UK's Oldest Comic Shop Relaunched on Saturday With New Name
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This weekend just gone, the UK's oldest running comic store went through a relaunch. Based in Birmingham since late 1976, Nostalgia and Comics opened under a new name - although we expect long-term customers will continue to call it Nostalgia and Comics. The name of the store is world's apart from it's original name, quite literally, with it's new name being Worlds Apart.
Nostalgia and Comics was founded by Phil Clarke, who had previously played a huge part in the history of comics fandom by organising Britain's first comic convention in 1968. The original Nostalgia and Comics store was a tiny shop on the corner of Hurst Street in Birmingham, which opened in November 1976. Shortly after, a second branch was opened to cater for back issues, not too far away from the original store, in the subway of Smallbrook Queensway.
Three years later, a new larger premises was opened on the other side of the road at 14/16 Smallbrook Queensway, replacing both the previous shops.
Nostalgia and Comics was eventually bought out by the Forbidden Planet International company, although they retained the name Nostalgia and Comics. Now though, with a complete refit, the name has been changed to Worlds Apart, which is also the name of a comics shop in Liverpool owned by FPI. As some comic fans know, there are two companies with similar names - Forbidden Planet and Forbidden Planet International, and this is the reason that Nostalgia and Comics wasn't simply renamed to Forbidden Planet International - there's a rival Forbidden Planet in the same town. It saves confusing people, and with FPI owning a shop called Worlds Apart elsewhere, it makes sense to use that name here instead of having multiple store names under one company.
So it's goodbye to Nostalgia and Comics, but welcome to Worlds Apart, who will hopefully continue to have a bright future.
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