Comic shop memories

[IndigoPrime]

Not sure which was my first. I recall going to Forbidden Planet before it moved, but I'm not sure how old I was. There used to be a two-storey (yet tiny) comic store in Reading. But probably earlier than that, I recall a comic store in Aldershot, run by a proper punk (well, he had the hair at least). I picked up loads of 2000 AD and Meg back issues there. Must have been very early 1990s. I don't recall it lasting all that long though.

[Barrington Boots]

Growing up in a small town in Essex, I used to get my comics the local cornershop. My subs for Star Wars, then Battle Action Force, and finally 2000ad all came from there.

My first 'proper' comic shop was Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham, when I moved there for Uni. I was trying to be too cool for comics, but my mate in halls was a huge DC comics / Batman guy so we went there in the first trip into the city. It was pretty dazzling (and in those days, not full of Funko Pops).
I was too broke for regular comic buying then - I flirted with a return to 2000ad but was put off by stuff like Outlaw - but it was there that I slowly picked up the habit again - as well as there that I met Scott Ian of Anthrax (he was buying Simpsons action figures)

[sheridan]

Plus Andromeda Books just around the corner and Mega City comics which didn't even bother with tables the one time I managed a visit.

Tables?  Do you mean literal tables in the middle of the shop?  Confused by this - most comic shops I've been to didn't/don't have tables.

There was that peculiar place in Ipswich that had stairs just inside the door up to the actual shop itself.

Globe Fantasy Bookshop (Globe Fantasy still appeared on the receipts from Central City Comics when it moved) though I remember the stairs going down from the entrance, not up.

[sheridan]

Forbidden Planet in Denmark Street for me was just the best. It wasn't the same when it moved to New Bond Street, but that was miles ahead of what it is now on Shaftesbury Av. It's hardly even a comic shop now. It's spiritual successor, Orbit has gone now, leaving a huge gap. Only Gosh remains in London. But gone are they days when there were boxes and boxes of back Progs. Guess I should have bought them when I had the chance.

New Oxford Street, not New Bond, and it was Orbital, not Orbit!

[sheridan]

Now that I've "Um, actually"d other people's contributions, here's mine.

My first comic shop was Fantasy World in Hanley (had adverts in 2000AD and White Dwarf so many here will be familiar with it, even if they've never been to the Midlands).  At that point it was RPG and games downstairs (though I think it was the year that Warhammer Battle was released, so mainly games other than wargames) and upstairs was almost entirely comics and books, along with T-shirts and badges.  Over the next few years it had more merchandise and martial arts equipment for a while.  When I visited the area again it appeared to have been bought out by Forbidden Planet, or maybe it just closed and an FP opened nearby.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

Forbidden Planet in Denmark Street for me was just the best.

That was my first comic shop experience, but sadly I only went there the once, and it was only because I won a ticket thanks to Starburst to see the premier of Star Trek IV The Voyage Home at the Empire in Leicester Square. The odd thing though was it wasn't really the premier, just an early afternoon press screening and so there were about fifteen or so professional journalists and then just a bunch of people who had won the competition. Not that I was complaining, and the trip to Forbidden Planet afterwards made it a very memorable day.

It wasn't the same when it moved to New Bond Street, but that was miles ahead of what it is now on Shaftesbury Av. It's hardly even a comic shop now. It's spiritual successor, Orbit has gone now, leaving a huge gap. Only Gosh remains in London. But gone are they days when there were boxes and boxes of back Progs. Guess I should have bought them when I had the chance.

I have a lot of fond memories of the New Oxford Street shop (and the brief period where Virgin Megastores had their own comic department), but never went in to Gosh for some unknown reason until it relocated to Berwick Street. There's a couple of other comic shops still around though, like Mega City One in Camden and Krypton Comics in Walthamstow (which only opens a few days a week, but as I live vaguely close by I like to pop in at least a couple of times a year).

[IndigoPrime]

I will say today that Gosh has a superb selection of comics for kids. But when you have a kid and walk there, I discovered you have to be very careful which route you take.

[Fortnight]

I don't think I've ever been in a comic shop.

When I was very young my parents didn't really deem comics to be a wholesome form of entertainment for their eldest. I picked up the occasional Dandy or Beano, but quickly discovered I didn't really like a cartoon style. I remember getting a Commando and a handful of Starblazers which I enjoyed much more, but they'd have been from a local newsagent. Once I got an issue of something featuring the Fantastic Four and I thought it was amazing, but I never got another one.

We moved away from the big metropolis (Leicester) when I was about 10 and went north to where there were No Comic Shops, and as far as I know, there still aren't.

It was bizarre then that my parents started buying me the new Eagle, from issue #1, which, of course I loved, and still do to this day. But it was too late to cultivate an interest in comics in general since there were only the top titles that came to newsagents, and my parents wouldn't let me get 2000 AD With no comic shops around I didn't get into anything until I deemed myself too old for them and stopped reading.

Now I'm much older I'm getting back into them again. It's not easy to know what to read though. I keep my eye on this forum even though I don't post much, but I kind of feel like an outsider when everyone knows so much about everything that gets mentioned, but I've never heard of it. Makes it hard to get involved.

I 'inherited' a dozen or so large boxes of comics many years ago from the ex of a former work colleage - they were being chucked out because they'd been in a cellar and had got water-damaged when massive floods hit the city and destroyed a lot of homes.

A lot were beyond saving, but plenty were untouched and still perfectly fine for reading, and loads were in perfect condition in bags with boards. I left them unsorted for many more years until just last year when I decided to sort through them all and see what I'd got that I could read.

Lost were a large run of post-Moore Swamp Thing, loads of Preacher, Constantine and Cerebus, but lots of stuff left.

Trouble is, I don't know where to start! So much of the comics world seems so inter-twined, and series riff of others, and featured previously established characters, sequels, prequels, reboots, parallel narratives span across multiple series, and I've no idea what's what. If I start on something that looks interesting, I could easily end up starting in the middle of some huge saga and not even know it!

I have actually read a couple of small series, or single-issues. I read World Without End (1990), The Thing from Another World (1991), Batman: Holy Terror (1991), Mercy (1993), and a couple of Concrete books. I'm thinking about going for Luther Arkwright maybe next, or maybe the 3 Sin City series I have...

I've got my eye on the Completely Self-absorbed Top 100-and-then-some thread from Colin YNWA in case something I've got pops up and lets me know if it's worth having a go at reading. All of the stuff that was rescued was from pre-2001.

[Colin YNWA]

Ohhh don't wait, just start a thread with a list of the things there and I'm sure there are a load of folks who will love to dive in and provide advice. I know I certianly would.

Dependent on the issues those Cerebus could be well worth reading and if there's more Concrete... you'll have to wait quite a while for them to appear on my list... hint hint...

[karlos]

The biggest thing I miss about the late 80s/early 90s comics scene  was finding a shop that became a real social club for us nerds.

For me an incredible time and I'm lucky to still have friends from those days that I made as a very shy teen.

Buying comics online just ain't the same!

[Fortnight]

Ohhh don't wait, just start a thread with a list of the things there and I'm sure there are a load of folks who will love to dive in and provide advice. I know I certianly would.

Dependent on the issues those Cerebus could be well worth reading and if there's more Concrete... you'll have to wait quite a while for them to appear on my list... hint hint...

I may well do that! It'll take quite a while as it comprises over 3000 comics across many many series, large-run and small!

The Cerebus ones are among the most damaged, although some are ok - not many consecutive issues though. I considered those useless for reading as the fills would cost more than the TPBs and be more of a faff to collect, even if the title was one worth reading. And when I said Constantine, I did, of course, mean Hellblazer; also badly damage to the point of worthlessness.

Actually, after refreshing myself of the list I compiled when I sorted through them, I was reminded that I have the full 70-issue run of Shade the Changing Man which was in your list. The only entry in your list that no-one commented on

[Leigh S]

I believe the reason for the connection between comics and more adult fare is that stocking comics allowed adult bookshops to avoid certain licencing laws? Sure I sawsomething along those lines amny years back - so the pron came first if you pardon the expression

As for comic book guys,my nemesis was Jason in late 80s Nostalgia and Comics.....

[Colin YNWA]

[quote author=Fortnight

Actually, after refreshing myself of the list I compiled when I sorted through them, I was reminded that I have the full 70-issue run of Shade the Changing Man which was in your list. The only entry in your list that no-one commented on
[/quote]

There was a bit of chat about Shade after the fact. Was a little surprised, well given the ace responses I've been getting, that Shade didn't get discussed more. Thought it'd be up folks alley.

Either way you could do a lot worse than to start there.

[Hawkmumbler]

For what it's worth Jim and I had a bit of a natter over that there post at the pub on Thought Bubbles Saturday, but it really did boil down to a) how good it looked and b) completely passed us by despite how very clearly in our wheelhouse it was.

Let it not go unsaid that there is legitimate resonance between Colins divine witterings and the real world.

[Proudhuff]

The Science Fiction Bookshop on Causewayside West in Edinburgh.
As a young sprog I picked up my Savage Sword of Conan there. Half the shop was comics and half Sci Fi novels.
You could get PKD dimestore novels there as they can out!

If you were lucky Joe Callis ( Rezillos/guitarist, later Human League member) would be on the till.