First Visit to a Comic Book Store

I've spoken before about the shift in our culture from when comics were available at every convenience store, drug store, book store and newsstand imaginable to now only being sold through comic book stores. Specialty shops. To me, as wonderful as comic book stores can be, it's this shift that kicked off the serious decline in comic books.

But in the mid-1980's, the shift hadn't happened in full yet. Comics were still being sold everywhere, and comic book specialty shops were springing up all over the nation.

A friend at school told me about comic book stores. I though he was kidding. He asked me if I had been to Burke books in the Burke Center shopping strip. A comic book store. I thought for sure he was teasing me, or setting me up for a prank. So much so, that I called the store to verify their existence and hours before badgering my mother to drive me other there.

It was January, 1985. And I have no idea why Mom agreed to drive me all the way to Burke for this. Maybe we were getting dinner from Subway, stopping at the bank, or heading to Errol's for a video. Maybe it was because we were headed to Grandmom Dill's that weekend and I needed something to keep me busy on the car trip. Or maybe it was a special trip just for this. Which is what I remember it to be. At any rate, she drove me one night, on a dark school night, and waited in the car while I went inside.

The place was empty. It hadn't even been fully set up yet. There was empty space in the back and boxes and boxes that remained unpacked. A small wooden counter, cash register, and scruffy adult with glasses were to my right. To my left was an entire wall of comic books. Wooden racks standing chest high, beginning on the front wall and spiraling down the left wall of the building. I couldn't believe it.

I didn't have long. My mother had made this clear. And I didn't have a lot of money. Just a few dollars. I don't remember browsing for long, I was definitely on overload. This felt so... uncomfortable. I knew it would take me a while to GET comfortable and with Mom waiting I didn't have the time. I found a copy of Secret Wars #12 on the stand. I had loved the first six or seven issues of Secret Wars but the last few issues were leaving me cold. But still... I grabbed it and headed to the register.


The dude behind the register was carefully counting change. Being a teenager, I didn't notice. I immediately started asking him questions. How long have you been open? Are you the owner? Are you guys serious with this? Are you open next week? What IS this place?

He held up a finger at me and continued counting. I felt like a clueless moron. But he didn't let out any annoyance. He finished counting and enthusiastically answered my questions. Then took up my selection and began to ring me up.

"You like Secret Wars?" He asked.

"Yeah. I do." I nodded.

"Well, if you like Secret Wars, DC has their own crossover book that you might be interested in that just started up."

"Really?" I hadn't heard this. This was pre-internet. "I'm actually a big DC fan. What's it called?"

"Crisis on Infinite Earths." he pointed. I wandered over and picked up the book. It... was .... AMAZING. Just purely judging by the George Perez wraparound cover. I bought it. No hesitation.


As much as I loved Secret Wars, I read that first issue of Crisis dozens of times on the trip to Grandmom's house. And dozens of times more after that. My initial trip to a store that specialized in comics was magic enough. But to have a comic this great on top of that was a dream come true.

This was when I was still of the age when every chance to get into a store that sold any comics at all was a rare thing and something to fight for. But this was the age when everything was changing for me and newfound mobility would have me at that store very frequently over the next ten years.

Comic book stores turned into a crutch for me during the unhappy nineties. And later going to the store turned into a chore for me in recent years. Now I'm glad to be digital and free from the chains of physical objects. But as with so many things in life, that experience will never be what it once was. Time, maturity, circumstances, even content of the comics are all different now and that day can never be duplicated. But I have my memory of it.

And I have my copy of Secret Wars #12 and Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 that I bought at Burke Used Books in the Burke Center shopping strip in January of 1985 while my mother waited in the car.

Thanks,
DCD