let's get something straight, right here and now: i love comics. although some are afraid to admit it, i'm not. there seems to be a stigma attached to reading comics. everyone thinks you're like the comic book guy from the simpsons: fat and stupid as hell. i'll be the first to admit that reading comics has never been directly responsible for any of my past relationships, but it certainly has ended up becoming a minor part in a few.

the history (or comics and girls: what it's all about):

i dated a girl back in 96. she swore up and down that comics were retarded. a waste of money. we had been dating for about six months, her avoiding comic day, refusing to go to the local comic shop with me, proclaiming "i know what kind of people hang out there." when one day she actually came into the store with me. she browsed around, mostly looking at the used cds. but i was taking an abnormally long time, so she started browsing the rack, looking through anything that caught her eye. soon enough i heard her say "hey…this looks kinda neat." she was looking at a copy of grant morrison's the invisibles, released by vertigo. i bought her the copy she was looking at, and the couple that preceded it, just so she can get the whole story. she ended up joining me at the comic shop more regularly, eventually picking up a bunch more titles, including steve seagle's house of secrets. this is what is known in the comic world as a "success." i had actually gotten my anti-comics girlfriend reading comics on a semi-regular basis.

the girl i dated after that was a much easier conversion, only taking a couple of trips to the comic shop to sway her. she was already a fan of the x-men cartoon, so you can only guess where her tendencies leaned. this was definitely okay by me, considering most of the x-books were already on my pull list.

the girl after that (the girl that, coincidentally, i live with in a strictly "friends" capacity) took an easy interest in hellboy, mostly considering the fact that i had a couple of trade paperbacks laying around, making it rather accessible. she sticks to mainly reading the comics that matt and i leave laying about, but she has a definite interest in daredevil, garth ennis' punisher, and powers. she's not a buyer, but at least she's a reader.

i tried dating a girl for a little bit last year, only to have that disintegrate because of my love for the comics. she was looking at the tattoo of hellboy that covers my leg, admiring the detail and even commenting on what a cool design it was. she asked me where it came from and i told her he was a character in a comic book. she wrinkled her nose at me and said "you read comic books?" and i was like "yeah. is that a problem?" so i was immediately put on the defensive. i tried to defend comics a couple of times through various conversations during the rest of the evening, but she'd just scoff or wrinkle her nose. she ended up getting rather flaky, not returning my calls, so i decided that she wasn't worth my time. too much negativity.

this is all wrapped up by my most recent girlfriend. she knew about my love for comics, and it didn't phase her. she even bought me some autographed hulk books and a hellboy mousepad for christmas. she recently sent me an article she ran across that's an actual study done on the comic reading habits of middle-schoolers. it's an honest-to-goodness published academic document. i found it damn interesting, to say the least. maybe someday comic fans will get the respect they deserve.

this is the point of the story where i tell you how i'm not your typical comic fan, i have a life, i listen to indie-rock, i'm not fat with long hair, i don't live in my mother's basement. but then i start to think: that's not your average comic fan. when i go to the comic shop, i see all kinds of different people, none of which fit that description. i would link to joe casey's "crash comments" column over at comics newsarama for a little more "real-world" comics writing, but there's no concrete link for it. just head over there and look for it, yourself.

but tonight, we see crouching tiger, hidden dragon. tonight…we destroy…