Close Encounters - Northampton

David Laing

This is a proper gem of a comic shop! Am from out of town and having popped in with no expectations I had an unexpectedly brilliant time browsing the amazing and extensive stock and chatting with the incredibly informative and friendly Jeff. Already planning next visit! 100% recommended ?

Prub Gill

Amazing customer service and fantastic personnel. Jeff is an awesome owner who really goes out of his way to help his customers. Ian is terrific and always supports new readers to find the best choice, graphic novels and stories based on their favourite characters and likes.

This is a must visit for both existing comic book fans, people looking to jump into comics and all nerds and geeks out there.

James Bacon

Close Encounters is an incredible comic shop, I had a fabulous afternoon here enjoying comics, comic art and great chat with Jeff.

The unassuming exterior belies an incredible amount of stock inside.
This spacious shop carries some very unusual and unexpected items, large format artist editions, statues, some amazing graphic novels, a used graphic novel section and very high quantities of current comics especially those which are highly sought after. I also saw a lot of 2000ADs and unusual items such as annuals and promotional items.

There are thousands of comics at a reduced price and I browsed through them all, finding a number of bargains for me. Jeff who is very engaging and very knowledgeable and well experienced in both the industry of selling Comics and being a fan himself was engaging and offered exceptionally hospitality, I enjoyed a coffee as I browsed. That's top class.

The back issues are plentyful and it's clear Jeff has a nose for good comics as I found quite a few that I was missing from my wants list. He's well aware of the desire for variant covers and key issues, and I was surprised to see Comics that normally you would be able to find.

Like some of my favourite stores everything is available to purchase if it's for sale and Jeff was very happy for me to look through older boxes and also some stock which was for his online business, that's a level of courtesy that one does not always find understandably, but I was really impressed here, going through many long boxes, repaying the courtesy by following his request to note where they were from.

The shop also has some incredible framed comic art, which belong to Jeff, but are indicative of his passion for the art of comics and this cones across. It was an incredible pleasure to see up close a very early Steve Dillon page amongst other gems. This led to some excellent discussion and appreciation of comic art. I was also so impressed with the Preacher sketch by Steve Dilon.

I bought a small stack but was very pleased with my haul, Jeff is a comic book fans dream, totally gets it.

Overall, a wonderful afternoon, I had travelled to this store, and my expectations were utterly exceeded and I was well impressed. I'll be back.

David Biggs

Best comic shop. Jeff, Ian and the crew are very knowledgeable about comics. I went from ordering one or two comics a month in Cheltenham through to ordering a few more books. Some bargains as well in the six comics for a fiver racks. Great place.

George Pollard

The place to get comics in Northampton! Check out the bargain bins for treasure too. In fact, no don't, because you might pick up the stuff that I'm after!! Quite a few figures too, but the focus is really on the comics here. If you're after something special, just ask.

Darren Woolley

Owners great to have a chat, great selection of everything from current issues, cheap back fillers and expensive grails

Susan Davies

Great shop, very friendly and knowledgeable staff, went out of their way to assist us and they've got everything you could want.

David Moisa

Sells manga, comics, you name it and the owner is such a cool guy?