Most people I meet have a popular story I don’t have — what it was like to come to New York City for the very first time. No matter how light or dark, simple or complicated the tale, I’m always fascinated by the different ways people meet and greet NYC. My 58+ years as a native New Yorker, I’ve never known what it’s like to come to New York City for the first time.
I was born in New York Hospital and I grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I’ve also lived in the center of Soho, and on 14th street between avenues B & C, until I made Brooklyn my home the last 28+ years. With the exception of three years at SUNY Purchase, I’ve only had four home addresses.
In many ways, I’ve taken NYC for granted my entire life. A melting pot of diverse cultures, art, food and languages. From Wo Hop in Chinatown to The Empire State Building to Times Square and Harlem.
When I was invited to be a guest at The Small Press Expo 2025 (SPX) earlier this month, one of the perks was getting to go see some of the original comic book and comic strip art The Library of Congress has in its vaults. A select group of American and international cartoonists got to view, up close and personal, a curated selection of art by the likes of Charles Schulz, Cliff Sterrett, Ernie Bushmiller, Milton Caniff, Winsor McCay, George Herriman, Jules Feiffer, Trina Robbins, Irwin Hasen, Roy Crane, William Steig, Peter Arno, Chris Ware, and Jim Rugg! It was an incredible privilege to encounter these precious documents.
Afterwards, I wanted to do something I’d never done: walk the National Mall.
I met up with my old pal/cartoonist, Josh Neufeld, and he escorted me from the United States Capitol to The Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I was moved by the serenity and magic of the massive green lawns, statues and statements. Flanked by the museums of history, science and art. All that American power and influence, good and bad, put on a pedestal. All that reverence and evidence. Like a giant message in a bottle for space aliens to one day discover (if they haven’t already).
I’ve been to other cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, Miami, Baltimore, London and Paris, but it wasn’t until I walked the National Mall that I knew what it might feel like to visit New York City for the first time.
It’s a lot.
At SPX 2025, I participated in a panel called “Other New York Cities” with Rachel Coad (New York City Glow), Peter Kuper (The System), Josh Neufeld (“Supply Chain Superhero”) and moderator Faith Cox. I recorded our conversation on my smart phone (please forgive the quality).
Below is a press release for an art show I’ve got a new piece in. If local, please swing by the opening this Saturday!
SKULL ROCK AT TREASURE ISLAND
SWEET LORRAINE GALLERY
Opening October 4th from 4pm-7pm 183 Lorraine St, BKNY
Ever feel like you could use a new head? Need an upgrade? Change your perspective? We have 164 new heads to choose from in this breathtaking feat of artistic excess.
“Skull Rock at Treasure Island” brings together artists from California to Iceland, New York to Spain, Chicago to Mexico, together for a deep dive into the age-old art trope of the head, with or without flesh. Each artist in this show is giving us a look inside of their thought process, an MRI with all the neurons exposed. It’s a census of composition. Perspective per capita.
ALSO — my good friend/artist/painter Inverna Lockpez is having a solo exhibition at Arts on Douglas Gallery, New Smyrna Beach, Florida on Saturday, October 4th from 4-7.
Inverna Lockpez will present a collection of twenty-two paintings that explore water from many perspectives. The poet, playwright, and essayist Harry Newman, Winner of the 2025 Gerald Cable Book Award in Poetry, wrote an essay accompanying this exhibition, in which he describes her work as “a contemplation of water as environment, as setting, as a point of departure. Not a thing unto itself, but a kind of process: a source of life and motion and possibility and the connections between them.”
READ MORE ABOUT INVERNA’S ART EXHIBITION HERE.
I had a great conversation with indie-comix legends, Jim Mahfood and Shawn Crystal on the Inkpulp Podcast #258 — where we told tales out of old school, and I reveal some loose details of my next comix Kickstarter launching VERY SOON.
Check out the fun fellas of the Indie Comics Relay podcast as they share a sweet video of their time at Small Press Expo (SPX) 2025. Watch it to the end where a hilarious thing happens between me, Johnny C., and a magic marker.
Here are links to episode #s of 35…36 and 37 of the VITO x DINO podcast where we talk about current comix news, our creative process, and wax about our favorite writers & artists. Easy listening for fans of the form, and good company for rookie and veteran creators burning the midnight oil.
And if you haven’t reached your limit listening and watching cool comix folks, check out my mentor, Howard Chaykin and John Siuntres of the Word Balloon podcast, let loose at Terrificon 2025, captured for eternity by the kind folks at Splash Pages. And if you stick around long enough, you’ll get a vocal cameo or two from me and hear Howard say:
“Dean Haspiel is one of the most iconoclastic members of his generation, a raging pain in the ass, smart and clever, and the winner of an Emmy -- which I believe will be engraved on his tombstone and then pissed on within days.”
--Howard Chaykin @Terrificon 2025
I’m taking that to my grave!
But before I die, come see me at New York Comicon 2025 in Artists Alley, at table K-33 with mate/cartoonist Dan Goldman a week from now. And then come find us at Baltimore Comicon 2025 a week later.
Most importantly, get NOTIFIED for my new jam.
See you in the gutters—
—Dean
Instagram / Website/Blog / Nightwork Studio / Etsy / VITO x DINO
My first time in NYC was on a bus with my high school choir. In our senior year of high school, we went to Annapolis then had an afternoon in New York City. They dropped us off in midtown and we had a few hours--being from Michigan in 1980 with the drinking age of 21, we of course hit a burger and brew were we could drink legal. Then, a group of us found ourselves near Black Rock (CBS), and some guy on the street pulled us it to watch the pilot episode of BUSTED COP, about a detective (Jamey Sheridan) who is framed but then goes undercover to infiltrate the mob. They gave us clickers to signal whether the show was keeping us interested or not, hot or cold ... never made it to air. Oh, and I think I bought a Tin-Tin at a French-language bookstore, Librairie de France, in Rockefeller Center -- now gone (mail order only).
Next time — assuming there is a next time you're at SPX — you and Josh are coming to Frederick to visit, where I'm buying dinner.