I can vaguely remember comics in the late 1940s. I remember a few spinning racks in drug stores and a couple of downtown newsstands. Anytime I saw them, I begged my parents for comics. Somewhere they must have found some back issue comics because I recall having a few large logo DC issues: Action, More Fun and Adventure. In the early 1950s my mother got me a subscription to Walt Disney's Comics and Stories. They probably came for two or three years. This is a bit off track, but if anyone has a copy with my name and Tampa address on the subscription label, I'll give $200.00 for the copy.
Artists' styles became very apparent to me at an early age. Each publisher had a different look. I felt that comics were a piece of art and not just a pamphlet to be read and discarded. The covers struck me as being posters and I found them to be very captivating. When I was about eight years old I stayed home from school one day with a cold. My mom was gone for part of the day and I decided to do some decorating. I really loved the comic book covers so I decided to make my room a comic cover gallery. I cut the covers off my 300 comic books and neatly thumb tacked them to the walls. There were rows of Batman, Superman, Captain America, Red Ryder, Wonder Woman, Planet, Tarzan, Roy Rogers, Jungle, Jumbo and many other titles. I could lay in bed and enjoy all the covers at once. This was the coolest room anyone ever had. At least it was til Mom got home. We didn’t realize that I had destroyed what would now be about $25,000 in Golden Age Comics. She was mostly concerned about the holes in the walls and made me take the display down. I don’t recall what happened to those books.
During elementary school I tried to accumulate comics. My big break came in 1956 during the 6th grade. I must have been the biggest fan in my school. You can see in my 6th grade class photo that I am the only one wearing a comic book t-shirt—Davy Crockett, who was the big comic book and TV craze in 1956. As the year was drawing to a close, my buddy, Dan (in the striped shirt at the far right), told me he was moving and he and his older brother had to get rid of stuff before the move. He did not collect comics but his brother did and wanted to sell his collection. I gathered every cent I could get my hands on and went to his house where his brother showed me a long run of Blackhawk and many other comics. He had one Golden Age
issue, Blackhawk #27, which he sold to me for 25 cents. Two and a half times cover price. There were many other early 1950s issues for which I paid 10 cents each. That was the first time I paid over cover price for a comic book. If I had ever told my Mom what I paid for that comic book, you would not be reading this story now.
After I got the collection in the 6th grade I was really fired up to find more comics. My best source turned out to be Walker's Magazine Exchange on North Florida Avenue, about a two mile bike ride from my house. Back issue comics were a nickel each or six for a quarter. For a dollar I could fill up my bike basket. Old Man Walker and his crusty wife used to stamp their name and address on every item in the store. Over the years I have found several collections with the Walker's stamp on them. I am always looking for more. Of the hundreds of old bookstores I have been to, Walker's was the only place that sorted comics by genre. Westerns, War, Funny Animals and Romance always had the largest stacks but the ones I constantly bought were from the Superhero, Jungle, Mystery and Horror piles. You could trade comics in, but you had to trade Western for Western, Superhero for Superhero. Old Man Walker did not charge a premium for the more elusive titles, but he was smart enough to try to keep a balance to the inventory.
David T. Alexander's first experience paying more than cover price for a comic book was buying Blackhawk #27 from a childhood friend for 25 cents.
The other book store in bicycle range was Eiron's Used Books on Grand Central Boulevard, just east of the Hillsborough River in Downtown Tampa. Eiron was as rough as they'd come in the late 1950s and looked like a New York City stereotype with an accent to match. He did not carry comics but he had a variety of Pulp Magazines. I had never seen Pulps before then and Eiron had a nice selection in a showcase. Bedsheet Amazing Stories from the 1920s were $1.50 each and standard size pulps were $1.00 to 50 cents each. This was 1958 and I've been looking for Pulps ever since. Eiron always seemed mad when I wanted to buy Pulps and said I should not waste my money. Maybe he had better customers, but I bought as many Pulps as I could afford. My first issues of The Spider, G-8 And His Battle Aces, Dusty Ayres And His Battle Birds, and Fantastic Adventures all came from Eiron.
He also dealt in remaindered magazines. These were magazines that had the titles stripped off. If you have collected comic books or magazines long enough, you have undoubtedly seen copies with the titles stripped off. The distributors would pick up unsold copies from newsstands and strip the titles to return to the publishers as credit for unsold copies. The stripped copies were required by the publishers to be destroyed at the distributors warehouse. This rarely happened and Eiron was the guy that got these black-market copies in Tampa.
PRODUCTS 
As the biggest comic fan in his class, David T. Alexander wears a Davy Crockett shirt in his 6th grade class photo.