Oh yes my imaginary chums - MORE! MWAHAHAHA!
Lifted from the calcifying pages of the July 1988 issue of Speakeasy, here's a nice selection of ads for London comic shops of the time...
DEAD
? Quality Comics were the publishers of Warrior. Apparently they also had their own shop. Anyone know what happened to it? Perhaps it still exists. My nose starts bleeding when I go south of the river so I don't know.
ALIVE. Looks exactly the same today as it did then.
ALIVE. This ad is great - Gosh about to go LARGE!
ALIVE. Although, of course, FP has moved again since 1988. This is another great ad marking the merging of Forbidden Planet's two shops, and the sad death of the historic Denmark Street property
? Is this the site of the Murder One bookshop or the place which Comic Showcase moved to before turning up its toes? Maybe it still exists as a bookshop. I dunno do I?! Cany you believe the opening hours? Open til 9pm, even on a fucking Sunday!
DEAD. Ah, now, this shop holds a special place in the hearts of many an ageing comic collector. Never went there myself, but I remember the ad. Funny.
DEAD (I presume). Never heard of it.
My dad lives aht East, so I'll have to check this gaff out next time I'm in that neck of the woods
6 comments:
Fantasy Inn - Used to be on the same side of the road as Foyles - bit further down, but I can't recall if it was before the crossroads with Shaftesbury Avenue or further down.
Anyway, it was two shops in one. Book Inn / Fantasy Inn, and I seem to recall it burning down in suspicious circumstances.
I remember some these ads from back in the day although I can only really remember going to Gosh, FB, Comic Showcase and Virgin. I also used to get comics from a really good stall on Walthamstow market.
Thanks for the nostalgia trip. I remember the Comic Showcase and Fantastic Store adverts with great fondness (I went out of my way to go to the Fantastic Store just because of the ad). And, thanks to you, I now know the name of the shop out in Leytonstone I once visited but couldn't recall - you've helped an old man fill in a gap in his memories.
(You can see my series of posts about comic books shops for some of the ones you mention here.)
Thanks for the extra info Steve. Great stuff!
Bruce - it was great when you could do stuff like that. I used to get packs of comics from a market stall in Camden occasionally.
David - Glad to help! Thanks for taking the time to read.
Comic Shack closed down a year or two ago - I moved to Leytonstone 7 years ago and was VERY excited to see it, as I remembered seeing all the ads for it in those old comics. Going inside was a very different story - I asked if they had the latest Promethea (which was out then), the "character" who ran the shop looked at me as if I'd asked him to shit in my hand, spat "never heard of it" and refused to speak to me any further. I go to Gosh now!
Fantasy Inn was opposite the Garrick Theatre. I worked there for a couple of years, very sorry to see it burned down. Heard some interesting stories about the (alleged) cause from some of my former colleagues!
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