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A whistlestop tour of our Capital's great centre:
Comic Showcase is sort of the universal comic shop. racks of comics, arranged by publisher, then by title (for fuck's sake). All the Marvel/DC/Image/Wildstorm titles, Oni and Dark Horse representing, a few of the more popular indies.
A wall of action figures, back issues downstairs (not great) and two attendants, one big, fat and in charge, one thin, young and biddable - the Patrick Califia-style BDSM relationship of the true comic shop.
Beware the smell of milk.
Also smelling of milk, although as a result of the people there rather than seeming to seep from the very walls, is Forbidden Planet, on New Oxford Street, just past CentrePoint. The huge floorspace of Forbidden Planet and the bustle of activity of the horrible, horrible staff, all of whom look as if they would crumble to dust if you asked them to do something. Perhaps I am being unfair. Anyway, the usual comics, with a special section for English and small press stuff. I say a section, more a shelf, really. Laughably shit back issues selection, because anything with any market value whatsoever has been marked up massively and stuck on the "collectors' wall". Sells lots of things apart from comics - Sci-Fi books, action figures, resin models, videos. A good one-stop shop for the socially excluded.
Gosh, opposite the British Museum, is held up as the comic shop that comics enthusiasts who aren't fatbeards go to. This is actually quite awkward, as it is very difficult ot explain to a man who sincerely believes himself to be a whip-thin hipster that he is blocking a) the aisle and b) out the sun. Better selection of Indie and European, and better for non-superhero graphic novels than either of the others. If you're looking for that strangers in paradise hardcover, this is the place to go.
Finally in the West End, we have Acme Comics, on Denmark Street, conveniently between Charing Cross road and New Oxford street (you can easily walk a line from Comics Showcase in the south to Gosh in the North, taking in the other two - takes about 15 minutes if you don't stop, in which case why the hell are you doing it?). Situated in a basement underneath a musical instrument shop, and owned by a very friendly man who seems to know everybody who has worked in comics ever, Acme resembles nothing so much as the loading bay in Aliens. It has some new comics, but specialises in a huge but random assortment of old comics at 50p a pop. It is very easy to get out of control here. Quite a bit of Vertigo, but what is in store at any given time is unpredicable.
There is also the by now expected jumble of action figures, life-size cardboard cut-outs and, if you swing that way, classic Transformers. Also scores big points for stocking Clive's mini-comic.
[ 01-11-2001: Message edited by: The Lower Haus ]
[ 01-11-2001: Message edited by: The Lower Haus ] |
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