For some time now through social media I’ve seen various post pop-up at on my timeline about something called Newtown HQ. The post would feature cutesy figures and accoutrements from Japan. I figured out they were a local New York independent retailer and but never gotten a chance to swing out to their location. Thankfully I saw they were gonna have a presence at Anime NYC along with a afterparty with SonicBoomBox so I made it my mission to track them down and chat with Cindy Cortez.
Kaos Blac: Hey so tell me what’re you doing here?
Cindy Cortez: I vendor at Anime NYC I’m the owner of New Town HQ.
KB: And Where is that located?
CC: In Astoria Queens, so its 36-12 34th ave.
KB: So what’s the most important part of being a independent owner of a anime/manga goods shop?
CC: Being able to find unique anime and products to carry. They’ve very important to teach people other things beside Dragon Ball and Naruto (laughs).
KB: What spurred you to create the shop?
CC: It was a lot of {seeing} the community. I felt that I’m that as a Latina and growing up in Mexico and coming here watching anime in English its a complete difference experience from Spanish. I felt weird i was still hearing it in Spanish (laughs) so I try and bring anime artist from Mexico and have their products here.
KB: So what are peoples favorite artist your bringing over.
CC: I can tell you right now this artist called Miss Dirty boots her product’s always sell out. Like. I barely have anything here because a bunch of it sold out at the store because people love it!
So outside of indie stuff what is major anime/manga do people come to the store searching for?
CC: Oh my god people so love Naruto. Like young, old, Naruto still has a big place in peoples hearts.
At this point even more crowds flooded the convention floor.
Before I left I managed to snag one of the booths giveaways wrist bands to the SonicBoomBox Kickoff party sponsored by Tokidoki. The party at Spin was wild and they had a second night to boot. Definitely check out the shop next time your in Queens NYC.
