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THE GODFATHER OF GARAGE ROCK IS GOIN' LOCAL

Before punk had a name, Lenny Kaye was a kid from North Brunswick playing Rutgers frat parties with his bands, the Vandals and the Zoo. Saturday night, October 24, the 79-year-old legend comes home to New Jersey — playing solo at Randy Now's Man Cave in Hightstown behind his new album, "Goin' Local."

Kaye's story is the stuff of rock mythology. In 1969, Kaye was behind the counter at Village Oldies, a New York record shop, when a young poet named Patti Smith came looking for him — she'd read his piece on doo-wop and wanted to meet the man who wrote it. The two clicked, and together they helped create punk rock on the stage of CBGB.

Then there's "Nuggets," the landmark 1972 double album Kaye compiled — the record that first identified garage rock as a genre of its own. Little Steven Van Zandt puts it simply: "That is the godfather of garage rock!"

His new album, "Goin' Local," came out in July, and its closing song carries the whole story home. "Yes I Will" was co-written with his uncle, Larry Kusik — the lyricist behind "Speak Softly Love" from The Godfather. Near the end of his uncle's life, Kaye took the lyrics to the hospital, worked out the chords, and sang it for him. His uncle thanked him — and passed away the next morning, knowing how much he'd encouraged the young musician.

These days Kaye lives in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and he's in no hurry to chase anything. He'd like to make another solo record, he's got songs banked with his goth-psych jam band Adrift, and mostly he's enjoying making music "without a sense of destinations" — playing small rooms, singing his songs, staying connected to his musical lifeline.

Saturday night, October 24, that lifeline runs straight through Hightstown. A man who helped invent punk, playing a neighborhood shop for $35. That's about as Jersey as music gets.

(Reporting based on Chris Jordan's story for the Asbury Park Press — read the original at app.com, linked in the article footer.)

NINE PIECES, FOUR HORNS: BACKYARD SUPERHEROES ARE CENTRAL JERSEY'S SKA PARTY THAT NEVER STOPPED

Some bands get smaller as the years go on. Backyard Superheroes got bigger. The Central Jersey ska-punk band that started in 2012 as seven friends is now nine pieces with a four-piece horn section, and their latest album, Mass Hysteria, is loud proof that third-wave ska never really left New Jersey. It just kept skanking.

NERD WAVE SKA

The band calls its sound “Nerd Wave Ska” — catchy horn lines, sing-along choruses and non-stop energy, in the lineage of Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, Mustard Plug and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. The geek is the point: asked about the band name in an early interview, they explained they're all still kids at heart, and total geeks. It fit better than their other option, The Snowball Effect.

STARLAND BALLROOM REGULARS

Every New Jersey ska band measures itself against Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, and Backyard Superheroes have been on that stage for a decade. They played Skanksgiving — the genre's annual New Jersey blowout — in 2013 on a bill with Less Than Jake, again in 2014, and again on November 30, 2024, alongside Goldfinger, Save Ferris and The Pilfers. They've opened Starland shows for Less Than Jake and Save Ferris, and played hundreds of shows across the region in between.

MASS HYSTERIA

Their latest album, Mass Hysteria (Jump Up Records), packs ten songs — “Going Nowhere Fast,” “Reality Check,” “At Least My Dog Thinks I'm Cool,” “Antisocial Media,” “Along For The Ride,” “Pick Me Up,” “Reach For The Sky,” the title track and “Back To The Beginning” — and its colored-vinyl edition landed as a Record Store Day title in April 2026. It's the classic Backyard Superheroes contrast: the music is all sunshine and horns, while the lyrics take on depression, growing older and self-doubt. Pilfers frontman Coolie Ranx guests on the record, and the “At Least My Dog Thinks I'm Cool” video stars the band members' own pets.

The current lineup grew into this record. Tam Garcia, who had filled in with the band for years, joined as a full member and helped write it. Longtime friend Dave Sloyan of P-Funk North — a familiar face to readers of this site — has also jumped in on past records. The band gives back, too: holiday fundraisers are a tradition, and “Along For The Ride” appeared on BlowUpRadio's Rock Against Hate compilation.

WHAT'S NEXT

The story isn't finished. The band is currently writing a new album, and 2027 marks fifteen years since Backyard Superheroes started — an anniversary year they're planning big things around, though nothing is formally announced yet. When it is, you'll hear about it here.

Four albums in — a self-titled debut, Let's Get Dangerous, Never Give Up, Never Surrender and now Mass Hysteria — Central Jersey's ska party is still adding horns. Long may it skank.

A REAL-LIFE VIDEO GAME IS COMING TO GARDEN STATE PLAZA: LEVEL99 OPENS IN PARAMUS IN 2027

New Jersey is getting a playground built for grown-ups. Level99, the interactive gaming venue that turns video game mechanics loose in the real world, will open at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus in 2027 — its first location in New Jersey. Local buzz picked up again this week as the build-out approaches: roughly 38,000 square feet in the former Forever 21 space, two entrances, and a 220-foot storefront on the mall's main level.

NOT AN ARCADE. NOT AN ESCAPE ROOM.

Level99 is its own thing. Inside are 40 life-sized challenge rooms — themed, physical, mental and skill-based mini-games that teams of two to six players beat against the clock, each in about one to four minutes. Scattered through the arena are Duels, player-vs-player showdowns where your friends are the spectacle, and Hunt Art, a scavenger hunt for hidden glyphs worked into dozens of locally made art pieces.

It plays like a video game because it is one — just a physical one. Beating rooms earns stars and currency, progress saves to your profile between visits, and leaderboards track the best teams. Most players only see about a third of the challenges on a first visit, which is rather the point.

BUILT BY PEOPLE WHO BUILD FUN

Level99 opened its original location at the Natick Mall in Massachusetts in 2021 — a 48,000-square-foot venue — and has since expanded to Providence and Tysons, Virginia. The team behind it has worked on 5 Wits, Boda Borg, the Blue Man Group and Walt Disney Imagineering. Founder and CEO Matt DuPlessie says the Paramus location "will showcase some of our most ambitious design work to date."

THE PIT STOP

Between challenges, a centrally located bar anchors the Paramus venue, with a craft cocktail program built in-house — every infusion, syrup and garnish made on site. At the Natick original, the food side runs through Night Shift Brewing's beer hall and tap room, Detroit-style pizza included. Pricing at the existing locations runs about $30 for two hours, $40 for four, or $50 for all day.

Paramus already draws shoppers from across Bergen County and New York. In 2027, it gets a boss level.

DELTA REIGN IS COMING: MEGA RAYQUAZA RETURNS NOVEMBER 6

The storm arrives November 6. Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution—Delta Reign, the sixth set of the Mega Evolution era, lands in stores worldwide on Friday, November 6 — and it brings back a legend. Mega Rayquaza ex headlines the set, the first Mega Rayquaza in the card game since the XY era more than a decade ago. Rayquaza hasn't fronted a flagship expansion since Evolving Skies in 2021, and collectors have noticed.

WHAT'S IN THE SET

Delta Reign runs more than 135 cards: 103 in the main set, the rest secret rares. Four Mega Evolution Pokémon ex lead the charge — Mega Rayquaza ex, plus Mega Golurk ex, Mega Malamar ex and Mega Golisopod ex — alongside six more Pokémon ex, 14 illustration rares, 17 ultra rares and six special illustration rares. The set adapts Japan's Storm Emeralda expansion, which launched there in July.

THE CHASE

Three versions of Mega Rayquaza ex sit at the top of the pile — the regular card, a full-art ultra rare and a special illustration rare — with a gold Mega Ultra Rare above them all. In Japan, that gold Rayquaza was trading around ¥99,800 in September, and the special illustration rare near ¥39,800. Below them, the special illustration rares of Raikou ex and the Supporter card Zinnia's Trust round out the chase list.

A BRAND-NEW TRICK: LEGENDARY STADIUMS

Delta Reign introduces Legendary Stadiums — Stadium cards that come in pairs, played together, with one illustration running across both cards. There are three of them — Pyroduct, Summit and Trench — and a pack that contains one half contains the other one too.

THE KYOGRE ONLY AN ETB CAN GIVE YOU

The Elite Trainer Box ($49.99, nine packs) carries the set's sneakiest chase: a full-art Kyogre illustration rare that was cut from the English main set entirely — it exists only as the box's promo card. The Pokémon Center version ($59.99, eleven packs) adds a stamped copy. One word of caution from the preorder trenches: some shops are already listing ETBs well over the $49.99 sticker, weeks before release. Patience beats premiums — the set isn't scarce yet.

IT STARTS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24

Can't wait for November 6? Prerelease events run October 24 through November 1 at local game stores, played with Build & Battle boxes — the four prerelease promos are Masquerain, Magmortar, Enamorus and Kommo-o. It's the first chance to pull Delta Reign early, and to find out whether the Rayquaza hype is real. Check our Pokémon page for the local card show listings — prerelease seats go fast.

HE PAID $10 FOR A COIN. IT JUST SOLD FOR $189,000.

At a Long Beach coin show in 2008, collector Lee Lydston paid $10 for an Eisenhower dollar mixed in with ordinary ones. On October 18, 2026, that same coin sold at GreatCollections for $189,000 — and it wasn't even its biggest payday. It had already sold at Heritage Auctions in 2022 for $264,000.

The difference between this dollar and the millions sitting in change jars is one word: prototype.

A DOLLAR THAT WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO EXIST

The Eisenhower dollar debuted in 1971, honoring President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the front and the Apollo 11 eagle landing on the Moon on the back, designed by Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro. Before production began, the Mint struck a small number of high-relief test pieces so technicians could see how the design behaved under the heavy-duty coin presses. Those test strikes were never meant to leave the Mint.

Lydston's coin is one of only three 1971-S prototypes known to exist. It is 40% silver, struck in noticeably higher relief than the coins that reached the public, and the Moon on its back still has craters that were smoothed away on the final design. It went on to become the first coin ever certified by a major grading service as a true prototype in private hands — its owner dubbed it "the Birth Certificate of America's Last Silver Dollar."

THE OTHER TWO

The second prototype turned up in a pawn shop in 2010, where collector Charles Chatham found it still sealed in the Mint's official blue envelope; it later sold for $102,000. The third surfaced on eBay in 2013 — and sold for $22.

A $10 show buy, a pawn shop find, and a $22 online sale. All three escaped into the wild the same way: nobody recognized them at first.

CHECK YOUR IKES — BUT KEEP IT REAL

Ordinary Eisenhower dollars are common. The Mint made them from 1971 to 1978 by the hundreds of millions, and circulated examples are worth a little over face value — you'll find Eisenhower dollars in our own Marketplace, priced a whole lot closer to $10 than to $189,000.

The prototype tells are specific: a San Francisco "S" mintmark, 40% silver, unusually high relief, and those craters on the Moon that production coins don't have. With only three known and the Mint never releasing them, the odds of a fourth hiding in a drawer are astronomical. But then, all three finders thought they'd bought an ordinary dollar, too.

Somewhere between a $10 tube of coins and a $189,000 gavel is every collector's favorite daydream. Lee Lydston got to live it twice.

ONE HAND, NINE TOUCHDOWNS: THE KJ DUFF SHOW

If you're only watching one college football player in New Jersey this fall, make it the 6-foot-6 captain wearing No. 8 for Rutgers.

KJ Duff doesn't just catch passes — he collects them, usually with one hand, usually with a defender hanging off him. Last Saturday at Maryland, his one-handed, toe-tapping touchdown grab was named the No. 1 play of the day by SportsCenter. He finished that game with nine catches, 113 yards and two touchdowns, and on Monday he was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week — the first Rutgers wide receiver ever to win the award since the school joined the conference.

The numbers behind the highlights are just as loud. Through six games, Duff has nine receiving touchdowns — one short of the Rutgers single-season record held by Leonte Carroo, Brandon Coleman and Marco Battaglia. He ranks third in the entire country in receiving touchdowns, and last week the Associated Press put him on its Midseason All-America Second Team. Earlier this season he set a program record by scoring a receiving touchdown in five straight games.

None of this came out of nowhere. Duff arrived from St. Anthony's High School on Long Island as the top-ranked recruit in New York, picking Rutgers over Texas A&M, Miami and a line of other powers. After a 27-catch freshman year, he broke out as a sophomore with 1,084 receiving yards — the first Scarlet Knight over 1,000 in more than a decade — including a 241-yard afternoon at Purdue, the second-biggest receiving day in school history. NFL scouts noticed. Duff came back for 2026 anyway, announcing his return at a Rutgers basketball game, and the scouts are circling even harder now.

Rutgers is 2-4 and fighting for its season, starting Saturday, October 24, at No. 24 Northwestern (noon, Peacock — it's on our Community Events calendar). Wherever this season lands, Duff is giving Jersey a reason to watch every single Saturday. One more touchdown ties the record. Two makes it his alone.

Catch him while he's here.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: WEEK 8 LOCAL GAMES

It's Week 8, and the regular season is down to its final Fridays. The local slate is loaded Friday night, October 23 — here's where our towns are playing.

BOUND BROOK CLOSES AT HOME

Sussex Tech (0-7) at Bound Brook (2-6), 7 PM at Lamonte Field. The Crusaders started 0-6 and have won two straight, including last week's 21-20 squeaker over Middlesex. The playoffs are out of reach, but a win Friday night sets up a shot at a four-game winning streak to close the year — not a bad ending after that start. Both of MyCentralJersey's pickers like the Crusaders on Friday night.

SOMERVILLE TAKES ITS SHOT

Somerville (5-3) at Elizabeth (8-0), 6 PM. The Pioneers draw the toughest assignment in the area: an undefeated Elizabeth team on its own field. A win would be the Ville's signature moment of the season.

THE CARTY BOWL

Hillsborough (1-7) at No. 11 Montgomery (5-3), 6 PM. This one is family business: Kevin Carty Jr. coaches Hillsborough on one sideline, his brother Sean Carty coaches Montgomery on the other, and their dad Kevin Sr. — the old Somerville skipper — will be somewhere in the stands. Montgomery is headed to the playoffs and playing for seeding; Boro would love to spoil the night.

ALSO FRIDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 23

• Watchung Hills (4-4) at Bridgewater-Raritan (6-2), 6 PM — the Panthers are unbeaten at home and tuning up for the playoffs.
• Hudson Catholic at Immaculata, 7 PM — the Spartans hold it down in Somerville.
• Brearley at North Plainfield, 7 PM.
• Manville at Dayton, 7 PM.
• Franklin at Woodbridge, 6 PM.
• J.P. Stevens at Middlesex, 7 PM.
• And Saturday, October 24: Bernards at Summit, 1 PM.

Bundle up and get out there — there's nothing like a Friday night in the fall. Good luck to all our local teams.

SYDNEY SWEENEY IS FILMING IN HOBOKEN: 'THE HOUSEMAID'S SECRET' TAKES OVER THE MILE SQUARE CITY

If you've seen film trucks around uptown Hoboken in October 2026, you've already spotted the biggest sequel shoot in New Jersey this fall. The Housemaid's Secret — the follow-up to last year's surprise blockbuster The Housemaid — is in production now in Hoboken and Jersey City, and Lionsgate has confirmed the cameras are rolling.

THE SIGHTINGS

Sydney Sweeney and co-star Michele Morrone were photographed filming together on Wednesday, October 14, around 10th Street and Park Avenue in Hoboken, with crews working Garden Street in the uptown blocks. The Hive, a local coffee shop, closed for a day of filming, and the production paid the city roughly $22,000 for permits and parking. Crews have also set up at Tommy's Family Restaurant in the Heights section of Jersey City and at William Paterson University in Wayne. Between scenes, Sweeney kept a promise to a group of kids waiting near the set and came back to take photos with them.

THE MOVIE

Sweeney returns as Millie Calloway, the housemaid with a past, and this time she also produces. Director Paul Feig is back behind the camera, working from Rebecca Sonnenshine's script, adapted from the second novel in Freida McFadden's best-selling trilogy. Millie's new job is keeping house for Douglas Garrick (Paul Anthony Kelly, in his feature film debut), whose wife Wendy (Kirsten Dunst) is said to be too ill ever to be seen. Behind a locked door is a truth that threatens to expose secrets darker than Millie's own. Morrone returns as Enzo, with Brittany Snow and Stephen Kalyn rounding out the cast.

WHY A SEQUEL SO FAST

Because the first one was a phenomenon. The Housemaid opened on December 19, 2025 — the same day as Avatar: Fire and Ash — and simply refused to leave: it finished with $400.5 million worldwide on a $35 million budget, and Lionsgate greenlit the sequel less than a month later. The first film shot in New Jersey too. Apparently, all roads lead back to Hudson County.

THE LONG GAME

Lionsgate has optioned all three of McFadden's Housemaid novels plus a short story, so The Housemaid's Secret is the middle of a planned franchise, not a one-off. It arrives in theaters on December 17, 2027 — the same date as Avengers: Secret Wars. The little thriller is picking a fight with Marvel again. Last time, it won.

THE RIPPER COMES TO THE ROCK: RUTT'S HUT IS NOW SERVING AT PRUDENTIAL CENTER

Some food news is just Jersey news. Rutt's Hut — the Clifton institution that has been deep-frying hot dogs since 1928 — has joined the food lineup at Prudential Center for the 2026-27 Devils season. It is the first time in its history that Rutt's has served inside an arena, and it is doing it with New Jersey's only NHL team.

WHAT IS A RIPPER?

A Ripper is a Thumann's beef-and-pork frank dropped into hot oil and deep-fried until the casing cracks and splits — the rip is where the name comes from. The outside goes snappy and crisp, the inside stays juicy, and the classic order adds Rutt's famous yellow relish, a mustard-and-cabbage mix they've been making for generations. Regulars order by doneness: an "In-and-Out" gets a quick dip, a "Weller" is well-done, and a "Cremator" is charred black.

A CLIFTON INSTITUTION

Royal "Abe" Rutt and his wife Anna opened the original roadside stand in 1928. The Rutt family sold it in 1974 to the owners who still run it today at 417 River Road in Clifton. The Daily Meal has named the Ripper the No. 1 hot dog in America multiple times — for a hot dog counter on River Road, that's not a bad century.

NOW AT THE ROCK

The Rutt's stand sits near Section 15 at Prudential Center and debuted at the preseason opener — a 2-1 Devils win over the Islanders. Sports Business Journal reports that more than 1,200 Rippers were sold during the first preseason game they were available. A plain Ripper runs $8.49, one with chili is $9.99, and the crispy onion rings made the trip to Newark too. Same Thumann's dogs, same relish, same chili. No imitations.

Ninety-eight years in, the best hot dog in America just got a bigger room. If you're going to a Devils game this season, you know what to get.

FERRARO'S PIZZERIA & PUB: TRADITIONAL ITALIAN, FULL OF FLAVOR, IN A ROOM FULL OF ART

Ferraro's Pizzeria & Pub, at 275 Lincoln Boulevard in Middlesex, starts with the pizza: a thin, crisp bar pie that pizza people talk about. The vodka sauce pizza with fresh ricotta is the signature order, the Margherita runs right behind it, and the kitchen's heart is traditional Italian with an American feel — full of flavor, backed by Old World Italian dishes and homemade desserts. Simply put, the food is really good.

The room matches the food. Murals and mosaics by local artist Drake Barry cover the walls and the patio — painted street scenes and storefronts inside, a sun mosaic outside — and the atmosphere stays relaxed and unhurried. The service is attentive without hovering, the kind that lets a table settle in: a full bar with rotating taps, a private party room for up to 60, and a patio out back.

The details: 275 Lincoln Blvd, Middlesex · (732) 667-3863 · ferrarospizzeriapub.com · Closed Mondays

BOUND BROOK IS IN THE MOVIES: JESSE EISENBERG SHOT 'THE DEBUT' AT THE BROOK ARTS CENTER

Most movies fake their locations. This one didn't have to. The Debut, the new musical comedy written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, is set at the Brook Arts Center — and it was filmed at the Brook Arts Center, Bound Brook's own historic theater on Hamilton Street, which plays itself on screen under its real name.

THE MOVIE

Set in 1990, The Debut stars Julianne Moore as Mona Friedman, a shy New Jersey housewife who wanders into an audition for Nosy Neighbors, a fictional musical at the Brook, and lands the small part of Miss Danielle. The theater's director, Jerry — played by Paul Giamatti — is a local legend with an iron will, and under his spell Mona doesn't just learn the part, she becomes it, until the role starts taking over her whole life. Moore and Giamatti are both Emmy winners, and the cast around them includes Halle Bailey, Colton Ryan, Bernadette Peters and Eisenberg himself. Eisenberg also wrote the film's songs; Emma Stone is among the producers, and A24 is releasing it.

THE THEATER PLAYS ITSELF

The Brook opened on January 19, 1927, a 1,300-seat vaudeville house designed by William E. Lehman. It is the only surviving vaudeville theater in Somerset County and sits on the National Register of Historic Places. The building has survived what would have finished most theaters: Hurricane Floyd put 17 feet of Raritan River water in the auditorium in 1999, a nonprofit bought and restored it, a second flood hit in 2007, and the Brook came back again. Today it hosts plays, concerts and its own community players — a working community theater, which is exactly what Eisenberg's story needed.

EISENBERG'S OWN STORY

This one is personal. Eisenberg grew up in East Brunswick, and the film is modeled on his own childhood: in 1990, at age seven, he was a shy, friendless kid who walked into a community theater and found his people. "Suddenly everybody was so nice, and they hugged me," he has said of that first day. He took that memory, handed it to an older character because Julianne Moore could carry it further, and brought the cameras home to New Jersey to shoot it.

THE BUZZ

The Debut premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 5 and played the New York Film Festival, where festival critics came out raving — several are already predicting an Academy Award nomination for Moore. It opens in theaters across the United States on December 11, 2026.

Bound Brook has a movie star on Hamilton Street. It's been there since 1927.

KEVIN SMITH WANTS TO PUT YOU IN HIS NEXT MOVIE

Only in New Jersey does the guy who worked the counter at a Leonardo convenience store grow up to put his customers in movies. Kevin Smith — born in Red Bank, raised in Highlands — is now holding the door of his next feature open to anyone: an open casting award where fans audition for real speaking roles.

Here's how it works. Smith has teamed with the nonprofit Decentralized Pictures on the Kevin Smith Casting Award. Submissions opened October 15 and run through November 15. It costs $25 to enter, you must be 18 or older, and no professional experience is required. The audition is a provided set of lines, performed in the spirit of Jay — yes, that Jay, the one Jason Mewes has been playing for more than 30 years. The community votes on the submissions, and Smith and the Decentralized Pictures board pick up to two winners from the top-rated entries. The prize is the real thing: speaking roles in Smith's upcoming feature, with travel to the shoot in Canada or Los Angeles covered.

"I'm thrilled to team up with the folks at Decentralized Pictures to find new talent to join the View Askewniverse," Smith said.

If anybody has earned the right to cast this way, it's Smith. He made Clerks for $27,575, shot at the Quick Stop in Leonardo where he actually worked, maxing out credit cards and selling his beloved comic book collection to pay for it. The film became a Sundance hit and launched the View Askewniverse — Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and the rest, nearly all of it rooted in Monmouth County. These days he owns Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Red Bank and SModcastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands. This is a filmmaker who never left home; now he's inviting home to join him on screen.

The timing couldn't be better. Brian O'Halloran — Dante himself — just confirmed he has the script for Jay and Silent Bob: Store Wars, in which Jay and Silent Bob, who ended Clerks III running their own dispensary, go to war with a rival dispensary across the street. Filming starts in November.

Full disclosure: this site's own Mewes is named after Jason Mewes, so consider this a community service announcement. If you enter, tell us in the Chat room — we want one of our own in this movie, and we'll vote like it.

Deadline is November 15. Snoogans.

EAST SIDE MAGS IS THE COMIC SHOP THAT BECAME A CLUBHOUSE

Plenty of comic shops sell you a book and send you home. East Side Mags would rather you stay awhile.

The shop sits at 491 Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair, and it takes its name from a song by the Bouncing Souls — New Jersey punk royalty. That tells you most of what you need to know about the attitude: punk rock, community, and do-it-yourself.

Owner Jeff Beck collected comics for about 25 years before opening the doors in June 2014. After seven and a half years on South Fullerton Avenue, he moved the shop into a bigger Bloomfield Avenue space in September 2021. Reviewers rate it 4.9 stars, and regulars talk about it less like a store and more like a clubhouse.

ON THE SHELVES

Marvel and DC anchor the racks, with Image, Dark Horse and local creators alongside, plus back issues, trade paperbacks, manga, figures and statues. Start a pull list and your weekly books are set aside for you — no release-day scramble.

MORE THAN A STORE

Some of the shop's signings, comedy nights and movie nights don't charge a fee at all — they ask for canned goods instead, donated to local groups like Toni's Kitchen and Montclair Mutual Aid. The calendar stays full: Dungeons & Dragons for all ages and experience levels, Magic and Pokémon tournaments, drawing classes, a Saturday Morning Cartoon Club, and the Montclair Zine Fest. Dogs are welcome, too.

ZOMBIES IN OCTOBER

The signature event is the annual Montclair Zombie Walk, run with Indie Arts Montclair. This year's edition hit the streets on October 17: makeup artists zombified the crowd at the shop starting at 2 PM — five bucks a face — and at 5:30 the horde shambled through Montclair Center, costume contest and all.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24 AT THE SHOP

Saturday, October 24 is a doubleheader. The Futura: The Cosmic Music Album & Comic Experience signing runs 3–6 PM, and Cosplay Karaoke takes over from 7–10 PM, free admission. Costumes encouraged, obviously.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

East Side Mags, 491 Bloomfield Ave, Suite 102, Montclair. Open Tuesday–Thursday and Saturday 10–7, Friday until 9, Sunday until 6; closed Mondays. Toss a few cans in your bag before you go — just in case something's on.