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Shoutout to the weekend trips to out-of-town comic marts
I miss the days when a group of us would pile into a car and head to a comic mart in another state. We didn't have apps to tell us what was there, so every box was a surprise. I remember finding a rare first print in a dusty bin in Chicago. It felt like a real hunt, and the trip was as fun as the find. Now, with online markets, you can get anything delivered, but it's not the same. The shared experience of traveling with fellow fans made it special. Those journeys were a big part of being a comic book fan back then.
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shah.eric3mo ago
My local bookstore's community board used to be packed with event flyers.
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alexw743mo ago
That board at The Last Chapter bookstore was always packed with more than event flyers. You'd see ads for yard sales, tutoring services, and community potlucks. It was a real snapshot of what people needed and cared about. Losing that feels like losing a piece of local talk. I remember finding a used bike for sale there that my kid rode for years.
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keithwalker3mo ago
I get the vibe, but let's be real. We're talking about buying paper with pictures on it. The 'journey' was often a six hour drive for bad gas station food and sore backs from digging through long boxes. You could spend a whole weekend and fifty bucks in gas just to maybe find one beat up issue. It was fun with friends, sure, but calling it a 'big part of being a fan' feels like a stretch.
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