Panel Borders: The shop around the corner

August 18, 2011 — Selling comics

Panel Borders:

The shop around the corner

Image from Hitman by John McCrea / They Walk Among Us, Richmond, photo by Rich Johnston

Continuing our month of shows looking at comic book shops, Alex Fitch talks to the former proprietors of comic shops that existed in the 80s 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 went 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.

For more info and a variety of formats you can stream or listen to this podcast in, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.org

Links: Article about the closure of They Walk Among Us in The Twickenham Times
Jon’s ebay shop

Article on John McCrea leaving Marvel UK
Info about Dark Horizons on Irish Comics Wiki

Recommended events:

Comics and Conflicts festival , Imperial War Museum

…will be held on 19-20 August, 2011 at the Imperial War Museum in London, and is aimed at comics scholars, practitioners, and enthusiasts. Conference speakers and guests include: Pat Mills (Charley’s War); Martin Barker and Roger Sabin on Doonesbury; Garth Ennis (Troubled Souls, War Stories) and Francesca Cassavetti(Fabtoons).

On Friday 19th, there is an academic conference, in which University students and writers will be presenting papers on the subject of War Comics throughout the day, followed by a talk by Charley’s War author Pat Mills. There are tickets available for the conference which includes the talk by Pat Mills, or the talk is available as a separate ticket.

On Saturday 20th, there are talks, panels and workshops by small press creators and international authors, including a hour long discussion with Garth Ennis on stage in his first UK appearance at a comics festival in many years.

All Saturday events are £6 / the final event of the weekend, The Comics go to War film screening is FREE!

Imperial War Museum,
Lambeth Road,
London SE1 6HZ

Nearest tube: Lambeth North (Bakerloo) / Elephant and Castle (Northern line, City Branch) / Southwark (Jubilee)

Book tickets at http://wartime.iwm.org.uk

The Comics and Conflicts events form part of a Children’s literature festival being held from 13-21 August 2011, which accompanies the Imperial War Museum’s new exhibition Once Upon A Wartime: Classic War Stories for Children.  For more information about the exhibition and the festival visit the Imperial War Museum web site.

Full listing of events at www.panelborders.com/events

New Comic Internship at londonprintstudio for 21-25 Year Olds

Do you enjoy telling tall tales or scribbling stories? Do you love reading graphic novels, comics or picture books? Then look no further!

londonprintstudio is offering five carefully chosen 21-25 year olds the chance to…

-Run comic workshops for 16-20 year olds.
-Receive mentoring from top professional comic artists, anthology makers, screenwriters, print makers, comic publishers and art educators.
-Develop your own artistic comic projects with supervision from mentors and feedback from your fellow interns..
-Be introduced to the London comic scene, attend events, give presentations, network and meet publishers, editors and creators in the comic industry.
-Take part in editing, planning and creating work for a comic anthology publication and a comic exhibition at londonprintstudio.

The course is run by professional comic creator Karrie Fransman whose comics have appeared in The Times, The Guardian and who is currently working on her first graphic novel due to be published by Random House.

2 days (14 hours) per week for a six-months. Interns will receive a travel and food expenses budget for two days per week. All londonprintstudio staff and volunteers are required to have a Criminal Records Bureau Check.

Deadline for return of application form: Monday 5th September 2011
Interviews: Tuesday 13th September 2011
Start date: Tuesday 20th September 2011

For job description and application click here: http://www.londonprintstudio.org.uk/F13-intern.html
For more information on the project click here: http://www.londonprintstudiocomics.blogspot.com/