Bram Stokes

Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed was a science fiction bookshop and comic book retailer in London during the 1970s; the largest of its kind in Europe. Specialising in science fiction, occultism, and Atlantis, the central-London shop also played a key role in bringing American underground comics to the United Kingdom. It also sold American editions of mainstream science fiction books that were not easily obtained anywhere else.

The shop was named after a short story by Ray Bradbury.

The shop was started by Derek "Bram'" Stokes, who previously ran the Gothique fanzine but had left to start a science fiction mail order book service. Diane Lister (later Diane Stokes) joined Stokes in 1969. The shop was managed by fantasy author Stan Nicholls, who had worked with Stokes on Gothique. The shop was originally located in Bedfordbury before moving to 10 Berwick Street in Soho.

Nick Landau, later to be founder of Forbidden Planet and Titan Entertainment Group, was also a customer, and produced a fanzine on the shop's hand-cranked duplicator. Stokes and Landau were important forces behind the annual British Comic Art Convention, which ran, mostly in London, from 1968–1981. Stokes was the main organizer of the 1969 and 1971 editions of the so-called "UK Comicon."

The shop was also the semi-official correspondence address for the magazine Fortean Times from 1978-1981, and the magazine's team met every Tuesday afternoon in a room above the shop. (The shop was advertised in #28 of Fortean Times; the advert was drawn by Bryan Talbot who went on to draw for 2000 AD.)

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