When did you guys find your first actual comic book shop, then?
For me, in Hull, there was possibly one of the earliest in the UK, in 1980.
No photos or anything at all exist, sadly.
After that, there were a few throughout the 80s onward.
Does anyone here remember probably the best of them - Final Frontier aka Grimjacks?
Forbidden Planet on New Oxford Street and Gosh on Great Russell Street, summer of 1990, possibly on the same day, but I don't remember.
The majestic metropolis that is my home town didn't have any dedicated comic shop that I can remember until a couple of years later. Then it was some hole in the corner at the back of a dying market, with a pretty poor selection and a proprietor who probably thought himself a 'character', which is to say a contrary pain in the arse.
You had to engage with the guy and deal with his unfunny schtick if you so much as wanted to know the price of something.
Comics fans not being generally known for their gregariousness, it's not surprising he didn't last long. Nevertheless, the prick remains something of a minor legend among Cork nerds of a certain vintage.
For those too young to have known the days before the internet, I should point out that there were a lot of similarities between buying out-of-the-mainstream comics and trying to get your hands on porn.
I was lucky living in Birmingham as we had nostalgia and comics before it changed ownership but I possibly spent more money in the second hand shop in the underpass near it, still have my 2000ad issue 1 from there
Forever People in Bristol, circa 1983. I used to go there to get the Eagle Comics reprints of strips I'd already read, for some reason. It was famous for its Basil Fawltyesque staff, who could barely disguise their contempt for their customers.
It's funny how similar our experiences back then were - buying comics was hard work!
I do miss it all, though -tracking comics down, randomly discovering something new and amazing, meeting so many different people.
Happy days
Quote from: moly on 24 November, 2023, 08:27:05 PMI was lucky living in Birmingham as we had nostalgia and comics before it changed ownership but I possibly spent more money in the second hand shop in the underpass near it, still have my 2000ad issue 1 from there
Wow, remember that little place. Picked up a few bits and pieces there on my first visit to a comic mart in Brum. N & C was a completely different beast back then, packed full of stuff. 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.
Forbidden Planet when it was on Denmark street seems a lifetime ago, not to mention utterly transformed compared to what it is now. Hard to believe that something a fraction of the size could have so much more to offer than it does now. Then again there were plenty of options in those days, weren't there? Was it Comic Showcase that had a branch in Oxford? Biggest mistake of my life was passing up on pages from Light and Darkness War. Still kicking myself to this day.
Where else was there? Hobbit Hole in Gloucester was a cracking little place. Lasted quite a few years too with a good selection of comics, back issues and books. There was another one on the other side of town that didn't last all that long. Like a lot of places I've stumbled across over the years, I can't remember its name.
Lincoln had a natty little place in the arcade up by the Cathedral. Had an issue of the Judge Child Quest (Eagle reprint) from them. There was that peculiar place in Ipswich that had stairs just inside the door up to the actual shop itself. There was another shop in Oxford just up from Showcase. Far more back issues than was good for me, to be honest. Loads of choice. Not like these days.
Comic shop? Comic shop?!
When I were a sharkling, we didn't even have a doctor in the village, never mind a comic shop. Those were things to be found only in the teeming metrolops where the idle rich had time to fritter, not out here. No, out here there was work to be done and comics was just frittering. We had no need for metropolistic fritterings and made do with three ironmongers shops, a Co-Op and a Spar, a Methodist chapel and an Anglican church (each with their own primary school), at least half a dozen places from whence fresh shrimp could be purchased, Charlie Bond's legendary bicycle repair grotto, two chip shops, one police station, and two newsagents.
These newsagents were both my comic shops. Mrs. Johnson's was where my loyalties lay, and she could get me almost anything. For what she couldn't get, there was the other guy - a sour old git whose name I can't remember. He took it as a challenge to procure what Mrs. Johnson could not and so, between them, they got me just about everything I wanted. The first time they both let me down was with Warrior, which consequently became the first comic I ever subscribed to through the post.
Neither of them could get things like the Titan reprints, though.
It wasn't until the late 90's that I discovered Planet Eater in Southport. It was an odd place, at once filled with exotic wonders and an atmosphere which could only be described as, "f*ck off."
I remember someone in an '80s fanzine comparing the comic shops of the day to, ahem, adult bookshops. The same dark, sweaty, unwelcoming atmosphere.
My first* exposure to proper American comics (as opposed to Marvel UK reprints... largely Star Wars, in my case) was actually in our local Games Workshop, which had two spinner racks of US books that I regularly ignored until they put a Watchmen poster at the top of it and Moore & Gibbons' names kind of leapt out at me. Although Watchmen was several months away at that point, I then noticed that Moore's name was on the Swamp Thing books they had, so I started getting those and, after that, I was hooked.
A few months later, Nostalgia & Comics opened a proper comic shop nearby, and my descent into nerd-dom was complete.
*Almost first — my nearest newsagent would get random issues of random stuff at random intervals... I'd buy the Indiana Jones book whenever it appeared, which seemed to about one issue in four...
Those Titan books were brilliant at the time. Hard to believe now that I was so impressed by 64 pages of black and white, and now we have 200+ pages of full colour art in the Complete Case Files!
My local was Calamity Comics in Watford. It's not there anymore.
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.
And yes I also visited Forever People when at Uni in Bristol. It was my go to every Friday to get my Prog. Which kinda brings up a point that, the day the Prog comes out has moved around over the years. So much for "in orbit every Monday". It's been Monday, then Friday, then Wednesday. Unless you are a subscriber, when it's Saturday, unless Postie doesn't have it.
Quote from: Richard on 25 November, 2023, 11:23:16 PMMy local was Calamity Comics in Watford. It's not there anymore.
Oh my word, Watford! 3 years at Northwood with school in South Oxhey. Watford was a real 'treat' to visit back then. Calamity was before my full on collecting days though. As a mere sprog it was the prog on a Saturday morning delivered with dad's paper (until StarLord came along and I had to choose ...)
Watford Odeon was where I first saw Star Wars though. Amazing how powerful that memory is even after all those years. ::)
I first picked up American comics in a newsagent I stumbled across in Birkenhead when I was like 14 I think. That soon lead me via my friend Paul Webster to Chapter One in Liverpool, just around the corner from The Empire Theatre in Liverpool, on Lime Street.
I've talked about this place on here before. It used to terrify me. The owner was a monolith of a man. I can disassociate him in my minds eye from Comic Boy Guy from the Simpson's. He certianly didn't seem to have any time for customers or horrible things like that.
It was dark, cramped, poorly light and had a 'men's magazine' section just by the tatty cardboard boxes of back issues I dared to explore. I hardly dared even turn my head in the direction of that section... however much my teenage loins wanted me to go there.
It was a terrible place and I LOVED it.
Mind I was so much happier then World's Apart opened just down the road. Staffed by a friendly goth couple who actually realised that helping and chatting to customers was a good thing!
Dark Horizon's in Belfast, 1988. Saw a poster (drawn by a young John McCrea) and, after giving up comics when I was around 13-14 and still loving them, I thought this would be way back in "Noone will take the piss out of you for reading comics in a comics shop" I naively thought.
Anyway, that's when I met John, where Garth met John too, and here we all are.
Here's the poster (though the orange trimming here was a later edition in John's the Mighty World of McCrea book)
(https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3iaDFZSsxGWcHUpan9t5un.jpg)
The adult shop analogy is very apt.
In fact,the first comic shop I ever frequented in 1980 actually turned into an adult shop overnight as "it made more money".
Another book shop in Hull dabbled in novels, comics and yer actual naughty stuff, all mingled together in plain view.
A different era!
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.
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)
Quote from: Tjm86 on 25 November, 2023, 04:04:57 PMPlus 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.
QuoteThere 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.
Quote from: Magnetica on 26 November, 2023, 01:41:13 AMForbidden 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!
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.
Quote from: Magnetica on 26 November, 2023, 01:41:13 AMForbidden 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.
QuoteIt 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).
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.
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 :D 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.
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...
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!
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 29 November, 2023, 02:03:40 PMOhhh 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 :lol:
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.....
[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 :lol:
[/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.
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.
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.
Richard Piers Rayner once popped into the shop I worked in.
On my day off.
Bah.
I did get a signed Hellblazer #10, though!
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 29 November, 2023, 02:03:40 PMOhhh 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.
I just wanted to echo this, I'm fairly new to the forum but everyone's been really friendly, and I enjoy posting here a lot, and if I can I'd be up for helping out.
And I know what you mean about the world of comics being overwhelming, it's why some of my friends have never got in to them, or only read stand alone series like Preacher or Y The Last Man. I think a lot of writers are very aware of the complex history of the characters and some might lean in to that, and make it heavily tied in to the continuity, but many will ignore what's happened before and just write their own take on the character.
I'd highly recommend Shade by the way, I love it to pieces and though there are occasionally times it's linked to other DC characters (mainly John Constantine, but it's been a while since I read it and can't remember if there are others) but I'm all but certain it can be read without having needed to read any other DC series, or even Steve Ditko's original run, which I've never read but have recently begun slowly buying, though I've yet to find issue 1 at any sane price and may well end up having to read it online.
My first comic shop was American Comics Enterprise (ACE Comics) in Colchester in the mid 80's. From finding the odd American comics in local newsagents to finding a shop full of DC & Marvel comics alongside old British ones. I mainly started going there to rebuy old 2000ADs I was made to throw away by my parents then found comics with names I recognized from 2000Ad like Marshal Law, Luther Arkwright, Swamp Thing, L.E.G.I.O.N, Outcasts & other pre-Vertigo comics which set my love of US comics. It is just a shame that ACE Comics has now moved away from concentrating on the shop to mainly be a online company
2020 got to start somewhere. It wasn't Forbiden Planet, but some local comic book reseller who opened just one day a week. They had a stacks of cheap trades so I gave it a go.
Sometime in the last century I used to go to Timeslip comic shop up by the Haymarket area in Newcastle when it was barely more than a grubby pre-fab building with a brilliant back issues section. I miss those days.
Now it's moved and morphed into a Forbidden Planet, a white tiled pleasuredome of Funko Pops and Manga on the ground floor with comics relegated downstairs. It's still where I get my fix, though (when not buying old shite off ebay or backing kickstarters online).
Some dodgy basement space in the Edwardian arcade of Bolton. Stank of sewage and grud knows what else, and never seemed to stock anything 'contemporary'.
Felt more than a bit like one of those depressing cases of a guy who gave up his job to pursue the dream of running a comic shop of his own but absolutely nothing went right in that process.
Closed down at some point, this was over a decade ago and I only just noticed this summer just passed it was gone.
Still, got a healthy stack of the Kitchen Sink editions of The Spirit for pennies from there which I have since lost, goddamn it.
First comic shop: Nostalgia and Comics in Sheffield. (Now Forbidden Planet <shudders>) Also the place where I attended my only ever droid signing - the 1992 yearbooks I think. John Smith, Peter Doherty, Duncan Fegredo, and (I think) Dean Ormston. Really wish I could go back to that point in time and re-live it. At the time I had no idea who anyone was!
Favourite comic shop: The Sheffield Space Centre. It's great. Barely changed since the early nineties. Still the same people running it too, I think.
Quote from: Woolly on 05 December, 2023, 07:34:25 PMFavourite comic shop: The Sheffield Space Centre. It's great. Barely changed since the early nineties. Still the same people running it too, I think.
My local comic shop since the early 2000s when I got back into comics and just celebrated its 45th birthday and hasn't changed a jot form both good and ill.
Still run by the same lovely folks and still my favourite shop in the most magnificent city in the world.
I once enjoyed a brief but passionate affair with a lass from Sheffield. I drove from here to there, in the dead of winter, in an ailing Granada hatchback, through a blizzard, just to spend one night with her. Worth every gruelling mile.
Oh right - comic shops. Sorry, I got nothing.
Kinda got a soft spot for Sheffield, is all.
Quote from: rogue69 on 01 December, 2023, 09:19:46 PMMy first comic shop was American Comics Enterprise (ACE Comics) in Colchester in the mid 80's. From finding the odd American comics in local newsagents to finding a shop full of DC & Marvel comics alongside old British ones. I mainly started going there to rebuy old 2000ADs I was made to throw away by my parents then found comics with names I recognized from 2000Ad like Marshal Law, Luther Arkwright, Swamp Thing, L.E.G.I.O.N, Outcasts & other pre-Vertigo comics which set my love of US comics. It is just a shame that ACE Comics has now moved away from concentrating on the shop to mainly be a online company
The comic shop where I completed my 2000AD collection (as in the last back prog to fill in the gap). Also bought my copy of Prog 2 from there for much less than it would fetch these days.
Anyone here ever visit the many comic shops Hull had during the late 80s to the mid 90s?
If so, we probably met!
Quote from: karlos on 07 December, 2023, 12:58:37 PMIf so, we probably met!
I've never been to Hull, but I refer you to the pornography comparison.
I never so much as made eye contact with anyone in a comic shop, and even close friends were acknowledged only as distant acquaintances.
And friendly staff commenting on my tastes? Yikes! They might as well have said, '
Hey! Sluts Go Nuts 2!
Why don't you come round my place and we'll watch it together?'
If I were a well-adjusted and sociable chap I'd hardly be frequenting comic shops, now would I?
But before I forget, let me commend a guy who worked in Gosh in 1990. I'd picked up a copy of Prog 124 which bore the price tag '£0.00' and I asked him if it wasn't some sort of joke.
Indicating that the comic was a little raggedy around the ages, he assured me that the price was for real.
'I mean, you wouldn't expect anyone to pay money for that,' he said.
Well actually...Anyway, they should put up a little plaque on Great Russell Street to that guy.
There's definitely a real similarity between comic shops and adult shops.
I remember at the first real job I had at a comic shop, aged 13, there was a real push to actually engage with everyone who came in.
Some didn't, a lot did and it was often remarked upon how unusual it was compared to other shops.
I loved it and working there felt like being part of a social club as much as anything.
Quote from: Fortnight on 29 November, 2023, 12:54:09 PMTrouble 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!
Yes that sort of thing has put me off trying Marvel and DC.
At one point I thought I would give Guardians of the Galaxy a try, as I really liked the film and it was written by Dan Abnett. But when I did a bit of research into where to start, it all seem way too complicated.
So I mostly just read 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine.
Coolest thing ever was finding out I had a comic shop well within walking distance of my home on the city outskirts where no other such cool shops existed. Well we had a baseball card shop and a news/magazine shop. I can't comprehend those ever existing now. Something to tell the kids about.
Our comic shop was small but cozy. It had a certain smell. I don't know what it was. It had a couple arcade games; a neo geo one with art of fighting. I swear everyone had the neo geo cabs.
The owner could tell I wasn't a real reader, I was there for the early 90s comic bubble. Comic shop owners can sniff me out. My wife and are joking about this one comic chain in our area, and at both locations, the same cashier is always working when I come in. He can tell I don't do the comic lifestyle. I feel his dark energy coming at me.