St. Mark's Comics

St. Mark's Comics is a New York City comic book retailer. It opened its first store at 11 St. Mark's Place in Manhattan in 1983, and eventually opened two other locations, in Lower Manhattan and one in Brooklyn Heights. In late January 2019, St. Mark's Comics announced it would be going out of business at the end of February 2019. On July 30, 2021, It re-opened at a new location in Industry City, Brooklyn.[1]

St. Mark's Comics
TypePrivate
IndustryRetail
FoundedMay 1983
Headquarters51 35th Street[1],
Brooklyn, New York
,
United States
Number of locations
1 (formerly 3)
Area served
New York City
Products
OwnerMitch Cutler
Websitewww.stmarkscomics.com

The store's St. Mark's Place location was noted for its underground sensibility and cluttered, over-stuffed decor, and for employing female staff members long before that became the norm in the comics retailing industry.[2] In addition to comics, graphic novels, and manga, St. Mark's Comics sold trading cards, action figures, toys, T-shirts, and other pop culture collectibles.[3][4]

History

St. Mark's Comics was founded in 1983,[4] and acquired a year later by Mitch Cutler[5] when he was still in his teens.[6]

Cutler founded a second location at 148 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights in 1988. That location closed in 2012.[7] The store had another location at 150 Chambers Street in lower Manhattan that closed in 2004 in part due to the after-effects of the September 11 attacks.[8]

A fire damaged the St. Mark's location and some of its inventory in 2011, but the store was able to recover.[9]

In October 2017, St. Mark's Comics launched a GoFundMe campaign to keep the store open, but it only raised $1,201.[10]

On January 29, 2019, Cutler announced that St. Mark's Comics would be closing at the end of February.[2] Reasons cited by Cutler included 90-hour works weeks, higher rents and a changing marketplace.[5] The announcement prompted tributes from comics creators including Neil Gaiman, Brian Michael Bendis,[4][11] and Dean Haspiel.[2]

On July 30, 2021, St. Mark's Comics re-opened at a new location in Industry City, Brooklyn.[1]

Comics

In issue 12 of Brian K. Vaughan's comics series Ex Machina #12, the main character, Mitchell Hundred, laments the closing of a beloved comic book store in Lower Manhattan following the September 11 attacks, and a friend mentions some real-life comics shops that are still open, including St. Mark's Comics, Jim Hanley's Universe, and Midtown Comics.[12]

Television
  • In the season 3 Sex and the City episode "Hot Child In The City" (2000), Sarah Jessica Parker's character Carrie goes to get her shoe fixed on St. Mark's Place and ends up dating a man who works at a comic book store on the block. Part of the episode is filmed at the actual St. Mark's Comics.[13]
  • In the season 9 episode of Friends titled "The One with the Mugging" (2003), it is revealed that, as a child, Ross Geller was a patron of the store, and mugged outside it by Phoebe Buffay, decades before they became friends as adults.

References
  1. Weaver, Shaye (July 30, 2021). "NYC's famous St. Mark's Comics officially opens at Industry City". Time Out. Archived from the original on September 14, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
  2. MacDonald, Heidi. "St. Marks Comics is closing after 36 years – UPDATED with statement". Comics Beat (January 29, 2019).
  3. Lewis, Jeffrey (February 26, 2019). "Opinion: So Long to St. Mark's Comics: The store, which closed after 36 years in the East Village, was a haven in my youth". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 26, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  4. Pereira, Ivan; Meghan Giannotta. "East Village staple St. Mark's Comics closing after 36 years: The comic shop will hold a closeout sale through February". AM New York (January 30, 2019).
  5. McBain, Amelia. "New York Institution St. Mark’s Comics Closing After 36 Years," WNBC.(January 30, 2019).
  6. MacDonald, Heidi. "Kibbles ‘n’ Bits 1/30/19: More on the closing of St. Marks Comics," The Beat (Jan. 30, 2019).
  7. Taylor, Chuck. "A Sad Farewell: After 24 Years, St. Mark’s Comics Shutters On Montague Street," Brooklyn Heights Blog (November 30, 2012).
  8. Lish, Samantha. "Two More Will Take Its Place: St. Mark’s Comics vs. The Forces of the Universe," Storefront Survivors (2017). Accessed Jan. 30, 2019.
  9. Hedlund, Patrick. "St. Mark's Comics Reopens After Fire — Minus Some Lightsabers". DNAinfo. (February 18, 2011).
  10. Rosenberg, Zoe (January 30, 2019). "St. Mark's Comics will shutter after 36 years". Curbed New York. Archived from the original on January 30, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  11. Garcia, Kristine. "Iconic St. Mark’s Comics closing after 36 years". WPIX website (January 30, 2019).
  12. Brian K. Vaughn (w), Tony Harris (p), Tom Feister (i). "Fact v. Fiction Part 1" Ex Machina, vol. 1, no. 12 (August 2005). Wildstorm Productions.
  13. "Tour the Top 25 'Sex and the City' Locations" on Fodors.com

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