Dead Universe's Late Launch today

Today sees the official launch of Dead Universe Comics in Aylesbury.

Regular readers may recall we mentioned the opening of the shop last year. You may have already seen Aylesbury Dead, Little Terrors and Apes 'n' Capes, plus the Japan Comic Aid books already, but the shop never had a launch as such.

With that in mind they are celebrating today with creator signings, a raffle, tombola, costume parade thousands of comics to give away, thousands of comics all at £1 each, Yu-gi-oh, Magic the Gathering and Pokemon trading card game demos, Roleplaying and board games too -plus preview of the upcoming kids comics and adult anthology titles.

"There might possibly a giant Dead Universe Comics Cake to share amongst us," they say.

The store has a back stock of over 50,000 comics, mainly US, but with a sprinkle of UK comics from the 70's and 80's including annuals. As with othe comic shops, new import comics arrive every week.

- Dead Universe Celebration from 9.00 am today , Friars Square Shopping Centre, Friars Square, HP20 2QF Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

 

Something Old, Something New: Niche Comics, Huntingdon

At a time when high street retail is proving challenging - to say the least - it's good to hear of a new British comic shop opening.

Niche Comics is a shop selling the latest in Comics, Books and games - including miniatures and products for Games Workshop, Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf.

Located at 147 High Street, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, it's run by Adam and Guy Makey, who encourage their customers to browse and share ideas as well as join in the various events.

The shop looks Victorian from the outside but the back is Tudor and plenty of the original building still remains - and the owners spent a lot of time restoring it, as they reveal on their web site.

"Inside the first impression we had was straight walls with a step down to some changing rooms (after all it had been a Boutique)," they say.

"The shop has always had a great welcoming atmosphere and originally we planned to replace the lighting and give it a fresh coat of paint.

But behind the plasterboard (and in some cases two layers of plasterboard) lurked a building that has been around for 500 hundred years. So instead of Victorian, the team discovered many of the arcitectural trappings of a late Middle Ages/early Tudor dwelling.

"Great oak timbers, elm, wattle (thin strips of oak), daub (mud and other stuff...), lime mortar and the occasional nail make up the fabric of the original building," they reveal. "You can still see the joints as they were first made and the care taken to neatly finish the walls.

"So the decision had to be - do we make do and open the shop quickly and leave it to feel like any ordinary shopping experience, or do we renovate it with natural materials and ensure it lasts for another 500 hundred years and is a shop alive in every sense of the word?"

The team decided on the latter and work on restoration proceeded steadily through the whole of last year, with the shop now open for all to view (and buy from, in store and online!)

• Check out the shop online at: www.nichecomics.co.uk 
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/NicheComics 
• Facebook: Niche Comics

Dead Universe Comics shop opens in Aylesbury

(via Scoop)Despite the doom and gloom of the current recession, comics folk continue to invest in the future of our industry. Britain's newest comic shop, Dead Universe Comics, opens today, Saturday, 10th December at 9.00am. The store, which is located at Unit 9, the Cloisters, Friars Square Shopping Centre, HP20 2PU, Aylesbury, already has an inventory of 50,000 back issues, …”mainly US, but with a sprinkle of UK comics from the 1970s and '80s including annuals,” and they carry new import issues every week.

For more information you can email deaduniversecomicsAThotmail.co.uk or phone 07847 542 714 or 07518 694 966. Their website is being developed, but their eBay store has been up and running for quite a while at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Dead-Universe-Comics.

Store hours will be Monday – Saturday, 9.00 am to 5.30 pm, and Sunday from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm.

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

Panel Borders: Buying and Selling comics

Continuing their month long look at comic book shops, radio show Panel Borders has interviews with the proprietors of a couple of venues that are unlike your average comic shop.

Veteran publisher Mike Lake and colleague Colin Strawbridge talk to Dickon Harris about their regular stall selling classic comics at the monthly Royal National Hotel Comic Mart off Russell Square.

Also, in an interview recorded at last week’s Caption festival in Oxford, Alex Fitch talks to comic book creator Pete Renshaw, author of Burke and Hare: The West Port Murders, about the Plan B, the graphic novels and coffee shop that he co-owns in Glasgow.

• Panel Borders: Buying and Selling comics airs at 5.00pm, Thursday 11/08/11, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com