Here in the UK, comics were sold in many venues: railway station stores, corner shops, post offices, etc. It was about spontaneity. My mum might go into a post office to buy stamps and envelopes, but I'd spot ACTION COMICS or PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN. Like I said, spontaneity.

There was never any consistency in what these shops sold. That wasn't a problem, given tales were (mostly) standalone. One month might see FANTASTIC FOUR, DETECTIVE COMICS and THE INCREDIBLE HULK on the shelves; the next month might see ACTION COMICS, JUSTICE LEAGUE and IRON MAN on the shelves. This spontaneity, and inconsistency, led me to try out titles I might never have considered.

I went in a shop once and - shock, horror! - there weren't any US comics. Noooooooo! But I picked up UK football comic ROY OF THE ROVERS instead. I had not really read many sports titles prior to that, but with the lack of US comics that month, I opted for ROY OF THE ROVERS and EAGLE (1982 version, not the 50s one!). 

All this meant experiencing new titles. No PREVIEWS, no internet, no consciously putting an order in at a comic store, but simple spontaneity. It broadened my horizons. 

Also, long before the speculators, I can say we didn't care about the comic's worth or preserving it. I just wanted to get WEB OF SPIDER-MAN home to enjoy. If it got ripped eventually, or crumbled into dust, who gave a shit?! All that mattered was that at one moment in time, I enjoyed the exploits of Spider-Man and immersed myself in a world. Sure, I might revisit it - but it might as well end up forgotten about and ripped up by the cat. We enjoyed it for what it was, not for what it's worth may be.

I don't know if any of those anecdotes are what you were looking for, Rebecca, but those are mine.

Although that can happen today - e.g. one spots SIDEWAYS in a comic store whilst buying ACTION COMICS - it isn't the same. People still have to make that conscious decision to locate and walk into a comic store, eh?

I never knew what would be in stock. Because of how random it was, I must have experienced comics I never would have known about. I mean, I walked into a shop (1986) and there was D.P. 7 on the shelf! 

Buying at the BX was a bit tricky as we were living in Japan. The selection was hit and miss. But my friends and I were there every chance we got.  We were really into Marvel. My friend Reymond and I both drew, so soon were were making our own "comics".  Downside was leaving Japan meant leaving behind a good chunk of my comics as there were weight limits or something on shipping (or so my parents told me) .So I gave the ones I didn't want to a girl I knew who liked comics 

When my family and I returned returned stateside I met the person who would become my best friend. He showed me where to get comics in the town I moved to, Thrifty Drugs just a short walk from our Jr High School. We'd go there on "comic day" and wait for the new ones to be racked. The bundles were often left on the floor by the rack until an employee could but them up. A few bundles somehow wind up open by "accident".  Usually the ones with the titles we wanted to buy. ;)  Another place that had comics was a local pharmacy. Kids had a habit of reading books off the rack. The pharmacist would shoo us off yelling "This isn't a library!".  

You could ask a newsagents to place a regular order. I did do that with some of the British Marvel titles, e.g. SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY.

But I guess I just enjoyed the variety of Marvel US titles. As each issue was almost always standalone, I felt no desire to put in a regular order. Superman and Batman comics were always available somewhere (they are my favourite superheroes). I'd get on a bicycle and look for them, you see.

But I enjoyed the randomness of it all. I could enjoy Iron Man one month, Captain America the month after, Justice League after that, etc, etc.

It was really good when something you didn't see often appeared. I never saw many DAREDEVIL comics on the shelves, so when one did appear, it felt special. 

One couldn't enjoy such a thing if a system like that was in place now, mainly due to the fact that there are a lot of five and six-issue arcs. 

I'll add another thing: the "thrill of the hunt". Today, one can go into a specialist store and find almost any comic. Back then, there was a lot of "hunting". If my corner shop didn't have a DETECTIVE COMICS issue, then I'd get on my BMX and head for the post office; if the post office didn't have it, I'd head to the little shop within the railway station; and if they didn't have it, I'd head for another newsagent. It certainly kept me fit! 

Then there were the reprints. Once I realized that everything was in media res, that there were earlier versions of these characters and generations of stories behind them all, I was completely rapt. The wooden magazine rack at the nearby Safeway was the most magical place in my life. 

Across the store, at the other entrance, was the bakery where they would usually give a free gingerbread man to small-sized customers (Mom was 5' 2".) I'd eat the gingerbread man's entire body carefully before finally polishing off his head in the car ride home. For some reason, this seemed more merciful that chomping off his head and ending it quickly for the poor guy. So, no matter which door we went through, there was something great waiting on the other side. 

That store has since been halved and gutted. It's a smaller-sized discount chain now, but walking in, I can still get a palpable sense of how where that magazine rack was located. Over time, Mom had enough bad experiences with their meats section that we started shopping up the street at the local Kings Soopers (Kroger, elsewhere in the country.) That wooden magazine rack at Safeway is where I remember buying all of my 100 page Giants and tabloid-sized Limited Collector's Editions. When an Eckard's Drugs opened up beside it, that gave me access to a whole new spinner rack, where I remember picking up Fantastic Four 196 & 197. 

The new store had a comics rack that moved from place to place throughout the north side of the store. The toy section there was consistently stocked with Zee Toys Metal Man figures. Those blew me away every time I saw them. Mom was less sanguine about those, since they hardly involved reading, but she was kind nevertheless in picking them up for me. The rack at Kings is where I found a number of memorable Dollar Comics as well as Action and Superman issues. I still have strong visual memories of Star Wars 13, X-Men 129, and 136 from there.

Just up the street from where I lived was a 7-Eleven. Invaders 31, What If 6, and countless others in my collection originated there. Dad gave me $2.00 once so I could get the Star Wars tabloid reprint they had on their magazine rack. For the first time in my young life, I ran there in an unbroken sprint. And then back, just to work off the excess excitement. As it turned out, it was just part two, and not the entire film. Talk about beginning a saga in media res. That race to comics wonderment replayed itself a number of times over the years. The summer of the "DC Implosion," the people there actually let me into the back room to inspect the new comics before they went out onto the rack just to prove that, no, Demand Classics #1 reprinting the "Flash of Two Worlds" hadn't come out this week either... I do still remember the Peter Parker issue I wound up buying instead.

Grandma bought me a comic from a Walgreens, creating a warm and fuzzy memory there. It was the Superman Vs. Flash LCE. I was able to argue my way into getting it despite the phenomenal expense by saying that I was attempting to learn as much as I could about all of the characters and this book had information pages on them, "how-to-draw" features... She wanted me to pick from the smaller-sized, more reasonably priced comics, of course, and I remember dismissing an X-Men book from the Cockrum era because I already had a couple of X-Men reprints, so I didn't need to know more about them (although I did wonder why Iceman's powers were drawn so differently in the "new" books. As it turns out, it was because he was Colossus.) 

Over the years, that Walgreens became a porn shop and then a fitness supplement store, thereby establishing a trend towards a fascination with idealized physical forms and unrealistic expectations for those who shopped at that location...

I didn't come across a comics specialty store until the early 80's when my friend John Connor (there's a name it does me no good whatsoever to Google) introduced me to Top Notch Comics at 308 S. Broadway located a convenient hour and a half's walk from his new house. I picked up Marvel Age #6 and an issue of Ka-Zar. That's also where I bought my first issues of Amazing Heroes and Love and Rockets. Dad knew where the store was and it wasn't TOO far off the way to the other Grandma's house (yes, it was) so we'd stop there sometimes. DC Super-Stars 17, FF 246, and DC 100p. Super-Spectacular DC-18 were a few of the treasures I scored there. Later, a store opened in a nearby mall just a short two hours walk from my house. That became where I lived during my teen years. Pacific Presents #2, "Focus On... JB," my first trade paperbacks, and Cerebus were what I recall from there. Oh, yes, and Action Comics #474, which was sold out from everyplace in my youth back in the day, because Superman married Lois on the cover. I still remember the guy behind the counter at 7-Eleven asking if I knew there were two different Supermen, one from the 1940's and one from today... 

Just around my house, there was a constant storm of four-colored wonder, always there to be scanned, even it wasn't always within reach as far as cost. I could be knocked out just seeing what was happening on the covers. How did people come up with all this stuff?? And how did they know how to make it "right," so that the stories worked and it developed the characters exactly as they should be? What were the models they followed? Kids are very concerned with things being "correct," and it boggled my mind that whether I was interested in a particular comic or not, it still seemed "right." The concept that it was all just being made up more or less on the fly would not have sat well with my younger self. 

I was extremely fortunate as a kid to have so many avenues to pursue in my explorations of what was happening on the other side of those pages. I currently live back in the same neighborhood, and there is literally no where to go for comics. There is one store off to the east run by complete asshats who ensure a lousy time is had by us all whenever I go in there. They keep a resident wit behind the counter who has no interest in comics but hangs out there nonetheless to mock customers as they leave. You'd think the customers in line would recognize the treatment they're in for once they're out the door, but no, somehow they think they're going to be immune because they joined in. They're not. It's all so incestuous and clique-ish, I get a headache just thinking about it.

There's another where the guy ripped me off for about $600 worth of toys once. The atmosphere is sneering and the prices for just about everything is off the charts. I'll go there every now and then if I can't find something anywhere else. I will not go to the clique-bait store for any reason. That leaves a store far to the west which is extremely right-wing and Trump-friendly. They're often closed when you stop by. That's where I pick up the majority of my books. The family that runs it often conducts discussions among themselves about what a disaster Obama was and how Chick-Fil-A needs to be supported now more than ever BECAUSE of, you know, the gay thing... I suppose I could drive to the next city over, but my vehicle is from 1989 and I worry it's going to give up the ghost on the highway one of these days... I'd rather it not be over some trip to find out Hawkman is a multiversal Jekyll-and-Hyde Tweety Bird nowadays or that the Comedian was removed from the timeline just prior to impact and is going to be a DC Deadpool from here on in... I still have to get to work, y'know?

I suppose from a certain perspective it all works out. It's not like I can afford these things today any better than my parents could back in the day. Still, I miss being in the middle of it all.