The map and page was last updated on Thursday 13th November 2025 – scroll down the page for the Map, after our “Latest Updates”!
The downthetubes.net British and Irish Comic Shop Map also includes venues that often have comics exhibitions or comics events.
Additional information and updates are always welcome – please use the update form at the bottom of this page. We are often informed when shops open – but not always when they close! So reader feedback is very helpful keeping this map up to date, thank you in advance.
We’ve also included the known locations of sites of comics interest, like statues.
LATEST UPDATES…
Thursday 13th November 2025: Good luck to author Paul Magrs and partner, author and lecturer Jeremy Hoad, who have just opened Panda’s Books and Records in Levenshulme, Manchester. Paul, a novelist who also runs the Fiction Doctor critiquing service, is probably best known as the writer of several novels, short stories and audio dramas relating to Doctor Who, many of which also feature his character Iris Wildthyme. Jeremy wrote the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Blue Angel with Paul, and a contributor to the Fambles anthologies.
They also sell vintage comics, so adding this new enterprise met no resistance from us!
Wednesday 5th November 2025: Untold Comics, which has been operating for over 20 years in Kidderminster, Worcestershire is now on our map. You can follow them on Facebook or Instagram. We’ve also updated comic shops in and around Glasgow, adding Castle Comics, located in East Kilbride (Thanks to Kenneth Copeland).
Monday 3rd November 2025: A further flurry of updates and corrections! Although, bizarrely I was sure I had removed Imagination Station in Carlisle previously, Gary Edgar pointed out it was still on the map. It closed a few years ago when the owner passed away. “A much missed source of abuse and ridicule for favouring British over US comics,” Gary tells us.
Also lost: Comic Den in Oldham and Wow Comix in Stockport (update with thanks to Dan Whitehead) – are the listed stores in Bury and Sale open? Wow Comic and Pop Culture Markets has a Facebook page listing their upcoming comic markets in the area. Collectors Assembled in Leamington Spa and Banbury have also been removed – the shops closed some years ago. (An example of bering told when thengs open, but not their departure… thank you, Sam Morgan and Myles Sullivan).
Closed too is Magma on Clerkenwell Road, London, the location now a cinema (Thanks to “Paul” for this one), but the Magma Flagship Store is still open in Covent Garden, and they also run the Magma Kiosk at Mare Street Market, 2-8 Lewis Cubitt Square, London N1C 4DY.
Some good news: we’ve added Zap! in Mansfield to the map, offering Comics, Cheesecake, Coffee and collectibles. “Thousands of of back issues. too many trading cards to count and a mountain of Pops! Weekly Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments.”
Thanks also to Paul Griggs, for letting us know about Kraken Comics in Bebington, Merseyside. We’ve also added Canary Comics, in Norwich and New Dawn Comics in Rayleigh, Essex, thanks to Mark Burrow, and the secondhand bookshop with a good comic section, Pandora’s Box, in Ossett, thanks to downthetubes contributor Andrew Darlington.
On the Mail Order front, Time Tunnel have a new website at timetunneluk.com (thanks to Karl at Time Tunnel for the update. Run by Karl and Rosalind, it’s ione of the longest running collectable sites.
• Thursday 30th October 2025: Some long and sad tidying up of comic shops now closed in Edinburgh, including Dead Head Comics (reminded by Andrew McManus); adding Amazing Fantasy in Hull, Derby’s Forbidden Planet International store again, noting the move and name change of Cromford Collectors Corner, now trading as simply Collectors Corner, now in Wirksworth, Derbyshire, thanks to Mark Pledger, who also reminds us 2000AD, DC and Marvel artist Liam Sharp has a ‘Made in Derby Star’ on Irongate in Derby, which we’ve added as a “Special Location”. Finally, belated thanks to Tim Hayes for telling us about Mike’s Comics in Bristol, operating in St Nicholas Market!
• Saturday 18th October 2025: With thanks to Adam Spector, we’ve added Comic Box in Romford’s Shopping mall, run by Jason Rutland, specialising in back issues also, and Madhouse UK in Wisbech; and updated details about Strange Apparitions in Spalding, Lincolnshire, which Adam enthuses is “quite possibly the finest comic shop in the country”, run by Alexander Hunt and sells both new comics (US and British) back issues, toys, magazines and a whole lot more.
• Friday 17th October 2025: After finally getting some time to devote to updates, we’ve noted that ComicBookXS, who were based in Portsmouth, has closed but are still operating online (belated thanks to Owen De La Haye, who runs Empire Comics in the city). Also updated Facebook page details for Asylum Books and Games in Aberdeen (with thanks to Greg Kitchin, and gave it a “Comic Retailer Spotlight”); and added Comics & Beyond Ltd, in Eastbourne.
• 5th April 2024: We added Lancaster-based indie comic shop Zine Freak to our Map – check out our Retailer Spotlight for information
If the items that you want are not in stock, Brian will try and find them from the contacts he has all over the UK. (Thanks to Sim Leech for the update and info)
About This Map
The downthetubes British and Irish Comic Shop Map is generated using Google Maps; if we’ve missed a shop, or we’re listing one that has, sadly, gone out of business, please do email us or use the Feedback form at the bottom of this page – and let us know using the form below, and we’ll make a correction as soon as possible. Thank you!
We are aiming to identify comic shops happy to stock small press comics, an addition brought to you thanks to help from Lew Stringer, thanks to a list he began on his Blimey blog in 2016. Those shops known to stock small press titles have grey icons on the Map.
You may also be interested in this map of independent British children’s bookshops compiled by Reading for Pleasure.
Mail Order Companies are also included on the map. Where they do not offer a street address on their web site, we have listed them further down on this page, as a separate item.
Please note, despite the ever-improving accuracy of search engines, it’s worth checking a shop is still open, or its opening times, before you make a trip.
Many downthetubes readers have very kindly updated us about stores closures (all thanked below), but we do sometimes miss the sad news. (Rising rents, the exchange rate affecting comic prices, and customer buying habits moving online have all been regularly cited as reasons for closure or downsizing, with some shops ceasing to sell new comics entirely).
If you want to contact a particular comic shop, you’ll have to follow the links through on the Map. For the most part the locations provide information sourced from Google Maps.
Some shops don’t publish public email addresses but they do have a fill-in form on their site for enquiries – and of course, you can always phone them, too!
Legend
• Blue: Comic Shop
• Red: Shops also known to offer Mail Order Services
• Grey: Shops also known to sell small press comics – information welcome!
• Yellow: Comic-related sites of interest
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• Please do share this map. The short link to the Google Map is http://bit.ly/dtt-uk-comic-shops
• View the downthetubes British and Irish Comic Shops and Exhibitions map on Google Maps
downthetubes Comic Retailer Spotlights…
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Archer’s Comics, Truro
• CLOSED: Atomic Comica Comics, Barrow
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Asylum Books and Games, Aberdeen
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: The Comic Store, Glastonbury
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Crunch Comics, Reading
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Dave’s Comics, Brighton
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Gnash Comics, Ashburton
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: OK Comics, Leeds
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Page 45, Nottingham
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Paradox Comics, Poole
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Red Robot, Barnsley
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: That Comic Shop, Preston
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Travelling Man (Various locations, including Leeds and Manchester)
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Vanguard Comics, Gosport
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Zine Freak, Lancaster
IRELAND
• Comic Retailer Spotlight: Big Bang Comics, Dublin
• Check out our British and Irish Comic Shop Map
Other Book and Comic Shop Maps
• The Reading for Pleasure site has a map of independent British children’s bookshops here
If you see a book you’d like on this useful catalogue site, featuring the stock of some 300-plus UK bookshops, contact the bookseller by email or phone, or order online through UKBookWorld so they can pass your order on to the bookseller concerned. In either case you’ll be buying the book direct from the bookseller listing the item for sale; UKBookWorld.com is not involved in any way in the supply process.
Online Comic Services
In addition to the online businesses listed below, it’s also worth checking the web sites of your local comic shops – or indeed the web sites of any of the comic shops mapped above – as most also provide mail order services.
• Comics and Toys
Web: www.comicsandtoys.co.uk
Online only store operating out of Chester selling comics, actions figures and more
• ComicBookXS, who were based in Portsmouth, are still operating online
• Galactic Comics
Web: galacticcomics.co.uk
Online retailer specialising in pre-orders and weekly releases
• GetMyComics
• Grumpy Wolf Comics
Also on Facebook
Grumpy Wolf Comics stocks high quality collectible comics, for the discerning comic book collector: first appearances, key issues, variant covers, Star Wars books, new series… and just pretty cover art!
Formerly based in a physical shop in Hackney, run by cartoonist David Ziggy Greene, now online
• Sad Lemon Comics
Web: www.sadlemoncomics.com | ebay Store | Facebook
One of the largest suppliers of exclusive variants in the UK, also selling a wide variety of weekly releases through the web site and ebay store, supplying customers worldwide.
• Splat Comics
Web: www.splatcomics.com | Facebook
• The Unreality Store
PO BOX 7922, Wellingborough NN8 9JZ | Facebook | Twitter | Instgram
A UK-based independent comic book store selling over 12,000 comics
Additions, corrections or suggestions about the downthetubes Local Comic Shop Map? Please drop us a line!
We will try and make corrections as soon as possible.
• Please do share this map. The short link to the Google Map is http://bit.ly/dtt-uk-comic-shops
Compiled by John Freeman, Jeremy Briggs and Colin Noble
With thanks to Mike Allwood, Phil Boyce, Mark Burrow, Martyn Chivers, Daniel Clifford, Andrew Darlington, Andy Davidson, Peter Duncan, Kerry Earl, Antony Esmond, Carl Flint, Jason Graham, Paul Griggs, Kev Hopgood, Alex Hunt, Stuart Jenkins, Greg Kitchin, Sim Leech, Andy Luke, Steve Marchant, Rob Marland, Maya Arts, Sam Morgan, Matthew Morley, Leigh Oakley, Joan Ormrod, Kenny Penman, Dan Powell, Martin Proctor, Brian Rawlinson, Mark Roberts, David Robertson, Neil Bhuna Roche, Sean Simmons at Scorch Comics, Robert JE Simpson, Spa Town Comics, Morgan Spiceman, Lew Stringer, Myles Sullivan, Alex Sutton, Mike Teague, John Webster, Dan Whitehead, Andrew Wildman, Alan Woollcombe, WOW Comics – and everyone who has supplied information
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
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.