Commentary

The comic book purchase

October 9, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Keith Schell

It was a gorgeous fall Friday afternoon in 1970. School was done for the week, work was done for Dad, and my family was in town for our weekly shopping trip. I was ten years old, had just received my allowance from Dad, and the money was burning a hole in my pocket.

But what should I spend it on? I already had a pretty good idea. I wanted the kid’s equivalent of fine literature:

I wanted to buy some comic books!

There were two places I frequented on Main Street to buy comics: the local drugstore and the local variety store. They were right across the street from each other, so I had to decide on my way to Main Street which store would earn my patronage that day. This time, I chose the variety store.

I thought it was a pretty cool place! I still remember the ‘ding-a-ling’ of the little brass bell above the door, announcing my entrance.

Instead of heading straight for the comic book carousel, I sometimes wandered through the entire store to see what they had for sale that week. Like a kid exploring a toy store, I would slowly walk the aisles, browsing through shelves filled with knick-knacks, bric-a-brac, snacks, and every type of kitschy tourist souvenir imaginable, all stamped with our town’s name—coffee mugs, ashtrays, snow globes, decks of cards—you name it! (I even snuck past the naughty magazine rack in the back corner!)

After perusing everything the store had to offer, I finally found the carousel rack where the comics awaited. As I slowly rotated it, the carousel squeaked in stiff protest, broadcasting my purchasing indecision to the entire store. Of course, I had to sample the wares a bit before making my decision. I usually read a comic or two at the rack before making my purchase. Hey, when you buy a car, you take it for a test drive, right? Since I was a paying customer, no one ever really said anything. (Or more accurately, I don’t recall anyone ever saying anything!)

When I was very little — long before I graduated to the DC and Marvel universes — my taste in comics reflected my age; I gravitated toward Harvey comics like “Casper the Friendly Ghost” and “The Ghostly Trio,” “Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost” (with his girlfriend Pearl, or ‘Poil’, as he called her), “Nightmare the Ghost Horse,” “Hot Stuff the Little Devil,” “Richie Rich,” “Baby Huey,” “Wendy the Good Little Witch,” “Little Audrey,” “Little Dot,” and “Little Lotta.” Great comics for young kids!

Occasionally, I also bought comic books from other publishers, like Archie Comics (”Archie and the Riverdale gang”), Gold Key (Disney-based comics like “Mickey Mouse,” “Donald Duck,” and “Uncle Scrooge”), and Charlton Comics (War comics for the boys—cool!—and romance comics for the girls—yuck!).

Then came the agonizing moment of truth: the purchase. As a kid who wanted to buy every comic on the rack, I had to decide which books to spend my limited allowance on. I weighed the merits of one comic over another, agonizing over my choices until I finally made my selection.

And when I didn’t read them in the car on the way home, I had to find just the right atmosphere to read them at our house — either my bedroom or the family reading room, better known as the bathroom.

Sadly, Harvey, Gold Key, and Charlton Comics — publishers of many of the comics from our childhood — are no more, having ceased publishing well over 30 years ago. They began experiencing circulation drops when television became more accessible, providing kids with a multitude of free cartoons and entertainment. It was a classic case of “change or die” — they couldn’t adapt to the changing times and eventually just faded away.

But new publishers have stepped in, producing a variety of children’s entertainment — both printed and digital — to keep the current generation of young kids engaged and entertained.

And the beat goes on.

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