Forbidden Planet London

[1koko]

You were about 100 yards from a great comic shop with loads of back issues!!

Cant remember the name of it but its onto the big crossroads at Tottenham Court Road - walk past the big fountain and its the 2nd shop on the left downstairs.

 

Bah! I should do my homework next time!

 

 

Orbital comics?

 

low to mid grade comics no high grade and silver age to modern only.

 

 

You were also near Comicana (John Skoulides's old shop)

 

 

 

[COI]

Well, they're doing what they need to do to survive in a dying business.

[EwanUK]

London - start at GOSH near the British Museum, down to COMICANA near the brolly shop, down the avenue to FORBIDDEN PLANET, up & across to ORBITAL, and down again to COMIC SHOWCASE - the sign's still there but it now sells leather goods....

 

A walk I've done many a time. Even better just after a mart up past Russel Square.

 

 

As a teenager I used to go to Odyssey 7 in Manchester and Odyssey in Leeds (Harrison Street). Great comic shops.

 

Great memory of meeting Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons on the 1987 Watchmen signing tour in Leeds.

 

Dave Sim also signed there but it was on a school night....

[He11blazer]

London - start at GOSH near the British Museum, down to COMICANA near the brolly shop, down the avenue to FORBIDDEN PLANET, up & across to ORBITAL, and down again to COMIC SHOWCASE - the sign's still there but it now sells leather goods....

 

A walk I've done many a time. Even better just after a mart up past Russel Square.

 

 

As a teenager I used to go to Odyssey 7 in Manchester and Odyssey in Leeds (Harrison Street). Great comic shops.

 

Great memory of meeting Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons on the 1987 Watchmen signing tour in Leeds.

 

Dave Sim also signed there but it was on a school night....

 

Excellent, thanks! I'll make a note of that route for next time!

[songsaboutclouds]

London - start at GOSH near the British Museum, down to COMICANA near the brolly shop, down the avenue to FORBIDDEN PLANET, up & across to ORBITAL, and down again to COMIC SHOWCASE - the sign's still there but it now sells leather goods....

 

A walk I've done many a time. Even better just after a mart up past Russel Square.

 

 

As a teenager I used to go to Odyssey 7 in Manchester and Odyssey in Leeds (Harrison Street). Great comic shops.

 

Great memory of meeting Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons on the 1987 Watchmen signing tour in Leeds.

 

Dave Sim also signed there but it was on a school night....

 

ah!! Odyssey Leeds :-)

Back before Forbidden Planet bought them out :-(

Fell in love with the girl who ran it for a while, forgot to mention this to her tho

[EwanUK]

London - start at GOSH near the British Museum, down to COMICANA near the brolly shop, down the avenue to FORBIDDEN PLANET, up & across to ORBITAL, and down again to COMIC SHOWCASE - the sign's still there but it now sells leather goods....

 

A walk I've done many a time. Even better just after a mart up past Russel Square.

 

 

As a teenager I used to go to Odyssey 7 in Manchester and Odyssey in Leeds (Harrison Street). Great comic shops.

 

Great memory of meeting Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons on the 1987 Watchmen signing tour in Leeds.

 

Dave Sim also signed there but it was on a school night....

 

ah!! Odyssey Leeds :-)

Back before Forbidden Planet bought them out :-(

Fell in love with the girl who ran it for a while, forgot to mention this to her tho

 

It opened in November 1986 and I was there, aged 14 on that very 1st day. I remember X-Factor no.1 being the super hot book.

 

Remember buying DK1, Watchmen 1, Miracleman's... ahh those Copper-Age memories... The guy running it was called Davod.

 

Prior to this, Leeeds had two comic shops - Skyrack books in the Merrion Centre which had been there for about 100 years- and one that was also a really dodgy porno shop. My mum never approved. I recall buying brown-stained 2000ADs smelling of cig smoke...

 

[Comicopolis]

All my early comics (mid 70's) were bought off spinny racks in newsagents, an outdoor market in Middlesbrough (along with packs of football cards that contained pink chewing gum!) a great indoor market in Stockton and a couple of local 'bookshops' that were just excuses to stock second hand porn mags!

[cheekyj2112]

You were about 100 yards from a great comic shop with loads of back issues!!

Cant remember the name of it but its onto the big crossroads at Tottenham Court Road - walk past the big fountain and its the 2nd shop on the left downstairs.

 

Bah! I should do my homework next time!

 

Yep! (thumbs u

 

The shop referred to above was Orbital on Charing Cross Road but has now moved a bit away to Gt Newport St.

 

I used to visit most of the London shops in the 80's and had as little to do with FP as I possibly could. It was largely manned by goth wannabes who didn't really seem to be all that interested in the notion of customers. Gosh and Comic Showcase (sadly no more) were started by ex-FP staff and couldn't be more different. They were pretty friendly and helpful and in fact I'm still friends with a lot of the staff I met then. They'd often put aside comics and books they thought I'd be interested in and as a result I felt a definite loyalty to them.

 

FP is pretty well a supermarket, especially the new shop which is large, reasonably well lit and pretty good if you know exactly what you're looking for.

What I will always remember it for though is seeing the Killing Joke pages displayed for sale

 

These days when I remember I still go to Gosh which can be a little packed but is extremely well stocked; the basement is devoted to less mainstream books and trade such as Fantagraphics and strip collections. I tend to take foreign visitors, pros and fans, and most tend to be v impressed with Gosh.

 

There's also another shop that still does back issues - Comicana on Shaftesbury Ave. (all the shops are in a v walkable triangle)

Most retailers I spoke to are getting out of back issues because it doesn't warrant the space; trade collections have pretty much killed it.

 

Cheers

Joseph

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=9492

 

[Boozad]

Arrival Comics in Wolverhampton and Bridge Street Comics in Walsall, man I miss those comics shops. And to go to Nostalgia in Birmingham was like Mecca, until i went a few months ago and it had become a susidiary of FP and is now as krap as any other FP store.

 

The Midlands is mess for comic shops.

[taro90]

WHERE ARE THE COMICS?

 

I searched both floors. All I found was a wall of new releases and a few 'hot' modern variants stuck behind the counter. NO LONGBOXES!

 

What a waste of time

 

Same thing happened with the NYC stores. Back in 80's, the two Forbidden Planet stores in NYC had a ton of back issues. I brought some SA Marvels and DC from them. And my first pre-code horror EC comic was brought from them. They also had an ad running in the Overstreet for a couple of years during that time. Now there's only one store left, it's all toys, new books and video games. YES, VIDEO GAMES........

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Man, I'd walk into a store like that and pretty much turn around and head back out.

 

"Comic book" stores like that make me sad for the future of this hobby....

 

*sigh*

[Boozad]

Now there's only one store left, it's all toys, new books and video games. YES, VIDEO GAMES........

 

Our Wolverhampton Forbidden Planet is exactly the same, only with thousands of wrestling action figures. It's meant to be a *spooning* comic book shop!

 

[gaz973]

Most retailers I spoke to are getting out of back issues because it doesn't warrant the space; trade collections have pretty much killed it.

 

I think availability of back issue's on the net has had a bigger impact than the trades.

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Most retailers I spoke to are getting out of back issues because it doesn't warrant the space; trade collections have pretty much killed it.

 

I think availability of back issue's on the net has had a bigger impact than the trades.

 

And I think most store owners don't price the back issues appropriately. As a result these overpriced books sit there and the owners say things like:"back issues don't sell."

 

I believe they sell rather well, but must be priced according to current market values. Then again, doing that requires having a finger on the pulse and that requires time and work, which is where the "it's not worth it" comes into play....

[gaz973]

Most retailers I spoke to are getting out of back issues because it doesn't warrant the space; trade collections have pretty much killed it.

 

I think availability of back issue's on the net has had a bigger impact than the trades.

 

And I think most store owners don't price the back issues appropriately. As a result these overpriced books sit there and the owners say things like:"back issues don't sell."

 

I believe they sell rather well, but must be priced according to current market values. Then again, doing that requires having a finger on the pulse and that requires time and work, which is where the "it's not worth it" comes into play....

 

I agree. (thumbs u

[Comicopolis]

Most retailers I spoke to are getting out of back issues because it doesn't warrant the space; trade collections have pretty much killed it.

 

I think availability of back issue's on the net has had a bigger impact than the trades.

 

And I think most store owners don't price the back issues appropriately. As a result these overpriced books sit there and the owners say things like:"back issues don't sell."

 

I believe they sell rather well, but must be priced according to current market values. Then again, doing that requires having a finger on the pulse and that requires time and work, which is where the "it's not worth it" comes into play....

 

I agree. (thumbs u

 

I concur

[gaz973]

Most retailers I spoke to are getting out of back issues because it doesn't warrant the space; trade collections have pretty much killed it.

 

I think availability of back issue's on the net has had a bigger impact than the trades.

 

And I think most store owners don't price the back issues appropriately. As a result these overpriced books sit there and the owners say things like:"back issues don't sell."

 

I believe they sell rather well, but must be priced according to current market values. Then again, doing that requires having a finger on the pulse and that requires time and work, which is where the "it's not worth it" comes into play....

 

I agree. (thumbs u

 

I concur

 

You go out last night?

[Comicopolis]

Most retailers I spoke to are getting out of back issues because it doesn't warrant the space; trade collections have pretty much killed it.

 

I think availability of back issue's on the net has had a bigger impact than the trades.

 

And I think most store owners don't price the back issues appropriately. As a result these overpriced books sit there and the owners say things like:"back issues don't sell."

 

I believe they sell rather well, but must be priced according to current market values. Then again, doing that requires having a finger on the pulse and that requires time and work, which is where the "it's not worth it" comes into play....

 

I agree. (thumbs u

 

I concur

 

You go out last night?

 

Actually I did - how did you guess?

[gaz973]

Most retailers I spoke to are getting out of back issues because it doesn't warrant the space; trade collections have pretty much killed it.

 

I think availability of back issue's on the net has had a bigger impact than the trades.

 

And I think most store owners don't price the back issues appropriately. As a result these overpriced books sit there and the owners say things like:"back issues don't sell."

 

I believe they sell rather well, but must be priced according to current market values. Then again, doing that requires having a finger on the pulse and that requires time and work, which is where the "it's not worth it" comes into play....

 

I agree. (thumbs u

 

I concur

 

You go out last night?

 

Actually I did - how did you guess?

 

Elementary, Comicopolis.

[Comicopolis]

Spent most of the day recovering