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Post by Farrar on Jun 4, 2019 22:18:31 GMT -5
...Nice abandoned Bodega there ... Just read that Lin-Manuel Miranda recently had an open call for extras for his "In the Heights" film on that very block (the abandoned bodega's on the corner)!
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Post by Trevor on Jun 7, 2019 9:17:49 GMT -5
I wish I had taken pictures before it was too late, but here’s my remembrance of my first “comic book store’.
I discovered comics in the early 70s when comics were still in every grocer, drugstore, newsstand, and convenience store. In my little suburb town of maybe 12k I had at least 20 stores with comic books. The first place I discovered with back issues was a little independent used book store on Main Street. It didn’t stock new comics, but somehow ended up with thousands of older books. They were not organized at all, just row upon row of unsorted books. One summer day as a maybe 10 year old, I took it upon myself to organize the books for them. I asked permission first, then spent all day alphabetizing them. Don’t remember how long the organization lasted, probably not very, but it was my first foray into what has become a lifetime of shuffling comics from one pile to another.
Later, years after I moved away, this store became an actual comic book store. It was out of the way, but I frequented it a few times a year until it abruptly closed a year or three ago.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 7, 2019 9:24:59 GMT -5
I wish I had taken pictures before it was too late, but here’s my remembrance of my first “comic book store’. I discovered comics in the early 70s when comics were still in every grocer, drugstore, newsstand, and convenience store. In my little suburb town of maybe 12k I had at least 20 stores with comic books. The first place I discovered with back issues was a little independent used book store on Main Street. It didn’t stock new comics, but somehow ended up with thousands of older books. They were not organized at all, just row upon row of unsorted books. One summer day as a maybe 10 year old, I took it upon myself to organize the books for them. I asked permission first, then spent all day alphabetizing them. Don’t remember how long the organization lasted, probably not very, but it was my first foray into what has become a lifetime of shuffling comics from one pile to another. Later, years after I moved away, this store became an actual comic book store. It was out of the way, but I frequented it a few times a year until it abruptly closed a year or three ago. Nice story, I hope he threw you a few freebies for your work.
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zilch
Full Member
Posts: 238
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Post by zilch on Jun 7, 2019 18:07:44 GMT -5
Several Arnold, MO drugstores (all gone)... B&R Comix (in the shadow of the Bevo Mill) gone... Mo's Comics & Stories (about three blocks away) large street sign was visible from several blocks away, using the Walt Disney's C&S font) gone "Steve's comic shop in Arnold" (sorry, can't remember the name)... gone Bob's Comics World in Kirkwood (the B of B&R broke up with his brother, skipped jr college to hang out there)... and one of the various hangers-on was a young Jim Lee, who brought in his pencils for his first issue of Alpha Flight and all i could think of was "boy, i hope the inker fixes up all those stupid scratchy lines..."... gone Second Story Comics in Kirkwood (on the same block as Bob's run by yet another Bob who opened his shop before he was 21 (got people older to sign all the paperwork)... gone, bought out by the local Fantasy Books chain (stores in St. Charles, Manchester and later in South St. Louis County, Fairview Heights, IL probably missing one or two) Comic Headquarters... on Telegraph near my present home and my last shop until i quit buying new books
-z
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Post by Farrar on Jun 24, 2019 16:37:41 GMT -5
When I was a kid one of there was a candy store/luncheonette called Bernie's a couple of blocks from where I lived when I was a kid. Bernie's was right next to a drugstore where every Mother's Day and Christmas like clockwork we kids bought my mom Jean Naté After Bath Splash. In the picture above (from Google), Bernie's would have been right on the corner, where the pawn shop is now. Anyway, Bernie's was probably the first place where I got comics. It was always such a special treat to go out shopping or banking with my mom in the neighborhood, because those jaunts inevitably ended with us stopping off at Bernie's where my mother would treat us kids to comics. This was my Harvey comics phase and I can't tell you how many cherished Wendy comics I got here--I especially loved the frequent giant-sized issues. My siblings got the Casper and Spooky comics (as the oldest sibling I assigned those particular comics to them--but really, all the Harveys we bought were mine, all mine!). So one day we went to a different candy store, one right across the street from where we lived. I got a comic and then we walked a few blocks to the block Bernie's was on. My mother went to buy some fruits and vegetables at a fruit stand on the block. I didn't really want to stand around while my mom was buying produce so I told her I was going to Bernie's for a few minutes. I put the comic I'd bought from the other store under my jacket. At Bernie's I took a quick look at the array of comics on the wall. I didn't buy anything but as soon as I stepped outside the store and took the comic out from under my jacket, the old man at the Bernie's counter came running out and accused me of stealing his comics. He yelled and screamed and was really irate. Luckily my mother had finished with the fruit stand and she saw him yelling at me and she stepped in, and explained that the comic had been bought from a different store. She calmed him down, but the guy had been so freakin' nasty I never set foot in Bernie's again. Luckily there was another neighborhood candy store (a few blocks uptown) that stocked the Harveys I loved back then.
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Post by mrbrklyn on Jun 24, 2019 17:09:26 GMT -5
When I was a kid one of there was a candy store/luncheonette called Bernie's a couple of blocks from where I lived when I was a kid. Bernie's was right next to a drugstore where every Mother's Day and Christmas like clockwork we kids bought my mom Jean Naté After Bath Splash. In the picture above (from Google), Bernie's would have been right on the corner, where the pawn shop is now. Anyway, Bernie's was probably the first place where I got comics. It was always such a special treat to go out shopping or banking with my mom in the neighborhood, because those jaunts inevitably ended with us stopping off at Bernie's where my mother would treat us kids to comics. This was my Harvey comics phase and I can't tell you how many cherished Wendy comics I got here--I especially loved the frequent giant-sized issues. My siblings got the Casper and Spooky comics (as the oldest sibling I assigned those particular comics to them--but really, all the Harveys we bought were mine, all mine!). So one day we went to a different candy store, one right across the street from where we lived. I got a comic and then we walked a few blocks to the block Bernie's was on. My mother went to buy some fruits and vegetables at a fruit stand on the block. I didn't really want to stand around while my mom was buying produce so I told her I was going to Bernie's for a few minutes. I put the comic I'd bought from the other store under my jacket. At Bernie's I took a quick look at the array of comics on the wall. I didn't buy anything but as soon as I stepped outside the store and took the comic out from under my jacket, the old man at the Bernie's counter came running out and accused me of stealing his comics. He yelled and screamed and was really irate. Luckily my mother had finished with the fruit stand and she saw him yelling at me and she stepped in, and explained that the comic had been bought from a different store. She calmed him down, but the guy had been so freakin' nasty I never set foot in Bernie's again. Luckily there was another neighborhood candy store (a few blocks uptown) that stocked the Harveys I loved back then. My first comics came off the rack at the Lunchenette across the street from the Subway terminal at Rockaway Parkway in canarsie, Brooklyn. Strangely enough, as my life seems to go in circles, I am sitting not more than a few blocks from there right now on Flatlands Avenue, working a retail pharmacy... It is all very sobering.
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Post by Farrar on Jun 24, 2019 19:42:12 GMT -5
My first comics came off the rack at the Lunchenette across the street from the Subway terminal at Rockaway Parkway in canarsie, Brooklyn. Strangely enough, as my life seems to go in circles, I am sitting not more than a few blocks from there right now on Flatlands Avenue, working a retail pharmacy... It is all very sobering. Is that luncheonette still around? I visited my old neighborhood a few years ago and none of my candy stores/luncheonettes were around.
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Post by urrutiap on Jun 24, 2019 20:15:25 GMT -5
I hate to say it again.
Pretty much for everyone in the early 1980s the downtown drug pharmacy store and the newsstand magazine section at grocery stores were our "comic book shops" at the time.
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Post by mrbrklyn on Jun 25, 2019 6:10:43 GMT -5
My first comics came off the rack at the Lunchenette across the street from the Subway terminal at Rockaway Parkway in canarsie, Brooklyn. Strangely enough, as my life seems to go in circles, I am sitting not more than a few blocks from there right now on Flatlands Avenue, working a retail pharmacy... It is all very sobering. Is that luncheonette still around? I visited my old neighborhood a few years ago and none of my candy stores/luncheonettes were around. Yes it is as a matter of fact, but it has no comics rack. My first true Comics Shop was 2 blocks away on Rockaway Parkway near Foster Avenue. I found it, and it opened about 3 months after than, and I ended up spending a good part of my miseriable childhood reading comics from the bins of that store. Jery and Harriet who owned the store were forster parents for half the rug rats in Canarsie in the 1970's. It still has a short order grill. What it doesn't have is athe Jerkie stand that used to serve me up Ice Cream Sodas every week as I was reading my comics.
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Post by mrbrklyn on Jun 25, 2019 6:11:58 GMT -5
I hate to say it again. Pretty much for everyone in the early 1980s the downtown drug pharmacy store and the newsstand magazine section at grocery stores were our "comic book shops" at the time. this was the 1970s and no, not unless your local news stand carried copies of Averngers #1 pinned to the wall.
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Post by urrutiap on Jun 25, 2019 7:52:45 GMT -5
well, maybe for you mrbrlyn.
For me, when I was a little kid in the early 1980s, thats how it was. the drug pharmacy stores and grocery stores with the small newsstand area where they were my "comic book shop".
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Post by mrbrklyn on Jun 25, 2019 9:53:18 GMT -5
well, maybe for you mrbrlyn. For me, when I was a little kid in the early 1980s, thats how it was. the drug pharmacy stores and grocery stores with the small newsstand area where they were my "comic book shop". Truthfully, I have no idea what your speaking of. Maybe you can explain it better.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,533
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Post by Confessor on Jun 25, 2019 11:10:13 GMT -5
Truthfully, I have no idea what your speaking of. Maybe you can explain it better. Seems pretty straight forward to me. urrutiap is describing his memory of where he was able to get comics back in the '80s, and presumably how there were no dedicated comic specialty shops near him. I'm not sure how he could explain that any better than he already has.
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Post by mrbrklyn on Jun 25, 2019 13:42:43 GMT -5
Truthfully, I have no idea what your speaking of. Maybe you can explain it better. Seems pretty straight forward to me. urrutiap is describing his memory of where he was able to get comics back in the '80s, and presumably how there were no dedicated comic specialty shops near him. I'm not sure how he could explain that any better than he already has. Well, there is this part where he says this was true for most people. By the 1980's comic shops where far and wide. When was American Flagg!! published? First was already targeting Comic shops for there offerings That is the point that is not on not straight forward, but the other part of his statement, where he says he that he says this all the time, and I didn't see anyone particularly disagreeing with him. He implies, thereby, that this topic is not worth having. But I find it enlightening and think the discussion of the history of comic shops and the marketing of comics is worth having. So on that point, I am also unclear as to what urrutiap is saying. If he is saying that from his memory that comic shops where "pharmacies" well that is interesting and fine. But if his point that this was true for all of us, or even most of it.... that needs to be clarified because it flies in the face of the facts, which is that back issue shops were springing up all over the US even by 1975.
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Post by rberman on Jun 25, 2019 13:46:21 GMT -5
I hate to say it again. Pretty much for everyone in the early 1980s the downtown drug pharmacy store and the newsstand magazine section at grocery stores were our "comic book shops" at the time. also the convenience stores which sold gasoline. There was one very near my house that got a good bit of my allowance. I seem to recall buying comics at places like Waldenbooks as well?
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