Newbury Comics

Last updated
Newbury Comics
Company type Private
Industry Music
Comics
DVDs
Pop Culture
Founded Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., 1978
FounderJohn Brusger
Mike Dreese [1]
Headquarters,
Number of locations
29
Area served
Northeastern United States
Subsidiaries Hootenanny
Website www.newbury.com
Newbury Comics' flagship store on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts Newbury Comics - Newbury St.JPG
Newbury Comics' flagship store on Newbury Street in Boston, Massachusetts
Newbury Comics in North Dartmouth; Now Moved Into The Dartmouth Mall Newbury Comics - Dartmouth.JPG
Newbury Comics in North Dartmouth; Now Moved Into The Dartmouth Mall
Harvard Square location Newbury Comics in the Harvard Garage (90022).jpg
Harvard Square location

Newbury Comics is an American comic book and music retailer based in New England. Newbury Comics began as a comic book vendor on Newbury Street in Boston. The company was founded in 1978 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology students John Brusger and Mike Dreese. Dreese also published Boston Rock , a music tabloid which was active from 1980 to 1987 that focused on punk, new wave and indie bands. There are now 29 stores in six states: four in New Hampshire, two in Rhode Island, one in Maine, two in Connecticut, and fourteen in Massachusetts. On August 20, 2016, Newbury Comics opened its first store outside of New England at the Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, New York. This location quickly became the #1 performing store in the chain. Since its opening, six additional locations have been opened in New York bringing its total to seven.

Contents

Since the late 1980s Newbury Comics has been a vendor of new and used CDs, LPs, singles, and DVDs, and other pop culture–related goods, including comics, manga, posters, T-shirts, trading cards, action figures, buttons, sports merchandise, jewelry, cosmetics, novelties and more.

The chain also had a sister store called Hootenanny which mostly sold punk-style clothing, located one floor below the Newbury Comics in Harvard Square. Hootenanny closed in May 2012, while the flagship Newbury Comics banner was altering its product mix to include more fashion. Newbury Comics stores are gradually shifting from strip centers to mall locations. [2]

Notable employees

Former logo; still in use at some locations Newbury comics logo.png
Former logo; still in use at some locations

In the movie Hatchet (2006), star Joel Moore spends much of the film in a blood-spattered Newbury Comics T-shirt. This was due to the fact, that writer/director, Adam Green, is from Mass, and loved the store. In reaction to this Newbury Comics started selling special Hatchet T-shirts like the one in the movie. The "Tooth Face" Logo T-shirt is featured in the second issue of The Bulletproof Coffin comics from Image Comics.

In the fifth and sixth season opening credits for Sabrina, the Teenage Witch , Sabrina, portrayed by Melissa Joan Hart, is seen walking out of the store on Newbury Street.

The song "Newbury Comics" by John Lipari was released on March 15, 2024 from his third studio album The Singer of Staten Island.

Store locations

Connecticut:

Maine:

Massachusetts:


New Hampshire:

New York:

Rhode Island:

Source: [5]

References

  1. Mike Dreese Archived copy
  2. "Newbury Comics: 'It's Always Morph or Die'", Publishers Weekly , April 6, 2012
  3. 1 2 Dreese seriously enjoys comics biz, Michael Saunders and Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, D4, December 5, 2000.
  4. "Tanya Donelly: Full Life Interview". YouTube . 20 March 2021.
  5. "Store locations". Newbury Comics. Retrieved 2 June 2020.