Dark They Were And Golden Eyed

One more trip into Dark They Were And Golden Eyed.

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I wasn’t expecting to delve back into London comic book shops this quickly but this rare find just recently turned up on ebay in Canada of all places. It’s a very early promo flyer for when Dark They Were And Golden Eyed was in it’s first location at 28 Bedforbury, Covent Garden, London, WC2. It must be from the early 1970s as it’s the original location, plus the artwork itself is signed and dated: David Edward Britton 20/11/69.

They text is so good “At last a SCIENCE FICTION bookshop! P.S. We also sell fantasy and horror”

This is currently up for auction on ebay via a seller in Canada, find the auction here.

Dark They Were And Golden Eyed

Starburst – Dark They Were And Golden Eyed

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Next up from our Starburst raid are these classic adverts for London’s first comic book shop – Dark They Were And Golden Eyed. Another great London store that I wish I could have paid a visit to, but sadly according to the Wiki page it actually closed down in 1981.

Dark They Were And Golden Eyed – 9-12 St. Anne’s Court, London, W1

Starburst Issue 1 – 1978Dark They Were SB1 1978

Starburst Issue 3 – 1978Dark They Were SB3 1978

Starburst Issue 5 – 1978Dark They Were SB5 1978

London Comic Book Stores – RPG Action!

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Next up in our trip through the White Dwarf shop adverts we take a look at the few comic book shop ads that we came across in the first 100 issues.

Dark They Were And Golden Eyed – 9-12 St. Anne’s Court, London, W1

White Dwarf 2 – August / September 1977 – Back CoverDark They Were And Golden Eyed WD2 Aug Sep 1977 Back Cover

First up is this one off advert for London’s first comic book store: Dark They Were And Golden Eyed, which appeared on the back cover of the second issue of White Dwarf back in 1977. This is a much more trippy and 1970s style design than their later adverts would evolve into, it’s on a real one off and I’ve never seen this one before. The list of what they stock is also much wider, making it sound more like a counter culture store, which it probably was at the time. I never got to visit this store, but I’ve always been fascinated by it as it was the first of it’s kind in London.

Forbidden Planet – 23 Denmark Street, London, WC2H 8NA

White Dwarf 52, April 1984Forbidden Planet WD 52 April 1984

This sleek and simplistic advert for Forbidden Planet appear for a few issues in 1984 and highlighted the stores range of role playing games at the time, as well as comics, books, film merchandise and more.

White Dwarf 21 October November 1980Forbidden Planet WD21 Oct Nov 1980

This earlier Forbidden Planet advert from 1980 highlighted one of the problems with the adverts, so many of them were just huge block of tiny text, I guess the idea was to let people know what each store actually had available, but it makes for an almost impenetrable to look at. This one for the store only appeared in the magazine once.

Coming up tomorrow Role Playing Games go mainstream!