Back in Brooklyn, I had the good fortune of living just down the street from the gutted storefront that would become 826NYC and the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co., a non-profit writing center.
I first started helping out by writing mission statements, web copy, press releases, and fundraising appeals—and, of course, before long I was inventing Superhero products by the dozen, naming them, writing product descriptions, and spray mounting labels onto empty cardboard boxes, stocking the store until the wee hours to prove that, indeed, art had the power to invent a new world.
Collective effort went into most of the store signage; Scott Seeley and I concocted the original roster of Secret Identity Kits. I wish I had more pictures but somewhere in my parents’ basement, I have a prototype label for the never-released “product” Sticky Foot: For Better Shimmying and Climbing. Get me some of that, I say!
Merrill Feitell 