For those that remember spinner racks

[Jon-El]

I remember the library having a lot of books ABOUT comics when I was a kid but no actual comics. Today, they have a pretty extensive selection. I keep up by checking trades out.

[Sacred Knight]

I collected the entire Reign of Superman story from the spinner racks (okay technically they were on shelves with the rest of the magazines at the particular store we shopped at, but same idea). I didn't start going to an LCS till about a year or so later. Didn't even know of them till then.

[day_walker]

If comics had moved to comic shops before you were born, do you think you would have ever read comics?

I grew up in a small town, so I would have to say no, myself.

My allowance would have been spent on the usual soda and candy bar, but comics would've been replaced with something more readily available, such as Word Seek and Puzzle books or toys.

I visited my first comic shop in 1988, eight years after I first discovered comics and six years after I bought my first one. And then, I wouldn't have known it even existed if I hadn't looked in the yellow pages for one when my parents had taken me to a bigger city with them on a doctor trip.
And this because I had already been reading comics and knew that such places were out there.

If I hadn't been reading comics, I wouldn't have had the compulsion to look for a shop while we were there.

I don't know. It's hard to imagine me growing up without comics, but I think that's probably what would have happened. I got into comics from the local Convenient Food Mart near our house, and a few years later discovered the local comic shop. Still, without that spinner rack, I'm not sure I'd ever have made it to the comic shop. Maybe I'd have bought more baseball & football cards with my allowance, not to mention candy.

[Air Wave]

Can I ask a stupid question? Is there any reason comics can NOT be sold in drug stores and at newsstands today?

[DrGregatron]

Can I ask a stupid question? Is there any reason comics can NOT be sold in drug stores and at newsstands today?

Comic book publishers don't want to be bothered with that method of distribution, because they claim it wasn't profitable but also because they're short-sighted. Now they're missing a generation of buyers who could have been buying comics since they were 8 years-old. Now all they have left are the people who never quit or those who came back after quitting years ago. Sure, there are a few people under 30 buying comics, but not enough to keep publishing new paper comics in the near future at $3.99, $4.99 or whatever they'll cost 5 years from now.

[Air Wave]

Comic book publishers don't want to be bothered with that method of distribution, because they claim it wasn't profitable but also because they're short-sighted. Now they're missing a generation of buyers who could have been buying comics since they were 8 years-old. Now all they have left are the people who never quit or those who came back after quitting years ago. Sure, there are a few people under 30 buying comics, but not enough to keep publishing new paper comics in the near future at $3.99, $4.99 or whatever they'll cost 5 years from now.

It's such a shame that we don't have that random way to attract new readers. They're something you have to seek out.

[Rob Allen]

It's not just up to the publishers. The distributors and retailers didn't want to be bothered with such low-profit publications.

[Bad Wolf]

Man, just seeing that spinner rack (with Dazzler #1!) brings back memories. Thanks for sharing it!

[Chazro]

At 60 yrs old, I used to buy 'em off the spinner racks at Sam's candy store for 10 cents! I remember feeling cheated when they raised the price to 12 cents. Now I only got 8 for a buck instead of 10! Always loved comics and kept collecting on & off until recently. I just stopped going to the LCS 4-5 months into the Nu52. Now I scratch the itch at my library!

[md62]

Can I ask a stupid question? Is there any reason comics can NOT be sold in drug stores and at newsstands today?

The only comics I see outside of a LCS are the Archie Digests at grocery stores....

[Jim Kelly]

Well not all stores had spinner racks. Of the two main drugstores I frequented as a kid, one had a spinner rack and the other had the comics on shelves. But if comics weren't in those stores (one being half a block from my school and the other being three blocks from my home), I think it's very doubtful I would have gotten into comics as a lifelong hobby. In fact, the closest store to our house was only a block away--a Mom and Pop grocery store--and they didn't carry any comics; they just had lots of snacks and bubble gum cards. I guess i would have continued collecting bottle caps (hm, whatever happened to my bottle cap collection--my parents must've thrown it out, damn).

[Jon-El]

The oversize comics of the 70's were a problem. I think my bookstore carried them with the magazines on a shelf.

[Jim Kelly]

I never saw any tabloids in drugstores. I usually ordered mine by mail. Later on, I'd see them for sale in the specialty comics stores. But I must've got a couple from a second hand books and comics shop, since a couple of mine have the price scrawled over the cover.

[John Keyt]

Thanks Md62 . I to had to wait until eldest moved out , to get my room . Ahhhh the freedom , bitter sweet .

[DanMad1977]

Maybe not. There wasnt a Comic shop around till the 90´s over here. I bought all my stuff in the Supermarket, and you could have 10 Spideys for 5 Deutsch Mark, that is insane cheap. The qualitiy of the books were bad and the Translation even worse, but what the heck i had my Marvels and i didnt know any better.

When the first shop opened it was like Christmas and eastern together for me...