Thursday, February 19

Comic Books At Hazard Drug

The other day, someone on the HazardKentucky.com Forum mentioned Comic books from the Hazard Drug store. That recollection hit me like a ton of bricks. I was a serious Comic Book fan. Although around 1938 and on, we called them "Funny Books." Hazard Drug was the place to go. I spent hours in there. They had them all. Superman, Batman & Robin, The Flash, Captain America, Captain Marvel. All 10 cents a piece and a thrill a minute. Each one came out on time every month. I must have spent a small Hazard schoolboy fortune at that drug store. Also, did a lot of Funny Book trading with the other kids. The other good comics were in the Sunday Courier Journal. I remember Lil' Abner, Tailspin Tommy, Smokey Stover, Terry and the Pirates. And don't forget Popeye and his skinny girlfriend, Olive Oil and his hamburger eatin' buddy, Wimpie. Between the Funny Books, the newspaper comics and the Sears Roebuck catalogs I think our generation learned to be better than average readers. The issue of Detective Comics cost just 10 cents at Hazard Drug in 1939. It is now worth $475. Ed Sonny Watts

9 comments:

  1. I read my first comic book from the rack stand at Rexall Drug and had my first banana split there also. After Sunday School and Church on Sundays always had to have a cherry coke. Thanks for the memories!

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  2. I'd window-shop all the way to the parking lot at the east end of Main Street, stopping in Rexall Drugs to look at and buy comic books. They were a quarter apiece back then. A three-dollar allowance which I earned, every penny went a long way back then.

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  3. I bought a bunch of comic books as well.

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  4. This site sure does bring back some memories!!! I'd also buy comic books there every time we went!!!

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  5. Stopping by Rexalls was always fun even if we didn't have money we could look at the comic books for a short time.

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  6. When we went to town (which was every Saturday) we would always eat at Don's and I would wolf down my burger so I could go up to the front and look at the comic books on the wire rack that spun round and round. Those comics were a wondrous fantasy world for me, a shy pudgy kid with a big imagination. I remember when they went up from 10 cents to 12 cents! Going to Hazard was indeed something I looked forward to.

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  7. I remember Manis' Grocery at Darfork. Gray Manis owned it and worked in it. They sold all kinds of things along with groceries and comic books.

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  8. I remember standing many times just inside the front door of Rexall Drug (which is where the magazine rack was) and thumbing through all the comic books. If more than one person stood there you would have to move from side to side to let people in and out and pay the cashier. Fout's Drug was also a great place to browse through comics because you were behind a counter and out of the way more and you could even sit down. I was introduced to Mad Magazine there!

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  9. I got very involved with Rex Morgan, M.D. I could not wait for the paper to come to see what Rex and June were doing.

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