Comic shops in the 80's?

 

In the early 80's, during the big independent comic boom, I opened a series of comic stores in northern Kentucky and southern Ohio.  The stores were known as Chuck's Comics and I shared a lot of good years in the business meeting some amazing people.

 

Chuck's Comics specialized in hard to find back issues and deeply discounted new comics.  We weren't afraid to travel and typically picked up our weekly comics in Columbus, Ohio (at the distributor) to get a jump on the competition.  We always had the new issues first and offered them the cheapest.  While working in comics, we would split our time keeping the stores open and driving cross-country hunting comics for customers.  We visited quite a few shops and regularly stoped at places like the Bookie Parlor (Dayton, Ohio), Monkey's Retreat (Columbus, Ohio) and many, many others.  I eventually brought my father and mother into the business as it grew.  My dad and I logged a lot of miles and had a lot of fun while growing the business.

 

Stores existed in seven cities including; Ironton (Ohio), New Boston (Ohio), Winchester (Kentucky), Chillicothe (Ohio), Middletown (Ohio), Ashland (Kentucky) and South Shore (Kentucky).  These stores and the eventual sale of each business to other entrepreneurs helped me pay for college.  Since then, I completed my degree, started a career in finance and, like many, spent a lot of my free time enjoying comics.  The picture of Batman (above left) was a fan drawing donated to the Chuck's Comics which used to sit in Ironton, Ohio.

 

For more on my background in comics, check out the 1991 article written about me in the University of Kentucky Kentucky Kernel [full article] and a second article written for a University of Kentucky Alumni publication in the fall of 1992 [full article].