Every October, all geek roads typically lead to New York Comic Con, one of the largest celebrations of pop culture. Amid the reported masses of 250,000 traversing the Jacob Javits Center Oct. 9-12 were many Long Island comics creators who have carved their own niche in the field. Newsday caught up with three of them to collect their origin stories.
Josh Bernstein
Josh Bernstein, who grew up in Floral Park and East Northport, is the president of Z2 Comics. Credit: Bryan Reesman
The Z2 Comics president-partner Josh Bernstein, who grew up in Floral Park and East Northport, began his comics career at age 13 contributing drawings to Newsday’s Kidsday page, and at 16 interning at Marvel Comics and gaining wisdom from Stan Lee and John Romita. He also recalls working at Paper Moon, comics store in East Northport. “I got paid four bucks an hour to bag and board comics,” Bernstein, 49, recalls. “I don’t think I ever made enough to pay off the comics that I would buy each week in my hold box.”
He took art classes and studied under the late John Tartaglione who drew Marvel’s Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa comics in the 1980s.
His first Comic Con was in 1992 back when “it was just comics and dudes selling VHS tapes of ‘Star Trek’ or TV Guide collections,” Bernstein recalls. “There wasn’t really cosplay. It’s a pop-culture convention now, but back then it truly was a comic book convention. That’s what brought me to the dance.”
Bernstein has been in the music business for over 20 years — tackling everything from editorial to TV hosting and producing awards shows — and he’s transformed the nearly 12-year-old Z2 Comics into a main destination for iconic musicians to release their own comics book projects. Those artists include Iron Maiden, Tori Amos and Black Veil Brides, and at this year’s con Z2 held a bash celebrating new and upcoming releases from Kool Keith, the Blues Brothers, and actor and comics writer David Dastmalchian.
“We’re excited to celebrate and hawk our wares,” Bernstein says. “But I’m a fan myself, so I get to walk around and shop and fill up a large bag.”
Rachel Silverstein
Huntington native Rachel Silverstein is a full-time ceramicist, but comics are her side gig. Credit: Bryan Reesman
The Huntington native got into comics in a roundabout fashion. “I have a weird background,” Silverstein says. “I have a bachelor’s in geology, a master’s in paleontology and then I went to law school. Now I do comics as my side gig, and I am a full-time ceramicist.” Her company is called Put Your Butts Here Ceramics.
A self-described comic book nerd in her teens, Silverstein, 32, fell into the medium after serendipitously forming bonds with comics people through social media and at conventions, particularly writer Ben Kahn (Heavenly Blues, Monster High: Howliday Haunt). They collaborated on the GLAAD-nominated graphic novel Renegade Rule, about a queer, all-female VR gaming team, and its sequel Renegade Royale. While the titles have been labeled as fantasy, she prefers calling them sports action comedy. She has future projects in development and hopes to write another Renegade title.
This year, Silverstein was on the Water, Earth, Fire, Air: Continuing the Avatar Legacy panel for the third time as she contributed a story to The Legends Of Korra: Patterns In Time anthology which is part of the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe.
“I love to make connections with people, especially the ones who I’ve talked to online,” Silverstein says of Comic Con. She also likes meeting fellow creators. “Sometimes the friends that I’ve made over the years, I only see them once a year here. They’re from all over the country. Some of the folks from Dark Horse Comics who live out west, I get to see them. In general, I look forward to walking around.”
Josh Hixson
Josh Hixson, of West Babylon, is an artist for comic series including The Deviant and The Children in the Woods. Credit: Bryan Reesman
Though he now is a Long Islander as well as an artist for comic series including The Deviant and The Children in the Woods and the forthcoming Absolute Arkham one-shot, Hixon grew up in Franklin, North Carolina. “The nearest comic shop was an hour from me, so I would get comics from the grocery store, thrift stores, flea markets, or the library,” recalls Hixson, 34, who lives in West Babylon. He didn’t go to a comics stores until he was a teen. “Coming here [to Long Island], I was like a kid in a candy store. They were everywhere.”
Hixson moved to the South Shore in 2008, originally living with his aunts while he attended community college and then the School of Visual Arts, where he studied cartooning. He feels that his popular horror comic The Deviant, an Image Comics title about a killer Santa, could easily translate to the screen. “A lot of people have been responding really well to The Deviant,” Hixon says. “It’s probably my favorite thing I’ve done, and I feel like it’s a very special and unique book.”
While Hixson recently collaborated with fellow Long Island resident and writer Scott Snyder (Batman, American Vampire) on a three-part Department of Truth story about Elvis Presley, the artist admits, “There’s not a whole lot of us out on Long Island. Everyone’s in Brooklyn or Queens, so it’s nice to have fellow comic people out here.”
Over the years, he has done signings and taken commissions in his booth along NYCC’s Artist Alley. Hixson likes the Con because “I love connecting with friends and readers and fans,” he says. “It’s the one show I always do. It’s like my home.”