newsstand, there it was, SUPERMAN SALUTES THE BICENTENNIAL! Tabloid sized, with a pic of Superman holding a freaking bald eagle on his arm, surrounded by the stars and stripes... all for $1! After begging my dad to blow a whole dollar on a comic book, I snatched it up and clutched it to my chest! We get into the car, and I can't wait any longer to crack this bad boy open! To my surprise (shock? Horror??) Superman only introduced the stories, which were all tales of Revolutionary war heroes, Colonial spies, and a guy who created a one man submarine during the Revolution. I had been cheated by the oldest game in marketing... the bait and switch. Yep, DC pulled the ol' "Tomahawk Two-step" with that issue! Now I happen to like Tomahawk, but any kid who bought that book under DC's deceptive cover art definitely got scalped.
Yeah, but how many kids buy a comic without at least opening the cover and looking at the pages? No kid in my neighborhood ever did, I can tell you that.
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Post by brutalis on Jul 24, 2020 17:16:27 GMT -5
Back in ye old days there were comics I bought without flipping through because I knew there wouldn't be the bait and switch. Star Wars. Battlestar Galactica. John Carter. Tarzan. Avengers. Fantastic Four. X-Men. Master of Kung Fu.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2020 19:13:08 GMT -5
The only time I ever bought without opening was at the worst comic shop in town, the one is the mall where the manager would harass you if you flipped through them.
I pretty much gave up buying stuff there after a few visits.
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Post by MDG on Jul 25, 2020 11:22:20 GMT -5
The only time I ever bought without opening was at the worst comic shop in town, the one is the mall where the manager would harass you if you flipped through them. I pretty much gave up buying stuff there after a few visits. "Kid, this ain't a liberry!"
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Post by brutalis on Jul 25, 2020 12:57:03 GMT -5
The only time I ever bought without opening was at the worst comic shop in town, the one is the mall where the manager would harass you if you flipped through them. I pretty much gave up buying stuff there after a few visits. One of the Korean grocery mini-mart stores in my neighborhood literally kept the spinner rack inside the register space and made you feel like a criminal if you spent more than 3 minutes picking out a comic book. Eventually after befriending the owners daughter (4 years younger than me) and helping her with homework I was accepted or tolerated and allowed more time for browsing than others. Let me tell you, the Korean evil/stink eye is some kind of powerful cuz it gave me the willie's in the beginning!
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Post by beccabear67 on Jul 25, 2020 13:07:22 GMT -5
We had a corner shopkeeper by the elementary school who if you were out of eyesight would loudly announce "I see you stealing there!" He probably put the idea into people's heads who never even thought of it. Eventually he made sure he was closed during school lunch hour and about an hour after school ended, so I guess some brats had bedeviled him. The same shop and shopkeeper had been operating when my Mom was little at the same school over twenty years earlier. One time I took pop bottles in for change to buy candy and he hadn't seen it and refused to give me the deposit saying they were there before I came in. I got even by taking an apple off the tree in their yard later. I enjoyed it as well. I never stole a thing from him!
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