Williamsburg Independent Graphic Bookshop: Saved in 2024

Desert Island has been the independent graphic bookshop Williamsburg readers point to since it opened on Metropolitan Avenue in 2008, and in October 2024 its customers proved how much it matters. Facing a steep rent increase, the shop launched a fundraiser that Publishers Weekly reported brought in more than $80,000 in two days. The money let it secure a new space on the same avenue under a ten-year lease, so the store that champions small-press comics is still part of the neighborhood.

Gabe Fowler built Desert Island around comics that rarely reach chain stores: risograph-printed minis, self-published zines, art comics and international small-press titles sit beside graphic novels from independent publishers. The shop is also known for Smoke Signal, its own newsprint comics anthology, which has given space to both established cartoonists and newcomers. That publishing habit explains why the shelves feel edited by someone who reads everything, rather than stocked from a distributor list.

Fowler also helped launch Comic Arts Brooklyn, the indie comics festival that debuted in Williamsburg in 2013. If you have been to a small-press comics fair in New York, there is a fair chance some of the creators you met first reached readers through this shop's racks.

The threat was simple: the landlord wanted far higher rent, and a small comics shop's margins could not absorb it. Brooklyn Paper, Greenpointers and Lit Hub all covered the campaign, which drew support from cartoonists and readers well beyond the neighborhood. Greenpointers later reported that the fundraiser led to a new home with a ten-year lease, and a later local write-up noted that the old storefront closed in December 2024 before the move along Metropolitan Avenue.

For a visitor, the practical effect is that older map pins and blog posts may show the earlier storefront. Search for the shop's current listing before you set off, and expect it on the same stretch of Metropolitan Avenue near the Lorimer Street and Metropolitan Avenue stations.

Small-press comics reward slow browsing. Start with the front racks, where new minis and zines usually appear, then move to the shelves of graphic novels from publishers such as Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly and Silver Sprocket. Many of the thinnest books are the most interesting, so pick up anything with a hand-printed cover.

The staff are the shop's best search engine. Describe two books you love and ask what else sits in that space; independent comics sellers tend to answer with a stack rather than a single title. Skip the urge to ask for mainstream superhero runs here. Desert Island is not built around Marvel and DC back issues, and you will get more from the visit by leaning into what it does best.

McCarren Park sits a short walk north, and on a clear day it is the natural place to open what you just bought. The park's lawns and benches along Bedford Avenue fill with readers and dog walkers on weekend afternoons, and the running track and the restored McCarren Park Pool give it a lively edge. A bench on the quieter Lorimer Street side is the better reading spot.

If the weather turns, the cafes along Bedford Avenue make good fallback reading rooms. Most of them get crowded after noon on Saturdays, so a weekday visit gives you the best chance at a table.

For a second bookstore, continue north into Greenpoint, where WORD Bookstores runs a general independent shop on Franklin Street. It is a different experience from Desert Island: a broad literary stock, children's books and events, with graphic novels as one section among many. That contrast is the point, because a general shop is often where you will find the crossover graphic memoirs that small-press racks skip.

The walk from Metropolitan Avenue to Franklin Street takes roughly twenty-five minutes through McCarren Park, or you can ride the G train two stops to Greenpoint Avenue. Ending in Greenpoint also puts you near the East River waterfront at sunset.

A useful approach for a first visit is to leave with three very different objects: one graphic novel from an independent publisher, one stapled mini-comic or zine by a local artist, and one issue of an anthology. That mix gives you a snapshot of the scene at three scales, from a polished book to a photocopied experiment, and it makes it easier to decide which artists to follow afterward.

Write down the names inside the anthology before you leave the neighborhood. Many small-press cartoonists sell directly through their own websites or at fairs like Comic Arts Brooklyn, and an anthology contributor list is often the fastest way to find the next book you will love. Keep receipts and notes together, because mini-comics rarely carry the kind of publishing details that make them easy to search for later.

Readers who make comics themselves should bring a copy of their own work. Independent shops that sell zines and minis often consider submissions, and the staff can tell you how they handle consignment, which is far more useful than guessing from a website.

Make the trip if you read indie comics, collect zines, make your own comics or simply want to see a shop that its readers kept alive. Skip it, or save it for another day, if your goal is a specific mainstream release; Forbidden Planet near Union Square or a larger Midtown comics store will serve that faster.

A fair judgment for first-time visitors: plan at least half an hour inside. The shop is compact, but the density of small books means a quick lap misses most of what is there.

Take the L to Lorimer Street or the G to Metropolitan Avenue; both stations share an interchange and put you within a few blocks of the shop. From Manhattan, the L from Union Square makes the trip in well under half an hour on most days.

Karpo APP can help you shape the afternoon. Tell Karpo you are heading to Desert Island, whether you want a reading spot, a second bookstore or a coffee nearby, and how much time you have, and it can suggest an order for the stops and keep your list of titles and places together in one chat for the next visit.