Forbidden Planet (bookstore)

Forbidden Planet is the trading name of two separate science fiction, fantasy and horror bookshop chains across the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States, and is named after the 1956 feature film of the same name.

The shops sell, in addition to books, comic books, graphic novels, manga, DVDs, video games, and a wide variety of toys, clothing and other collectible merchandise.

Forbidden Planet London is the name of the cult entertainment Megastore in London, UK, flagship of a national chain that includes Megastores in Bristol and Southampton, other stores throughout the midlands and the south of England, and an online presence. Specialising in movie and television merchandise, the stores retail art toys, comics, collectibles, DVDs, and graphic novels. They also host signings and events with authors, artists and other figures from cult media. Forbidden Planet London was the third major comics store in the city, eventually replacing what had been the leading shop, Derek Stokes's Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed, which had started in 1969, and coming after Frank and Joan Dobson's Weird Fantasy in New Cross. Much of FP's growth came after the demise of Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed, which went out of business in 1981. Forbidden Planet had grown out of the Titan Distributors business of Mike Lake, Nick Landau, and Mike Luckman; Titan itself having grown out of Comic Media Distributors.

The first Forbidden Planet began life in 1978 as a small store in Denmark Street. As the scope of the store expanded beyond comics to embrace film and television, a second store was opened just around the corner on St Giles High Street. The store's success led to overcrowding, necessitating a move to much larger premises on Oxford Street. The original partners, in addition to improving their London store, paired with James Hamilton and Kenny Penman (today the main shareholders in Forbidden Planet International with Andrew Oddie, Richard Boxall and Colin Campbell) to open other stores. Penman and Hamilton were owners of one of the UK's oldest comics and SF stores, Science Fiction Bookshop, in Edinburgh, which opened around 1975. On September 30, 2003, the London store moved to even bigger premises at the eastern end of Shaftesbury Avenue.

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