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Famed Queens Store Montasy Comics Opens New Geek Haven in Midtown

By Mathew Katz | April 17, 2012 6:57am
A shot of Montasy's new second-floor Midtown location.
A shot of Montasy's new second-floor Midtown location.
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Twitter/@MontasyMidtown

MIDTOWN — Midtown's geeks will soon have a place to wage epic Dungeons & Dragons battles, Pokemon card fights, and Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments as Montasy Comics, the decades-old Forest Hills-based purveyor of all things nerdy, opens a neighborhood location in May.

Montasy, which advertises itself as being located in the fictional home of Spider-Man (the web-slinger's alter ego, Peter Parker, grew up in Forest Hills), is well-known by comic book lovers as a place for cheap and unique copies of their superhero and arty favorites.

The new shop will sell comics, collectibles and trading cards, but Fahad Kashem, the store's manager, said the real point of the new location is to give Manhattanites a large space to get together and throw down the gauntlet.

"We have a lot of gaming tournaments in our stores," Kashem said. 

"We'll host Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, D and D, Pokemon and Warhammer tournaments," he said. 

The new second-floor space at 431 Fifth Ave. will seat from 80 to 100 players, Kashem said. The Queens spot can only host 60. Each tournament typically costs anywhere from $5 to $30 to enter.

The store's Twitter account, @MontasyMidtown, tweeted a picture of the new space last week.

Kashem added the Midtown location will need about 10 new employees. An open call for applications on Twitter got a huge response from applicants hoping for a comic book nerd's dream job.

"We've got a million of them so far," Kashem said. "We prefer people be interested in comics, or have experience judging tournaments."

The new store will kick off with a series of events, tournaments and sales on comics, starting with a Magic card release party on April 28.

Regular customers will also have the chance to become members, giving them a 20 percent discount on comics.