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The comics world continued to pay tribute to Seth Kushner this week, following his passing on Sunday. Michael Cavna has an amazing gallery of Kushner’s many amazing photos of comics creators, an astonishing body of work, along with tributes from Neil Gaiman, Becky Cloonan and many many more.

Seth’s “final photographs seem to capture things that the camera shouldn’t have been able to, considering the casual ease that he set up his shots,” the talented Jeffrey Brown tells us. But then, “That’s what artists do,” says the gifted Rick Parker. “They see right to the heart of their subjects.”

Seth’s close friend Hannah Means Shannon has a a wonderful rite up of his memorial service which was held this past Wednesday.

For that reason, the thoughts that friends and family shared, the tributes to Seth, were that much more immediate, conversational, and brutally honest, in my opinion. Other funeral services I’ve been to now seem lacking in this quality of direct communication among the people gathered. We celebrated Seth as if he was in the room, since he still felt like he was. Another thing that may have made the gathering and speeches seem surreal to many of Seth’s creative friends is that, in a few instances, they felt like one of the many spoken word events Seth took part in or attended. Events where people performed prose or read aloud from projected comics.

Seth would have loved all this. And I think showing the universal power to comfort of these words from once disreputable mediums was an especially fitting tribute for him.

And as Dean put it, “Seth did more in a hospital gown than some people do in a year.” If there is one lesson to be taken from Seth’s horrificly young passing, it’s that you only get one chance to go around this world, and not taking advantage of this is a true tragedy.

Most importantly, there is an ongoing funding effort to help Seth’s wife Terra and son Jackson. His family meant everything to him, and please keep them in your thoughts.

I’m not the kind of critic that likes to wax poetic about the production of a piece of art.  I believe that, although an artist’s life always influences their creations, a work should be judged on its own merits.  However, occasionally, as is the case with Seth Kushner’s comic anthology Secret Sauce, exceptions must be made.

As he elucidates at the start of the work, Kushner spent much of 2014 in and out of the hospital being treated for Leukemia.  He was told that he only had weeks to live.  Then weeks went by.  A few more.  Yet again, a few more.  Time passed, and Kushner still lived.  By the end of the year, Kushner had done what doctors had said would be impossible— he defeated his leukemia.  And then he made Secret Sauce.

Secret Sauce is structured as a set of five short stories, two of which are illustrated and three of which are produced as photocomics.  All feature Kushner’s writing, but each story has its own set of artistic collaborators who lend a different flavor to Kushner’s words. Going in, I was worried that Secret Sauce would be a set of ruminations on mortality— the frailty of life and the relentless passage of time.  Happily, I was proven wrong.  Secret Sauce is not an exploration of death, but is instead a celebration of life.

In Secret Sauce‘s first short story, “The Brooklynite in ‘A Man of His Word,'” Kushner immediately establishes an upbeat and energetic tone that persists through the stories that follow it.  Shamus Beyale provides great art for this short.  The backgrounds are rendered with care, and his characters are expressive and drawn with clearly defined lines.  Colorist Frank Reynoso uses a palette of upbeat pastels with some bright primary colors for accents, which further book’s energetic feel.

Kusher’s script never takes itself too seriously, and there are some great laughs as comic-artist-by-day-superhero-by-night Jeffries aka The Brooklynite takes on a disgruntled hipster-meets-MMA-fighter named Billy Burg.  It’s a testament to the team’s collective effort that they manage to successfully create a comic that feels full and fun in only four pages.  It’s fast and leaves the reader breathless and waiting for more.

Sci-Fi short “”Youtopia” does something similar, with a heavy dose of well-directed action composed by artist Charles Stewart and a beautiful color scheme and world design inspired by Tron.  These two works have nothing in common in terms of plot, and instead find connection through the energy that Kushner imbues into his script and that his collaborators put into their art.

However, where Secret Sauce really shines is in its photocomics, particularly “Heyday.” In it, Kushner tells the story of a young girl whose grandfather used to be a superhero known as The Insomniac.  Kushner and co-director Dean Haspiel do some great work in this short, bringing a fun and heartwarming story to life with an artistic technique that is not commonly explored in comics, and is occasionally even maligned.  I myself often think about what would make a photocomic resonate with readers, and there’s a lot that can be learned from “Heyday.”  Its greatest success comes from the use of color in each photographic panel.  Characters are highlighted by wearing outfits with bright shades of blue, and the scenery of the living room that the story takes place in is pushed into the background through a unified use of oranges and browns.  It’s a simple, but incredibly effective technique, and really helps the story feel less like a vaguely connected series of images and more like a well-composed comic.  That’s not to say that “Heyday” is completely successful— the digitally produced sound effects and speech bubbles clash with the photographs, and Kushner and Haspiel’s use of stroke in one panel feels too synthetic when placed up against a photograph of a person rather than an illustration of one. Ultimately, however, the risks the two creators take in this photocomic are worth the slight missteps, as they demonstrate that comics still have plenty of room to grow and that Kushner has unique ideas on how to direct that growth (the ending to the story is also pretty ingenious and got a well earned laugh out of me).

It feels disingenuous to rate or score Secret Sauce on a scale.  Kushner doesn’t try to shove a message down anyone’s throat.  He’s not in it to prove something.  He’s in it because he loves comics, and it shows.  Secret Sauce is a revelry that is playfully self-indulgent with its references to Brooklyn culture and superhero tropes.  It’s a deeply personal work that is simultaneously universal in its themes.   It’s a book that plays with form and theme in ways that are not commonly explored.  In short, Secret Sauce is not a treatise— it’s a party.

Secret Sauce debuts at NYC’s MoCCA Fest 2015, which takes place this weekend, April 11th-12th.

It’s time for our annual look at some of the comics coming out for this weekend’s MoCCA Festival, being held this year at Center 548, is located at 548 W. 22nd Street, just off the Westside Highway, with programming at the High Line Hotel on West 20th Street and 10th Avenue.

And here’s the books we got information on. This is just a teeny tiny smattering of the new stuff available — but scroll down for signings from Fantagraphics, NBM and more. And scroll around Tumblr for more more more, especially the MoCCA Festival tumblr.

Jeremy Nguyen:

I’m debuting a 20 page collection of my webcomic “Stranger Than Bushwick”, which is currently being serialized on Bushwick Daily. This collection explores a lot of New York by way of Brooklyn, millennial lifestyles, and hot-button issues like catcalling and gentrification.

2015, the year of the team up. Brooklyn’s Hang Dai Editions, a studio whose members include Gregory Benton, Dean Haspiel, Seth Kushner, and Josh Neufeld, will team up with Alternative Comics for distribution and some publishing in 2015.

Haspiel and Neufeld were previously published by Alternative during the early aughts when Geoffrey Mason ran the line. Current publisher Marc Arsenault is happy to welcome them back to the fold. “Josh and Dean were a big part of Alternative in the past—not just as creators. It’s nice to have that continuity. I’m looking forward to everything that comes out of their studio.”

The line-up includes the long awaited SCHMUCK by Kushner, delayed by his illness and now happily back on track following his miraculous recovery. And new work by Haspiel, Benton and Neufeld is always welcome. Here’s the lineup:

SCHMUCK by Seth Kushner and various artists

September 2015
184-pages. Full color.

SCHMUCK is a graphic novel memoir about one man’s awkward coming-of-age-quest to find love in New York City, written by SETH KUSHNER, with design by ERIC SKILLMAN and a forward by JONATHAN AMES. SCHMUCK is an anthology featuring art by 23 great cartoonists, including; Nick Bertozzi, Gregory Benton, Dean Haspiel, Josh Neufeld, Noah Van Sciver, Leland Purvis, Sean Pryor, Bobby Timony, Shamus Beyale, Ryan Alexander-Tanner, George Schall, Nathan Schreiber, Stephen Destefano, Jon Allen, Christa Cassano, Kevin Colden, Tony Salmons, George Jurard, Omar Angulo, Pierce Hargan,  Skuds Mckinley, James O Smith, Tim Ogline and cover by Joseph Remnant.

SMOKE by Gregory Benton

September 2015

64-pages. Full color.

After an accident on an industrial farm unhinges two young brothers from reality, they are guided through a weird and wonderful journey by Xolo, the mythological protector of souls.

BEEF WITH TOMATO by Dean Haspiel

September 201

5
96-pages. B+W comix and essays. (published by Alternative Comics)

A native New York bruiser is fed up with life in the dregs of a drug-addled Alphabet City where his neighbors are shut-ins and his bicycle is always getting stolen. He escapes from Manhattan to make a fresh start in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, only to face a new strain of street logic — where most everything he encounters is not as it seems. Emmy Award-winning artist Dean Haspiel returns to his semi-autobiographical roots with BEEF WITH TOMATO, where he explores the emotional truths between prime and primate.

THE VAGABONDS #4 by Josh Neufeld

March 2015

24-pages. Full color.

Josh Neufeld’s The Vagabonds #4 serves up a spicy blend of journalism, social commentary, memoir, and literary fiction. This issue features Neufeld’s story of racial profiling at the U.S./Canadian border and three collaborations with Neufeld’s wife, writer Sari Wilson. Throw in a couple of light-hearted travel tips, and The Vagabonds #4 is chock-full of the thought-provoking and witty comics Neufeld is known for.

HEART-SHAPED HOLE by Dean Haspiel

April 2015

24-pages. Full color.

Billy Dogma and Jane Legit punch the apocalypse right in the kisser as their eternal war of woo breaks a Trip City-wide hymen.

SECRET SAUCE COMIX Vol.1 by Seth Kushner and various artists

April 2015

28-pages. Full color.

Seth Kushner’s new anthology features a mix of fumetti/cosplay, indie/sci-fi, and Silver-age inspired heroes by way of THE BROOKLYNITE, drawn by Shamus Beyale, COSTUMED CHARACTERS, layouts by Dean Haspiel, and YOUTOPIA, illustrated by Charles Stewart.

Hang Dai’s previous books are also available

SCHMUCK COMIX #1
–Seth Kushner’s semi-autobio webcomic gets a print edition with three stories written by Seth and drawn by Jon Allen, Shamus Beyale and Noah Van Sciver. Cover by Gregory Benton.
PSYCHOTRONIC COMIX is Dean Haspiel’s anthology of memoir and Silver Age inspired genre featuring The Red Hook, Tommy Rocket, A-Okay Cool, and NY Stories.
FORCE OF NATURE by Gregory Benton, follows an artist through a lush forest as he searches for a lost sketchbook.
THE VAGABONDS #3
–After an eight-year hiatus, Josh Neufeld’s The Vagabonds returns with its third issue — now published by Hang Dai! Many things have changed in the interim: Neufeld produced three books, became a father, and won a year-long journalism fellowship. This issue highlights Neufeld’s journalistic work over the past few years, including reportage on Hurricane Sandy, the Arab Spring, the education wars (with writer Adam Bessie), and the life of a “comics journalist.”
STAKE–
A lone woman fights the odds in this no-holds-barred short companion piece to B+F by Gregory Benton.
POCKET BOOK 2 by Gregory Benton
Drawn from life, pages from Gregory Benton’s sketchbooks create a loose narrative. Travel through the NYC subway, take in a concert or two, and wash up on the beach.

Photographer/comics writer Seth Kushner has been very ill and battling for his life after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia in the spring. A failed bone marrow transplant a few months ago left him with very few options but….well, just go read this. That’s all I have to say. And keep thinking good thoughts.

Also, also, he has a GoFundMe which I’m sure is still taking donations.

Kushner’s portraits of cartoonists are ubiquitous—you wouldn’t believe how many headshots of cartoon types you see on the web every day are Kushner’s work. They were part of the Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics book of profiles that came out a few years ago. Kushner is also a comics creator, with his book SCHMUCK.

Kushner and Dean Haspiel recently put up a photo comic called “Heyday'” which you should check out too. But mostly keep thinking good thoughts.

And just a reminder tonight is a Bone Marrow Donor Drive and Hang Dai Studios Signing at JHU with all the above folks PLUS Fred van Lente and Joe Infurnari and doubtless other luminaries.

It’s a good cause. Come on down.

Photographer and comics writer (Schmuck) Seth Kushner is one of the really good guys and just a few weeks ago he was spotted at MoCCA FESt happily manning the Hang Dai Studios booth and talking about his successful Kickstarter campaign for SCHMUCK. Thus it came as a complete shock to his friends in the NYC comics community and his family when a few short days afterwards, after complaining of what felt like the flu for a few days, he was diagnosed with leukemia. Seth was immediately checked in to the hospital where he has been undergoing chemo therapy. His friend Hannah Means-Shannon has more on the situation.

While Seth has been fighting this with the spirit we all knew he would, it has been determined that he needs a bone-marrow transplant, and he is looking for a donor. His wife, Tara sent out the email below. Please join me in sending all the good wishes in the world to Seth, Tara and their son, Jackson, and if you can help in other ways here’s how to do it.

From Terra Kushner, wife of Seth Kushner:

Bone Marrow Donations for Seth Kushner

As you may know, Seth will need a bone marrow transplant. His transplant doctor is starting the process to search for potential donors through the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), which maintains a national registry of potential matching bone marrow donors. Many of you have inquired about how you can find out if you qualify to be a potential donor.

Basically what you do is register via online or phone & swab your cheek. Here are a couple organizations you can use.

Delete Blood Cancer – I personally went to this website, registered online from my iPhone, received a swap in the mail with 24 hours, mailed back the swab & was told it will show up in the register within 3 weeks. They claim to be the quickest.
(deletebloodcancer.org)

National Donor Registry – this is the registry that is directly associated with the NMDP.
(BeTheMatch.org)

More specific details are laid out on the websites above. If you decide you want to be a donor, you can:

• register online (they will send you a kit through the mail to swab your cheek that you will mail back- prepaid postage included)

•go to an approved center to swab your cheek (locations listed on sites)

•organize a bone marrow donation drive or “swab” party.

As far as I can see, the basic criteria for potential donors are:

•age
•health
•lives in the US
•not in the US military
•haven’t already joined the registry
•willing to be a potential donor to anyone*

*Perhaps the most important point about volunteering through the national registry is that you cannot specifically sign up to donate to Seth. It is a big commitment to join the registry, and your efforts can be enormously rewarding, but the process is designed to find patients anywhere in the country or world who may benefit by being a match to you. Therefore it does not provide an option to specify who you wish to help.

I’ll keep you updated on the matching process as things move along.

Let’s pray that we quickly get a donor!

Xoxo
Terra

— with Seth Kushner.

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If you’ve been following the history of the Asbury Park Comicon, which opened only a year ago in March of 2012, you know it’s been a strange, yet rather astonishing ride, but imagine how much stranger it must be for founder and indie comics creator Cliff Galbraith. What started in a bowling alley turned music venue and local hangout, Asbury Lanes, has become a major testament to demand for Comic Cons in New Jersey, and also a statement about the desires and tastes of con-goers who have relished the indie vibe of Galbraith’s brainchild. After a highly successful second Con in September of 2012, Galbraith announced that the Con would move to the much larger and even more historic venue of Asbury Park Convention Hall for its third event on March 30^th 2013.

Then Superstorm Sandy struck, devastating the seaside town of Asbury Park, leaving the future of the Con in question. Against some difficult odds, the Con forged ahead, and Galbraith faced another kind of storm- media frenzy- over the upcoming Con. It’s fair to say that his phone has been ringing off the hook as local press as well as The New York Times have been trying to get the scoop on what looks to be a growing New Jersey institution as Asbury Park Comicon nears its biggest event yet. Dozens of prominent guests will be flanking this full-blown gala of a Con, and the Con will also be featuring panels and contests. Galbraith hasn’t had a moment’s rest since all this started more than a year ago, and he finished up several other interviews just in time to answer some questions about all this Con madness, and how it fits into his own life, for The Beat.

Hannah Means-Shannon: Can you remember the moment when the idea for starting a Comic Con in New Jersey first occurred to you? How wild did the idea seem at the time?

Cliff Galbraith: Maybe I’ve always wanted to run my own con. I’ve been to enough of them over the last few decades. A lot of them were pretty shabby. Customer service was pretty awful. I’ve been to cons where the promoter never came around and so much as said hello or how’s it going. Some were downright rude or deceitful.

On a Sunday in the summer of 2011, I stopped into the bowling alley/rock club Asbury Lanes — they were having a little record fair in there. I knew a few of my friends would be there selling and buying records or drinking beers so I figured I’d get away from my drawing table for the afternoon and see what was happening. My friend and neighbor Robert Bruce was selling an assortment of rare rock and jazz records and some underground comix. I remember looking at someone rooting through a white box of records, and I turned to Rob and I said “Where else have I seen somebody doing that? Reminds me of people at a comic convention digging through long boxes.” We laughed, but I walked around a bit and I kept thinking about it. If they could sell records in this place, why not comics? My friend Jenn Hampton was the manager, so I asked her if we could have a comic con at the Lanes. Nine months later we had the first Asbury Park Comicon.

HM-S: What’s the strangest task you’ve ever had to do in order to get a Con running or keeping it on track?

CG: Partner with Rob Bruce! We’re friends, but business-wise we’re been very independent, lone wolves. But it’s been a great experience and there’s absolutely no way I could’ve done all of this or come up with all the solutions on my own. It’s been Cliff and Rob’s Excellent Adventure.

[Rob Bruce and Cliff Galbraith]

HM-S: Why Asbury as a location for the Con? 

CG: People launch cons in New Jersey all the time. Some have been going on for years, but they don’t grow. I think the secret ingredient in throwing a Con is location — pick a fun destination. That’s really what set San Diego up for success early on. Who didn’t want to go somewhere with beautiful weather with plenty of bars, restaurants, hotels, a beach? That’s enticing.

So there needs to be something other than the Con once you walk outside. That’s my standard. I don’t want to go to some Con near an airport or far away from everything. I don’t want to go to some little hotel hermetically sealed in away from the world. Lots of Cons are downright depressing. They have no personality. Just putting a bunch of artists and dealers in a room and charging admission doesn’t make it fun.

[The Asbury Park Boardwalk at dusk]

HM-S: What were reactions like to the first Con at Asbury Lanes?
CG: Everyone had a great time. Most people sold lots of books. I was stunned. I just wanted to put on a little event and not screw up, just have a fun day. But the venue was a real hit. The exhibitors who’d never been to Asbury Park, who’d never been to Asbury Lanes fell in love with it. I’m spoiled, the Lanes are part of my world, but it’s really a cool old place. And there’s a bar. We played old punk tunes and Serge Gainsbourg, Nelson Riddle, soul, and stoner rock. It was more like a party — with comics.

HM-S: What obstacles did you face launching that first Con at the Lanes?
CG: It’s always tough at first to get someone with a name to attract fans. I think the first guy I called was Evan Dorkin. I always dug his work, and I’d known him for years — but more importantly he was someone who would get what I was trying to do. Evan and Sarah Dyer jumped right in. Then they told Steph Buscema. Jamal Igle was another old friend, so I contacted him early on. Those guys trusted me — that was important. But getting talent can be tough early on. Then there’s talent that doesn’t show up, there are flakes in this business and it just goes with the territory.

The biggest shock was that two months before our first Con, Asbury Lanes was sold. I know it sounds crazy, but I never got a written contract. I made a deal with my friend who was the manager. At one point, she didn’t know if she was going to still have a job or whether the new owners would honor our deal or want more money. It was scary, because this was our first time and if we screwed this up nobody would ever trust us again. It all worked out and it was a great day.

[APCC at the Asbury Lanes]

HM-S: What’s your personal philosophy behind Comic Cons?
CG: Don’t be boring. Don’t be predictable. Don’t call yourself a Comic Con and fill the bill with wrestlers, actors, and other people who have nothing to do with comics. Respect and honors those who make comics, especially those who came before us. I see a lot of bullshit at cons and I just don’t get it. If somebody wants an autograph of somebody from Twilight or some guy who played a storm trooper 30 years ago — that’s their business, but it really has nothing to do with comics. It detracts and devalues comics as something that is supposed to be celebrated. My feeling is if you’re not here for the comics then shove off. Go to a horror con, go to a sci-fi con.

 HM-S: Why do you think we need Comic Cons, as a society?

CG: When my parents were kids the big thing was the circus coming to town. That’s disappeared, and now we have the Comic Con coming to town. Look at every city — there’s a con everywhere. People love it — its like Woodstock, Lollapalooza, county fair, chili cook-offs, boat shows, car shows, record fairs, film festivals, people want to get together with those who share their passion. They want to spend a day with their kids, meet new friends, make a discovery. It’s an amazing social phenomenon, and it’s in its infancy.

HM-S: What did you grow up reading? Any favorite comics or characters?
CG: My mom grew up in a candy store in Newark, N.J., and she spent her time drawing pictures of movie stars from magazines that were on the newsstand. She also loved comics. She introduced me to Superman when I was about four years old. She also taught me to draw. She got me a subscription to SUPERBOY and I looked forward to those comics every month. Then one day when I was getting a haircut, I picked up a copy of FANTASTIC FOUR that was in the barber shop — this was around 1965. The Kirby art kind of creeped me out at first, but I was fascinated. Joe Kubert’s HAWKMAN was a favorite. Of course BATMAN. CREEPY, EERIE, FAMOUS MONSTERS and hot rod magazines with stuff by Ed Roth and George Barris. I also read a lot of science fiction — it was a pretty classic age with Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and I read Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes after seeing the movie. I graduated from super heroes to MAD. Then National Lampoon. At some point I found some underground comix in a head shop in Menlo Park, N.J. — they blew my teenage mind. Then Heavy Metal Magazine and Punk Magazine completed the process of completely warping my mind.

HM-S: What are your biggest influences as a comics creator?
CG: More of MAD than I used to acknowledge. I think it was an early influence in the way I saw a lot of stupid things in society. It was much tougher on politicians and corporations back in the 60′s and 70′s. I would try to draw like Mort Drucker when I was a kid. Kirby is an influence when I’m feeling lazy, when I think I’ve done enough — I think about the amount of work he put out in a day and I’m embarrassed. He keeps me going back to do a bit more before turning out the lights. I love Moebius. Bernie Wrightson, Richard Corben, Crumb, Rick Griffin, Jack Davis. I go back to Will Eisner when I get stuck on a drawing that’s not working — I’m still learning from looking at his drawings, I get answers from his panels. But when I created Partyasaurus, Beachasaurus, and all the Saurus characters back in the 80′s, I did some sort of R.O. Bleckman thing with the wiggly, broken lines. It was very successful, but I never revisited that style again.

HM-S:  It’s been a winding road for you career-wise. How does Con creating fit into your life, looking back?

CG:  I came back to comics after ten years — at one point I was in really bad shape with Lyme disease, but that’s a whole other story. I started making RAT BASTARD comics again, just selling them at cons. I didn’t even go through Diamond — I just wanted to put something out and do some cons. Then I started working with my wife on UNBEARABLE, a totally different style but a lot of fun to draw. I was finally getting back into it, making comics. I had a few issues written I was drawing consistently and then this damn Asbury Park Comicon came along. The first one wasn’t too bad, but now with a much bigger venue, more guests, more exhibitors, ads, making a TV commercial, doing interviews with newspapers, and building a website, designing posters, it became a full time job. I didn’t realize it at first, but I sacrificed my art to build the Con. Which is okay, since April 1st I’m back at the drawing board and making comics again.

HM-S: Asbury Park was pretty hard hit by Superstorm Sandy. What was your own experience of the storm like?

CG: The other day I found pictures of my wife Judie and I at Convention Hall on the balcony making silly faces trying to stand up against the wind the day before the storm. I felt embarrassed that we were joking about it and twenty-four hours later there would be so much devastation. We could’ve have known, but I couldn’t look at those pictures. The fact that Convention Hall is still standing is amazing, but it did sustain a lot of damage.

My own experience with the storm was terror. There’s three giant pine trees in my yard that I was certain would crush us in the night. I felt like the roof on our house would be torn off any minute the whole time. We had no power for two weeks. We tried to stay in our home and tough it out with no power. I could draw during daylight. We had little parties with the neighbors and pooled our resources.  After 7 or 8 days, it got too tough. It was cold. There wasn’t much to do once the sun went down.  We had to go stay with my parents. But after a few days, I felt like I should be putting Led Zeppelin posters up in the basement — in other words, I felt like I was a teenager again. My parents were great about it, but you really can’t go back and live with your parents.

We were fortunate — we got to go back to our house and it was like nothing had happened other than we had to restock our refrigerator. But only two miles east of us looked like an A-bomb had been dropped. A lot of our friends suffered from that storm. We’ll be doing several things at Asbury Park Comicon to raise money for some of the nonprofits in our area and keep the focus on Sandy victims.

[The Asbury Convention Hall, site of APCC 2013]

HM-S: Were you afraid that damage from Superstorm Sandy might put the kaibosh on Asbury Park Comicon this year?

CG: It actually did. The building was going to be closed down by the city or something. We were told we needed to start thinking about an alternate site. It got pretty bleak. We looked into moving the con to Monmouth Racetrack, or one of the schools in Red Bank. We were desperate.  And then I got a call late one night and they told me we were back in Convention Hall.

HM-S: What’s going on with Asbury Convention Hall? I hear it may not host events in the future after May.

CG: It’s an old building. It’s taken a beating. It had issues before the storm. So now it’s just better to shut down completely and get everything done once and for all. May 1^st, it will be shuttered. We may be one of the last events there. This is a big thing for us to throw a con there — we grew up walking through the Grand Arcade from the boardwalk. I saw The Clash there, boxing, roller derby. To see our event on that marquee is like a dream come true — and it almost didn’t happen.

[Asbury Park Press covers COMIC BOOK MEN and Galbraith's upcoming Con]

HM-S: What’s up for Asbury Con in the future? Is it going to become an even bigger Jersey Con?

CG: We’ll know in a few weeks what the renovation schedule is for Convention Hall. We’d like to announce the dates for 2014 at this the con next week, but I don’t know if that’s quite possible by March 30th. But we’d like to move to late April and do a two day Con. The Berkley Hotel has a series of ballrooms — it’s like The Shining in there. I spoke to them last week. I’d like to keep this show in Asbury Park. Again, it’s the location that really makes a Con special. We’re planning on including more venues, galleries, etc. in the Con. Maybe a cosplay parade on the boardwalk. Put some of the bigger panels in the Paramount Theater.

We also have another big Con in the works for June 2014, but we haven’t finalized the date or exact venue. We’ve floated the ideas with a few comic industry people and we’ve gotten good feedback. The location will surprise a lot of people at first, but it makes sense geographically.

[Poster art for APCC#2 in 2012]

HM-S:  What changes had to be made in the planning process of the con to move it from Asbury Lanes to the Convention Hall this time?
CG: Besides the amount of time Rob and I had to put into it, I’d say the next thing would be the amount of money it takes to launch an event this size. People have no idea what goes into a show like this. Now we’re into things like insurance, security, lighting, sound systems, putting guests in hotels, meals, travel, advertising — the expenses pile up quickly. This is no longer a fun little get-together at the Asbury Lanes with some comics and a few beers, this is a serious business venture.

[Memorable image from APCC #2 in 2012 with Evan Dorkin, Cliff Galbraith, Dean Haspiel, and Larry Hama]

The most important thing I’ve learned about running a show this size is we can’t do it on our own. We had a lot of help. Guys like Danny Fingeroth, Dean Haspiel, Seth Kushner, Chris Irving, Mark Mazz, Dave Ryan, all got us guests that we never would’ve gotten on our own. Eric Grissom built us a great website. Stu Wexler made a TV commercial — and nobody asked for anything in return. Mike [Zapcic] and Ming [Chen] from Comic Book Men have been promoting us for months on their podcast. The people who run Convention Hall have been amazing. They all just want us to succeed — we’ve got some great friends in our corner. We’ve also got some great guests: Al Jaffee, Herb Trimpe, John Holmstrom, Bob Camp, Don McGregor, Jamal Igle, Jay Lynch, Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Mark Morales, Stephanie Buscema, and Batman producer Michael Uslan. Then there’s a whole indie crew like Box Brown, Josh Bayer, Mike Dawson, Steve Mannion, and lots of others.

I’m really fortunate to be able to do this. To have gotten my health back, to be making comics again and to put on events with so many remarkable people. Sure it’s a lot of work, but I’m having the time of my life!

HM-S: Cliff, I don’t know how you found the time to give us such a detailed insight into your own personal journey envisoning the Asbury Park Comicon with only a few days to go until the biggest APCC yet. But we appreciate your willingness to talk about it so openly and thanks for bringing a Con of this caliber to New Jersey. 

Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.

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Photocomix are strange creatures. They look like a hybrid of a photography medium and a comics format, and when you spot them in the wild you’re never sure whether they arose as some part of a natural evolutionary process in art or if they were the result of some kind of misguided experiment, maybe even one gone wrong. That reaction’s been shaped by encountering low-quality work with vague pretensions at humor, or perhaps offering some behind the scenes reveals about the comics making process. Frozen, melodramatic poses and cheesy dialogue are par for the course. And so, if a reader spots photocomix roaming free online or in a shop, they approach with caution and refuse to get their hopes up regarding quality.

Then there’s FORCEFIELD FOTOCOMIX, which makes you feel guilty for all of that instinctual caution and pre-emptive wariness. It gives you what no one really dares expect or demand from photocomix, a team of seriously talented individuals on a mission to exploit the full potential of the medium. To do this, they decide to spin this collection of comics into a number of genres, covering all the bases and it’s as if they are illustrating future directions for photocomix.

The man behind the camera, someone whose work has defined “serious” photography of the cultural zeitgeist in the past decade and then some, is Seth Kushner, the co-creator of the celebration of comics tradition LEAPING TALL BUILDINGS with Christopher Irving. Kushner’s photo portraits of comics creators in LEAPING TALL BUILDINGS have garnered so much attention that they’ve been scavenged by internet sites repeatedly and Neil Gaiman even chose to use Kushner’s portrait of him as his new dust-jacket image. He’s been working on photocomix for some time now, creating a CulturePOP series for the digital arts salon TRIP CITY, profiling real lives in comics format from author Jonathan Ames to adult film star Stoya, but FORCEFIELD is a departure into the realm of total composition in fictional realities.

During an informal conversation at Hang Dai Studios, where Kushner keeps a tidy computer work station flanked by a few vinyl and action figures, he revealed some of the process behind his striking cover to FORCE FIELD. He staged a full-on photo-shoot to capture the images in his mind by engaging actress Zoe Sloan, as well as a costume designer and a makeup artist, to create a Barbarella homage fused with a direct design reference to a Jim Steranko cover of BLADE RUNNER from Marvel Comics. The Steranko cover, which uses multiple color reduplications of the hero pointing a gun, inspired Kushner to pose Sloan holding, instead, a Super 8 camera in retro style. The metaphor’s impressive: Kushner’s camera is a loaded weapon at the center of the strange narratives contained in FORCEFIELD, capable of directing the reader’s experience, and by using a Super 8 video camera rather than simply a camera, he’s suggesting the role of storytelling.

Kushner’s increasingly open these days to revealing the process behind his work to generate enthusiasm for the forms themselves and encourage others to experiment, as evinced by his recent contribution to TRIP CITY, a blow-by-blow narrative of the steps by which the first comic in the collection, “The Hall of Just Us”, called “Anatomy of a Photocomic”. The story, co-scripted by Emmy Award winning artist Dean Haspiel, led to its own formal photoshoot at the recently hurricane decimated by increasingly resilient Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook. Kushner and Haspiel set about “casting the roles, as we would for a film”, says Kushner, and the co-creators drafted full layouts for the comic before shooting, giving them a “map to follow”.

They created the comic shot for shot, a tale of three “miscreants”, superheroes in a bar chasing a super-powered lady’s attentions, “The Tarot”. After the shoot, time-consuming photo-shopping and comics construction added text, word balloons, and special effects. But all of this description only hints at the visual impact of “The Hall of Just Us”. It’s all about mood, created from strongly color-themed lighting (the pink, blue, and yellow of the cover’s design), and about the off-beat simple hero costumes straight off of Mego action figures or the BATMAN television show of the ‘60’s.

While the heroes posture and ratchet up the bombast, The Tarot figure, portrayed by model and artist Katelan Foisy, brings an eerie presence and substance to the narrative. She can see the future “sometimes”  and sees the other heroes as Tarot figures, commenting “There’s the path you can take or the road you can make”, but she’s really calmly waiting for her “date” known as Señor Amore, portrayed by Haspiel. This is certainly the “romance” genre promised by the cover as one narrative alternative, but it leaves room for reader-interpretation. Superheroes with super powers are still hanging out in a bar, looking for love, for one thing.

“Spiders Everywhere” provides the “horror” also promised by the cover, and again homage to genre comics and films is evident. The narrative and premises are simple- horrific waves of spiders taking over the world, but Kushner plays to the strengths of the photocomix medium by conveying frantic movements and moments of psychological realization in cinematic style.

“Understanding Photocomix”, a visual walk through Kushner’s history with photography and photocomix, which first appeared in American Photo Magazine, supplies the metadata on the very form in which its composed. It also forms a clever narrative bridge between the first chapters of FORCEFIELD and its follow up chapter COMPLEX, by explaining Kushner’s increasing drive to push the boundaries of photocomix in a “full fictionalized graphic novel” that he’d “direct like a movie using actors and locations”. In many ways, FORCEFIELD is the herald of that process, and it’s Volume number “.01” suggests that it’s a forerunner of bigger things to come.

The story COMPLEX: “Luv_Underscores_U”, kicking off Kushner’s work on his dream project of the COMPLEX graphic novel, first appeared in Jimmy Palmiotti’s CREATOR OWNED HEROES #7 alongside Kushner and Irving’s ongoing profiles of indie comics creators (a follow-up project to LEAPING TALL BUILDINGS). It’s a lavishly shot and designed comic which plunges into science-fiction BLADE RUNNER style, another link to FORCEFIELD’s cover image. It constructs multiple virtual realities visually with ethereal attention to detail and emphasizes a governing psychological perspective, a central character keeping all these virtual worlds in motion for the reader. This isn’t far from the role of the camera itself seeming to direct the reader, perhaps FORCEFIELD’s hypothetical Super 8 on the cover itself.

The final chapter of FORCEFIELD, a never before published noir tale, “The Perfect Woman” appears in uncharacteristic emphasis on black and white tones, with hints of color. Kushner’s photography is known for its psychedelic presentation of color through light effects, but also for his more sepulchral, moody hues in portraiture. Here he does with black what he often does with a solid color, making it a rich compositional basis into which he incises featured characters and settings. Like a compelling dime store novel rich with noir tropes, the story pursues an elusive lady in a cityscape from the visual perspective of a narrator. Kushner’s locations for this shoot were clearly exacting, capturing a city of the 1930’s complete with architectural detail. But the reader should have expected that this is a collection of stories with an expicit BLADE RUNNER homage and technology and perception may play as strong a role as the romance of pursuit.This is the “mystery” genre, completing the triad of color themes and pulp homage.

To add to the total design package that is FORCEFIELD FOTOCOMIX, it’s also presented in slick prestige magazine format with card covers, suggesting that photocomix can find their own effective dimensions for publication, in this case somewhere between a traditional comic and a traditional large-format photobook. But the format also speaks to Kushner’s consistent, passionate attention to detail throughout the collection which seems to constantly remind the reader of his fundamental belief in the art behind the form. The photocomix in FORCEFIELD are visually riveting, one might even say mind-altering, but the stories are also expansive, creating strange pocket universes with their own sets of rules and assumptions. Exploring them is part of the intrigue. Seeing FORCEFIELD in the wild is bound to make an impact on our assumptions about what photocomix have been, and more importantly, what they can be as a narrative medium in their own right. Kushner was inspired by comics, photography, and films to launch this project.  In the future, creators might well be saying that they were inspired by FORCEFIELD to take photocomix in equally surprising and mesmerizing directions.

[Kushner answers, "What's the coolest item in your collection?" for Hanzarai.com]

FORCEFIELD FOTOCOMIX Vol.01 will be available for physical sale for the first time at the upcoming Asbury Park Comic Con March 30th, but the limited edition is already available for order through Kushner’s etsy shop.

Title: Seth Kushner’s FORCEFIELD FOTOCOMIX Vol.01/Publisher: Self-Published/Creative Team: Photographer, Seth Kushner/ Design, Seth Kushner and Dean Haspiel/ Writers, Seth Kushner, Dean Haspiel, Chris Miskiewicz/ Edits by Dean Haspiel

Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.

TweetOn February 9th, from 4-7 PM, Medialia Gallery at 335 West 38th street hosted an opening reception for it’s 7th annual Panel to Panel Comic and Cartoon Art exhibit, this year entitled “One Thing Leads to Another”. Though the exhibition has been going for seven years, many comics event goers may not have heard of [...]

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Earlier this week, Jimmy Palmiotti announced that the noble experiment CREATOR OWNED HEROES would conclude after its 8^th issue. Over the course of the magazine’s publication, outreach on social media emphasized the need to raise awareness and increase solicitation from comic shops to keep the multi-contributor series in motion. Consistently strong reviews appeared on media, fan, and blog sites with each issue, and as COH developed, it continued to raise the bar on high-quality content. The ascent has been dizzying, and exhilarating for readers and comics creators alike in an era of increasing awareness about the ups and downs of self-publication. It has been like watching crucial surgery in a live operating theatre in the hands of celebrated practitioners where the audience has come to play an integral role. The life of the patient has depended on their rapt attention in increasing numbers. Depending on your perspective, issue #8 will represent the final bow of an effort exploratory and unique, or perhaps somber flat-lining during a risky procedure that practitioners will attempt to learn from for some time to come. But either way, COH won’t be concluding in obscurity. Ironically, there will be more people in the operating theatre than ever before to witness its final moments and draw their own conclusions.

CREATOR OWNED HEROES #7 represents a particular crescendo in the magazine’s development, a point at which even those who have been following the series closely lean forward, aware that something unprecedented is unfolding before their eyes. It expresses a remarkable energy and a confluence of its methods and its goals due, in part, to the team of contributors it brings together. As Justin Gray says introducing his Brandon Seifert interview, “When we started Creator Owned Heroes, it wasn’t just a desire to self-publish; it was a multilevel dedication to comics that were being produced outside the work for hire landscape”. Gray also cites “ a fundamental desire to tell stories” as a common feature among the creators chosen as contributors. Issue #7 is a tour de force illustration of those criteria.

The powerhouse comic in the anthology is clearly Darwyn Cooke’s irreverent, rapidly paced and verbally exuberant “The Deadly Book”. Cooke hits high notes across the board of comic storytelling elements, from a lush, contrasty color palette in sky-blue, blood-red, and ink-black, to unexpected vantage points, compressed action, and even a very indie take on relating past events in short form via substantial narrative blocks. The comic displays the best possible outcomes for a skilled creator taken off the leash to tell the kind of story that they want to tell in the way that they see fit to tell it.

Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Jerry Lando, and Paul Mountis follow Cooke with “Killswitch” in its 3^rd installment of 4. They put the action back in indie in a big way and display a particular virtuosity in reversing a typical paradigm in espionage/hitman themed comics. Rather than telling the story with several panels, if not pages, of heavy exposition followed by the action sequences readers have been waiting for, they manage to reveal a wealth of exposition during an installment that, arguably, is one big action arc. They keep it interesting by demanding the reader put the pieces of information together for themselves, from Kill Switch’s complicated pseudo family life to the developing role of a nemesis. Rather than just telling a story well, which is a quite an achievement in itself, they manage to tell a story differently, once again illustrating the surprising results when creators have sufficient room for experimentation.

Steve Niles and Scott Morse bring an even greater variation in style and content to COH #7, pushing the boundaries of typical narrative structures while giving a nod to still-rich veins of comics tradition. They break down confined panel layout, and do away with textboxes and speech balloons to tell a noirish private-eye tale with disturbing gusto. “Meatbag’s” full page-feel conjures up Eisner’s SPIRIT while the first-person narrator places the storytelling firmly in Raymond Chandler territory. Add to these elements the use of limited color palette, heavy brush-stroke illustration and moody lettering, and you’ve got a finely balanced combination of old and new, making this a 21^st century comic with a lot of room for innovation.

Then we have zombies. The subject-matter is in danger of being done into the ground in the TV, film, and comics medium, but in keeping with the challenges set by COH #7, Dean Haspiel and Jeffrey Burandt deliver something readers have simply never seen before, imploding any expectation of the familiar. Haspiel’s zombie artwork avoids the basic emphasis on blood and gore flooding zombie media these days and emphasizes, in a visceral way, the disjointedness of decomposition through trailing limbs and chunks of missing anatomy. This makes Haspiel and Burandt’s heroine seem all that much more solid, active, and vital as she spikes a zombie noggin and blasts through zombie brains. This is zombie-storytelling streamlined to basic psychological elements: loneliness, companionship, and, finally, the pulse-poundingly unexpected that makes the genre so popular. “Blood and Brains” retools zombie narrative by removing excess accretion and celebrating its potential in creator-owned style.

Photo-comic COMPLEX: “Luv_Underscore’s_U” by Seth Kushner, Chris Miskiewicz, and Dean Haspiel reminds us that the comics medium is expansive, varied, and should never feel too comfortable. Katelan Foisy and Miskiewicz star in this futuristic psychological landscape where the solid realities of the photo images help readers keep a grip on the otherwise shifting definitions of reality in the narrative. There’s a subtle ambiguity in the nature and future of technology, it’s use and misuse to contribute to human experience, and on the whole the photo-comic not only tells the reader but shows the reader the spell-like suspension of disbelief comics, in the right hands, are still capable of creating.

The prose content of COH #7 also contributes greatly to the purpose of the series, present from issue #1, of taking readers inside the world of creator-owned projects, an on the ground approach that not only educates but instructs. Justin Gray’s interview with Brandon Seifert allows the reader to hear straight from the horse’s mouth, “Want to be a writer? Start writing. It’s that simple, and that hard”. A “social media press conference” included in the issue also brings together advice and insight from creators and Steve Bunche concludes a full-on bootcamp for aspiring comics writers with plenty of solid advice that may seem counter-intuitive like “avoid topical subjects”. It’s clear that the meta-text of COH #7 is not there simply to sell books but to actually aid aspiring creators in avoiding the pitfalls that contributors have faced.

From issue #1, COH has given a strong impression of community among indie creators, and #7 continues to follow through in inclusiveness. A major profile of legendary tide-fighter Evan Dorkin, written by Christopher Irving, and photographed by Seth Kushner, only further illustrates the point. Creator-owned projects may seem like a new thing, maybe even a fad, but they aren’t. They’ve been breaking new ground for some time, and there’s plenty to be learned from observing the struggles of greats like Dorkin. Dorkin’s legacy in brief could be summed up in his statement: “I’ve come to hate when people say ‘Don’t get into comics’. I learned to say ‘Fuck that. If you want to get into comics, get into comics’”. But Dorkin, like many other creators, is also prepared to try to inform readers about what exactly they are getting into because a few tips a long the way can make all the difference.

The combined tone and attitude of the comics and prose in CREATOR OWNED HEROES #7 avoids even the faintest whiff of defeatism. The series’ message is still going strong, and the works it presents don’t even aspire to meet the professionalism of company-owned comics, they aspire to go beyond company-owned projects in terms of high-quality story-telling, artwork and design. After all, what’s the point in trying to keep up with the Joneses when you really want to set a new standard all your own? As an experiment, the COH series is winding down, but the data is being collected, the procedure is nearly complete, and no one doubts the skill of the team involved. The increasing momentum generated in the pages of COH #7 has, certainly, guaranteed that no one will stop reading until the experiment is complete.

Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.

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On Saturday, December 1^st, the Hamilton Gallery Theater in Caroll Gardens, Brooklyn, hosted a benefit for a Red Hook landmark, Sunny’s Bar, in attempt to help bring it back from the verge of storm-ravaged closure. Sunny’s Bar, only a short distance from the waterfront, was filled with water and sludge by Hurricane Sandy, and its electrical systems, particularly, obliterated. The destruction of Sunny’s hit Brooklyn hard, a punch right in the heart of the artistic community specifically. For many, this was a retreat and a gathering place where memories were made for decades, and, thankfully, they weren’t prepared to let Sunny’s go down without a fight. Marketing, Public Relations, and Event Management professional Anica Archip , and her brother Dmitri Archip, spear-headed the benefit to complement the Sunny’s Kickstarter campaign, still underway, and provided the Hamilton event space.  Local businesses donated refreshments, and a devoted arts community supplied over 5 hours of performance in honor of Sunny’s. Emmy-award winning comics artist and arts curator Dean Haspiel rounded up the talent and helped spread the word via social media while Sunny’s staff supported the event through set-up and bartending.

100% of the proceeds went to helping one of the most remote, and most beloved hangouts in Brooklyn back onto its feet. What started out as a small event elicited an overwhelming turnout to the point of rotating crowds off of the event floor to get as many people past the donations table as possible as performances ranged from readings of screen projected comics, poetry, and prose, to comedy performances, and lastly a few hours of wide-ranging musical sets by volunteers. The atmosphere was highly charged, emotional, but also celebratory throughout the night as community support for the benefit became more and more evident. In effect, it became a relocation of Sunny’s own events nights, a home away from home, prefiguring a return to its mecca status in days to come.

A number of the comics and prose performers hailed from Brooklyn’s own digital literary arts salon TRIP CITY, including co-curators Dean Haspiel, Seth Kushner, Chris Miskiewicz, and Jeffrey Burandt, joined by TRIP CITY member Jen Ferguson, and Brooklyn poet Denver Butson. Haspiel performed a comics meditation on Brooklyn and Manhattan during a time of crisis, Beef with Tomato, while also previewing a new creator-owned comic appropriately titled RED HOOK. Photographer and writer Kushner presented an event-inspired essay “My Brooklyn” with slides from his photo book Brooklynites, while writer Miskiewicz provided a haunting narrative set at the bar itself, “Last Night at Sunny’s”. Ferguson, an artist,  narrated a CulturePOP photocomic featuring her own Brooklyn Bridge artwork, and writer and musician Burandt presented a recent Brooklyn-set comic “Bibbin’s Bodega” to the accompaniment of a mellow bass-line. Butson proved that poetry could hold its own as performance art with startling observations about the secret emotional and imaginative lives of ordinary citizens. The thematic pieces were well chosen, highlighting the role of community and geography as inspiration for creative work.

The comedy performances of the evening were raucous and added to the positive vibe building up during the benefit, turning the fund-raiser into an affirmation rather than a reflection on the devastating effects of the hurricane. Brooke Van Poppelen brought a Brooklyn perspective to the vagaries of working in Manhattan and commented on the increasing gentrification of Brooklyn itself, subtly asserting that enduring “real” Brooklyn culture continues in the face of change. Angry Bob came out from Queens to punch holes in the political climate of the recent elections and present the all-too human reactions to hurricane damage including outrage over cable outages in less affected areas. Meanwhile, donated beer on tap was flowing, along with wine, and the crowd situation on the floor was becoming intense. Between performance blocks rotation provided access to Sunny’s supporters.

The musical portion of the evening showcased an astonishing breadth of local talent, including the newly formed band Two Beards: One Heart with lead-singer Jeffrey Burandt debuting new material, John Pinamonti, The Black Coffee Blues Band, and Smokey Hormel supporting The Luna Sisters, many of whom perform as regular bands at Sunny’s on its own event nights. While blues music was particularly appropriate, The Luna Sisters, including Sunny’s proprietor Tone Johansen, really stole the show with their nostalgic and hypnotic performance of classics like “It’s a Wonderful World” and “Bye, Bye Blues”. “Yes, even after Sandy”, Tone declared, “it’s a wonderful world”. Proprietor Sunny himself too the mic to conclude the event, offering his heartfelt thanks and astonishment at the monumental support demonstrated for Sunny’s Bar. Appearing weathered, wearing waterproof clothes, he was nevertheless unbowed by the natural disaster that had struck at his life’s work. It was clear no one really wanted to go home, having missed gatherings at Sunny’s since the storm, but the owners vowed that next time the party would be “at home” when Sunny’s doors, aided by a big push from its denizens, opened again.

The evening came off without a hitch, and the funds raised were the best possible scenario for what started as an ambitious exercise in elbow grease. Anica Archip and Dean Haspiel agreed to tell me a little bit about what Sunny’s means to them and why they poured so much of their time and creativity into making the benefit happen. Archip and Haspiel, like many, have their own deeply personal memories of the beloved bar.

Anica Archip: I’m a Brooklyn, Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens neighborhood native, Red Hook, Gowanus, and Brooklyn Heights was part of my playground. I remember the first time I set foot in Sunny’s Bar, it was a late summer afternoon around 1994. My car was towed from my street in Carroll Gardens and the lot where the city kept towed vehicles was located directly across the street from Sunny’s. My husband and I (I was married then ) were picking up the car and we were laughing over the whole incident because the day prior we were searching hours for the car convinced that we forgot where it was parked, versus the reality that it was towed. Anyway, as we exited the lot the door to Sunny’s Bar was open and we walked in for a drink. The bar was empty yet magical. The bright setting sun poured in through the window and once my eyes adjusted to the room, I realized we entered a realm frozen in time, a waterfront bar scene from the 1950′s. Behind the counter was a gentle faced man with long hair who looked like he stepped out of 1968, it was Sunny. We sat at the counter, told him of our car adventure and began to chat. I mentioned that my brother tends bar on Atlantic Ave, and just at that moment Sunny looked into my eyes, cupped my face with his large hands and said in his sweet tone, “I know who you are, you’re Dimitri’s sister.” Sunny’s Bar was instantly “home” – a place of comfort, where I could relax and I knew belonged. Needless to say I’ve been going back since.

In 1995 I became an active member of the Brooklyn arts organization BWAC (Brooklyn Waterfront Artists’ Coalition). Their yearly art show was held in the warehouses on the piers of Red Hook around the corner from Sunny’s. We would hang out at Sunny’s on Friday nights (the only night it was open back then) and listen to live music, it was impromptu not planned; talk with the neighborhood old timers; drink some Pabst or Schlitz beer, and just hang into the wee hours of the morning. You never arrived before 10pm, it became packed with artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and local neighbors by midnight and then closed about an hour or so before sunrise. And Sunny was always there to greet you with a big warm hug. Sunny’s hugs are special, just about everyone wants to be hugged by Sunny. It’s even listed as one of the items people can receive if they pledge a donation on the “Bring Sunny’s Back Home!” Kickstarter site:

Dean Haspiel: When I first moved to Brooklyn in 1997, I heard whispers about an old bar in Red Hook that hadn’t aged. When I first entered Sunny’s, it was like stepping into the past. An era I never lived in but always wanted to visit. And, it was one block away from the sea. It was the first bar I ever went to where the goblins in my head were quelled by the folk art and bluegrass music. I would just melt into the background for hours. It was a destination spot for people who wanted to get away and raise their glass to the Statue of Liberty and toast to an era of New York City that artists and blue collar workers could afford and pontificate a week of hard work.

Sunny himself would often appear like a specter of levity and brighten the room with his long hair and infectious smile. I got friendly with the bartenders and eventually met Tone, Sunny’s wife, who sings songs and curates the art shows in the back of the bar where musicians assemble and play music. I remember when Michael C. Maronna, star of the 1990′s kids TV show THE ADVENTURES OF PETE & PETE, would tend bar. Sunny’s is where my pal, Jonathan Ames, introduced me to actor/song writer, Jason Schwartzman, right before we started shooting HBO’s “Bored To Death.” In fact, a scene from “Bored To Death” was shot at Sunny’s. These days, I’ll occasionally bump into actor Michael Shannon and trade late night quips. But, more importantly, Sunny’s draws people who are worth their salt because it’s not easy to get to. Sunny’s is the last bar at the end of the world and when the apocalypse happens, that’s where you’ll find me.

Haspiel and Archip also commented on the strange genesis of the idea for the event, which easily might have fallen by the wayside as Brooklyn, and the rest of the East Coast pushes to rebuild the essentials as quickly as possible.

AA: A small group (4 people + 1 cat) of Red Hook artist friends took refuge at my house when they had to evacuate due to the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. The morning after the superstorm hit we walked over to Red Hook to check out the damage and check in on other friends. What we saw was unexpected and shocking. My childhood friend’s home was severely damaged, people were coming out into the streets in tears, huge trees were ripped off their roots and power lines were left dangling. The streets were slicked with a coating of oil from boilers that were damaged and destroyed. The air was thick with the smells of oil and gas from spills that now settled in the streets of Red Hook. Block after block looked like aftermath of a war. I knew I had to check in on Sunny’s because they’re located at the very edge, just where the water meets the land. When I arrived Tone was standing outside with a look of horror in her eyes, tears started to flow from her face. We immediately embraced and she muttered, “Water is still rushing into the basement, the water is still coming in, I can’t stop the water.” A few people now gathered in front trying to help her and I overheard someone say that the water main pipe that connects to the building broke. They needed to shut off the city line from the sidewalk. An emergency vehicle, I think it was a utility company, pulled up in front of the bar and Tone ran to tell them of the problem. As I walked back home in silence my mind was racing with all I had witnessed and I felt helpless.

Dean & I had touched base in the days after Sandy and we briefly talked about what we saw and the damage to our beloved Sunny’s Bar. I then received an email from Dean about his idea to help Save Sunny’s, he asked if I was interested in helping and I knew that I could execute his vision. I immediately said Yes! And then approached my brother about having the benefit in our home.

A side bar note here is that Dean & I would occasionally meet up at Sunny’s throughout the years – we still do. In the early 2000′s after hangin’ at the Smith Street bars, on a Friday night, we’d sometimes do the Red Hook scene - which was Lilly’s Bar (now closed) and of course Sunny’s. You always ended the night at Sunny’s. Dean would ride over on his bike and I’d either walk it or take a car service. Attached is a b&w photo circa 2004(?) taken by my photographer friend Judy Parker (who was visiting from the Bay Area with her sister) of a Friday night walk along Beard street from Lillie’s to Sunny’s. Pictured is me, Dean’s bike and his cast shadow – sometime after 1am. I don’t think Dean’s ever seen this.

DH: A couple of days after Superstorm Sandy annihilated New Jersey and ravaged NYC, I rode my bike over to Red Hook and saw everyone’s destroyed basements on the sidewalks. When I finally got to Sunny’s, I saw the staff pumping water and made eyes with Tone. Sunny’s basement was a box of sludge, the boiler was busted and the electricity panels were destroyed among other flood damage to the bar. And, to make matters worse, the foundation was compromised. I knew right then and there that I had to do something. As Brooklyn began to rally relief, I made it my mission to help out the place I call home on the Friday and Saturday nights I unchain myself from my desk. I contacted my pal/publicist/event manager/and longtime friend of Sunny’s Bar, Anica Archip, to ask if she would manage and host an event [along with her brother Dimitri] to help promote and raise funds for Sunny’s. Anica immediately said “yes” and we approached Tone who said “yes,” offering to staff the night with the actual staff from Sunny’s. We co-curated the event and I designed a poster with Seth Kushner but it was Anica who truly handled all the nuts and bolts. Along with select TRIP CITY curators and contributors reading prose and comix (Jeffrey Burandt, Chris Miskiewicz, Jen Ferguson, Zees Moreno), local bands, poets, and comedians (Denver Butson, Brooke Van Poppelen, Angry Bob, Black Coffee Blues Band, Smokey & The Luna Sisters), we created a stellar evening that would bring people and diehard Sunny’s patrons together for a donation based evening where we provided entertainment and drinks. Jeffrey Burandt debuted his new band, Two Beards One Heart, and I debuted my new comic, The Red Hook. We gave them a little bit of Trip City to nosh on while recreating a night at Sunny’s. It was glorious.

Following the event, Archip and Haspiel reflected on the highlights of the evening that meant the most to them and made it all worthwhile.

AA: This one’s easy. Seeing the happy faces of Sunny’s clientele – his family of friends - my friends. A month had passed since Sandy hit and everyday in Red Hook has been devoted to the clean up. Pumping water, throwing out damaged personal items, family treasures, furniture, vital equipment, parts of your house, applying for help, filing papers. Sleep, rinse, repeat. But on this one night friends gathered, took a break, met up as they normally would at Sunny’s. They enjoyed the entertainment, had a beer or two, were greeted by a smiling, happy Tone, chatted with their favorite bartender and got their hug from Sunny. Helping to reunite this community of friends was worth it all.

DH: Besides witnessing all the support for Sunny’s, I think my favorite parts of the night were hearing Tone sing with her wonderful Luna Sisters and seeing Sunny end the evening with his gracious praise and infectious smile. He reminded us that this wasn’t for Sunny’s Bar but for us. All of us. Sunny’s Bar isn’t just another ancient watering hole. It’s an everlasting community.

Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.