London Life and the Westminster Comic Marts

by Nigel Brown

© GT-Man, from Wikipedia

[This time around SuperStuff co-editor Nigel Brown takes us back to the days of the late 70s with memories of those great Westminster Comic Marts past -- Baggsey (Ian)]

Portsmouth in the early 1970s was a great place to collect American comics (see the ongoing SuperStuff73 series on ‘Searching for comics in Portsmouth, 1970s style’), but as I wrote back in 1984, in SuperStuff #11, “Of the second-hand shops we haunted, on a recent trip I was only able to find two that possibly had some comics for sale”. Combined with the distribution problems that limited the availability of new comics off the newsstand, by the mid-1970s Portsmouth began to lose its lustre for the enthusiastic comic collector. 

We’d already begun to take the odd school half-term trip up to London to Dark They Were & Golden Eyed in Berwick Street, and to Alan Austin’s ‘Crypt of Comics’ in Clapton, so when it came to decision time, I can’t say that I’d chosen to study in London just because of the accessibility of comics, but I admit it was a major factor!

My choice of London paid off. By late 1978 I was studying close to Angel tube station in Islington (not yet the gentrified area it was to become). I was within an easy walk up Islington High Street and Upper Street to Canonbury Lane, where I would spend many a happy hour hanging out in Alan Austin’s Heroes shop after he opened there in June 1979. In those days he still sold mainly comics.

(As an aside: before Alan Austin moved his business to that location, I used to visit his First Floor Offices in Mare Street, Hackney, on the odd Saturday, where I remember buying a pretty ropey (though intact) Fantastic Four #1, and also us both speculating on the future value of the newly published Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #1. That would place this latter memory in September/October 1976, when I would have been visiting up from Portsmouth. I do recall that the consensus was that this new # 1 Spider-Man issue would never match the highly sought-after comics Amazing Fantasy # 15 and Amazing Spider-Man # 1, and the years have proved us right.)

©Marvel. Spectacular Spider-Man #1

Another regular destination in my student days was Dark They Were & Golden Eyed, by then in St.Anne’s Court, along with the newly opened Forbidden Planet (founded in 1978) in Denmark Street (Paul Hudson’s Comic Showcase in Covent Garden wouldn’t be opening until April 1982). By then, Dark They Were was becoming a shadow of its glory years, suffering under the high shop rent demanded in Soho, and the real excitement was reserved for Forbidden Planet. Not only did Forbidden Planet stock items not seen in Dark They Were, but Forbidden Planet pioneered creator signings that generated big thrills for fans, including a signing that had the fans queuing around the block in June 1979 to meet Neal Adams. 

Other notables that I met at signings were Philip José Farmer in January 1981 and A.E. van Vogt in May 1982. It was also the kind of shop where I recall seeing Stephen King queuing up at the till, and Bob Monkhouse making a noisy visit.

© Unknown. Forbidden Planet, Denmark St , mid-Aug 1980

But the bonus of my new London-based life was the Saturday mart at Westminister’s Methodist Central Hall.

I’ve lost count of the number of comic marts I’ve attended over the years, beginning with the Emsworth comic mart in May 1974 (see SuperStuff73 June 2021: ‘Announcing the publication of Alan Austin’s book…’). I still occasionally make it to the marts held these days at the Royal National Hotel in Bloomsbury, but those Westminster marts in the late 1970s/1980s stick most in my memory.

Located almost opposite Westminster Abbey, and at that time the headquarters of the Methodist Church (who’d raised the money to build it), Westminster Central Hall is a Grade ll listed building built in Edwardian times, at the height of Empire (and it looks it) clad with cream limestone in a baroque style that both reassured and awed in equal measure. The perfect place for a comic mart… comic collecting had finally ‘arrived’!

At the time, I didn’t realise that the Westminster marts were instigated and organised by Nick Landau (Titan Distributers), also one of the names behind Forbidden Planet. Although we can remember attending Westminster Marts as early as February 1975, the marts became a regular event  from November 3rd 1979, with five marts in 1980 and were bimonthly throughout 1981.

Westminster Central Hall is a large venue, but the dealers managed to fill every niche (in both senses of the word!) with over 100 stalls, even up on the stage that looked down upon the palpably enthusiastic crowds. I remember Ken Harman used to have that spot.

(Ken, incidentally, was the dealer with whom I once swapped my Portsmouth-collected run of 1960s and early 1970s Superman titles – Action Comics, Superman, Superboy and some others – for a selection of fine-graded Marvel first appearances, including Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Thor… all now long sold on…)

SuperStuff stalwarts Ian Baker and Geoff Cousins would sometimes make the trip up from Portsmouth for these events; Ross Carter, Portsmouth’s resident Star Trek specialist, would come up on occasion. We would join the anticipatory queue inside the marble foyer and, when the heavy oak doors opened at noon, unhampered by any entry charge, be part of the rush inside towards the treasures within.

Clutching our wants-lists, it wasn’t long before gaps in our collections were being filled as we did creditable impressions of frantic bees searching out pollen amongst fellow swarms of enthusiastic fans.

Particular comics I bought at the Westminster Marts included an Action Comics #28, with its striking Shuster-like Paul Cassidy cover, and its interior Superman art by one of my favourite early Superman artists, Jack Burnley. I also remember buying a copy of Avengers #3 with its classic battle between the Avengers and the Hulk, with the Sub-Mariner in his first cross-over from the Fantastic Four comic. I can’t remember the prices of these comics, but – and it pains me to admit this in these times, whereby the target to get more students into university has resulted in the costs being borne on students’ shoulders – these comics were well affordable from my student grant…

©DC. Action Comics #28. A Westminster Mart acquisition.

© Marvel. Avengers #3. Another Westminster Mart find.

Apart from Ken Harman, I remember other dealers attending included Paul Hudson (from whom I bought the Action Comics #28), and others I recognised from the earlier marts held at Lyndhurst Hall in Kentish Town and at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Old Hall. I remember chatting with Mike Lake, by then one of the founders of Forbidden Planet, as I used to correspond with him when he dealt with comic imports at Dark They Were &  Golden Eyed in their Berwick Street days, back in the mid-1970s.

By then, Alan Austin had stopped being a big player at the marts – he would just have a few boxes of comics on a friend’s table.

Many regular comic fans and dealers became familiar faces in that time, even if we didn’t know their names, but I recall one particular conversation I had with a non-fan: the Yes musician Steve Howe. Someone mentioned that he was there, and – in those days – I wasn’t yet a curmudgeon so I simply went up to him, introduced myself and we had a nice chat. He was friendly, and explained that he was there as his son was a comic fan. I remember giving him sound financial advice: that comics were a good investment! I have no idea if he took me up on that…

After the mart, I would sometimes return to my digs with my fellow Portmuthians to gloat over our newly acquired comics.

Given where this particular memory sets the scene, I know that this must have been after one of the earlier marts at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Old Hall in late 1978, possibly on November 5th; I have this particularly vivid memory of happily inspecting a copy of Amazing Spider-Man # 18 which I’d purchased at the mart that day, notable in that it completed my set of Spider-Man.

The day sometimes ended with a visit to the West End, to see a film at the superior cinematic facilities at the Empire Leicester Square or at the Dominion in Tottenham Court Road. That additional attraction of life in London is another story, to be told elsewhere. Suffice it to say that when I first saw Star Wars (as it was simply known back then) in its first run in early 1978, I saw it at the former Odeon Festing Road in Southsea with Ross Carter. The Millennium Falcon jumped into hyperspace and, at that exact moment, we were left looking at a blank white screen. The film had broken. Needless to say, when I re-watched Star Wars at the Dominion Tottenham Court Road a few weeks later, it was a less hapless performance!

Nowadays, I’m grateful that the marts at the Royal National Hotel still offer the comic mart experience, and in truth the depth and range of comics on offer means that there are still desirable comics to be had, and even the odd bargain on offer. Perhaps not always for comics these days; I recently picked up a near mint copy of the ‘Magpie ABC of Space’ book by Peter Fairley (1969) for just £5.

All marts have been fun, but looking back, the Westminster Marts were magic.

© Nigel Brown