From Apocalypses, Spring 2009

Thursday, April 9, 2009

It Was Meant to Be

For the last 22 years of my life I thought my nerdiness was honed in and taking shape quite well, despite it's lack of comic books or graphic novels being part of the thread. I was content with being a music snob that sought out bands and would get upset when I would hear their songs years later playing when I walked into an Express or Victoria's Secret store. Though I would scoff at the stores, I also would be secretly delighted in this little sense of ownership or one-upping on them, knowing that I have had that album for three years before they figured it out. Instead of having children I have my laptop full of music that people will soon discover, my bookshelf that I am obsessive about, my camera that I will not let anyone else touch, and my iphone. I am an absolute spaz about these things, much in the same way I have found one of my friends to be about his comic books.
This past summer I was out with one of my friends and we were discussing what dominated our formative years. After admitting to my embarrassing affair with Pogs, and lamenting about losing my favorite slammer to the girl in my class that I didn't like, we began discussing his love for comic books. This was difficult for me at first, as I have always had this idea that comic book readers were nerds in the worst sense. I'm not sure why, but I always attached this stigma to anyone that connected with comic books. Seeing how his eyes lit up and the way in which he spoke about reading Watchmen I was taken aback, and a bit confused. He was talking about these stories as though they were great literature. He explained to me what Watchmen was about, and why it was important. He did a great job pitching it to me, and I asked if I could borrow it from him to read. This was when I truly started to get the idea of just how much comics can mean to a person. He looked me straight in the face and said, 'no, that one is in my safety deposit box'. I laughed, only to receive an incredibly disapproving look. This was when I realized he was serious, and I suddenly felt a bit robbed that I didn't have something which meant that much from my childhood in a safety deposit box. I spent the following five minutes trying to convince myself that if Jennifer hadn't won that slammer from me I would have it sitting in a safety deposit box.
Thus, to my delight, the Watchmen was on our reading list for class. I told Raul and he shared in my delight. If I hadn't felt robbed enough before only having heard Raul's affinity for not just the Watchmen, but many of his other comic books, I realized after reading it that I was missing out. The reason he spoke of these stories as great literature is because that's what they are. Simply presented in a different form. I then went to the Barnes and Noble and looked around in the comic/graphic novel section for a little bit. Despite Kelly's warning and note that we don't need to buy anything, I did (I can't help it, I shouldn't be allowed in bookstores unsupervised). For the past few months I have made an almost daily habit of reading the 'missed connections' on Craigslist. It's like reading the comics in the paper. My browsing eye happened to find a comic book titled I Saw You... Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections. I immediately grabbed it off of the shelf and ran to the check out. I haven't started reading it yet, but I cannot wait. I never would have thought that I would be adding comic books or graphic novels to what I once thought was my iron-clad nerdiness, but I happily am.
P.S. Screw you Jennifer. I'm over the slammer. I've got comic books now.