Escape Pod Comics Of Long Island Celebrates 10 Years: 'Come Check Us Out'

HUNTINGTON, NY — Menachem Luchins opened Escape Pod Comics in February 2013 after experiencing burnout as an English teacher. A decade later, the comic book shop still runs at 302 Main St., Huntington, and Luchins plans to celebrate — with customers old and new.

Luchins, 40, is a fan of comic books as a medium, he said. He recalls the shop in Brooklyn he visited every couple of months shuttered, and finding certain comics became frustrating. Stores told him no one ordered the book he sought.

"I would say, ‘But I’m ordering it right now. Here’s the code. You want me to pre-pay for it?’" Luchins told Patch. "I wouldn’t say they were against it or rude, but they didn’t really understand what I was trying to do."

Luchins felt that the shops he visited were staffed by people just looking for a retail job — not because they loved comics. Luchins, who had been doing comic-related writing online at the time, decided to open his own store.

"Thank God my wife has a very good job," Luchins said, noting his shop is a "passion project guided by a principle" as opposed to a strictly for-profit business.

"A big thing that we strive for is that we’re really trying to be a shop where anyone who walks in can discover what the medium of comics offers," Luchins said. "That means someone who thinks they know comics really well because they have collected them for 20 years should see things they’ve never seen or never thought of, and people who never read a comic book should see a large amount of stuff that actually looks interesting to them. That’s a little bit different than just trying to make sure someone walks out buying some piece of pop culture."

Escape Pod Comics offers just comics, but that wasn't always the case.

"When we opened, we were much more open-minded," Luchins said. "We ordered the occasional figure of very popular characters. We didn’t open with the decision to eschew all that stuff."

But the comic book industry continued to grow — rapidly.

"The whole concept of the shop is that people should walk in and see that there are comics that they didn’t even know existed," Luchins said. "There’s just so much out there. There’s such a wide range of stuff from a wide range of people that little by little, the market grew. It was already pretty great when we opened, but it’s gotten wider and wider. There was just no room for the other stuff. If we’re highlighting books, how is there room for anything else? We don’t even get half of the stuff that comes out every week."

The most rewarding part of 10 years in business, Luchins said, has been connecting people to books they would have never heard of or known about if Escape Pod Comics never launched. And then repeating that cycle with customers he's had since the shop's inception. He called it a "bizarre" feeling.

"We have a customer who is finishing her second year of college, and she started coming here in fourth grade. That is rewarding in the sense that there is a big payoff there. Seeing her come back year after year and see her tastes changing and growing, and us being able to provide for that growing and changing taste, definitely feels like a fulfillment of what we set out to do."

Huntington was not just the right spot for Escape Pod Comics, it was the only spot, according to Luchins. The community, he said, has true foot traffic and a real curiosity for the arts. The village also brings in people from across Long Island year-round.

But he knows there are still locals who have not heard about his shop.

"What I find really fascinating is how many people who live in Huntington, Northport or Greenlawn who are completely unaware we exist," Luchins said. "Please use this opportunity of hearing about us and our 10th anniversary to come check us out."

Escape Pod Comics, for its first several years, would hold events every other month to garner interest and spread comic book awareness. The coronavirus pandemic put a crimp in that, with the sole event of the past three years being held in November.

To celebrate 10 years, Luchins plans to get back to a regular event schedule. His biggest aspiration? Handing out free comics across Huntington.

The shop has thousands of comics left over from Free Comic Book Day. Luchins said his goal is to hand out free comics to different stores within a mile radius of Escape Pod Comics, starting in February.

"My goal with all these giveaway comics we’re trying to do is to see how many people come in here and say, 'You’ve been here how long?!'"

The shop will also release tote bags: an old design they did, as well as a new commemorative one.

Escape Pod Comics runs a Discounted Book of the Month event followed by small online group discussions.

A screening of "My Comic Shop Country," which Escape Pod Comics was featured in, is set for Feb. 20 at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington. Anthony Desiato, a filmmaker-and former AR employee, toured the United States and spoke with the owners of various comic shops. A panel would be held after.

A day before the screening, Luchins hopes to run an event at Huntington Public Library featuring the creators of Marvel's "Squirrel Girl," but said a book they were working on was delayed by a month, throwing the event into limbo. Luchins is checking to see if anything can be done to save the event, which he said would be "really wonderful."

"It’s a big deal for us that we’re doing events again," he said.