Comic Books

ACT-I-VATE

ACT-I-VATE, a webcomix collective conceived by Dean Haspiel debuted February 1st, 2006 on Livejournal and featured the works of founding members Dean Haspiel, Dan Goldman, Nick Bertozzi, Michael Fiffe, Leland Purvis, Nikki Cook, Tim Hamilton and Josh Neufeld. Since then, the collective has expanded by hand-picking cartoonists at a regular rate to achieve its current membership.

Recommended by Molly Crabapple

Ad Hoc Art

When Ad Hoc Art opened their doors off the Morgan Avenue stop in Bushwick, they became the first of nearly a dozen innovative spaces to populate the Buswick gallery scene.

Bushwick Art Gallery

Backstage

Set in the Gilded Age of New York, Backstage is a comic romp through sex, drugs and murder. It appears every Thursday on ACT-I-VATE.

Backstage is a comic by artist and Dr. Sketchy's founder Molly Crabapple. The story follows the adventures of gossip-mongers / failed vaudevillians, Johnny Panama and Elizabeth Delancy, as they report on anarchist dance numbers, debauched uptown parties and cheap liquor for the yellow tabloid "Backstage".

Recommended by Molly Crabapple

Bill Griffith

Bill Griffith is an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip Zippy the Pinhead. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Griffith grew up in Levittown, Long Island, where one of his neighbors was science fiction illustrator Ed Emshwiller, whom he credits with pointing him towards the world of art.

Griffith began his comics career in New York City in 1969. He was a prominent cartoonist in the underground comics movement based out of San Francisco in the late 1960s, and co-founded the comics anthology Arcade, The Comics Revue with Art Spiegelman. His first strips were published in the East Village Other and Screw magazine and featured an angry amphibian named Mr. The Toad.

Recommended by Spain Rodriguez

Brenda Starr Comics

Brenda Starr had the working woman theme of Winnie Winkle, the soap opera style of The Gumps, the exotic adventure of Terry & the Pirates all of which were highly successful strips for The Chicago Tribune Syndicate. Plus, it had sex. Yet, it was initially rejected by Tribune editor Joseph Medill Patterson; and when the syndicate did accept it, was relegated to an experimental comic book supplement (similar to The Spirit, which appeared two months later, but with smaller individual segments).

Recommended by Peter McGough

EC Comics

Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in crime fiction, horror fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the 1950s, until censorship pressures prompted it to concentrate on the seminal humor magazine Mad, which became a major popular culture institution.

Recommended by Spain Rodriguez

Forbidden Planet

Founded in April 1981, Forbidden Planet NYC has been a staple to tourists and locals alike for its wide selection in alternative hobbies, such as graphic novels, comic books, role-playing games, manga and anime, and a wide selection of collectible figurines and statues.

Since then, we've undergone several transformations, most notably moving our store to 13th Street and Broadway in 1996.

Recommended by Trenton Doyle Hancock

Jack Davis

Jack Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator. He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2003. He also received the National Cartoonist Society Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.

After rejections from several comic book publishers, he began freelancing for William Gaines' EC Comics in 1950, contributing to Tales from the Crypt, Two-Fisted Tales and The Vault of Horror. In the late 1950s, he drew Western stories for Atlas Comics. His 1963 work on the Rawhide Kid (#33-35) was his last for non-humor comic books.

Recommended by Spain Rodriguez

Jim Hanley's Universe

Since 1985, Jim Hanley's Universe has been one of the world's best and most progressive comic book stores. The store is stocked with everything from mainstream comics like DC and Marvel to kid's comics, international comics, manga, graphic novels, small press, indie comics and Mini Comics.

Recommended by Molly Crabapple, Ted Rall

Jules Feiffer

Jules Feiffer is an award-wininng American syndicated comic-strip cartoonist and author. He is the author of numerous plays, screenplays (Carnal Knowledge, 1971, Little Murders, 1971) and children's books (Henry, The Dog With No Tail, A Room With a Zoo, The Daddy Mountain among many others). In 1986 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his editorial cartooning in The Village Voice, and in 2004 was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Recommended by Ted Rall

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