For those that remember spinner racks

[Lee Stone]

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.

[md62]

I love my LCS. I even worked in one during college. But I agree...they have become an obstacle to getting new readers. I think DC & Marvel should repackage their best stuff into inexpensive oversize anthology titles that could be bought anywhere...and point readers to their LCS.

[WeirdSpace]

The presence of comics in newspapers and the libraries would mean that I would have access to comics, so yes, I would read comics.

[DrGregatron]

Without spinner racks I wouldn't have ever bought comics as a kid. I was from a small town that had several pharmacies and groceries that carried comics but there was no way the town could have supported a comic book store. I made sure to follow my mom to the store as a child growing up in the 80s so that I could get my comic fix and other times I'd bike over to the nearest store with a spinner rack. The nearest comic store was a good 25 miles away back in 1984, though, so I'm sure I never would have started reading if it hadn't been for the spinner racks.

[tombo]

here in the UK they are printing anthologies of classic recent marvel and dc stories which seems to be doing well. Each one has 2-3 issues in but cost the same as 1 issue imported from the USA. They are also doing a line of Marvel full storylines released in newsagents in a kind of cheap paper TPB format, I just read JMS' Spider-Man "new ways to die" in this format and enjoyed it.

[signalman112]

I remember going to WoolWorths checking out their spinner rack with the Whitman-DC 3 packs.

[Xalfrea]

[Daryl]

Hmm. My main sources of comics at the beginning were the convenience stores, spinner racks in mall bookstores and those multi-packs that I could get at Toys R Us and bunch of other places. I have a feeling I wouldn't have found comics without them. I was reading for a long time before I ever went to a LCS. I would probably know some characters from other media but not necessarily comics.

[Rimmer]

Hmm. My main sources of comics at the beginning were the convenience stores, spinner racks in mall bookstores and those multi-packs that I could get at Toys R Us and bunch of other places. I have a feeling I wouldn't have found comics without them. I was reading for a long time before I ever went to a LCS. I would probably know some characters from other media but not necessarily comics.

Like others, I grew up in a smallish town (around 20,000 people), and no LCS. Once I really got into comics, I would ride my bike all over freakin' town, from convenience store to convenience store, checking spinner racks (or sometimes the comics would be thrown in with all the other magazines at certain shops). While there was the "thrill of the chase", there was also the disappointment and frustration when there was not the new issue of G.I.Joe or Avengers to be had, and therefore I now had a hole in my collection. So aggrivating! It wasn't until I was like 13 or so that I visited my first LCS in a big city (~100,000 people) when my family went up there for a Saturday shopping trip, and OMG, I was in 7th heaven! Suddenly I could pick up all those issues that I was missing, it was so amazing.

But back to point, yeah, without spinners, I don't think I could've ever gotten into comics, just for the fact that they weren't available.

Like today, you can find floppies outside of an LCS, but they're few and far between - here in the states, Books A Million have them, I think Barnes and Noble carry some, and that's about it. One of my local grocery stores used to carry some (mixed in with magazines) but they don't anymore. Toys R Us used to have floppies but I don't think they have them anymore either. To be brutally honest, what parent is going to randomly pick up a comic for their kid at a Toys R Us when the comic is flippin' FOUR DOLLARS! I know I'm not doing that. Heck, I can buy my son an entire hardcover childrens' BOOK for less than $4 sometimes. The comics industry has essentially priced themselves out of the kids' market, as far as I'm concerned. Only teenagers/adults who have an income of some kind can collect comics these days. It's kinda sad, but then again, the bulk of the comics are aimed for teens/adults anyways, so I suppose it all works out, yeah? I wouldn't let me son pick up any random comic (even Marvel) and read it without reading it first. Just my two cents.

[SJNeal]

I'm pretty sure I still would have gotten into comics eventually. I was already familiar with a lot of characters thanks to other media, and that's what drew me to them in the first place. That and the fact I was a prolific reader as a kid, and would read nutrition labels to pass the time if that's all I could find...

[SJNeal]

Like others, I grew up in a smallish town (around 20,000 people), and no LCS. Once I really got into comics, I would ride my bike all over freakin' town, from convenience store to convenience store, checking spinner racks (or sometimes the comics would be thrown in with all the other magazines at certain shops). While there was the "thrill of the chase", there was also the disappointment and frustration when there was not the new issue of G.I.Joe or Avengers to be had, and therefore I now had a hole in my collection. So aggrivating! It wasn't until I was like 13 or so that I visited my first LCS in a big city (~100,000 people) when my family went up there for a Saturday shopping trip, and OMG, I was in 7th heaven! Suddenly I could pick up all those issues that I was missing, it was so amazing.

The closest LCS to me was a bout 45 mins away, and I started going there regularly around age 12. In the meantime, I too would run to every 7-11 in the area, usually only to be disappointed with the condition of the books there. I hated that less careful kids obviously bent everything forward while flipping through, leaving that awful crease right in the center of the spine! And yeah, missing issues was always a pain. I always kept a running list of missed issues to search for when I made the trip to the LCS.

[Icefanatic]

I knew where every spin rack was in my town as a kid(The hospital gift shop at one point had three racks, and was largely undiscovered and thus less picked-over!). It was still hit-and-miss what I could get and I had more holes in my collection than continuous issues. I would see ads on TV for a comic shop in a big city a couple of hours away, but no one was driving me to it. We had a couple of comic shops crop up and then quickly die in our small town during the speculator boom in the 90's. I had started frequenting them in my late teens and after they closed started making regular trips to comic shops in the city a couple of hours away.

I doubt I would have even been exposed to comics without the spin rack. Maybe at a book store, since I like reading books, but I can't imagine if I hadn't developed the comic habit as a kid I would have ever started reading comics at the price they are now. $4.00 for an average issue? I can get an entire thick paperback novel for the price of two comics now.

[hondobrode]

Like the rest of you, I grew up with spinner racks and newsstands. While it was frustrating cause there was no rhyme or reason and more often than not left holes in my very loose collection, that 4 color crack was too good to pass up. Any chance I had I'd find a way to get whatever I could. Piggly Wiggly, Super Valu, Safeway, the hospital, Casey's, and the Candy Kitchen, in my little hometown of Denison, IA (pop. 6,000).

Would I still be in the hobby ? No doubt I would as the concepts are too fantastic and colorful to keep me away. I probably would've come in through bookstores in The City (Omaha, 70 miles away). I went to my first comic shop, Dragon's Lair, in Omaha in 1980 and thought I'd went to Heaven.

My childhood memories would be very different without my comics, and probably not as happy and care free.

[quinnzel]

I'm pretty sure I still would have gotten into comics eventually. I was already familiar with a lot of characters thanks to other media, and that's what drew me to them in the first place. That and the fact I was a prolific reader as a kid, and would read nutrition labels to pass the time if that's all I could find...

Ditto! Although spotting random comics in some grocery stores as a kid definitely exposed me more to comics at an early age. Then I got really into manga, and in every big bookstore they have the comics and manga right next to each other on the shelves, so I would've gotten into comics eventually.

Going to my local comic shop was just kind of a logical progression for my leap into comics. Big bookstores like Barnes & Noble carry some good stuff and a pretty good variety, but if you want the bigger selection of weekly new stuff and harder to find collections then that's when you hit up an actual comic shop. And speaking of spinner racks, my local comic shop still rocks the spinner racks

[electr1cgoblin]

Nope, would most likely never have gotten so hooked as I am now. MIGHT have had an interest but it wouldn't have been as passionate.

I grew up in a town of just about 1000 people, and the nearest comic book store was a good 35 miles away. Not even sure if it was active when I first discovered comics, at about age 5. I generally (or more accurately, my parents) would buy my stuff at a drugstore located about 13 miles away. My folks were older and had to stop there a couple times a month to refill prescriptions for various ailments, high blood pressure, epilepsy, etc. The racks, both spinner and stationary, were my altar. Most of the comics they got were Marvel so that's what I grooved on back then. I remember they had a big magazine rack beside the comics, and the PLAYBOYs and other adult fare were way up high so that kids could not reach them. Sometimes I would buy a FAMOUS MONSTERS or other horror mag they had down below, though.