Recently I passed by my old neighborhood. I used to go to the comic book store near where I lived every other weekend when I was growing up. I went looking for it only to find it was gone. With a quick google search I found they moved a few blocks away…to a much smaller location. The rent had tripled in price and they were forced to move. While it was nice seeing they were still in business; they’re also doing curbside service during the pandemic. But i have to admit, I was a little bummed to see them move to a cramped, smaller location.
It got me thinking to those early days when my dad told me there was a comic shop in our neighborhood. Whenever I had allowance or extra money, he’d take me there (usually on Sunday afternoons) and I’d go through the long boxes looking for older issues of Superboy (I still have a couple of those issues, by the way) I remember first learning about The Death of Superman by a poster on their door. I first learned what a fifty cent bin was and got a near-complete run of Justice League Quarterly thanks to them. I still went to them even though I discovered Forbidden Planet and Jim Hanley’s Universe downtown. This was my first regular comic shop. I have a lot of fond memories of my parents taking me, of showing my friends a store that sold comics and of the cool and random things I’d find there.
Do any of you have a favorite LCS? Do you have any specific memories tied to it? Are they still in business? I’d love to hear your stories.
There have been so many comic stores in Oklahoma City, many come and gone but the first one I discovered, the first one most discovered has been in business since the early 1980’s and is still opened. At one point it was so successful it spawned two more stores in and around Oklahoma City, one of them is also still opened although it focuses more on selling Tabletop RGP games and accessories now. (still comics, just less emphasis).
Oklahoma City has a huge comic book fan community for a city of less then a million people due mostly to his successfully running the comic shop for so long. He sold it a little over 10 years ago to one of his employees but it still seems to be going strong. Well, the last few times I went there since the pandemic seems to have slowed down. Shops are back opened here and have been for the last few months, but since them when I have gone in, even on Wednesdays the store is not that busy, sometimes I am the only one in there where as before there were always a handfull of customers. Although to be fair many stuck around and talked for an hour or more and I believe he is not encouraging that as much now due to the pandemic.
I still remember when I was 13 walking around 4 miles every Wednesday after school to get the latest comics right up until I had a car at 18. I spent my entire teen years and my early adult years going there, if not for them I doubt I would have grown to love comics as much as I do now.
I am hoping they can survive the current situation with comics, although after almost 40 years it is hard to believe they won’t be the last comic shop standing even if the worst does happen. They clearly have shown they can adapt to the times.
@DanTheManOne1 That’s awesome! Glad to know the store is still around. The hardest thing for comic shops is the changing times, but the few that can adapt to the changes always do well.
The shop i grew up going to, and loved, closed after 40 years. Its been a couple of years now, and I still think about it. I still have my lifetime membership card, and tote bag that came with the membership.
Both. It was just one guy that run the store. My late friend was telling me about this Store called Aces High Comic, it was really near his house and we would walk there and get comics, I would get The Batman Adventures.
After my friend sadly passaway I would continue to go there til Store went out of business.
I grew up in the pre-comic book store days, but I remember as a kid my mother would go grocery shopping on Thursday night (I have no idea why Thursday, but it was always Thursday) at Randall’s Grocery store in Winona Minnesota across the river from my home town. In the strip mall attached to the grocery store was book store. I got my dollar or two and walked over to the bookstore which meant I could buy a handful of comics each week, the vast majority of them DC. Then when I was transferred from Korea to Arizona in 1984, I found Sierra Used Books and Comics my first comic book store. Even took my new girlfriend there with me to get comics.
You go into the store and there’s wooden magazine shelves slightly canted so you can see them easier running down the right hand side of the store. Creepily enough, men’s magazines were next to the comics.
In my youth, and very much to this day, I never really had a single LCS. There were/ are a bunch of comic book stores in my area, but the one that I kinda miss going to the most is right in my hometown. When I was younger they had a whole bunch of back issues and collected editions, and the ten minute walk up Main St. was a fun little break from what I would consider a very sheltered upbringing.
What’s unfortunate is that this store has since shifted to selling nothing but tabletop games, which on the one hand is kinda sad to me, but on the other hand I don’t really mind considering that I can drive to whatever comic shop I want now
I’ve seen a few stores here in NYC change to table top games. There was one here called Action Comics which was good, but moved to three locations. Towards the end the owner catered mostly to table top and card gamers, often putting cardboard atop the back issue areas to play games, which was unfortunate for me because I went there mostly for back issues.
I also grew up in the pre-comic book shop era, but about ten years into my four-color obsession I discovered Ed Summer’s Super-Snipe comic store on the upper east side of Manhattan in 1974. I would make a once a week trip from East New York, Brooklyn all the way uptown to get my fix. The store was so small you periodically had to stand outside, on line, before being allowed to enter. Needless to say, passersby would look a bit askew at teens and adults waiting to enter a store to purchase comic books(?). As the years progressed, I purchased my comics at The Village Comic Art Shop (just south of Union Square) and then Forbidden Planet on 12th and Broadway.
More time passed, I moved to to Nassau County NY in the late 80’s and started frequenting Mintcondition Comics in my town. The two owners were marvleous people who loved comics and baseball, lived in town and eventually became my friends. In 2004, I purchased the shop from the later owner and had a wonderful eight year run of fun and–more importantly–the opportunity to make more life-long friends. At regular intervals to celebrate special sales, industry events and birthdays we would play Mintcondition Jeopardy. It was always a hoot, especially when I would sneak in sports categories to the chagrin of most of my patrons. We once had a Nascar category where every “answer” was Jeff Gordon. It was almost a retail mutiny.
I gave up the business in 2012, never quite recovering from the “recession” of '08 and '09. But the memories are rich, fond and everlasting.
