The Comic Shop Owner's Wife 1 1

[Mercury Man]

I used to go to a place, and his retired mom was there during the week, while he held down a day job.  She was annoying. 

[HighRadArt]

14 hours ago, Hollywood1892 said:

One of the hottest girls on instagram has probably one of the greatest collections I have ever seen

Nerdy girl comics

Wowser

Mind blowing 

Wow. I watched one of her videos and she does have an incredible collection. You dont see very many people pulling out Action 1 and Tec 27 very often.  The fact she's a female that loves the hobby is even better. 

She also said her favorite covers are pre code horror. 

[wombat]

I thought this thread was going to be very different. 

[Hollywood1892]

1 hour ago, HighRadArt said:

Wow. I watched one of her videos and she does have an incredible collection. You dont see very many people pulling out Action 1 and Tec 27 very often.  The fact she's a female that loves the hobby is even better. 

She also said her favorite covers are pre code horror. 

Yeah 

She also has a bunch of graded video games 

[Ken Aldred]

One shop I used to frequent in London when I was at university there in the 80s left me with very polar opinions about the owner and his wife.  Over time, it did feel as if the owner and his staff didn’t really have any respect, intermittently were quite abusively sarcastic and acted as if I was a dependent comic book addict who’d just take it off them and keep returning.  His wife, in contrast, was absolutely wonderful with me; warm, genuine, always asking if I wanted to pick out a really nice copy from the old back issues, once even going around and ‘having a few words’ with the manager of Forbidden Planet after he’d attempted to seriously rip me off on a certain hot title of that time, which her store was selling new in at cover price. I remember going back to Forbidden Planet later, and the guy looked totally emasculated:  I was pleased.

Absolutely outstanding individual who I saw little of, a pity, as eventually the general attitude of the other regular faces caused me to cut back and buy elsewhere.

Edited August 18, 2019 by Ken Aldred

[Larryw7]

I went to Comic Investments in Philadelphia in the seventies and eighties. The two owners wives were very sweet and helpful. Their husbands, on the other hand...

 

 

 

[Larryw7]

8 hours ago, skypinkblu said:

When I was very young, there were no comic stores in my neighborhood, I'd buy books at the local "Candy" or "Newspaper" store. But when I was older and working and I got back into reading comics, the nearest store to my job was Fantasia in Hartsdale. 

I didn't go there very often, parking was horrendous and I only bought new issues, but the owner was a little weird...no wife that I ever saw.

 

I used to do mail order with Cupcake in the eighties. He was still considered "respectable" at the time. I bought a lot of books from him, many which I later found out had color touch(he was very good at it). I talked to him on the phone so many times that I think I could still recognize his voice if I heard it. I don't know about a wife, but he did have a girlfriend who actually posted here years ago. Apparently they had a child together and Danny didn't want to pay child support. He also supposedly fleeced a dealer in Pittsburgh with a trimmed Detective 27. A real stand up guy.

[mdube16]

[theCapraAegagrus]

On 8/17/2019 at 6:10 PM, kav said:

No wife, but my LCS owner is quite the lady's man.  He has had several hip gf's over the years.  He is the kind of guy everyone is always trying to get his attention or approval.  When I told him he was an alpha male he couldnt believe it.  He is tho.  People flock around him and he gives out his praise sparingly, altho people always hope for it.

Sounds like you have a crush...

[theCapraAegagrus]

Pretty sure the LCS owners in my area are all virgins.

They are just like the comic shop guy on The Simpsons.

[theCapraAegagrus]

10 hours ago, mdube16 said:

He's not a virgin anymore!?

[RonS2112]

On 8/17/2019 at 3:45 PM, NoMan said:

Restricted as I am, I got thinking about my LCS as a kid, Joe's Books And Things in Northern Virginia. For some reason I began thinking of the owner's wife. She was really tall and skinny like Olive Oil (or whom ever from Popeye) and was seriously uptight. Manic almost in a way. Almost vibrating. She was never mean to me or anyone that I saw but Joe would often have to pull her aside to calm her down. I was too young to understand mental illness or what-the-heck she had going on. Don't remember her name. Poor Joe I'm told died of a heart attack. His last bookstore was in Burke, Virginia near Fair Oaks Mall (?) I assume she is alive. I don't believe there are any of his comic stores left in Northern Virginia (I try not to go back) so maybe someone who lives there can fill in the mystery.

So while we usually salute the LCS owner of our youths, let's give their wives their dues. Tell me about your LCS owner's wife.

No matter how much internet research I do, I find no evidence of my childhood LCS. It's like the episode of The Twilight Zone where the phone keeps ringing and they follow the phone line out to a blown down telephone line atop a grave.

You are talking about Joe Gumbinger!  I agree -- with the possible exception of Geppi's, Joe had, hands-down the best LCS I've ever been to.  Joe had everything in his bins.  The store was off Burke Center Parkway, though -- not close to Fair Oaks Mall.  As you said, he passed away in the mid-90s.  His wife and daughters didn't have a good sense of the comic market, so they sold that portion off and kept the used book portion as Burke Used Books.  (The comics went to a variety of local LCSs, which included EG Comics in Vienna, which also closed last year).  Burke Used Book unfortunately also closed its door about 10 years ago. 

[The Lions Den]

On 8/17/2019 at 8:34 PM, Roo_Phillip said:

I remember the owner's wife at my LCS.  She was cool, and I always liked it better when she was behind the counter instead of the greasy owner.  My LCS days were in my pre-job and pre-car days, so all my comics were bought with paper route and allowance money, and she seemed to know and appreciate that.  I vividly remember the time I made my first "big" purchase--I paid 10 bucks for a Marvel Feature #1.  She rang me up and put it in the bag and when she handed it to me she said "You worked hard for that one, didn't you?"    She got it.  

Please tell me she was a redhead...

[marvelmaniac]

On 8/17/2019 at 8:14 PM, 1Cool said:

Girls in comic shops - inconceivable!

 

[NoMan]

6 hours ago, RonS2112 said:

You are talking about Joe Gumbinger!  I agree -- with the possible exception of Geppi's, Joe had, hands-down the best LCS I've ever been to.  Joe had everything in his bins.  The store was off Burke Center Parkway, though -- not close to Fair Oaks Mall.  As you said, he passed away in the mid-90s.  His wife and daughters didn't have a good sense of the comic market, so they sold that portion off and kept the used book portion as Burke Used Books.  (The comics went to a variety of local LCSs, which included EG Comics in Vienna, which also closed last year).  Burke Used Book unfortunately also closed its door about 10 years ago. 

hey thanks.

[kav]

11 hours ago, theCapraAegagrus said:

Pretty sure the LCS owners in my area are all virgins.

They are just like the comic shop guy on The Simpsons.

The guys in my comic shop growing up-I absolutely cannot visualize any female coming within 10 feet of them.

[zosocane]

On 8/18/2019 at 10:04 AM, Dave2739 said:

I used to visit Sunshine Comics in Miami as a kid. The owener, Joel, didn't have a wife that I knew of, but his sister and mother worked there with him. His mother, who must have been in her mid-60s at the time, would sell me silver age Batmans and Detectives. I remember pulling some more recent Detectives that had cool covers and bringing them to her. She pulled out the price guide and priced them and they were MUCH more expensive than the late 10 cent and early 12 cent issues I was buying. I asked her why and she explained that those were the Marshall Rogers issues. Never heard of him until then, but I always think of Mrs. Fischer when I see those Joker Fish stories.

His mom's name was Debra.  That was typical in those days in the late 70s/early 80s.  A Howard the Duck #1 or any Claremont-Byrne X-Men, for example, was going for crazy money because those "moderns" were being specked. 

You remember A&M Comics, when it was owned by Arnold & his wife Maxine Square.  A&M was about 4 blocks away from Sunshine Comics.  I frequented A&M early in my comic book collecting days, and I remember Maxine snapping at me because of the way I was handling a quarter-bin book.  I never went back after that day and became a loyal Sunshine Comics customer (and dropped a good 4 years' worth of allowance money there until it was time to move elsewhere with my family).

Edited August 19, 2019 by zosocane

[Dave2739]

6 minutes ago, zosocane said:

His mom's name was Debra.  That was typical in those days in the late 70s/early 80s.  A Howard the Duck #1 or any Claremont-Byrne X-Men, for example, was going for crazy money because those "moderns" were being specked. 

Wait, now that you say that, I thought Joel's sister was named Debra or Debbie. Family name maybe. I only knew Joel's mom as "Mrs. Fischer". I have really fond memories of those guys. Joel stopped selling comics at some point in the mid to late 90s and only sold gaming stuff. I lost track of them after that. Hope the dude is still out there somewhere.

Edited August 19, 2019 by Dave2739

[porcupine48]

My favourite comic shop growing up-Barclay and Lambert Magazines, was run by an older lady,I'd say mid sixties?Sweet,sweet gal that ran the shop-that was pornography behind a line of beaded curtains in the back-in one of the rougher areas in town back then,still is.She always kept a picture of her husband who'd died of a heart attack on the wall behind her and always had a lit cigarette and ashtray near by.I still have backing boards around with the name of the shop stamped on them somewhere.That lady knew her stuff,and took no guff.Even let me sneak a peek at the ahem,adult stuff as I got a little older(I went there for years).Sadly,teenage years came and I stopped caring about comics so much.I remember being really sad when I heard she had health issues and the shop closed.I imagine she's long gone now,but I still walk past where the shop used to be nearly everyday and always think of her and the smell of that store.Charlie perfume,old comics and magazines and Rothman cigarettes.

Uranus must be in retrograde,cause I'm feeling all choked up 

Edited August 20, 2019 by porcupine48
Spellering