Books

Gosh! Comics

Kate Weston | Wednesday 18 January, 2012 15:01

Outside Gosh the Bat Signal hangs like a call to London’s comic fans. With old Underground signs and school desks (complete with cannabis leaves carved by bored teenagers) for tables, long benches to read and relax on, old factory lights and sparse metal shelving to let the light in, it’s not just the stock that’s impressive, but the whole experience.

Started by Josh Palmano in 1986, Gosh is due to celebrate it’s 26th birthday this year. After meeting someone at a Specials gig when Josh was 12 years old, he got his first job at a comic shop. Leaving school at 16 to follow his passion, he never looked back. They moved to their Berwick Street location 6 months ago from Bloomsbury and it seems that Josh has now created his dream shop.

When Gosh started its main aim was to sell back issues of comics to other fans. These days they stock a much wider selection, still selling comics but also graphic novels for adults and children, manga, and graphic design and illustration books to cater for the soho market. Spread over two floors, downstairs is more superhero orientated while upstairs is more accessible.

Josh aims to stock things that you won’t find anywhere else, because of this he has to seek out artists that are not widely distributed and deal directly with them. He admits that sometimes this is a lot of work for little gain but he enjoys getting artists out to a wider audience that wouldn’t otherwise be easily available.

The new Berwick Street store also offers a better setting for events and signings. With two doors they can have signings going in one door and out another to minimise waiting times, and with all the extra space they have plenty of author events. Some upcoming ones include Craig Thompson and Eddie Campbell. (See here for more information.) They also currently have an exhibition from the book Nelson dotted around the shop, a combination of 54 artist’s work, with proceeds going to the charity Shelter.

With lovely staff, all as fanatical about comics as josh and a really cool interior, Gosh is definitely somewhere you need to visit whether you’re a Graphic Novel lover or not.

Gosh Comics 1 Berwick Street, London W1F 0DR

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