Comic Book Heaven from E.J. McLeavey-Fisher on Vimeo.

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Joe Leisner, the 80 year old former owner of Comic Book Heaven, a comics shop in Sunnyside Queens and the star of the above short film, is a character. An authentic New York character, as they say, and someone who’s been running a comics shop for 50 years, long before it became fashionable. So long that having a Shrek poster hanging in his store, or pondering the price of an issue of Moby Duck is the same to him as the latest Convergence title. If you watched the film,, you’ll definitely see a comics shop as it once was, and many still are: a little messy and timelost, a kingdom of ragged long boxes, but a friendly place for the regulars.

Leisner was 80 when the film was made in late 2013, and since then he’s closed down the shop and retired, but before the end he has old man complaints about the industry that couldn’t be scripted. “The business hasn’t been healthy for a while,” he says at one point. “Probably electronics had something to do with it.” His reminiscenses are also priceless. The “girl at Marvel” who suggested that new comics would one day be a profit center rather than back issues most probably refers to Carol Kalish, a pioneer of the direct sales market credited with getting shop owners to use cash registers. (Comic Book Heaven has one.)

E.J. McLeavey-Fisher directed the short, and it’s shot and edited beautifully. It’s an honest but indulgent tribute to a way of life that is going away fast. In fact, Jeremiah of
Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, a site I often turn to for heartbreaking news about some deli or bar closing, has an interview with McLeavey-Fisher:

Q: Something I like most about the film is its depiction of what might be called “a real New York character.” Can such a breed still exist in the city? And can they still run a successful business?

A: That breed can definitely still exist, but I don’t think they can necessarily run a shop like Comic Book Heaven without making some serious tweaks over time. To me, Joe’s “New York character” comes from that defiant, stubborn outlook that often gets equated with the overall NYC attitude. That’s the charm, of course, but when it applies to a business model, it’s not so sustainable. The conflict now is that people get a kick out of Joe and appreciate his efforts in a film like this, but when it comes down to it, they might still prefer a new coffee shop in that storefront.


Some might think it’s a good thing that old school stores like Comic Book Heaven are closing down, but it’s wonderful to have it preserved in this film.

The film has a FB page here.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Good thing? Hell no! Joe might be a cranky SOB in this video, but these kinds of attic / basement style old school comic shops are charming and fascinating.

  2. Joe was great *because* he was a cranky SOB, always ready to give an opinion on anything. I always appreciated that he’d order copies of my Lorelei series, even though he knew his regular customers wouldn’t be interested in a non-superhero title. But the neighborhood’s completely changed (Sunnyside’s now considered a “hip” area, according to the NY Times and Time Out magazine) and the people moving in were happy to see him leave, because apparently comic books are only for morons and the emotionally stunted, and his presence was “bringing down” the neighborhood. He’s much better off, now.

  3. In the late 1960s, before there were real comic book shops, guys like this running book stores were the standard. They knew a little about the market but thought they knew a lot. I remember in 1969 being in one such shop in Buffalo, NY where the guy had an issue of Castle of Frankenstein with Dracula on the cover and he wanted 5 times what it was worth because he insisted that “Christopher Lee is Stan Lee’s brother.” When I tried to explain the facts he acted like I didn’t know what I was talking about. Comic book dealers at conventions in the early 1970s were often like this, too.

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