Via Flickr:
King George Hotel 232 main St. S.
King George Hotel, circa 1845, was established by James Forsyth as the Forsythe House on the site of an earlier hotel owned by fur traders Roe & Borland.
The original location Comic Wizard was downstairs where you see the Poodle Corner, in a dark, cramped basement location (bottom right). Eventually the Wiz moved up to the main retail space in the former King George Hotel -- now Where Angels Tread, but after the Comic Wizard closed, it was a lingerie shop.
I sold my whole Star Wars to collection to the Comic Wizard in his basement dungeon in about 1984 in order to buy the steering wheel accessory for the ColecoVision -- Expansion Module #2 with Turbo -- from Sears. Stupid move.
Today marks a weird spot on the calendar for me. It’s one of those landmarks that really doesn’t mean anything, other than to illustrate the weirdness of time and how we feel it. As of today, my son Gordon has been without his mother longer than he was with her. The length of time Amanda has been gone is now longer than the length of time we were a family of three. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, but that dangblasted calendar tells me it’s almost three years. I have not said a word about it to G, but tonight, for the first time in a long time, he pulled out the Missing Mummy book for bedtime. Today was my last day in broadcasting for a while, as far as I can tell. I spent the past five years as Program Director at Newstalk 1290 CJBK in London, Ontario. And in recent years, I was also the noon-hour show host, afternoon news anchor, a commercial voice guy, TV news promo voice guy, and more. Also in the past five years, I’ve bought a house, endured renovation
I nostalgically remember the Comic Wizard - both the store and the Wiz who ran it. Back in the day, I think I actually believed he was a wizard, or maybe it was just too much D&D influence. Remember all the paintable fantasy figurines he had? Loved that place.
ReplyDeleteI remember going into the store for the first time in 1984 and seeing used starwars figures in baggies on a spinner rack....there was a tuscan raider with cape....my mom refused to let me buy it! She didn't want me to "start collecting that stuff again!". One year later I started collecting comics and now I have so many I'm a local dealer!....and I eventually did start collecting starwars figures again of course!
ReplyDeleteI remember going into the store for the first time in 1984 and seeing used starwars figures in baggies on a spinner rack....there was a tuscan raider with cape....my mom refused to let me buy it! She didn't want me to "start collecting that stuff again!". One year later I started collecting comics and now I have so many I'm a local dealer!....and I eventually did start collecting starwars figures again of course!
ReplyDelete