Video about New Dimension comic book store (featuring Ed Piskor!)

[Video Link] I was thrilled to see our pal Ed "Brain Rot" Piskor in this great video about a fantastic old-school comic book store on Pennsylvania called New Dimension that actually sells used comic books!

Ed says:

Hey Mark. I'm not too sure what the comic shops look like in Cali, but on the east coast, it seems like boxes and boxes of back issues, and real estate costs have been clashing with stores and a lot of shops have been relegated to selling collections, graphic novels, etc. Stuff that fits on the bookshelf.

I have a couple really great cartoonist friends in Pittsburgh, who brought me along to this store I've never been to, in the middle of farm country, where this guy seems to be buying massive collections from estates, and from shops that have gone out of business, and it looks like he's figured out a way to make selling back issues work for his business.

My pal Julie Sokolow thought it was worth filming and she cut a video together of our trip there. Thought you might dig the geek fest.

I do dig it!

• [Girard]

  It looks like a great place to pick up “fights in tights” comics, but for my money they best comic shop in Pittsburgh is the Copacetic Comics Co. http://www.copaceticcomics.com/ It’s run by a single, eccentric, enthusiastic dude with his ear to the ground re: what’s new and exciting in the world of comics, and who sells everything at a mark-down from the cover value. I haven’t lived in Pittsburgh for about 7 years now, but I still rely on their monthly email list to keep me abreast of each month’s significant new releases, and still try to order stuff from them rather than Amazon when I can.

  • [Preston Sturges]

    I used to hike up Squirrel Hill to Heads Together to get Zap Comix.

    • [Brian Easton]

      Heads Together has been gone for nearly a decade.

• [Preston Sturges]

  I loved the video and God bless this guy for taking advantage of dirt cheap commercial space in little rust belt communities. 

  Western PA has a tradition of small town life that freely mixes Scotch/Irish,  Italian, Polish, Slovac, Russian Orthodox, and Jewish immigrants in a very European way.  You can be “bohemian” in a way that would never be possible in the Bible Belt. Whatever you do, people are like “That’s cool, we all mind our own business..”

• [Matt Brady]

  As the “good friend” at 1:01 in that video, I can tell you that a visit to the Ellwood store is an experience like none other. Go there for the basement sale, and submerge yourself in the smell and feel.

  • [Preston Sturges]

    Kudos for the John Astin avatar. Do you have a sister? 

• [Daniel Werneck]

  That was very nice and educational.

• [yupgiboy]

  But if you’re southwest of Pittsburgh, then you should go to Pittsburgh Comics in McMurray.

• [Brian Easton]

  For comics in Pittsburgh you can’t go wrong with Phantom of the Attic in Oakland. Everything about that place is top notch. Plus, Ed is doing a signing there next week.