A Growing Enthusiasm
Last Thursday, something remarkable happened at the Hewlett-Woodmere Library. Around fifty people—teens, families, lifelong anime fans, and curious newcomers—gathered to watch a 30-year-old animated film about consciousness and identity. In an era when everything streams everywhere all at once, they chose to experience Ghost in the Shell together, in a theater, the way Mamoru Oshii intended.
Even better: they stayed long after the film ended to discuss it with Tes and Jim from LI Comic Shop, turning a night at the movies into an active cultural dialogue.
You can see their insights in the video above—from origin stories to underrated picks.
The Origin Story Nobody Expected
The evening's best moment (captured at the beginning of our video) came when Tes explained how LI Comic Shop began—not with a business plan or market research, but with two guys meeting on the Long Island Railroad, bonding over a Midtown Comics bag
"We noticed, just being regular fans, we were on the outside looking in. It was like, how do we get to that inner level? How do we become more of a part of it?"
That question—how do we move from consumers to participants in culture—is exactly what I think so many on Substack are seeking to answer.
We’re so happy to see a growing enthusiasm in our community — even during the dog days of summer to sit and discuss cinema, with people who have made it happen.
Cable?? Batou??
Jim had never seen Ghost in the Shell before Thursday. His fresh-eyes reaction (which you can hear in the video) illuminated something veteran anime fans might miss: this film's DNA is everywhere in contemporary media. "When she's battling the tank," Jim observed, "I literally just played a Robocop video game where there's a scene where he's fighting ED-209. This is definitely pulled right from that."
But the influence flows both ways. Jim spotted the connection between Batou and Marvel's Cable (who debuted in 1990, five years before the film). Tes agreed immediately: "Very, very Cable inspired." This kind of cross-pollination—comics influencing anime influencing Hollywood—shows how artificial our medium boundaries really are.
Comics often are Community
Perhaps the evening's most insightful observation came when Jim and Tes discussed why comic shops matter in 2025. As they explained in our conversation, the storytelling in independent comics from Image, Dark Horse, and smaller publishers often surpasses what Marvel and DC produce.
Their example? Bug Wars—which they described as "Lord of the Rings meets Honey, I Shrunk the Kids meets Conan the Barbarian." Try finding that on an algorithm's recommendation list
This connects directly to why Ghost in the Shell still matters. As Tes noted about the film's influence on everything from The Matrix to Johnny Mnemonic: sometimes the most important cultural works are the ones that teach other works how to think.
Building the Inner Circle
The guys from LI Comic Shop are kindred spirits who understand that comics, manga, anime, and cinema exist on the same continuum.
When Tes and Jim started their podcast, did video book clubs, and eventually opened their shop, they were solving their own problem: moving from "outside looking in" to active participants in comics culture.
That journey from corporate jobs to comic shop owners mirrors what many of us are doing—choosing meaning over convenience, community over isolation.
Today - their shop has become as essential to the South Shore as Kim's Video once was for Lower East Side—a laboratory for cross-media discovery.
We're proud to be their partners, and really hope they'll return for future screenings! (Their discussion of favorite and underrated superhero films at the end of the video—from '89 Batman to The Losers—shows exactly the kind of unexpected connections we love.)
What's Next for the Cognitive Film Society
Coming soon!
September: The launch of our live performance criticism within “Cognitive Frames: In the Room”, starting with the Metropolitan Opera’s premier of an adaptation of
’s“The Adventures of Kavailer and Klay”October: The Cognitive Community Twin Peaks Rewatch. Details soon on how you can participate. First time viewers welcome!
November 2, 2025: We return to the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library for a screening of Detour. The screening will incorporate a live jazz performance from local teen musicians and other surprises for our Noirvember celebration
Share this post