I'm remembering Thursday, March 26, 1964. Join me there for a moment and for the other chapters of this story. We'll be jumping from time period to time period a la Peabody and Sherman but we'll keep coming back to that day.
I'm 12 years and 26 days old and a ritual of my life is finding a comic book rack every Tuesday and Thursdays because that's when the new comics are put on sale in most cities and certainly in mine. There are no comic book shops. You find a comic book rack in a drugstore or a market or a newsstand…and in my native Los Angeles, you find them a lot in liquor stores.
Quick flash forward to 1970. The first time I visited the DC offices in New York, I met dozens of people who'd created the comic books I'd read most of my life. One of many was Carmine Infantino, who at that point I believe had the title of Editorial Director of the line. A year or three later, he was promoted to Publisher and a year or two after that, he was severed from the company as totally and coldly as the way he himself had sometimes discharged longtime employees.
I'm there with my then-partner Steve Sherman and Mr. Infantino starts asking us about comic book distribution in Los Angeles. He asks us where we buy our comics. We tell him we each go to a different liquor store. He is stunned. In New York, a liquor store is a place that sells liquor, tobacco products and very little else. Why would kids go into a liquor store?
We explain that in Los Angeles, liquor stores are mostly like mini-markets also carrying groceries, notions and magazines — including comic books. He says, "That's a convenience shop." We tell him, "In L.A., they're called liquor stores." News to him. He makes some notes.
Back to 3/26/64. That day, I go to Pico Drug, a great establishment in West Los Angeles and the source of much of my comic book collection. There, I find all the new comics and I begin plucking the issues I will purchase off the glorious rack there. At some point, I find the new issue of Detective Comics, a book I have collected for several years. I have purchased every issue new off the racks since I began collecting super-hero-type comics and I have found 50-100 back issues at second-hand bookstores. So I know the comic well…
…but suddenly, unexpectedly, it has changed. It was the first time I ever saw a comic book change like that.
We'll be discussing that change in Part Two of this, tomorrow. Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Blog.