Forbidden Planet

49 Grainger Street
Newcastle, England NE1 5JE

Past Events

Nov. 2, 2019: Rain Signing

Bryan and Mary Talbot sign RAIN on Saturday 2 November 2019 from 1:00 to 2:00 PM at Forbidden Planet’s Newcastle Megastore.

Set against the backdrop of disastrous flooding in the North of England, Rain dramatically chronicles the developing relationship between two young women, one of whom is a committed environmental campaigner. Their wild Brontë moorland is being criminally mismanaged. Birds and animals are being slaughtered. Across the country, crops are being systematically poisoned, even the soil itself. Rain centres on one relatively small example of moorland ownership by an elite group that impacts catastrophically on the unlanded majority living in the valley below. But the campaigners know that ‘a million other valleys need saving’. They need saving not just for the sake of their human inhabitants, but for the insects and plants, birds and mammals and all the other inhabitants large and small that we share this planet with – our non-human fellow earthlings.

Rain is the first contemporary graphic novel from Bryan and Mary Talbot, dealing with the here and now of environmental degradation that threatens us all. The story follows the everyday experiences of ordinary people, while engaging with pollution, climate change, moorland mismanagement and the disruption, misery and loss that these things bring. The characters are fictitious; what’s happening around them is shockingly real.

AND DON’T MISS OUR DISPLAY OF BRYAN’S ORIGINAL ART – ON DISPLAY SOON AT OUR NEWCASTLE GALLERY!

Bryan Talbot is an award-winning graphic novel pioneer. He’s worked on such underground comics, science fiction and superhero stories as Judge Dredd and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Vertigo titles including Sandman, Hellblazer, and Fables and has written and drawn several Eisner Award-winning graphic novels.

Mary Talbot is an internationally acclaimed scholar who has published widely on language, gender and power, particularly in relation to media and consumer culture. She is the co-author of the graphic novels Dotter of her Father’s Eyes and Sally Heathcote: Suffragette.

March 14, 2019: The Near Witch/Steel Prince Signing

Author V.E. Schwab will be signing THE NEAR WITCH plus the STEEL PRINCE Graphic Novel at the Forbidden Planet Newcastle Megastore on Thursday 14th March from 3 – 4pm!

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

There are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger, a boy who seems to fade like smoke, appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab’s debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won’t soon forget.

Also available will be the Graphic Novel collection of Shades Of Magic: Vol. 1: Steel Prince.

March 14, 2019: The Near Witch/Steel Prince Signing

Author V.E. Schwab will be signing THE NEAR WITCH plus the STEEL PRINCE Graphic Novel at the Forbidden Planet Newcastle Megastore on Thursday 14th March from 3 – 4pm!

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

There are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger, a boy who seems to fade like smoke, appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab’s debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won’t soon forget.

Also available will be the Graphic Novel collection of Shades Of Magic: Vol. 1: Steel Prince.

Jan. 5, 2019: Wildcat: Turbo Jones Signing

Ian Kennedy and Barrie Tomlinson sign WILDCAT VOL. 1: TURBO JONES at the Forbidden Planet Newcastle Megastore on Saturday 5th January from 1 – 2pm!

In 2488 Earth history professor, Turbo Jones predicted that the planet would be destroyed in 2500 by a vast meteoroid storm. Ridiculed by the world’s leaders, Turbo spent the next twelve years constructing a huge spaceship and employing a group of volunteers to help him leave the Earth and find a new home in the stars…

After months in space, Turbo and his senior staff including former mercenary Loner, the mysterious Kitten Magee and the last survivor of Xgangbe-4, Joe Alien, have found a potential new home. Now they need to get down onto the planet and make sure that it is safe for the five hundred colonists and livestock aboard the Wildcat…

Ian Kennedy has illustrated a host of favourite titles, including M.A.C.H 1 and Judge Dredd for 2000AD, Timequake for Starboard, Dan Dare for the revived Eagle, Turbo Jones for Wildcat, Marvel’s Blake’s 7 and covers for Starblazer. He’s also painted covers for the annual RAF Leachaurs Air Show programmes, and still produces covers for Commando.

Barrie Tomlinson’s writing credits include Death Wish, Survival, Dan Dare, Ghost Squad and S.O.S for Eagle, and Scorer for the Daily Mirror. He was the second editor of the long-running sports-themed comic Tiger, the first and longest serving editor of Roy of the Rovers, guiding Roy’s career for several decades, and responsible for the creation of the short-lived but fondly remembered Scream!.

  • Shop Hours

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    Monday: 9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.
    Tuesday: 9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.
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    Thursday: 9:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
    Friday: 9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.
    Saturday: 9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.