The Book Closes on Rocketship Comics
There’s been some uncertainty brewing about the future of Rocketship Comics at 208 Smith Street, with a reader even posting something about it on the Forum recently. The store first closed its doors about a week ago, and then opened back up with much of the inventory marked down. Yesterday when we biked by a…
There’s been some uncertainty brewing about the future of Rocketship Comics at 208 Smith Street, with a reader even posting something about it on the Forum recently. The store first closed its doors about a week ago, and then opened back up with much of the inventory marked down. Yesterday when we biked by a sign on the window read, “Last Day.” Sad to see this place go. GMAP
“It’s a sad, sad industry, the comic universe.”
English Kills, you’re kidding right? I mean, I’m not a serious comics fan (though I do work in publishing) but I’m still aware that over 100,000 people just attended San Diego Comic Con! From superheroes to manga & anime to graphic novels to SF, Rocketship was a cool place with some very interesting material available. The creativity and (often radical) politics of today’s graphic novels and cartoons is pretty impressive.
As the below quote from the owner states, they didn’t close because they couldn’t survive in this neighborhood. They chose not to sign another lease.There are plenty of non “30-something slacker inbred middlewestern hiptards ” who not only buy comics in this neighborhood, but make them as a living (as seen in their ‘local artist’ section of the shop). If you look at any movie listing these days and notice the effect the comics industry has on the movie industry, it doesn’t seem so sad. Some would say being normal with a “real ” job is the stuff sadness (and BS) is made of, but to each their own.
From the owner:
“Our lease came up and we realized that we were either going to do this another five to 10 years, at which point it becomes a CAREER, in big letters, or not sign on again and do something different. That’s basically it. Of course, there are a thousand variables in there, all of which would be very boring and involved. In the end, the store was great to do for five years, but not something we wanted to be doing until we retired. So it was time to move on.â€
These types of stores can only survive in a few select locations, anywhere in the world. Someone mentioned there’s one in Williamsburg. An obvious choice. Enough 30-something slacker inbred middlewestern hiptards who still read comics in that area to support a place like this. Fortunately enough normal people with real jobs live around Smith and Court streets these days – the types who don’t have time for this fantasy world BS.
Children mostly don’t even buy comics as they don’t have the disposable income for the 4-5 a pop funny mags.
It’s a sad, sad industry, the comic universe. Oh well.
I’m also disappointed to see them close, but when I spoke to Alex he seemed ecstatic to get out of retail. So I guess I have mixed feelings.
@Heather: our shop has always carried some mainstream comics, hand-picked for maximum awesomeness. But honestly, in the current climate, we’re more interested in carrying weird handmade stuff, foreign comics, and work that you can’t buy on amazon or the ipad. Know what I mean?
That comic store on Bergen between 5th and Flatbush seems to do pretty good business. A handsome looking store (even though I’m not into comics at all).
Very sad news. But these days, unless your uncle owns the building and is giving you for a peppercorn rent, I don’t see how comic book stores, bookstores, newsstands, art galleries, furniture stores, art supply stores, etc etc can possibly make it. I get mad watching commercial landlords leave their shopfronts empty because they refuse to lower the rents. Many are old-timers who have owned their properties withour mortgages for years.
Sad to see them go, but never had a reason to buy anything there either.
Alex is a prince among comic shop owners. In a better world, Rocketship would be expanding, not closing.
maybe so, 11217.
I guess I just see the tons and tons of ads on craigslist from them …. and don’t seem so real/autehntic and not very detailed and hard for me to believe that all those ads are their listings.