Drew Sanders grew up in Great Barrington, but he’s lived in many places over the past 20 years, including several unofficial “Comic Capitals” of the U.S.—like New York City and Los Angeles.
He started as a purveyor of kids’ books in Manhattan and Brooklyn back in 2007, setting up tables of curated children’s books outside on Broadway and West 75th Street. “I would go to every book sale in the tri-state area and New England,” he recalls. Consulting with families on children’s authors and reading comprehension levels in New York City for a decade, he also worked with Columbia University as an approved book vendor for kindergarten through high school at the annual Teachers’ College Reading and Writing Institute, boasting alums from across the globe.
A comic book fan since 1992, when he made his first solo purchase of an Archie digest from Street of Dream Comics in Shoreham, Long Island, Sanders has followed the industry ever since, attending conventions in New York and California. “I’ve been collecting sports cards and comic books for 33 years and was obsessed with video games growing up,” he admits. He got back into comic books in 2015 and has visited nearly every comic store in Southern California and Massachusetts since then (he still has five to go in Boston).
Gradually, over the years, as comics and graphic novels grew in popularity, he began trading the traditional books in his van for graphic novels. Once known as an ongoing series of trade paperbacks with multiple volumes, comic books are now often conclusive series. Graphic novels are typically longer, self-contained, complete stories published in a single bound volume. There are also compendiums that house the entire series in one book, as well as hybrid books (books that are half graphic novel and half explanation) and a new format of chapter books with intermittent illustrations, like “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” “Last Kids on Earth,” “The Time Warp Trio Series,” and others.
On May 24, 2025, Sanders opened Western Massachusetts Graphic Novels—a new and used comic/graphic novel bookstore at 152 Main Street in Great Barrington, a shop that has undergone nearly a dozen iterations since the mid-1970s, including a period when it served as the original town location for T.P. Saddle Blanket in the early 1980s.
“After managing the commercial property for several years, I decided to open up a bookstore for kids and adults specializing in trade paperbacks and series from Image and DC Comics, as well as independent graphic novels from major publishers, such as Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly, among others,” he states. Among the many store highlights are two bookshelves of manga (an area that Sanders predicts will expand in breadth and depth in the coming years) and a smaller but growing section of single back issues of comics. He also carries rare used books, puzzles and board games, card decks, and box sets. Three sizable sections are devoted to middle readers and preteens, with hundreds of nonfiction/memoir and fiction titles from various publishers, including First Second, Graphix, Harper Alley, Dark Horse, Little Brown, and Random House. In curating his collections, he says, “I look first for the illustrations. If the writing is also good, I’ll buy it. There’s constantly new stuff coming out, so I never get bored.”
Sanders also stocks full-color reprints of titles from the 1960s through the 80s, noting that “Parents and families often remember a special book they read in their formative years but can no longer find—until they come here.” Many classic works of literature have also been adapted into graphic novel formats, allowing kids to engage with complex stories they might otherwise avoid. Classics Illustrated has been producing graphic novel versions of works by Dickens, Kipling, Melville, Shakespeare, Swift, Twain, and more since the 1940s, when Albert Lewis Kanter first introduced them as a bridge or “stepping stone” to longer, traditional novels.
Graphic novels are particularly powerful for adolescents, Sanders believes. He recalls being required to read in middle school (“Beowulf” in seventh grade) as a way to learn new vocabulary. “They lumped reading into a forced activity/school subject, rather than cultivating a lifetime curiosity or expansion of thinking,” he notes with regret. Before long, he began associating a book’s length with how “good” it was. And the older a work of literature was, the worse it was, he thought. Reading became a boring, repetitive task or chore aimed at memorizing details, passing a test, and competing with peers. “It was the antithesis of real education, which should foster curiosity, acceptance, and embracing of differences,” he notes. “For teen girls, reading graphic novels can help form a stronger identity and sense of community, due to their intense emotional content and the empathy they foster. For teen boys, graphic novels help expand their mental capacity and forge new paths for their development. The action keeps them entertained, while leading to new insights and understanding.”
While early cartoons were panels of artwork found in the Sunday newspaper—four separate scenes made up a panel, each with a one-sentence blurb, often filled with quips and witticisms—today’s comics and graphic novels have well-developed characters, plots, and themes, he points out. “What was once considered neutral has become an important messaging of our values. Any topic you can mention, there’s at least one comic/graphic book that addresses it,” he adds. Since graphic novels are a format (not a genre), they can cover a wide range of complex and diverse subjects, from history and science to personal memoirs and social justice. The visual element often makes difficult or mature themes more approachable and easier for young readers to process and discuss.
A 2023 National Literacy Trust survey found children who read graphic novels for pleasure were nearly twice as likely to enjoy reading more overall than those who didn’t read them. Their appealing visual format and “bite-sized” text chunks make them feel less overwhelming, and they support reading comprehension by providing context clues to help with decoding new vocabulary, making inferences, and understanding complex plot and character development. Equally important in today’s image-dominant digital world, graphic novels are building visual literacy (the ability to interpret and analyze visual information), which is becoming a critical skill in many industries.
“Kids need to see examples of people they can relate to, characters that inspire them to think, ‘Maybe I want to tell my story,’” he states. Instead, what often sells the most now is based on violence, conflict, and extremism. Sanders considers himself a generalized specialist, armed with knowledge and research. In reading comics and graphic novels, he says, “I stop seeing with my eyes’ mind and start perceiving with my mind’s eye.” Likewise, he believes readers of all ages can look at a book and know right away whether it’s right for them.
In the course of running his business, he sells, barters, trades, exchanges, and donates. “Not everyone is affluent, so I donate to camps and youth programs. “I want this store to be a place where they can look for something and I can guide them,” he shares.
“My reputation lives and dies by my customers’ experience on each visit. The average book here was first published 5-15 years ago,” he notes. In addition to trade paperbacks, he has kids’ hardcover books displayed at the top of all the bookshelves, as well as intriguing memorabilia—reprints of famous series and names from the 1960s (think Kirby and Ditko), along with a few very recent titles. He collaborates with many new companies to source books and projects, so that in 2026, he will be able to order any comic in the world. “I like to have stuff that people wouldn’t ever ask for because they don’t know it exists, and I like to create micro networks,” he says.
“We’re in the platinum age of comics, with movies, TV network series, games and videos, companies and empires. We’ll be in the titanium stage soon,” he predicts. “Criminal comics like The Knives, part of the Holly Crime mysteries, are often made into movies or TV series. It’s big business,” he says. “Today, everything has one degree or less of separation from a TV or movie company. Marvel Comics has gone from a company that sold single comic books at newsstands for 10 cents to a huge publishing house and production company. Before, you would meet these amazing people, but nobody knew who they were. Now, there is a prolific number of comic book authors with celebrity status.”
“I spent a lifetime curating this collection,” Sanders acknowledges. He owns every Maurice Sendak book and once owned every Dr. Seuss book. He considers Rick Remender the best sci-fi fantasy comic book creator of all time. But don’t expect to find these authors in clearly defined sections. In this world of “over-categorizing, politicizing, and sensationalizing everything,” he offers an alternative. “I don’t believe in labeling sections. I put things where I want to, often separating the art from the artist. I just want this to be a good bookstore,” he says. He estimates that he spends an hour a day rearranging the store, which keeps him able to put his finger on almost any given book at any given time. “I know the location of everything I own, and I know everything I have and don’t have,” he assures. The front rectangular table, filled with newer selections, changes by 25 percent each day. “My goal is to know about and have read and have for sale everything every author I like has ever written.”
He is currently using the galley room to the right of the main room as an art gallery, as well as for displaying books. For Halloween, he turned it into “The Joker Hall Room,” featuring Batman-related art and books, including Sean Murphy’s “Batman: The White Knight”. “For the holidays and special events, I like to commission an artist from the Berkshires to display their work as an homage to the ingenuity of their own craft or a broader affinity for a certain art style or sub-genre of insider comic know-how,” Sanders says.
“I want to create a place where everybody feels at home—and a local community centered on reading as lifelong learning and a fun, rewarding activity for everyone,” he concludes. “I want kids to develop the ability to think for themselves, along with the joy, happiness, and freedom of being able to choose and experience books that help them grow and become.” Western Massachusetts Graphic Novels is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Follow the store on Instagram for near-daily updates and photos of merchandise collected throughout the decades.
