My Comic Book Journey, Williamson and Norton

    It's time to go east to Williamson, West Virginia this week.  Okay, most of the places are actually still in Kentucky, but I used to go to them on the way to Williamson, so it is all just the same thing, right?  As always, entries in black means that the place is out of business.  Red and blue mean that the business is still open and either doesn't or still does have comic books respectively, although the former will not be used this week.  Checkmarks indicate that I actually bought comics there, instead of just looking at them.  Time to go.

• Magic Mart, Belfrey:  This store opened sometime after the one at Coal Run moved.  I think, if only because I don't remember seeing it there until the 90s or so.  It had about the same range of products as the other one, and that includes comics.  We never stopped there too often, as I preferred stopping on the way to Williamson, as a way to make sure everything else was open if we were too early, and my mom liked it on the way back, as she hated to make the left turn, even with traffic lights.  I hated trying to go afterwards, as it usually meant foregoing the stop.  So, we only went a few times, going to the one at Coal Run instead.  The store would later move to the Southside Mall.  More on that later. [Somewhere along this road, the older stretch of four-lane near Belfrey, is where the video store that would become Page-3 was located.  I may have seen the signs for it, but I never thought to stop until it showed up in downtown Pikeville.]
• Unknown newsstand/tobacco shop, Williamson, WV, ✓:  Whenever we went to Williamson, we always had a set pattern.  We would park in the municipal lot at the south end of town.  Then, we would walk up the left side of the street, where my mom would look into the various dress shops.  We would then cross the street, and look at the dress and shoe shops on the right.  Occasionally, I would get to look to go into a shop for me, such as Penny's or a men's store a street or so over.  Finally, when my patience was at its end, we would go to the newsstand for me where I could look at the comics and magazines.  The store had a slightly larger selection of magazines than most place in Pikeville back then, the early 80s when we first started going there.  Then, the dress shops started closing, and I had less time to have to wait.  On what would be the last regular trip to downtown, the newsstand had closed, and the last of mom's dress shops said that they would be closing soon as well.  While I hated the smell of tobacco, I still liked stopping here. After that, we just went straight to the mall instead, ignoring downtown. [The only other store that may have had comics would have been the department store (Murphy's ?) at the end of the street.  We rarely tried to go there, as it was such a long walk down.  I know they had toys, but I can't be sure about the comics.  In fact, there might have been a second department store, but it may have closed just before or soon after we started making these regular trips.  Either way, they were among the first stores to close downtown, and we barely shopped there.]
• Unnamed bookstore, Southside Mall, South Williamson:  I was quite surprised when I found out a small bookstore had opened up in the mall.  It had a small selection of comic books and magazines, but I don't believe they interested me, so I don't remember buying any.  I did buy an "Encyclopedia Brown" book.  In hindsight, it was probably well beneath my reading level at the time, but it had a contest that I was too old to enter, if just barely, when I double-checked.  Still, the nostalgia factor was high.  The store didn't last that long, and it was gone by the next trip, I think.  [In the late 2000s, there was a bookstore in downtown Williamson that contacted us at Booknotes about buying some of their stock, as they were going out of business.  We stopped by after work one day.  The store didn't have comics or magazines.  We ultimately decided not to purchase any of their stock.  I don't think it was connected to the store at the mall.]
• K-Mart, Southside Mall, South Williamson, ✓:  For the longest time, I didn't know that this K-Mart even had a magazine section, or even comics.  When I was young, we pretty much just went to the toy section, and maybe school supplies.  My mom said I was too young to search around by myself in such a crowded place, especially since we had so many other stores to go to.  However, by the mid-90s, there weren't as many stops to make.  I was in my 20s, so I was old enough to search, especially since I wasn't looking for toys.  I finally found the magazines and comics in the far left rear corner of the store. Whether it was always there, I don't know.  I do know I bought at least one comic there, as I remember walking along the corridors of the mall taking quick looks at one, and K-Mart was the only place I could have bought it at the time.  Unfortunately, this was one of the first stores to close.  I must admit, the store was quite empty when I finally found the magazines, so it made sense.  [The space was finally taken over by Magic Mart, but this was after we stopped making regular trips.  The one time we did stop, it no longer had a magazine section or comics, or that many customers.  The store closed with all the others in the 2010s.  The mall is still open, but without any real anchors.  I don't know how long it can last.]
• Kroger/unnamed drug store, South Williamson, ✓:  I know both of the these stores had comics; I just can't remember if I got comics at both, or just one of them.  Technically, these stores weren't part of the actual mall, but they were built right beside it.  You just couldn't go to them unless you left the inside of the mall first.  I don't remember what the drug store was, but I doubt it was a Rite-Aid.  It was just too big.  I remember getting Easter candy there, as well as a pasta cookbook.  I didn't fix any recipe beyond the first chapter or so, but I still loved it.  I'm pretty sure there were comic books, at one point.  They may have stopped before the store closed in the mid-to-late 90s.I somewhat more certain of Kroger.  It was slightly larger than the one at Coal Run, with a better bakery, according to my mom.  I am positive I bought a magazine here, and maybe a comic book as well.  It had a few products that the one in Coal Run never had.  This location closed a year or so before that one.  Its closure pretty much marked the end of regular trips to the mall and Williamson in the late 90s, or early 2000s just before my store opened.
• Economy Drug, South Williamson, ✓:  As stores in the mall closed, I convinced my mom to stop at other places nearby to make up for not shopping elsewhere.  Economy Drug was at the bottom of the hill where the Southside Mall is.  I can remember stopping there once, maybe twice, near the end of our regular trips.  I actually picked up a comic or two that I had forgot were coming out and hadn't bother to pre-order at my regular comic shops. I have listed the place as closed instead of red because I am not sure if it is still there.  Last year, the Food City next store began a major expansion that may have taken over the drug store's old location.  (I never looked for comics the one or two times I remember stopping there, but it might have had them at the time.  It wouldn't have them now.) Even if it was still open, it wouldn't have comics, and maybe not magazines either.  Since I am not planning on going to Williamson any time soon, I am marking it as closed until I am sure otherwise. {Weird side note;  I believe this Food City may have been the one featured in an episode of How the States Got Their Shapes.}

    With this, we take our leave of Williamson and go so to Virginia. Specifically, Norton.  Possibly Pound and Wise as well.  I get confused of exactly which is where.  We've been to some combination of these, but I will list it as Norton to keep it simple.  We used to go there a few times in the 80s, a few more times in the 90s, and a few times a year in the 2010s.  A few places have had comics that I can remember.

• Roses department store, Norton, VA:  I'm not even sure that this was the name. The current Roses is more of a discount store, but before its restructuring it could have been as big as this store was.  I remember getting some Transformers here, as well as a puzzle magazine a separate time, in the 80s.  By the time we went back in the early 90s, the store was gone.  I think I saw comics here, but I never bough them here.
• K-Mart, Norton, VA:  This was the first ever K-Mart where I saw comics, leading to search for them in Williamson's the next time we went there.  I didn't buy any here at the time.  The store closed with all the others before I started going back.  [Other stores that may have had comics include a Food Lyon.  I am not sure I saw comics the only time I stopped in, but it did have the 'Oriental' variety of Hamburger Helper, the only place I ever saw it.  It is now a Save-a-Lot.  There was also an Ingall's.  It may have had comics back in the 80s, but I can't remember.  It did have a small selection of magazines in the 2010s.  It had closed the last time I was in Norton.]
• Cavalier Comics, Norton and Pound:  Back in the 90s, I was searching for the RPGs I had gotten interested in.  I found out about this store, the closest one nearby that I didn't already know about.  Sadly, I couldn't find any reason to get to go there until I had an accident at Page 3.  I had ordered a one-shot, but I had forgotten about it by the time it came out.  I didn't buy it, only to discover what it was after it sold out.  Since we were already planning a trip to Norton anyway, I convinced my mom to let me go out of our way to check out the store.  It didn't have my missing comic either, nor did it have as great a selection of RPGs as the online listing suggested.  I didn't go back to the Pound location.  However, it either move or opened a second location a the Norton shopping centers.  I stopped a few times and looked around, but I never bought anything, as I felt that would be a betrayal of Page 3.  By this time, my RPGs were not really sold at retail anymore. [There are two other locations I've been to at Norton that 'have' comics.  The first is Ollie's Bargain Bin. It took over part of the place where K-Mart, or the Food City bestie it used to be.  They frequently have either graphic novels or collector packs, but it doesn't get a main entry, as the selection can vary.  I have bought some discounted books here, for my own and not the store.  I prefer Big Lots as they have a better selection of food. {Food City may have had comics when it was here, but I can't even find magazines at its newer, bigger separate location.}. The other location would be Walmart.  Or should I say Super Walmart, as it is huge.  It had a slightly better selection of groceries than the one at Pikeville.  It probably has comics, at least some manga and collector pack, but I wasn't looking for them the last time I was there, so this is entirely conjecture.]

    And now it is time to leave Virginia and go back to Kentucky.  Specifically, Letcher county, like I frequently did when I went to Norton.  Next week I start the southern trek of my journey. Be there with me.