British comic shops trade on despite riot damage

Forbidden Planet Manchester - shop window damaged in riots but still open

Comic shops in Manchester, Birmingham and other cities are open for business as usual, despite coming under attack from looters over the past few days during Britain's riots.

Nostalgia and Comics - owned by Forbidden Planet International - and Forbidden Planet Manchester both came under attack, as did Place in Space in Croydon last weekend.





In Birmingham, looters were back on the streets last night. Richer Sounds, the electrical store next door to N&C was badly hit earlier in the week, the thieves recorded on video (above).

Customers of Richer Sounds - which is open for trading - were out in force to help staff clean up after the attacks. "We’re still evaluating the stock situation but the main point is that our colleagues are all safe and well," a spokesperson said on Twitter. "It’s reassuring that there are still plenty of decent people out there!"

Place in Space, Croydon - a popular store with its fans - escaped the worst of the rioting there but Bleeding Cool reports it would welcome business.

"After the rioting and fires in our area we have now regained access to our premises and will be working hard to get the shop open as soon as possible," say the staff. "The police cannot advise definitively when this will be but we hope it will be by the weekend. Additionally, we anticipate listing this weeks comics up on our Ebay Store, by Thursday.

"Outstanding orders, new orders and emails will be processed as soon as we can, but we desperately need the extreme understanding and patience from our customers – these circumstances are unprecedented and we are doing everything we can to resume business and regain a sense of normality as soon as possible.

"Our London Store is continuing to operate as normal.

"Please continue to support us  - it's a devastating time for us and our community... we need your support and continued business."

Forbidden Planet Croydon - owned by the Titan Entertainment Group - also escaped the devastation, as did Travelling Man in Manchester. "Manchester is unscathed," said Haroon, one of its staff via Twitter, "but a lot of damage in our area. "[The] Council have done a great job tidying!" The shop was offering brews to clean up squads this morning.

Forbidden Planet International's Joe Gordon tells us that he'd received numerous messages from Manchester comics folks outraged about the attack on the store, some posting goodwill message on the shop's Facebook page.

"It was shock news but also touching in a way," he says. "So many folks asked after the state of the store and the safety of the staff.

"I spoke to them on the phone this morning and they were much cheered by the news of how many local comics folks were worried about them - nice to have friends.

"The good news is that like the Nostalgia & Comics store the day before [the looters] damaged the windows but didn't get into the store and staff weren't there so they are all thankfully unharmed."

The chain's Wolverhampton store reports both staff and shop are fine despite overnight riots there.

"I checked with our Wolverhampton lot too as there was trouble there last night," Joe says. "They escaped it but some retailers near them not so lucky, although volunteers are already gathered and cleaning up the mess there.

"We're all open for business, it's New Comics Day and we'll be selling those comics if we have to stand there with a full load of hi-ex in our lawgivers!"

• Full news story: http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2011/open-for-business/

• Nostalgia & Comics on Twitter

Tube Surfing: 2000 AD, Posy Simmonds, Radio 4 and comics events too!

To celebrate the release of Prog 1700 of 2000AD, fan Jason Garrattley is posting '...a week of rare bits and pieces from the archives (well, some old fanzines from the loft) from some of the cornerstone creators of the magazines' early years...' over at his blog.

He's started with (excellent) posts on Brian Bolland and Ian Gibson.

• Speaking of 2000AD, over at the Forbidden Planet International blog Joe Gordon has posted an insightful article about the early Judge Dredd strips.

• Meanwhile, Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool makes us aware of the second season of Pilgrim on Radio 4. He says that the series is the closest thing to Hellblazer you'll get on the radio...

• Acclaimed artist Declan Shalvey (who's currently working on Marvel's Thunderbolts) will be signing at Forbidden Planet International in Dublin on September 16th.

• Paul Gravett is chatting to comics legend Trina Robbins in London on September 21st:

For the first time, Comica Festival and Laydeez Do Comics are thrilled to be teaming up to invite to London the important comic artist and writer, from the seminal underground comix of the Seventies to such icons as Wonder Woman, Barbie, Powerpuff Girls and her own GoGirl!, lecturer, curator and America’s foremost comics ‘herstorian’, Trina Robbins. She is coming over to present a paper at the academic conference Motherhoods, Markets and Consumption at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford on Monday 13 September and has kindly agreed to visit London for this special extra event on Tuesday 21 September.


• Hey, the Guardian interviewed cartoonist Posy Simmonds on Saturday.

Here's a brief excerpt:

She says the current state of newspaper illustration is encouraging in that "there is more of it, because papers are bigger and reproduction is so much better". But she worries that computer generated work is becoming "samey", and about the decline of political cartoons. "It is very sad, although the great Steve Bell and a few others are notable exceptions. But maybe it's a sign of the times. How interested are people in politics? Are they getting their satire on jokey emails?"

Anyway, that's all for now, folks. See you at my next Tube Surf!