Poll: Legion of Super Pets

[JSngry]

Living in East Texas...when we went to "the city" it was either Shreveport or Dallas, and in the days before Interstate, those were not casual jaunts! Even after Interstate, well, Shreveport actually was a jaunt, about 75 minutes. Dallas, less so, two hours, (usually) more or (occasionally) less. These kids today who only know Interstates...

Shreveport was actually a city, albeit a "small" one) when we lived there, 1962-65. It's really sad to see how it's deteriorated and fallen apart.

There probably was Marvel in Shreveport, but I was not tuned into it. Barber shops again. And after that, we lived in Liberty (now part of the Houston MonsterMegaplex, but then, a separate town with lots of land in between....65-66, probably was Marvel there, but again, barber shops, they liked them some Superman, especially in the Beatles/Vietnam era, AMERICAN!!!!!

East Texas before 1962, no Marvel. After we got back in 1967, probably so, but by then...Beatles/Hendrix/etc...comics were gone from my life by then, even in the barbershops. I would look at sport or Field & Stream or Sports Afield, I liked fishing. The barber shops themselves, it took a bit longer to get rid of....

36 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Philly had distributors for every kind of reading product that was stapled or bound. . . areas of Texas possibly had a less inclusive system of distribution.

You know, I was talking to somebody the other day about the "great" period of Hit Parader magazine, the late 60s, and in Gladewater, we had both a news stand and a drug store that carried a whole bunch of stuff that just sat there and got shuffled around every moth. I mean, you could buy Billboard in Gladewater, at the newsstand. and Hit Parader at the drug store. I think there was some kind of mob deal or something for magazine rack jobbers, because those places were always full, and the newsstand carried "adult" magazines and the drug store carried ALL the pulp "detective" and "men's" stuff like Argosy & True and less noble endeavors...used to be able to "sneak a peek" at those see some almost breast, nervous as hell that somebody would catch me LOL.

Knowing now what I know about rack jobbing and road reps...one wonder just what kinds of deals were being made to get all this stuff out there that nobody was buying.

[jazzbo]

I don't have any information about mob involvement in the print distribution in Philly. . . I was too young to have any concept of mob control of trades or industry. I was always in the inner city . . .I was a city boy complete with the diversity and violence that entailed (gangs going up and down the street, my mother nearly strangled to death in our own kitchen, and more). I suspect a lot of places carried these items because they sold. I remember making an effort to get to the racks when the new titles came out so I didn't miss out. Usually there were more than a few kids looking at and for copies. I know I even traveled a number of blocks every other week or so to a distant store that kept boxes of 12 cent titles with half the cover snipped off that he sold for 5 cents. . . I got a lot of back issues that way. I was into collecting. . . that was probably the start that then led to books, records, instruments and cds.

Edited June 30, 2021 by jazzbo

[JSngry]

Somewhere, I hope, I still have a copy of the "Top 40" sheet (literally, a piece of legal size paper) that was on the record racks at the local pharmacy, the same one with all the pulp magazines, and the only place in town that sold "real" and "current" records. The Top 40 was not out of Billboard or anything, it was from the rack jobber itself, somewhere on Industrial in Dallas...I would love to know what kind of a deal the drug store had with this crew - and if the same people handled the records as handled the magazines. In retrospect, it all seems kinda connected (no pun intended?).

I mean, you could buy "records" all over town, but only this place had current stock of hit (or hit-like) records, current shit, LPs and 45s. Same with all the pulp magazines. But I don't reall them having comic books! For those, you went to the newsstand, iirc. I could be wrong, though. Like I said, by then, I was out of that thing, the comic books (or as some called them "funny books"!!!!).

Wal-Mart fucked all this shit up, Wal-Mart and better, wider, faster highways. Why shop in Gladewater when you could go to Longview?!?!?!?!?! And Longview didn't even get a mall until the late 1970s! I fully appreciate the more efficient delivery systems of goods we have now, but...I also appreciate what was lost by being able to shop "in town", the human interaction of things from outside your town being in your town, and the way that worked...small towns still gonna small town, but the options were right in your face then, you didn't have to like them, but you did have to look at them.

Hi Gladewater, I'm Faye!

[JSngry]

But before that, MASSIVE Secret Service fail:

JFK, Born To Die.

[JSngry]

Did Superman ever take Krypto into the Fortress Of solitude? Because I'm thinking that a man who needs so much solitude that he ain't got room for his dog is either a fucked up individual or else he needs a better dog.

And Krypto was a good dog!

[Teasing the Korean]

23 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Did Superman ever take Krypto into the Fortress Of solitude? Because I'm thinking that a man who needs so much solitude that he ain't got room for his dog is either a fucked up individual or else he needs a better dog.

And Krypto was a good dog!

Superman was a cat person, so he took Streaky the Super Cat.

Actually, I remember the Legion of Super Pets as being more a part of Superboy/Adventure Comics.  Did Superboy have a Fortress of Solitude, or did he have to grow up first?

[JSngry]

Boys don't need man caves, they're happy with treehouses and such