Last week, I completed my comic journey by finishing up the last place I planned on covering. However, I still haven't gone over every single comic book that I have ever got. There are still some that I have yet to mention. These final few sources (I can't call them 'places' as you'll see) didn't really fit into the overall narrative that I was plotting, so they all ended up here. Entries in black are for those sources that I no longer can get comics from. The red entries indicate sources that are still active, but they no longer have comics available, at least on a reliable basis. Finally, blue entries are those sources that still can, theoretically, have comics available. All entries have check marks, indicating that I got comics there. Comments include other sources where I'm not as sure about, or I didn't feel that they warranted a main entry. Warning: Some will get weird. Very weird.
- Pic Pac (or some other supermarket), multiple possible locations, ✔ - probably: Pic Pac was a supermarket chain that was fairly widespread. Most became other stores, mostly IGAs. One day, about the time I was transitioning to superhero books or soon after, my mom took me and a relative, probably a slightly older girl cousin, to somewhere. We stopped at a store. We left as I was still looking at the comics. I complained back at the car, so my mom took me back in. She bought me the comic, which was still under a dollar back then. As to where this was, I can't remember. I'm positive it wasn't around Prestonsburg. I don't think it was in Pikeville. Velocity Market almost feels similar, but the store I'm talking about was separate from a shopping center. Also, Velocity never had comics, just a few magazines by the registers, and they stopped carrying those years ago. The store was probably somewhere between Wheelwright and Whitesburg, then onto Hazard and back. Or possibly on the old road between Pikeville and Williamson. Or on the way to Jenkins and Pound. I can't remember. I either didn't imprint a proper memory or it wasn't significant enough to hold onto beyond this. Anyway, I can't be sure how many other places I'm missing that this is standing in for.
- My mom, many spots, ✓: Okay, let me explain. As part of her state government job, my mom had to travel to many spots for training, sometimes for a whole week. These places ranged from Owensboro to Louisville to Frankfort. She would usually bring me something back, like a toy, book, magazine, or even a vinyl album once. And of course comics. I don't remember every place she mentioned she shopped, or even if she did mention every place. At least one, Joseph-Beth, is still around, but most probably aren't. I doubt we could even find the places again if we went there. Since she has been retired for over twenty years, this won't be happening any more. I wouldn't trust here buying me comics anyway, even if I told her exactly what to get. [My mom has also bought me comics as part of Christmas stockings and Easter baskets, but they were probably bought locally. She never got me comics for my birthday, although we did go for my regular weekly pick-ups. Once, this happened on my only birthday party that could actually happen that didn't get postponed due to weather, flu outbreaks, or just being on a weekend during my entire time in school. Guests were already arriving. By the time I got back, it was too late for me to regain control, and the party was just too wild to contain and petered out early. Aside from some "Peanuts" comic strip collections in mass market books, which don't count, no one else have ever got me comics as a gift.]
- Action figures, various places, ✓: Back in the early 80s, Kenner had a problem. With the 'Star Wars' movies ending, they needed a new idea. So, they teamed up with DC to produce the 'Super Power' line, promoted with comic books and the last few seasons of the Super-Friends cartoons. The toys had a gimmick, as they had powers. For example, if you squeezed the legs of the Superman figure together, his arms would 'punch.' I got my first two figs at a Service Merchandise in Lexington, as part of my consolation trip for not going to King's Island. We had just been to the store the day before, and I swear the toys weren't there. I got Flash and Robin that day. The figures had a collectable fact sheet on the back of the card, and a mini-comic inside. I would get the rest of figures closer to home. Many of them at Hobb's department store in Pikeville. I would get a figure, or two, in the upstairs toy department, and then read the comic while eating a grilled cheese sandwich and maybe some fries at the lunch counter on the main floor. I would get all twelve figures in the first wave, some of the vehicles, the 'Hall of Justice' playset, and the collector's case over the next year. I was starting on the second wave of toys when the Transfromers cartoon came out. I had never liked toy cars before, but something about these changed my mind. My first two toys were Gears and Windcharger (he's still one of my favs). Unfortunately, my mom would only allow me to get one toy line at a time, so 'Super Powers' lost out. Transformers would become the last toys of my childhood. The final wave of figures would ditch the comics as a cost-saving measure. Recently, another toy company put out a new wave of figures, using the same scale and palette schemes, as part of the anniversary of the line. I don't think the toys have the gimmick, but I know they don't have mini-comics. [I remembering this, I recalled that Hobb's may have had comics. I usually went in the Huffman street entrance, but I had to go in the Main street entrance one time due to construction. In that section of the store, where I never went, I saw albums and magazines. And maybe comics. I may have even bought one, more than once. Alas, Hobb's would wind up blocking off the section again, just before they closed. I don't remember seeing comics there too many times. A bank now stands on the site.]
- Unnamed shoe store, Second street, Pikeville, ✓: Wait. What? When I was very young, my mom would drag me around downtown Pikeville to browse through the half a dozen dress shops before going to stores where I could actually look. Fortunately, this shoe store would give out complimentary half-size comics as part of a promotion that allowed me to stay interested. Other stores in the region, such as the Dawahares at Neon, would do so too, just never as consistently as here. I also didn't go those places as often. There were a mix of funny animal and Marvel superheroes (which I never got). I don't remember much Disney and definitely no DC. Once, when leaving town, I realized that I had left my comics at a dress shop. I wanted to go back to get them, but my mom said no. To be honest, she or my grandmother would end up throwing most of them away, but still. The shoe store stopped giving the comics out after a while, or I just aged out. The store later switched over to boots and Western ware, before ultimately closing. [Some other Pikeville stores that I liked. It was years before I realized that the downtown Pikeville Watson location had a basement with a toy department. It had some activity books, and maybe a collector pack. A few toys I got there didn't have the accessories with them, ruining at least one of the toys entirely. Murphy's wasn't I place we went to that often, but I did get a few toys there. I think I saw magazines in one of the deeper rooms once, but I'm not sure about comics. Gibson was just south of the main downtown area. I remember getting cartoon character jigsaw puzzles there. Maybe the occasional collector pack. Possibly single issues. Maybe even bought one, but the memory is super hazy here. All three stores have been closed for decades, and the buildings torn down to be replaced by something else.]
- Osborne Elementary, Bevinsville, ✓: What?!? First, a teacher let my borrow some special comic books to look at that included both DC and Marvel heroes. How that could happen, I don't know, but I read them and returned them. For actual buying though, there were book fairs. I don't think I got anything there, as they started late in my school life, so most of the books were well below my reading level by the time. However, some teachers were included in something else that let the students order books. One of these would be called a graphic novel in today's terms. Not a picture book, but a bunch of comic strips telling a story. I'm pretty sure one section was taken from a comic book I had already had. I'm counting it as a comic. No school past elementary ever had comics for me to buy, not even college. However, I would take a grad school course on comics if I ever had the opportunity. [Back when I still thought my mom would keep her promise to get me to UK on my terms, we went on a tour of the campus, that included the book store. While I wasn't in there too long, I think I saw comics there. The book store ultimately was closed a few years ago. I don't know where students get other supplies on campus any more.]
- Floyd County Public Library, Prestonsburg branch, ✓: Huh? I admit to checking out graphic novels, and the occasional manga from here over the decades. (I've had a library card since I was four or five. And reading.) Also, the library sometimes gives away older books. I've never seen any graphic novels I would like. They also have some comics as part of their periodical section. However, they have also have gotten hold of some of the free comic books used as part of promotions for both 'Free Comic Book Day' in May as well as Halloween. Supposedly, only retailers are to get these, but the library also had them at times. I've picked a few up. One book for Halloween had a sample of an English translation in verse of an Italian comic interpretation of Dante's Inferno for kids using Disney characters. Weird. Anyway, I don't think they are involved with this promotion any more, as they definitely did not have any comics by the time I got to the library this year. [The current director used to work for the Pike County Public Library system. Some of the libraries had the same free comics at times. However, I don't think I picked any of them up.]
- Through the mail, address redacted to protect the privacy of the author, ✓: I got comics through the mail in two different ways. The first was by subscription. This was actually common back then, but I don't know if physical subscriptions are still possible, only digital. The first of these was in the mid to late 80s. The cousin I mentioned in the first entry above was selling subscriptions for one of those senior things in high school that would be eliminated by the time I got there. I got my first subscription to Games this way. She also had comics, but only Marvel. Yet, there was one comic that I could get, Transformers. For the next few years, I would get an issue in the mail every month. Sometimes multiple issues, as my mom would renew my subscription early, resulting in the problem. This is a main reason why I stopped it, shortly before the title was canceled. I can't even remember getting all the last issues on newsstands. Strangely enough, these comics survived the 2003 flood due to being kept at my store at the time. Next, in the early 90s, I ordered the update of DC's Who's Who in the DC Universe. I didn't think I could get it through my regular shop at the time. By ordering it, I got a free binder to organize the series. Two actually, as a second one would up being needed. This version wasn't in strict alphabetical order, and featured loose pages on could organize any way they wanted. I kept mine in alphabetical order though. It lasted only sixteen issues, plus a follow up a year or so later that I was never able to get. A few years ago, all of the various Who's Who series were collected into two huge omnibus collections. I haven't gotten them yet, but there might be somewhere I could them a little cheaper than even what I could through my store. This is where the final mail source comes in. My mom has been getting a discount book catalog for decades. Once, she ordered a hardcover collection of Carl Barks duck comics, Donald and Scrooge. I knew about them, but she wanted me to get one. I could've gotten them through Page 3 or my store, but she got me the first one through this catalog though. The rest I got through the other ways. She still cold get more this way, but it is easier the other ways. [More on Barks in a later post.]
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