Loot is a Brooklyn comics "store" (463 Court St, Floor 2, 11231) that is oriented around encouraging local kids to become comics creators. Adults are only admitted if they're with kids, and the store sells $30/month memberships that entitle kids to use copious art supplies and meet with artist-mentors, as well as to borrow comics from the store's library.
The library came from the personal collection of the store's founder, Joseph Einhorn, and has been supplemented by community donations of both comics and cash. Activities in the space include making costumes and 3D comics settings out of salvaged cardboard and fun junk, electronics experimentation, and, of course, making comics.
Loot is located above a beloved local pizzeria, Franks.
The Brooklyn business is geared toward young and middle school readers and has a monthly subscription model that allows its clientele to binge on comics and take daily classes in writing and drawing their own stories. Think of Loot as less of a store and more of a book club and artistic retreat.The space is the brainchild of Joseph Einhorn, a father of three and the founder of Fancy, a shopping and scrapbooking site. He had two goals: to get young readers interested in comics and to get them away from their screens.
“I felt that if we didn’t do this, there would be a whole generation of young people that would miss this medium completely,” Mr. Einhorn said. But he’s not anti-tech. His sons, he said, were into Fortnite, and he wanted to bring some of its comic-style art and social networking into the analog world. And so Loot surrounds it members with comics, drawing supplies and regular art classes seven days a week.
She’s 8 Years Old. Her Superpower? Creating Anti-Bullying Comics. [George Gene Gustines/New York Times]
(Images: Catherine Michelle Bartlett and Joseph Einhorn)
(Thanks, Joseph!)
