When I was a kid growing up in Savannah, Georgia I almost always spent my summer vacations at my grandmother’s house on Maple Street in the suburbs of Tarrant City which was a small town on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. There was a Rexall Drug Store a few blocks away from my grandmother’s house in downtown Tarrant that got in some Marvel comic books to help keep me current when I was away from my normal sources in Savannah for those 3 summer months. It also had a new paperback book spinner rack that I could pull an occasional science fiction paperback from. A few miles away in the other direction was a Burns Drugstore that my grandfather would drive me to. He would sit in his un-airconditioned car on a hot summer day and sip on a cold drink that I bought for him with his money and wait 45 minutes or so while I perused the comic book spinner rack and magazine rack inside.

However, a more interesting source than Rexall and Burns for new paperbacks and sometimes old comic books was a bookstore in downtown Birmingham. I’m pretty sure it was the biggest bookstore in Birmingham. I never found a bigger one. I think the name was the Birmingham News and Magazine Company. I checked that name on the internet and nothing came up so I guess it’s just another used bookstore lost and forgotten in the mists of the past. Not entirely forgotten by everybody however. I spent a lot of time there and remember it very well. Every summer starting about 1965 and running up to about 1971, I made a trip every 2 or 3 weeks. My aunt Betty June would drive me the several miles into downtown Birmingham and leave me there for 2 or 3 hours until she came back to retrieve me. 

The store had 3 big rooms. The 2 rooms on the far sides had stuff that I don’t remember having any interest in. The main center and largest room however was where the action was. In the front was a paperback spinner rack with new paperbacks. Nearby was a rectangular book display case holding only new science fiction paperbacks with the books facing the street to attract anybody walking by. For at least one summer that case contained mostly Edgar Rice Burroughs novels from his Martian and Venus series and other Burroughs paperbacks. I bought lots of them and spent many hours laying on my grandmother’s 4 poster bed in her front bedroom reading them. I remember one of the ladies working at the store say to somebody she didn’t like science fiction. I’m glad she didn’t let her personal tastes interfere with business.

As you walked down the main aisle from the front of the store with your back to the street the cash register was on the left about half way down the aisle. There were always 1 or 2 middle aged ladies there who ran the store. They may have owned it, who knows? I never saw any men working there. Across from the cash register on the right side of the aisle was a magazine display case with used magazines. I never found much there except for a big lucky hit one day: 2 issues of Famous Monsters Of Filmland magazines in better than average condition. I think the price was .25 each. I kept those magazines until I retired from the Air Force in 1997 and sold them on the collector’s show circuit.

Not far from this magazine display case on the same side of the aisle was a large rectangular table filled with rows of used paperbacks with a heavy emphasis on science fiction, including Edgar Rice Burroughs. ERB paperbacks must have been getting pretty good distribution in Birmingham in the 1960s. And right across from this table close to the cash register was the main event for me, a 6′ rectangular table loaded with stacks of used comic books! And the price was only a nickel each.

Searching diligently through these stacks of 10 and 12 cent cover price comic books, I wish I could say I found lots of Marvel comic books but I can’t. The Marvel’s just weren’t there in any numbers. There were lots of DC superhero comics but I didn’t collect DC and I bought none of them. I may have bought some DC Our Army At War since I did like Sgt. Rock. There was a wide assortment of other publishers. I remember seeing lots of a 1950s era comic book Don Winslow Of The Navy. I don’t know why Don was so popular in Birmingham.

Considering that I made 3 or 4 trips to this store every summer for 5 or 6 consecutive years you’d think that more Marvels would have turned up but they didn’t. Why very few Marvels? Maybe the Marvel collectors in Birmingham liked them to much and didn’t want to sell them to a used bookstore. More likely, the distribution of new Marvel comic books to the Birmingham area was limited to begin with which obviously would reduce the number of back issues that could end up in a used bookstore. I had to settle for buying several 10 cent cover price 1950s Atlas war comics with the Atlas Globe logo on the cover. I knew in those days that Atlas had been the predecessor company to Marvel and so I bought these because of their connection to Marvel. I remember being disappointed by the mediocre art in the books. Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko didn’t draw any of them. I don’t have any of these Atlas war books now and I have no idea what happened to them.

I had one lucky find on the pre-Marvel monster books that I like so much: a copy of Tales Of Suspense #22. I was also pleased with one Charlton comic book I found that had terrific Ditko art, a copy of Konga #1.

Despite my general disappointment at the paucity of Marvels to be had, there is some cosmic justice in the universe and one fine summer day in the mid 1960s the comic book gods smiled on me. The comic book table had a second shelf below the top of the table. This bottom shelf was cluttered with junk like cardboard boxes or something and there was no reason to go rummaging through them. But on a hunch I decided to take a look. I moved something out of the way and underneath was 2 comic books. My heart must have skipped a beat when I saw what I had uncovered! It was Amazing Spider-Man #4 and #26. I hadn’t been collecting Marvel comics seriously until after getting hooked by reading The Amazing Spider-Man #32 and #33 and I had never seen either of these 2 earlier books. Since the books were hidden down on the junk shelf it was obvious somebody had put them there until he could raise the dime needed to buy both of them. I had a dime and I wasn’t going to let a momentary misplaced twang of remorse at breaking some other poor collector’s heart prevent me from buying these 2 splendid books. I liked the #4 of course since it was the oldest and rarest but I remember being especially mesmerized by the #26. It had a cool cover and an unusual mystery plot with Spidey mixing it up with the Green Goblin and the Crime-Master. I read it over and over again that summer at my grandmother’s house and will never forget that wonderful time. I still have those books today.