The very first shop that I ever bought comics from was a bookstore at 201 Corporation Street, in Birmingham, England. A couple of guys that I had met, through an advert that one of them had placed, in a Fanzine called "Thing", led me to it.
"Thing" was produced by Doug Gifford and he had advertised it in the weekly publication, The Exchange & Mart, where I discovered his Ad and ordered a copy from him.
The store was named Japetus, after one of the moons of Saturn, although I am not really sure why. Memory being what it is, I think it was owned and operated by students from Birmingham University but I digress.
Down a flight of stairs, in the basement, was a tiny little space with a counter and a box of NEW American comics! Behind the counter was a tall, skinny, long haired young man name Alan.
This is an example of their "Free for the Taking" checklists. (Please ignore the issues of Tales to Astonish that I once to owned, they left my hands more than 40 years ago.)
I bought the issues of Frank Brunner's Doctor Strange, appearing in Marvel Premiere, where the character meets God, from him. From the date of publication for those issues, that would have been in late 1973 or early 1974.
I may have met Alan before this, once again, after all this time my memory is hazy. There was a secondhand bookshop in Digbeth, by the Birmingham Intercity Coach Station and I used to buy a lot of old Marvel Comics from them, between 1971 and 1973. I think Alan may have been one of the many young men who worked there and who once asked me why I never bought any DC comics.
Another digression, the secondhand bookshop was owned by the same man who owned "Cyclops Sounds", a record store located in a row of shops, that may have been the Piccadilly Arcade. Someone had painted a poor copy, of a Neal Adams drawing, of Cyclops of the X-Men, with his eye-beams blasting, as the store's banner.
On the very same day, I also visited the newly opened Andromeda Bookshop on Summer Row and made a subscription order, for several titles, with Rog Peyton, the owner. Imported comics, that, to my everlasting shame, I never did return to buy!
Rog, being the wonderful man that he was, (and I hope, still is) didn't allow that fact to interfere with my becoming a regular customer; a year or so later. Thank you, Sir!
