Downtown Local

Tired of handwringing reports about “lost” and “disappearing” New York? These dispatches show a different side of the city—resilient and flourishing despite the naysayers and high rent. You can always count on Cometbus to provide a good subcultural fable. Where punks are the protagonists, and hippies often the fools. The villainous roles are filled by time, and death, and the whole thing will be related to books somehow. Even as Aaron implores the reader to focus on more than the ending, to pay attention to the process itself, he provides us with storybook reliability, and comforting resolution every time. 

Like a modern-day Joseph Mitchell, Cometbus visits projectionists studying Chinese in their booths, prophets whose pulpits are illegal sublets, and personal assistants who rule the roost once their bosses are out of sight. Readers get a tour of the downtown photographers and the uptown UN missions, complete with a survey of their trash. Punk scientists make their living counting cards at casinos while Albanian waiters keep hidden horseshoe diners open all night. Cover art by Eisner Award winner Nate Powell.