The Legend of Hicksville: From New York Suburb to the Ultimate Graphic Novel Sanctuary
The word “Hicksville” can point to a few very different things depending on who you ask. In general American English slang, a hicksville is a lighthearted or mildly pejorative term for a backward, provincial backwater or a sleepy rural village.
However, map-readers and pop-culture historians know “Hicksville” as two much more specific phenomena: a bustling suburban hamlet on Long Island, New York, and the title of a masterclass graphic novel that turned a fictionalized version of a remote New Zealand town into a magical sanctuary for comic book lovers.
1. The Real-Life Hicksville: Long Island’s Busy Commuter Hub
If you look up the geographic coordinates, Hicksville is a well-known census-designated place (CDP) located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York.
- The Origin Story: Founded in the 1830s, the community was named after Valentine Hicks, a prominent nineteenth-century figure who served as the president of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). Hicks recognized the area’s agricultural potential, and once the railroad arrived, it quickly transformed into a bustling hub for shipping local crops—most notably cucumbers destined for the Heinz company.
- From Farms to Post-War Suburbia: Following the Second World War, Hicksville underwent a massive transformation typical of Long Island. Farmlands rapidly gave way to residential housing developments, turning the area into a classic “bedroom community” for commuters working in New York City.
- Cultural Melting Pot: Today, Hicksville is celebrated for its rich cultural diversity. It features vibrant commercial districts—such as North Broadway—packed with South Asian grocery stores, restaurants, and cultural landmarks that reflect waves of immigration from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
2. The Mythical Hicksville: Dylan Horrocks’ Masterpiece
For lovers of literature and art, “Hicksville” carries an entirely different, almost mythical weight. It is the title of the acclaimed 1998 graphic novel by New Zealand cartoonist Dylan Horrocks.
Widely considered a landmark work of meta-fiction, the book revolves around a young American comics journalist named Leonard Batts who travels to a sleepy, remote coastal town in New Zealand called Hicksville to write a biography of the world’s most successful cartoonist, Dick Burger.
Upon arrival, Batts discovers something startling:
- A Comic Lover’s Utopia: In this version of Hicksville, the local library preserves priceless historical artifacts like Action Comics #1, and the residents treat sequential art with deep reverence and poetic respect.
- A Tale of Theft and Inspiration: Beneath its idyllic surface, Hicksville holds a dark secret. The multi-millionaire superstar Burger built his empire by stealing the ideas, notebooks, and uncredited genius of a brilliant, reclusive local creator.
- A Love Letter to the Medium: Horrocks uses the narrative to explore the often exploitative history of the commercial comic book industry, the nature of copyright and creativity, and why sequential art possesses a unique power to alter human consciousness.
Summary
Whether viewed as a bustling concrete-and-commuter New York suburb or imagined as a foggy New Zealand village where comic books are treated like sacred texts, Hicksville occupies a fascinating space in modern culture. It serves as a reminder of how names can carry entirely different realities—bridging the gap between everyday geography and imaginative storytelling.
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