Starburst – Forbidden Planet Adverts – Part 1

11/05/2020alxkdd

Back to the Starburst adverts and of course the most prominent store that featured in the magazine was the much loved Forbidden Planet. The original store was located at 23 Denmark Street, London, WC2 and hosted many signings, events, launches and much more, here’s our look at the first batch of ads:

Starburst issue 4 – 1978 – The original and classic Forbidden Planet artwork by Brian Bolland.

01 Forbidden Planet SB4 1978

Starburst issue 9 – 1979 – Neil Adams signing of The New Heroes.

02 Forbidden Planet Neil Adams SB9 1979

Starburst issue 11 – 1979

03 Forbidden Planet SB11 1979

Starburst issue 14 – 1979

04 Forbidden Planet SB14 1979

Starburst issue 17 – 1979 – Get your Alien USCSS Nostromo crew hat now!

05 Forbidden Planet Alien SB17 1980

Starburst issue 22 – 1980 – The Empire Strikes Back signing.

Starburst issue 23 – 1980 – Comic’s legend Will Eisner signing.

07 Forbidden Planet Will Eisner SB23 1980

Starburst issue 25 – 1980 – Judge Dredd 2000AD Annual signing

08 Forbidden Planet Judge Dredd SB25 1980

Starburst issue 26 – 1980 – Brian Bolland 2000AD Judge Dredd posters.

09 Forbidden Planet Judge Dredd SB26 1980

Starburst issue 28 – 1980 – Berni Wrightson signing event.

10 Forbidden Planet Mutants SB28 1980

Part 2 is coming tomorrow!

Starburst – Dark They Were And Golden Eyed

05/05/2020alxkdd

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 – 1978 Dark They Were SB1 1978

Starburst Issue 3 – 1978 Dark They Were SB3 1978

Starburst Issue 5 – 1978 Dark They Were SB5 1978

Starburst Magazine – Blade Runner

04/05/2020alxkdd

Welcome to our overview of Starburst magazine issues 1-87, which covers the years 1978 – 1985. After going through the first 100 issues of White Dwarf I was wondering where else I could find similar comic book shops and film adverts, so Starburst was the next logical step. I found these on Archive, the scans are slightly odd, the pictures don’t look great but the text is very readable though and I made some great finds going through these back issues, starting with:

Starburst – free Blade Runner preview screening in 1982.

There’s an interesting coincidence here, just a month ago our good friend and legendary film journalist Alan Jones had mentioned this screening in a tweet here.

Alan Jones Blade Runner

So it was strange to be looking at the advert for that very screening just a short time later. This stands out as it must have been quite a revelation to see Blade Runner for free so early on, seeing it fully fresh for the first time with no idea what to really expect from it. There were three screening around the UK, but the one in London is of most interest to us, the ABC Shaftsbury Avenue was still two screens back then, both of which were decent sizes, I can picture the huge crowd that was there to line up stretching all the way back up the street. I know it was busy as two issues later Starburst posted reaction letters they’re received from people saying how the screenings went, take a look further down to check them out. A small slice of Blade Runner history that was fun to find out more about.

Starburst issue 49 – 1982

Blade Runner Preview SB49 1982

Starburst issue 51 – 1982

Blade Runner Preview SB51 1982

White Dwarf Adverts – What’s Left?

03/05/2020alxkdd

So what’s left at the end of our White Dwarf adverts feature? Well we’ve gone through as many different London role playing games stores and themes as we can and there’s just two unclassified adverts left to look at, let’s take a look at them below:

Labyrinthe – Live Action Role Playing

White Dwarf 76 April 1986

Labyrinthe WD76 April 1986

I don’t have any real insight into this apart from that it’s an early appearance of LAPRing, Live Action Role Playing, in London. I wonder where they did this in London, using the word Underground hints at possible using an tube station, or maybe not, but that artwork is great either way!

White Dwarf 25 – June / July 1981

D&D Holiday WD25 June July 1981

We have to step outside of our London remit for this final entry, it’s a D&D Holiday advert that appeared one time only in the magazine, the title makes it sound interesting, but once you read it through there’s not really much there, at least to me. It’s just a regular B&B on the Isle Of Wight, where you can play Dungeons & Dragons if you want it, it’s not a dedicated event, it’s just a room to play D&D in if you just happen to want it. Maybe I’ve got it wrong but it just seems like an odd angle to pitch a holiday around, it could really be the same advert for any hobby or interest. I wonder if anyone ever took them up on a D&D holiday?

Hope you’ve all enjoyed our look at Role Playing Games stores in London, coming up next we’ll be look for London film & comic shops in the pages of Starburst magazine!