State of play
BY BEN BRACHFELD
Brooklyn knick-knack afi -
cionados will gather at the
Navy Yard next month for
New York ToyCon, celebrating
toys and the community
that appreciates them.
New York ToyCon will
take place Sept. 4 and 5 at the
Brooklyn Navy Yard. It is being
organized by Pow Con,
which puts on pop culture-oriented
conventions in the New
York metropolitan area. Its
last Brooklyn event was Pow
Comic Con at the Brooklyn
Expo Center in Greenpoint,
back in the Before Times of
January 2020.
Sal Lomedico of Pow Con,
who is organizing the event
with his partner Anthony
Valentine, told Brooklyn Paper
that after the Greenpoint
event, they resolved to hold
a convention specifi cally catered
Mugs Ale House will reopen as “Megs Ale House.” Photo by Craig Hubert
COURIER L 28 IFE, AUGUST 13-19, 2021
to toys and toy collectors.
“When they go to comic
conventions or conventions
in general, I think there’s so
much noise, whether it be
t-shirt vendors, artists, or
other kinds of things,” Lomedico
said. “By doing just
this, it allows those collectors
or people with nostalgia
in their heart to come in and
enjoy a show that can be catered
to their needs and their
likes.”
The COVID-19 pandemic
put a damper on their initial
plans, but after hosting a successful
Pow Con in New Jersey
back in May, they decided
once again to hold a ToyCon in
Brooklyn.
New York ToyCon will take place this September at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Unsplash/Xavi Cabrera
The organizers have already
sold 400 tickets to the
event and are expecting
around 1,500 people to show
up. Special guests will include
two of the original Power
Rangers from the original
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
show: Austin St. John, who
played the red Power Ranger,
and Walter Emanuel Jones,
who played the black Ranger.
The convention and expected
attendance refl ect the
growing popularity of toy collecting
among adults in New
York and around the world.
“The toy community in
New York is massive,” Lomedico
said. “The community
overall is very broad throughout
the United States. People
bought tickets from other
parts of the country, from Baltimore,
to people in Texas.
The community is very large,
if you look at stores nowadays,
the toy section isn’t for kids
anymore, now it’s for the toy
collector.”
BY CRAIG HUBERT
A legendary Williamsburg
bar is coming back to
life — under a slightly different
name.
Mugs Ale House,
which closed in June 2019
after 27 years at 125 Bedford
Ave., will soon reopen under
the slight name change of
“Megs Ale House,” according
to the agenda for Community
Board 1’s State Liquor Authority
Review meeting on
July 27, where discussion was
postponed to a later date.
The new name presumably
comes from one of its
owners, Meghan Joye. Along
with Diarmuid Joye, she is
the owner of a number of
bars located in Manhattan,
including the 11th Street Bar,
Blue Haven, Lucky Jack’s
and Donnybrook.
Details on the new establishment
remain slim. Joye
did not respond to a request
for comment.
The original Mugs Ale
House was known locally
as “the place to go when
you want to geek out with
other beer connoisseurs,”
as Brownstoner once wrote,
and was the regular gathering
place for groups such as
The Malted Barley Appreciation
Society (who now meet
up in Long Island City).
Comics shop reopens in IC
ToyCon coming to Navy Yard
BROOKLYN
Get mugged again
BY BEN VERDE
A staple of the New York
City comics community now
calls Sunset Park home.
St. Mark’s Comics, an East
Village cornerstone for 36
years before it closed up shop
in 2019, reopened last week in
a shiny new space in Industry
City, marking a return to brick
and mortar business for the
iconic shop.
“It’s the St. Mark’s Comics
of old, which means we’ll have
virtually everything that’s published,”
said Mitch Cutler, one
of the shop’s owners. “It’s nice
to be in this neighborhood.”
Cutler said he was encouraged
to move the shop elsewhere
immediately after the
closing of its fl agship.
“Even while we were closing
there were people saying ‘don’t
close, move here!’” he said. “Industry
City was one of them.”
After pulling 90 hours a
week in the shop for 36 years
straight, Cutler said he wasn’t
ready to jump back in immediately,
and needed some time to
rest. Over the past two years he
took part in conversations with
multiple prospective venues,
eventually landing at Industry
City.
The new St. Mark’s Comics in Industry City. St Mark’s Comics
The shop, known for its
large collection of big name
comic books and lesser known
titles, as well as its late night
hours, now inhabits a spacious
storefront in the Sunset Park
waterfront complex.
“The space is gorgeous,”
Cutler said. “It’s big and bright
and airy, and has much higher
ceilings.”
The shop, which once had a
storefront in Brooklyn Heights
in addition to two Manhattan
shops has already hosted three
book signings since opening
Friday, July 30, with plans to
host even more, according to
Cutler.
St. Mark’s Comics is also
joining forces with Cutler’s
business partner Nick Giangarra’s
vintage toy company
Big Tin Robot Toys and Collectibles
to strengthen their toy selection.
“We’ve always done vintage
toys, but we’ll do a better
and deeper job,” said Cutler.
St Mark’s Comics at 51 35th
St. in Sunset Park, open daily
from\11am-8pm Monday-Tuesday,
10am-9pm Wednesday-
Saturday, and 11am-7pm on
Sundays, www.stmarkscomics.
com.
/www.stmarkscomics
/www.stmarkscomics