Pete McKinney, the creator of The Hindsight Hut blog (“Never Knowingly Up To Date. Refreshingly Late”) is currently researching a piece about the classic comic book shop in Birmingham, Nostalgia & Comics (now Worlds Apart), and would like to hear from people who have fond memories of using the store and who worked there.
“I am particularly interested in the store’s origin,” Pete says, “and would love to speak with anyone who worked there in its heyday.”
If you think you might be able to help, you can send him a message via The Hindsight Hut Facebook Page or contact him directly by email TheHindsightHutAToutlook.com (replace AT with @)
“I spent much of my youth browsing the shelves and buying comics there,” says Paul, “so if anyone has any stories of memories about Nostalgia & Comics I’d love to read them.”
As Lew Stringer noted in this 2019 “Blimey” article, Nostalgia & Comics was Britain’s earliest comic shop, opened in late 1976, founded by Phil Clarke, who had previously played a huge part in the history of comics fandom by organising Britain’s first comic convention in 1968.
“A major attraction of the original Nostalgia shop was the fact that Phil Clarke used to pick up Marvel comics from a local USAF base that were officially ‘non-distributed’ in the UK,” collector Philip Rushton recalled earlier this year. “As a result it was one of the only places in Britain you could buy reasonably priced copies of the American Star Wars #1 when it came out.”
The original Nostalgia & Comics store was a tiny shop on the corner of Hurst Street in Birmingham, which opened in November 1976. Most downthetubes readers, including me, will probably better remember it at 14/16 Smallbrook Queensway, where Worlds Apart, owned by Forbidden Planet International, is located today.
It was host to a huge number of comic creator signings down the years, including Howard Chaykin, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, Alan Moore, Steve Pugh, Dave Sim, and more: some, sadly, no longer with us, such as Marvel’s Jim Shooter and writer Si Spencer.
Plenty of independent comic creators enjoyed support from N&C, too, which stocked a range of small press titles and ran promotional events.
Down the years, original owner Phil persuaded several comic artists to create promotional art for the store: not just Trevor, but Hunt Emerson, Mike Higgs and Simon Parkes.
The company also ventured into publishing – a venture born of Phil Clarke’s love of comics, but not a very successful enterprise, despite employing then N&C Nottingham staffer Dean Ormston to create covers for the short-lived Wolf Publishing The Phantom line, detailed here by Bob Griffin and Bryan Shedden.
Commando cover artist Simon Pritchard recalled the store fondly back in 2022 on Facebook, paying a visit to a cherished old stomping ground.
“Nostalgia & Comics, now in different hands and renamed Worlds Apart … was a mainstay of my childhood and teenage years before I upped sticks and moved to Norfolk and I miss it dearly, or rather I miss dearly how it was,” he wrote. “But to be honest I was pleasantly surprised and a rush of heartwarming love and affection filled my soul when crossing the same hallowed 70s doorway I’d passed through so many times during the late 1970s and through the 80s. I still proudly own every comic book, horror/sci-fi movie magazine, film book and Star Wars model kit I ever bought or had bought for me during its glory days … God bless Nostalgia & Comics, you saved my sanity yesterday, you always did… happy days.”
Writer Richard Bruton has charted his memories of working at Nostalgia & Comics on his “Fictions” blog, first visiting the store aged 12, graduating from comics customer to comics retailer. He remembers one of the joys of working at there was the wonderful mix of customers, acquaintances and colleagues, “Many of them wonderful, interesting, talented people”.
“I remember vividly the first time I ever set foot in there,” he notes. “14 years old and I’d seen an advert for the place in an old Marvel Mag. The sheer scale of it was incredible, all these comics, all for me!
“Of course, back then, my tastes didn’t extend further than the Marvel heroes I found on the news-stand, Hulk, Spider-Man and later, the X-Men. But Nostalgia had everything I needed.
“I loved my trips to Birmingham to go to the comic shop and would save as much as I could towards each bi-monthly visit.”
Head downthetubes for…
The Hindsight Hut celebrates movies, TV, books and comics from 1950s to the 2000s. “While there is an absolute avalanche of easily accessible modern quality ‘content’ which streams straight onto our screens, there is a mountain of fantastic popular culture from the last seven decades just waiting to be unearthed,” publisher Paul McKinney notes. “The Hut’s mission is to highlight the unheralded, mull over the moderate and re-examine the respected.”
• Richard Bruton: Nostalgia & Comics and Me
Richard charts the history of the store through its glory days, financial perils and eventual sale
• The Phantom: A Publishing History in England by Bob Griffin and Bryan Shedden
• Blimey! Nostalgia & Comics Regenerates by Lew Stringer
• Boys Adventure Comics Blog: Nostalgia & Comics-related posts
For those wondering – why Worlds Apart, when it’s owned by Forbidden Planet International? Well, there are two Forbidden Planet chains, Forbidden Planet, who run stores like London, Coventry, Liverpool (relaunching this weekend) and Newcastle; and Forbidden Planet International, whose stores are largely based in the North of England, the brand sharing agreement, born of separation of FP’s original directors, Mike Lake and Nick Landau, meaning “FP” and “FPI” can have shops in the same town, but only the first opening one there can trade as “Forbidden Planet”. “FPI” uses Worlds Apart as its fallback.
The name change also enables FPI to market Worlds Apart in Liverpool and Birmingham together. “It was decided that WA was a better name than N&C,” Kenny Penman explained on behalf of FPI in 2022. “We wrangled over it for a long time, but ultimately wanted the stronger name to be recognisable outside Birmingham… the Brum shop also has an extensive back issue section missing from most of our stores. Not just a comics store any more – but the comics haven’t gone. The other stuff we sell allows us to continue to offer comics the way we do.”
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Links, Other Worlds
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Although we should of course celebrate that Birmingham still supports its comics, abandoning the fabulously long history of the Nostalgia & Comics name – and all the quirk that conjures – was a sad day I should think for the many thousands of us who still recall N&C in its 1980s heyday. With Andromeda Bookshop now just a fading memory – who can recall now the thrill of first stumbling through its Summer Row doors, a confirmation that as a young SF fan You Were Not Alone – maintaining a continuity with all that Phil achieved would seem to be very alien to FPI.