My Comic Book Journey, South and Central Floyd

    This week starts an epic series of posts about my history with comic books, where I've found and bought them.  The fun starts close to home with some of the first places I ever got my comics.  Entries in black are no longer in business.  Entries in red are still in business, but no longer sell comics.  Although there won't be any today, entries in blue mean businesses that are still open and sell comics of some sort, even if there aren't any that I would buy.  Checks like this ✓ mean that I have bought at least on comic there.  If I miss any locations, it means that I never went in them and never knew they had comics, or I simply forgot.  On occasion, I might bring up a location out of the established order, but I will inform you if I am skipping somewhere.  I have forgotten the names of some locations, but I will try to identify them the best I can. Now, onto the list.

• Osborne Drug Store, Bypro, ✓:  This is where I got my first comic books.  Okay, my mom got them, but I was frequently there to pick them out.  I also got some magazines as well.  Mostly puzzles. At first, all I got were funny animal books, mostly Disney.  By the mid-70s, the books were mostly reprints of older stories, but they were new to me as I had never read the originals.  I collected them just long enough that some of the stories were beginning to repeat when the publisher, Whitman I believe, stopped printing them.  This left me in a lurch.  I finally moved on to the "scary" superhero titles, even though I might not have been emotionally ready.  My first series was The New Teen Titans.  DC is still publishing a title starring the same seven heroes, now in their 20s, which shows how popular the property has been. I would go on with a few more series.  However, by the early 80s, it was getting hard for the owner to find someone to keep the place open.  The store ultimately closed, leaving me without a steady source for my comics.  While there were rumors that someone would open something at the store, nothing ever happened.  A few years ago, the store, as well as the other buildings and houses around it, was torn down for a power substation to be put up. A sad end for such a dear place for me.
• Hall's Community Market, original owners, Bypro:  I would sometimes go with my mother shopping at the local grocery stores.  This was mostly on weekends when we had more time to go around.  However, we would sometimes stop at Hall's after she came in from work, after we went to pick up my comics.  Some time around when the store was starting to close, I remember seeing some comics there.  I can't remember if it was actual books or just a collector's pack with two or more in them.  Never bought anything there.  This was just before I was stopping going out with my mom to shop.  I was self-conscious about being seen by my classmates and embarrassed, so I just stopped doing it.  The market is still open, with new owners, which quite an accomplishment.  It probably doesn't sell comics.  There were other markets we went to, at Bypro, Melvin, and Bevinsville, but none of them had comics.  Maybe that last one, but we went there so infrequently that I am not sure.  If they did, I don't remember buying any there.
• Ben Franklin Five and Dime, Bypro, ✓:  I got a few things here.  I had my first professional photo taken as a baby.  I got my first large Transformer from here, Skywarp. (Someone had put it on layaway for Christmas and didn't pick it up.  My mom got it for my birthday soon after.) And I got some comic books here.  The drug store wasn't always open when I went there, and they didn't always have new Disney comics that I liked.  One day, I went here and spotted some Disneys that I didn't usually get.  I don't know how long they had been there, as we didn't shop there too often. I also can't remember if they were single issues or a pack, but I wound up with comics that I wouldn't have had otherwise.  The Five and Dime closed when I was still fairly young, and a Dollar General took its place.  They would later build a larger shop next to Hall's where they are still are to this day. The original site was supposed to be re-opened as something else, but nothing came of those plans.  [I didn't go into many Dollar Generals when I was young.  There weren't as many around.  However, I don't recall seeing any comic books or packs back then, although I could be wrong.  The ones I've been to the last few years don't even have a real selection of magazines.]
• Family Drug (current name), Bypro:  Back in the mid-90s, a relative called saying that the pharmacy she worked at would soon be selling comic books, and if they were any they could stock for me.  I had to inform her that I was getting my comics somewhere else then.  A little later, I had to pick up a prescription for my mom and saw the comics there, still for sale.  They stopped selling them sometime later.  The pharmacy currently goes by Family Drug, I don't remember the original name, but it is still open.
• IGA, Wheelwright, ✓:  During the time when Osborne was trying to stay open, an IGA finally came to Wheelwright.  It may have started out as something else; I can't be sure. One weekend when me and my mom went up there, I saw a spinner rack with comic books.  With the drug store on the verge of closing, this could have been helpful.  I can only remember picking up one title ever from here, although it may have been more.  Either the store closed or stopped selling comics, or I may have just stopped wanting to go out, but I don't think I was able to pick up any more than that.  After it closed, the space became a few other things, including a church. [The McDowell store that became an IGA also had magazines in a tucked away spot, but I can't remember if it had comics.  I just didn't go there that much.  The original building was torn down after the 2003 flood, but a new one was build in much the same place.  It doesn't sell magazines.]
• Unknown business at Price, ✓:  There was this establishment at Price, about across the road where my best friend from grade school lived and where a small service mart is now.  It sold comics as a sideline.  I think it was supposed to be a restaurant, as I remember sitting at a table for ten to fifteen minutes or more, looking at some of the other comics that I didn't want to get.  I don't remember the food.  Either the order was cancelled or it was so mediocre I don't remember eating it.  It might not even have been for me.  Anyway, we never stopped there again, and the place closed sometime after.  I believe the building it was in is still vacant.
• Unidentified pharmacy, Martin, ✓:  This store was at the lights at the intersection of 122 and Route 80. We would sometimes stop here on the way back from Prestonsburg just to check on my comics.  It had a small selection of magazines as well that I would sometimes go through and pick one out.  I mostly got digests here, as opposed to regular comic books for some reason.  The pharmacy would close and be torn down as other establishments, such as a Speedway, were put up.  There was a department store nearby, a Maloney's I think, that had toys and albums, but I can't remember any comics or magazines there.  It would close and become a furniture store before being torn down as well. [The store that is now an IGA did have magazines at one time, and probably comics too.  I can't be sure where or when.  It doesn't have either now.  There was also a supermarket on Main Street in Marin as well.  Don't recall what it was, as we only stopped there a few times.  It may have changed names a few times.  One evening, we stopped there and I may have gotten a comic.  Can't be sure, but it feels right, maybe.  The last opportunity I had to go in before in closed, I decided to stay in the car instead.  I was looking at some comics I had gotten in P-Burg.  I wish I had gone in.  I've always liked looking at different stores, although groceries would take me awhile to get interested in.]

    With this hint, we are now in north Floyd.  Next week, we start in P-Burg and make our way through the rest of Floyd County for a big reveal.  See you then.