Panel Borders: The Shop around the Corner

Continuing radio show Panel Borders month of shows looking at comic book shops, Alex Fitch talks to the former proprietors of comic shops that existed in the 1980s and 90s and have left lasting impression on their fans.

Dark Horizons opened in the back of Terri Hooley’s cult record shop Good Vibrations, Belfast in 1985 before graduating into a shop in its own right; in its first incarnation, the store was co-owned by John McCrea who has gone on to become a popular comic book artist on such titles as Troubled Souls,Hitman and Herogasm, written by Garth Ennis.

At much the same time in Richmond, Jon Browne opened They Walk Among Us, a store he co-owned for 22 years which found fame as the comic shop featured on TV in Spaced and in the most recent series of Red Dwarf.

Alex talks to John and Jon about their memories of running comic shops, the vagueries of stocking popular titles and how one shop burned down and the other became absorbed into a chain in the 2000s.

• Panel Borders: The shop around the corner airs at 5.00pm, Thursday 18/08/11, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com