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Earliest comic shops?
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103 posts in this topic

How early did stores selling back issue comics in at least a semi formal way spring up in your neck of the woods? Here I'd be including book shops which would be stocking a decent quantity of back issues in an organized way as opposed to haphazardly in a pile somewhere.

 

???

 

There were no such things in London, Ontario until 1978 at the very earliest. I may never have stopped collecting comics as a kid in 1964 had there been a good source of back issue comics at the time.

 

:(

Edited by Hepcat
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Gary Arlington opened the San Francisco Comic Book Store in 1968. When my family moved into the neighborhood in 1971, I became a regular customer and spend all the extra cash there. All the great underground artists met at his shop. Even though my funds were limited, he never kicked me out. Gary had a stroke recently and retired. He has one of the best raw EC collections around and is still looking for Tale of Terror Annual #1.

 

In August 1972, Bud Plant, the late John Barrett, and Bob Beerbohm co-founded Comics & Comix in Berkeley. I was a student at UC Berkeley from 1973-1976 and visited the shop several times a week.

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Memory lane was established in downtown Toronto in the 60's

 

I posted this in a thread some while ago.

 

 

Be prepared to look at mint everything AND in comic book racks.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/arts-entertainment/visual-arts/the-comics-in-canada-an-illustrated-history/canadas-first-comic-book-store.html

 

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Memory lane was established in downtown Toronto in the 60's

 

I posted this in a thread some while ago.

 

 

Be prepared to look at mint everything AND in comic book racks.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/arts-entertainment/visual-arts/the-comics-in-canada-an-illustrated-history/canadas-first-comic-book-store.html

 

Good stuff, Bats and Supes #1 for $200 :takeit:

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That was fun to watch.

 

I like the reporter's last blurb, that theft of comic books was hard to have people take seriously - oh how time has changed. You can almost smell the week old clothes on those boys.

 

That size of the shop was about the size of the one in Uptown.

 

 

 

Memory lane was established in downtown Toronto in the 60's

 

I posted this in a thread some while ago.

 

 

Be prepared to look at mint everything AND in comic book racks.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/arts-entertainment/visual-arts/the-comics-in-canada-an-illustrated-history/canadas-first-comic-book-store.html

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The first one I ever saw was run out of the back of a head-shop in Lemoyne, PA, ca. 1975.

 

During a school field trip to Philly in '76 for the Bicentennial our bus broke down a few blocks from Fat Jack's Comicrypt (my buddy Steve and I saw it through the window as we passed it and went nuts because we couldn't leave the bus).

 

There was also the Comic Store in Lancaster, PA (first downtown, ca. '76, then in the Farmer's Market at the Park City Mall ca. '78 -- still in business today, with new owners, on Mcgovern Ave.!). And then when my family moved to Maryland in '78 there was The Comic Book Place in Bel Air, which had already been there for a few years, and was owned and run by an old Geppi associate.

 

But in the south-central PA/MD area at least, I'm pretty sure Geppi's Comic World--which I think opened in '74--pre-dated them all.

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Memory lane was established in downtown Toronto in the 60's

 

Be prepared to look at mint everything AND in comic book racks.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/arts-entertainment/visual-arts/the-comics-in-canada-an-illustrated-history/canadas-first-comic-book-store.html

 

Actually it was only the relatively new at the time Marvels that looked mint at a glance. The DCs from the mid-sixties the one fellow was flipping through looked VG.

 

(shrug)

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I was visiting In Son of Koobdooga (I think that was the name) about 1972 in Eugene, Oregon, but I have no idea when it started business. Hooker would probably know.

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We had a drug store that had several boxes of back issues when I was a kid, circa 1978ish. I remember they had a Green Lantern 76 with a $4 price sticker on it and I wanted it like a man wants a woman. :(

 

The first true comic shop I ever went in was Comics and Collectibles in Memphis. This was around 1987. I remember being stunned that they had full runs of every title. ASM #2 up, FF #2 up, X-Men #2 up, Avengers #2 up and these were all IN THE REGULAR INVENTORY BOXES! They had all the #1s but they were on the wall behind the counter.

 

I immediately left that store and drove to Memphis Comics and Records. They didn't seem to be nearly as nice and organized as CnC, but it was a nerd wet dream come true.

 

Good times. :cloud9:

 

 

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