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.

Where Have All the Comic Books Gone

    Last week, I mentioned a recent trip to the Huntington Mall.  I commented about how many stores in that mall had gone out of business, particularly those that sold comic books.  I used comics for a few reasons, such as that was a product that had been found in the highest number of stores.  Well, I started going over every place that I had ever bought, or at least could have bought, a comic book throughout my entire life.  I stopped counting when I hit seventy.  The more I thought about it, the more places I remembered.  For comparison sake, I have only tried on and bought clothes in about forty spots.  That is about the same number I places I actually bought comics, as opposed to just saw them.  I will say that I've been buying clothes at the same few stores for the past decade or so.  I found my style and stuck to it.  I might need to change something up soon. I'm making a big deal about this because comics have had such a huge influence in my life. For instance, I learned how to read mostly from comic books when I was four.  Although the memory is hazy, I was trying to read an Eric Carle book to some students on the day I signed up for kindergarten.  This became a major part of my academic career.  My teachers thought I was gifted, but part of it was kind of fake due to comic books.  Therefore, I am going to be posting a list of every single place that has had comic books.  I had originally thought it would only take a week or two.  That is well before I realized how complicated this was going to turn out.  I could probably get the list done in about five weeks, if I didn't have a time limit on how long I take to write these posts or if I didn't care about how long they get.  Instead, I will probably take ten weeks or so to complete everything.  Stores that have gone out of business will be listed in standard black. Stores that are still open, but do not currently carry comic books, will be in red. Stores that still have comics will be in blue.  After so many years, I don't remember the names of many of these stores.  You try to remember the name of a store you only went to once forty years ago and has since closed.  I will try to give as much information as possible for people to try and identify these places, but I don't know if it will help.  I will be placing checks by stores where I know I bought at least one comic.  I will also comment on my history with the store, and what has happened to those stores that have closed.  I will mention other locations where I may have see and/or bought comics but I'm not as certain of in my commentary.  I will be doing so in a rough geographic circle, so that stores in the same area will be featured together.  If not for two floods, I would have probably well over ten thousand comics.  Instead, I'm only now reaching totals near what I have since just before the 2003 flood. I tried to finally organize my comics last January during the time the store was closed for snow.  Unfortunately, I had waited too long to do so.  I just didn't have the room to go through so many comics after twenty years of ignoring them.  I was only able to go through only a few dozen, and I just barely reorganized a few boxes to get rid of a torn one.  I hope everyone will follow me on this journey for the next few months.  There will be a few strange turns along the way, as well as some surprises.  Be prepared for almost anything.

Why Such a Dis-Mall Outlook?

    Late last month, I went on my usual late-winter shopping trip. It started years ago as a birthday shopping trip in January, but I slowly moved it to late February to avoid the worst of the bad weather as well as to catch the Easter candy when it starts coming out.  As it was, I had to go on an alternate date, as there was snow in the forecast for both of the planned dates.  It turned out that there wasn't any accumulation on either of those days, but even the nuisance snow might have caused driving problems.  So, as I was driving to the Huntington Mall for the day, I began thinking about the forty-odd years I have been going there and how I could turn the experience into a blogcast post.  When I first started going to the mall, it was a whole day affair.  We would frequently not come back home until after seven in the evening.  Fortunately, it was summer those early trips, so it wasn't yet dark most of the times when we got back in.  By the time I was driving, we started going at least twice a year, ultimately settling on late winter and late summer as the best times to go.  The last few years, we had been getting back by 5:30 pm, and that is with extra stops along the way back.  That mall is so much less than when I started going soon after it opened.  Only one of the original anchor stores is still there.  Two if you count a rebranding.  A few of the food court stops are still the same. The cinema, which I never had the time to go to.  Maybe some other stores from back then are still there, but I'm sure they aren't in there original sites.  Anyway, this year, we only went to six stores in the mall, only buying stuff from two of them.  I was in line at a third store, but my traveling companion was getting cranky and didn't feel like waiting for me to get anything.  I had to put the emergency item back that was going to replace something that originally broke a few day previously.  We also stopped at two outlying store and bought some things, as well as eating at the local Burger King where I finally tried a Whopper with a mozzarella cheese stick and some marinara sauce.  I didn't get the proportions just right to make it taste the way I wanted it, but it was close.  Before you ask, as a storeowner, I am all for buying locally.  Almost everything we bought that time is not easily found locally any more. The exception was some Easter candy, but it is a crap shoot if certain products are found nay given year, and this year some of them turned up soon after the trip.  Anyway, I got to see the damage to the local Target that has made some national news markets.  We also made a quick trip to Barboursville to check out the Kroger.  It might be the biggest one I've ever been in, but aside from the frozen foods, it doesn't have that great a variety any more.  We stopped for gas and some groceries on the way back and the trip was done.  There are so few stores at the mall anymore that I like or really want to go to.  Some stores just weren't carrying what we were looking for, while others just didn't cater to our needs.  For example, there had been seven stores at that mall that I had bought comic books at over the decades.  All but one of them has closed.  The remaining store doesn't really sell individual comics any more, although some would argue otherwise.  (I picked comic books as this is a subject I frequently think about as a way to help me calm down to go to sleep.  Also, this was the highest number for a product I could reliably count to.  Clothing would only rate a four, six if you include rebranding.  I couldn't remember getting clothes at too many specialty stores there, as opposed to someplace else, such as Lexington.) I have already started looking into other place to go for a day-trip to shop to replace the second Huntington trip for the year, limiting the mall to once-a-year again to to catch up on the rarer products that no one else seems to keep.  I will hate it, but maybe somewhere new will bring back some of the wonder that has faded from this mall.

One Letter Off Song Titles of 2023

    Here is the latest puzzle.  This time around, I have taken some of the biggest song titles from last year and changed one of the letters.  I then give you a brief synopsis of what the new song would be like after the change, as well as the artist.  Your job is to guess the original title.  For example, if I gave you "Nuns go crazy over the new bold designs and bright colors of their new uniforms. (Ed Sheeran)" your answer would be "Rad Habits" which is just "Bad Habits" with the first letter changed.  Scroll down to find the answers.

1. A man wakes up with a hangover so bad that he cannot remember the last twelve hours.  Now, he has to find out just what happened. (Morgan Wallen)
2. A woman complains about the loud noises coming from her neighbors every autumn as they try to clear out their fallen leaves.  What's worse is that they all seem to push them into her yard with their loud machines. (Miley Cyrus)
3. This is the narrative about some of the animal sacrificial rites practice by some ancient cultures, particularly those involving the cults of Mithras in Ancient Rome. (SZA)
4. This is a tribute to one of the greatest Texas Hold 'Em poker players ever.  He was so great, he knew if he was going to win as soon as the chips first entered the pot. (Taylor Swift)
5. A man realizes he is going to have a problem clearing out his vehicle after a passenger has really bad gas attacks in it. (Luke Combs)
6. It has been unbearable during this heat wave.  It is so bad it feels like one is boiling in their own sweat. (Taylor Swift)
7. A customer is curious about if the product he is thinking of buying is 100% homogenous, or if there are additives being used to affect the price. (Miguel)
8. A woman is raving about her upcoming food tour of Italy.  She is especially interested in the area where some of the best ham and cheeses in the world are made. (Taylor Swift)
9. A woman gets lost in the paths of a garden feature, even though the light purple flowers aren't really that tall. (Taylor Swift, again)
10. The newspaper food critic is having an existential crisis.  All the dishes taste the same no matter where she goes, and he is losing the desire to even want to taste anything new. (Jelly Roll)
11. Ozzy Osbourne admits that he has an addiction to biting the heads off of flying mammals after he accidentally bit one off decades ago. (Steve Lacy) [I used this one last year, but I really wanted to bring it back.]
12. This woman has a thing for men under 5' 8". Especially if they are a few inches under that. (SZA)
13. A designer turns everyone's heads at Fashion Week by choosing to colorize his long dresses in shades of crimson and scarlet, while on the catwalk! Literally, applying the colors using a brush. (Doja Cat)
14. All of the female sheep on the farm have been afflicted by this unusual disease.  Their bodies lock up tight, and they can't move. (Ed Sheeran)
15. A man is a bafflement to the medical community, after he seems to have gotten inebriated to twice the point of where most people would have died. (Noah Kanan)

ANSWERS

1. "Lost Night" ("Last Night")
2. "Blowers" ("Flowers")
3. "Kill Bull" ("Kill Bill")
4. "Ante-Hero" (Anti-Hero")
5. "Fart Car" ("Fast Car")
6. "Cruel Simmer" ("Cruel Summer")
7. "Pure Thing" ("Sure Thing")
8. "Parma" ("Karma")
9. "Lavender Maze" ("Lavender Haze")
10. "Need a Savor" ("Need a Savor")
11. "Bat Habit" ("Bad Habit")
12. "Short" ("Shirt")
13. "Paint the Gown Red" ("Paint the Town Red")
14. "Ewes Closed" ("Eyes Closed")
15. "Dual Drunk" ("Dial Drunk")

Music 2023, in Other Words

    In this puzzle, I am rephrasing the words in popular song titles from last year, and it is your task to guess the original song.  For example, if you saw "Your Physique Is Reminiscent of Unpaved Rural Driving Surfaces," your answer would be "Body Like a Back Road" by Sam Hunt.  Doesn't really carry the same comparison, but that isn't the point.  Scroll to the bottom of the page for the answers and artists.

1. "Literary Term for the Protagonist of a Work Who Does Negative Actions to Accomplish Their Goals"
2. "This Being Is in a Positive State (In the Cool Portion of the Color Spectrum)"
3. "Unknown Object Occupying a Portion of the Spectrum Comparable to Sunrise"
4. "Despicable Warm Season"
5. "Pondering Due to This One's Self"
6. "Particular Young Male Doesn't Tell Truths, Second Section"
7. "Certainty Concerning Non-descriptive Object"
8. "Light Purple Mistiness"
9. "Desperately Wanting Said Specific Deed"
10. "Gyrate Rhythmically Throughout Period of Darkness"
11. "The Feeling of Wanting to Devoid Oneself of Emotional Baggage"
12. "Forced Individual to Gaze upon Said Person"
13. "Cardiac Organ Resembles Transport Vehicle"
14. "Optical Organs Remain Shut"
15. "This One Has Total Recall Involving All Things Involving Ourselves"
16. "Call Someone While in an Inebriated State"
17. "Questioning the Reasons of One's Self Existence"
18. "Inter This One within the Soils of Atlanta's State"
19. "Emojis Representing The Gluteal Regions, as Well as the Male Reproductive Organs"
20. "Tomato Juice Based Cocktail Named after Religious Figure

ANSWERS

1. "Anti-Hero" Taylor Swift
2. "I'm Good (Blue)" David Guetta and Bebe Rexha
3. "Something in the Orange" Zach Bryan
4. "Cruel Summer" Taylor Swift
5. "Thinkin 'Bout Me" Morgan Wallen
6. "Boy's a Liar, Pt. 2" Pink Pantheress with Ice Spice
7. "Sure Thing" Miguel
8. "Lavender Haze" Taylor Swift
9. "Need a Favor" Jelly Roll
10. "Dance the Night" Dua Lipa
11. "Escapism" Raye and 070 Shake
12. "Made You Look" Meghan Trainor
13. "Heart Like a Truck" Lainey Wilson
14. "Eyes Closed" Ed Sheeran
15. "I Remember Everything" Zach Bryan f. Kacey Musgraves
16. "Dial Drunk" Noah Kahan
17. "What Was I Made For?" Billie Eilish
18. "Bury Me in Georgia" Kane Brown
19. "Peaches and Eggplants" Young Nudy
20. "Bloody Mary" Lady Gaga

The Year in Music in Emojis, 2023 Edition

    The following is a puzzle based on song titles.  I've converted some of last year's biggest hits into emojis, as well as I could.  Your job is to guess the original titles.  For example, if you saw "🇺🇸 🥧" your answer would be "American Pie" by Don McLean.  Some of the titles will get a little bit off, but that is only due to the fact that some words don't have exact emoji equivalents.  Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the answers.

1. 💐
2. 🏃🏻‍♂️🚗
3. 🧛🏻‍♂️
4. 🪻🌫️
5. ⛹🏻‍♀️🤾🏼‍♀️🤽🏽‍♀️
6. 💃🏼🌃
7. 🦸🏽‍♂️ (🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♂️🦹🏿🦹‍♀️)
8. 👕
9. 🎨🌆🔴
10. ⏳📥🛻
11. 🧪
12. ❤️🟰🛻
13. 🌞💡
14. 👀🔐
15. 📱🥴🍺
16. 🍉🌝

ANSWERS

1. "Flowers" Miley Cyrus
2. "Fast Car" Luke Combs
3. "Vampire" Olivia Rodrigo
4. "Lavender Haze" Taylor Swift (technically this is a hibiscus, but it's the right color)
5. "Players" Coi Leray
6. "Dance the Night" Dua Lipa
7. "Superhero (Heroes & Villains)" Chris Brown, Future, and Metro Bommin
8. "Shirt" SZA
9. "Paint the Town Red" Dopa Cat
10. "Wait in the Truck" HARDY
11. "Chemical" Post Malone
12. "Heart Like a Truck" Lainey Wilson
13. "Daylight" David Kushner
14. "Eyes Closed" Ed Sheeran
15. "Dial Drunk" Noah Kahan and Post Malone
16. "Watermelon Moonshine" Lainey Wilson

Oh Yes It's Grammys Night

    This past Sunday night were the Grammy awards.  I was afraid that the storms pounding the west coast would cause problems like they did for the NASCAR race, which I missed because I didn't know it had been moved up a day.  Anyway, the presentation came off as scheduled, and I really wasn't disappointed.  Last year, I felt underwhelmed with the ceremony.  I don't know if it was the selection of artists and songs weren't up to my liking, or that I didn't agree with the winners, or whatever.  I just really enjoyed myself this year.  It started with the Dua Lipa set.  I was at cross purposes about what she was going to perform.  Since her big nominated song wasn't going to be honored at the Oscars, I almost thought that she was going to sing it here instead.  Wrong.  She began with a tease of her next single "Training Season" on the secondary stage in the audience before transitioning to the main stage to belt out "Houdini," with just a few lyrics of "Dance the Night" sung by backups as she moving between the stages.  I honestly didn't think she had enough credentials to be allowed to perform new material.   The "Fast Car" duet between Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs was great, although Combs got shut out of every category.  In fact, men were shut out of all of the live categories.  While the producers aren't told who the winners will be, they do have good guesses based on experts.  I think that they deliberately chose to live present categories most likely to have women winning as a statement against the former president of the awards. (Only the four general categories are guaranteed to be live every year.  The other seven or so are based on multiple criteria.) That's why Laney Wilson was seen to accept for country album and not Chris Stapleton for solo country performance or song, both for "White Horse."  Then there was Miley Cyrus winning her first ever Grammy as the first presentation of the night.  Her exuberance and joy carried over to her performance of "Flowers," as she switched up some of the lyrics to reflect her mood.  I did catch that she did not thank her father, though in either of her acceptance speeches.  SZA came up with a mash up of her hits "Snooze" and "Kill Bill." It was a little busy, and I missed parts of it. In fact, most of the performances were great.  Even many of the ones in genres I don't like, I found to be pretty good.  The ones that most missed the mark were the Travis Scott rap, the U2 rock cutaway from The Sphere, and the first Billy Joel song.  The second one wasn't so bad.  What I did find weird were the choices played during the "In Memoriam" segment.  While all were appropriate and excellent, the choices were all also tied to others.  I would've liked at least one signature tune more closely tied to the featured artists.  The gospel revival rendition of "Lean on Me," though, was a surprise.  I didn't expect anything like that.  I must admit that I hadn't heard of many of the people presented, although I was able to read their names, something that doesn't always happens at every awards show.  Of course, the biggest shake ups were Taylor Swift announcing her new album and the return of Celine Dion to the stage to present the Album of the Year award to Swift.  After all of the gloom-and-doom clickbait articles that show up on my Facebook feed, I had been fearing the worse for her.  Anyway, I felt happier after watching this year's show compared to last year. Last year, the Grammys were heavy with disappointment.  This year, there was a lightness that I enjoyed.  Now, I hope it inspires me to make my puzzles next week.