Wednesday Comments – NYC Through a Fanboy Lens

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Back in October I moved to New York City for work. It’s definitely been a fun experience. New York is an amazing, if slightly claustrophobic, city. And I really think that opening credit sequence to Saturday Night Live does a great job of encapsulating the city; it’s buzzing with activity and interesting people and occasionally there’s a celebrity sighting.

But being a comic fan takes NYC to another level.

First off, you’ve got Marvel Comics and the majority of their characters are rooted in New York. For instance my office was in Hell’s Kitchen and while I never saw Daredevil lurking around, I’d be lying if I said that I never imagined he was running across the rooftop.

And now that I’m a “New Yorker” the idea of Peter Parker living in Queens and Spider-Man spending so much time in Manhattan is crazy. I live in Manhattan and I don’t even go to Brooklyn (equal parts because I’m new to the city and because it’s too cold to go exploring, but it’s still cool to say.)

Though I will say that now that I live in Manhattan, the idea of that many superheroes fighting supervillains in the city is nutty. Centering Marvel in Manhattan is cool for a shared universe, but if they really existed things would have gone the way of Civil War decades ago.

What’s really weird is that I’m currently working my way through DMZ and seeing NYC in the state that it is in that comic is eerie. It’s really sort of creepy when someone in the comic is looking at a map and I recognize the area. And kudos to every artist who worked on DMZ because that book looks like it takes place in New York.

Of course there’s another aspect of being a comic book fan in New York City; buying books. I’m fortunate enough there’s a Midtown Comics right when I come up from the subway. The only way it could be more convenient is if I lived above it.

Midtown Comics is a pretty solid store. Everyone that works there is friendly and their selection is impressive. I’ve even seen celebrities, the comics sense, there. One time I happened to be there when Tom Brevoort was there picking up his books. And another time Dan Slott was there graciously entertaining fans.

While I do miss my old comic book shop in Maryland, Midtown is a fine replacement.

So that’s been my comic book experience in New York thus far. If I ever revisit this topic maybe it’ll be after I go on one of those “superhero tours” of the city.

Anyway, it’s Wednesday, go out and get some fresh new comics from your local comic shop.