Forbidden Planet (bookstore)
Forbidden Planet is the trading name of two separate UK-based science fiction, fantasy and horror bookshop chains across the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States, and is named after the 1956 feature film of the same name.
The shops sell, in addition to books, comic books, graphic novels, manga, DVDs, video games, and a wide variety of toys, clothing and other collectible merchandise.
History
Founding
Forbidden Planet London is the name of the cult entertainment Megastore in London, UK, flagship of a national chain that includes Megastores in Bristol and Southampton, other stores throughout the midlands and the south of England, and an online presence. Specialising in movie and television merchandise, the stores retail art toys, comics, collectibles, DVDs, and graphic novels. They also host signings and events with authors, artists and other figures from cult media. Forbidden Planet London was the third major comics store in the city, eventually replacing what had been the leading shop, Derek Stokes's Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed, which had started in 1969, and coming after Frank and Joan Dobson's Weird Fantasy in New Cross. Much of FP's growth came after the demise of Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed, which went out of business in 1981. Forbidden Planet had grown out of the Titan Distributors business of Mike Lake, Nick Landau, and Mike Luckman; Titan itself having grown out of Comic Media Distributors.The first Forbidden Planet began life in 1978 as a small store in Denmark Street. As the scope of the store expanded beyond comics to embrace film and television, a second store was opened just around the corner on St Giles High Street. The store's success led to overcrowding, necessitating a move to much larger premises on New Oxford Street. The original partners, in addition to improving their London store, paired with James Hamilton and Kenny Penman to open other stores. Penman and Hamilton were owners of one of the UK's oldest comics and SF stores, Science Fiction Bookshop, in Edinburgh, which opened around 1975. On 30 September 2003, the London store moved to even bigger premises at the northern end of Shaftesbury Avenue.
Forbidden Planet opened a second Megastore in Clifton Heights in Bristol in 2005, and a third in Southampton in 2007. In 2006 the company launched forbiddenplanet.com, an e-commerce retail site offering a wide range of products and hosting details of the company's many events and signings.
Expansion
The original chain split into two firms, called Forbidden Planet and Forbidden Planet Scotland. Forbidden Planet International grew beyond Scotland to include stores throughout the Midlands, in Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland and majority ownership of two stores in New York City.The first New York store was originally located at 56 East 12th Street and Broadway in Greenwich Village, opening in the early 1980s. There they had one of the most extensive selections in the world of in-print science fiction and fantasy paperbacks, primarily from major genre labels such as Ballantine, Del Rey, Ace, and so on, but also some small press materials. There were also large and small press magazines, some hardbacks, tie-in toys and merchandise, and comics. They occasionally had book signing appearances by famous authors such as Douglas Adams. The location across the street from the Strand Bookstore and less than a mile from Baird Searles' The Science Fiction Shop made the area a mecca for genre fans.
An additional New York store opened in the mid-eighties at 227 East 59th Street in Lenox Hill, with a smaller selection. Rising rent led to its closure in the '90s.
In the 1990s, the primary New York store moved across the street to a significantly smaller space at 840 Broadway and East 13th Street, and the focus became comic books and graphic novels, with a greatly diminished selection of traditional fiction. It operated there until 22 July 2012.
On 24 July 2012 the New York store reopened several doors south at 832 Broadway, where it would enjoy 3,400 square feet of retail space.
FPI also runs a blog featuring comics and SF related news, reviews and interviews with novelists and comics creators and has recently begun podcasting too. As well as the main webstore with a wide range of comics, SF and cult merchandise and graphic novels there are also sites dedicated to new comics and back issues.
In total, between the two groups who trade under the same name, there are currently some 30 stores worldwide.
Like many comics and gaming related stores, Forbidden Planet struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The New York branch launched a GoFundMe to survive due to having to pay high rents in New York City.
Locations
Forbidden Planet
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Cambridge
- Coventry
- Croydon
- Liverpool
- London
- Newcastle Upon Tyne
- Southampton
Forbidden Planet International
- Aberdeen
- Belfast
- Birmingham
- Cardiff
- Dublin
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow
- Hanley, Stoke on Trent
- Leeds
- Leicester
- Liverpool
- Manchester
- Middlesbrough
- New York City
- Nottingham
- Sheffield
- Wolverhampton
- Rome
In popular culture
In comics
- The Denmark Street store appeared in a Captain Britain story that ran in The Daredevils issues No. 3 and No. 4.
- The 1987 comic book The New Mutants Annual No. 3 features a scene in which a global duel between Warlock and Impossible Man ruins the London shop and the car of founder Mike Lake, who is horrified at the damage.
- Landau, Luckman & Lake, a fictional organisation appearing in Marvel Comics, is named for the original three founders.
- The New York store was featured in an issue of The Authority vol. 4, No. 2. When the eponymous superhero team ends up in the real world, they visit Forbidden Planet and discover comic books that feature them.
- In the foreword to the 2015 Artist's Proof Edition of The Walking Dead No. 1, editor Sean Mackiewicz states that he was first drawn to the 2003 debut issue of that series through the artwork of co-creator Tony Moore, when he discovered the issue at the Forbidden Planet store in Manhattan, commenting, "the old one on the corner southeast corner of 13th & Broadway".
In other media
- One of the potential flatmates interviewed in the 1994 feature film Shallow Grave prominently holds a Forbidden Planet carrier bag.
- Forbidden Planet London store employee Jan Waicek was quoted in the May 2000 issue of Maxim magazine, in an article titled, "Hardest of the Hardcore", which examined various items with extreme statistics or traits. Waicek was asked his opinion on who is the "Hardest Superhero", and cited Wolverine's adamantium skeleton and claws, and Superman's near-invulnerability.
- The Forbidden Planet London Megastore was feature in an episode of The Apprentice when the contestants visited the store to try to pitch a board game idea to the store manager.
- In the 2011 fantasy novel , Darquesse crashes through the Dublin store's window and remarks, "A comic store. How fitting."