Walking Round The Comic Shops Of Leeds On Batman Day

Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Batman Day, leeds

Walking Round The Comic Shops Of Leeds On Batman Day

Walking Round The Comic Shops Of Leeds On Batman Day…. something I’ll be doing a lot more of over the next three years

Article Summary

• Leeds on Batman Day meant a rainy city-centre comic shop crawl while dropping a new Mathematics student at university.
• OK Comics in Thornton’s Arcade delivers indie and mainstream comics, subscriptions, signings, and a lending library.
• Forbidden Planet Leeds, rooted in Odyssey 7, pairs basement comics and manga with broad pop-culture merchandise.
• Travelling Man Leeds rounds out the Batman Day walk with comics, manga, games, Thought Bubble links, and Kapow Coffee.

I’m up in Leeds this weekend. I’ve taken my youngest daughter up to Leeds University, where she is about to start studying Mathematics. And while she was buying clothes hangers, toilet paper and fabric softener, I took a walk around the three main comic shops of Leeds City Centre, OK Comics, Forbidden Planet International and Travelling Man, with a side trip to Kapow Coffee, through the wind and the drizzle…

@thatrichjohnston I’m up in Leeds on Batman Day, and I go to OK Comics, Forbidden Planet International, Travelling Man and Kapow Coffee…#batmanday#leeds#comics♬ original sound – Rich Johnston

I grew up near Leeds, and Leeds had the first comic shop I had ever seen, Odyssey 7, off the Headrow. It’s gone now, replaced by a hairdresser, but it lives in another form, and there are now three comic shops all cheek by jowl with each other.

OK Comics is an independent specialist comic book shop founded over twenty years ago by Jared Myland and focused primarily on comics and graphic novels (rather than heavy merchandise. Located inside Thornton’s Arcade on the Briggate, and next to Kapow Comics, it is popular for independent and more literary titles alongside mainstream ones. It offers a free-standing order/subscription service for regular titles, in-store or by mail order, and has a free graphic novel lending library, an upstairs area with older comics and a reading space, and occasional exclusives/signed editions. They host lots of launches and signings, especially alongside the Thought Bubble convention in nearby Harrogate, and have a local small-press section.

Forbidden Planet International on The Headrow is the Leeds branch of the chain, originally founded by Nick Landau, Mike Lake and Mike Luckman, though the chain has since split. Opening in 1985 as Odyssey 7, before being bought by the chain, it moved here in 2014, and functions as a broader pop-culture destination. You’ll find the comics, graphic novels, and manga in the basement, with merchandise, including Funko figures, Loungefly bags, Gundam, Pokémon cards, and blind boxes, on the ground floor.

Travelling Man has the flagship store of its independent Northern chain on Central Road in Leeds, opening here in the nineties, and specialising in comics, games, and related hobbies. It has comics, graphic novels, and manga, but a strong emphasis on board games, role-playing games, collectable card games, merchandise, and apparel. Founded by Nabil Homsiand Simon Campey,also a co-founder of Thought Bubble, it expanded from Leeds to York, Manchester, and Newcastle, and is often called one of the friendliest comic and games shops. I’ll be back here for Thought Bubble… and if my daughter needs anything, like putting up shelves. Any excuse… oh and yes, Kapow Coffee at Thornton’s Arcade as well…

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