Comic Book Store Since 1978, Open Sundays: Forbidden Planet

Forbidden Planet's London Megastore stands at 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JR, at the northern end of the avenue a few minutes from Tottenham Court Road station. It opens Monday to Saturday from 10am to 7pm and on Sunday from 12pm to 6pm. The business started in 1978 as a small shop on nearby Denmark Street, and this is still the biggest comic book store in central London, with weekly comics, manga, games and collectibles under one roof.

Mike Lake, Nick Landau and Mike Luckman founded Forbidden Planet, named after the 1956 science fiction film, and opened the first shop on Denmark Street in 1978. The story most fans repeat comes from 1979, when Douglas Adams arrived to sign the first Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book and saw a queue so long that he assumed a demonstration was going on nearby. Stan Lee, Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore also passed through the early shop.

As the range spread from comics into film and television, the owners opened a second shop around the corner on St Giles High Street, then moved into larger premises on New Oxford Street. The present megastore opened in October 2003. The company's own announcement from that month described 10,000 square feet of floor space, over a mile of shelving and some 25,000 products, and listed the stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen among the guests at the launch party.

Above the basement, the catalogue's biggest departments are toys and collectibles, Pop! Vinyl figures, statues and busts, Hot Toys, clothing, posters and mugs. Gosh! Comics co-owner Andrew Salmond, describing London's comic shops in 2020, called Forbidden Planet the megastore with 'mountains of merch and a basement filled with comics, games, sci-fi novels and so on'. That sums up the layout well. If you are here for reading rather than shopping for gifts, head straight for the stairs.

Downstairs is where the comics live. The new weekly issues from Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, IDW and Boom! Studios fill long wall racks, with graphic novels, manga and science fiction and fantasy paperbacks filling the middle of the floor. The store's online catalogue lists the weekly release by its Wednesday date, for example the 7 October 2026 list, which is the best guide to when fresh stock hits the racks. Manga is grouped by genre, from shonen and seinen to shojo, romance and isekai, plus light novels.

Games take up their own corner, with board games, role-playing rulebooks and collectible card games. The gaming section of the catalogue is led by Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, Dungeons and Dragons and Yu-Gi-Oh! The book side is broader than many visitors expect. Besides science fiction, fantasy and horror novels, the shop stocks film and television books, art and design titles, signed books and the sprayed-edge special editions that sell out quickly online.

Regular readers use the subscription service rather than chasing issues on the racks. You set up a pull list online for titles from publishers including Marvel, DC, Image, Titan and VIZ, and the store holds your issues. In autumn 2026 the most-subscribed series on the site included Absolute Batman, Batman and Ultimate Spider-Man, which tells you which books are most likely to vanish from the shelves on Wednesday. A pull list is the reliable way to get a cover variant or an exclusive edition.

Signings are a big part of the calendar. On 3 October 2026 the megastore hosted a 2pm signing for the Day of Dredd, the annual celebration of 2000 AD's Judge Dredd, with Rob Williams and Liam Sharp both announcing appearances. The site also runs standing promotions, which in October 2026 included five graphic novels for £10 and five paperback books for £5 in its sale section. Those deals are aimed at older stock, so they are better for filling gaps than for this week's releases.

Sunday is the trap for first-timers, because the doors open at noon rather than 10am and close at 6pm. On a weekday morning just after 10am the basement is calm enough to read spines properly. Event afternoons are another story. A signing can fill the shop with a queue that runs up the stairs, so if you only want a quiet browse, look at the events page and pick a day with nothing scheduled. Weekday evenings after work are the other busy window, when regulars drop in for the Wednesday books.

Skip Forbidden Planet if you want a calm, curated table of literary graphic novels. That is Gosh! Comics' strength, on Berwick Street in Soho, about a 12-minute walk west. The two shops are complementary rather than rivals, and many London readers visit both on the same afternoon: one for the latest Marvel crossover, a Funko figure or a booster pack, the other for a translated European album or a small-press one-shot. Forbidden Planet also runs a second London store in Camden if you are north of the centre.

The catalogue explains who the shop serves. Card players come for Pokémon, Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards. Fans of long-running franchises come for Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek and Harry Potter ranges, and cosplayers can find costumes, masks, props and replicas in the clothing and collectibles sections. Readers who collect variant covers lean on the store's own exclusives and variants list, which is published online, so it is worth knowing which edition you want before you reach the till.

History makes the best walk from here. Denmark Street, where the first Forbidden Planet opened in 1978, is about two minutes south across St Giles High Street and is still known for its guitar and music shops. The church of St Giles in the Fields stands at its eastern end. From there it is a short stroll down to Seven Dials, where seven streets meet at a single sundial pillar, and on into Covent Garden for food and street performers.

If you came for comics, finish at Gosh! Comics in Soho by walking west along Oxford Street or through Soho Square. If you came for games, the board and card game aisles here are the biggest in the area, so stock up before you leave. Tottenham Court Road station, served by the Central, Northern and Elizabeth lines, is the easiest way out, and its Elizabeth line entrances make it quick to reach Paddington or the City with your bags.

Address: Forbidden Planet London Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JR. Hours: Monday to Saturday 10am to 7pm, Sunday 12pm to 6pm, as published on the store page at forbiddenplanet.com. New weekly comics are listed by their Wednesday release date. Comic subscriptions, signed books and event tickets are handled through the website. The nearest station is Tottenham Court Road on the Central, Northern and Elizabeth lines, a few minutes on foot.