Just read Dave Gibbons’s beautiful, very informative, lavishly-illustrated Watching the Watchmen (Titan 2008), which I highly recommend for any fans of the graphic novel. Lots of cool details on its creation, alternate history, draft layout pages, dropped concepts, costume evolution, etc.
On pp. 108-109 is a two-page map of the intersection where the Gunga Diner, Utopia Cinema, Promethean Cab Co. and Institute for Extraspatial Studies are situated. When drawing the comics, Gibbons originally guessed that it would be at 7th Avenue and East 40th Street. He writes, “I’ve since decided that the real-world equivalent of the intersection is actually 7th Avenue and West 31st Street.”
New Yorkers, denizens of the Big Apple, what do you think? Sound about right?
Sure - roughly Herald Square by Macy’s. The first location is almost exactly where Midtown Comics is, on the edge of Times Square - don’t know why it wouldn’t still work and the comics connection would be good…but what the heck do I know?
And yeah, that book is great - I got it right when it came out…
I think it’s 31st St. in a walk. Of course, I don’t remember what those looked like 22 years ago (I was living less than a mile away, but I was only 6).
Just got Peter Aperlo’s very interesting, well-illustrated Watchmen: The Art of the Film (Titan 2009). On p. 120, a photo of the NYC street set (actually in Vancouver) shows that the Treasure Island Comic Shop is clearly at the corner of West 43rd St. and 7th Ave. The strip of porn theatres that Rorschach, untempted, walks by, is just a bit down the street on West 43rd.