Living Between Wednesdays contest post

This is my entry for the Living Between Wednesdays contest about comics and meeting people.

I actually had my first long term relationship because of Art Spiegelman’s Maus. I was into indy comics at the time and was delighted to be reading Maus for a Holocaust Literature course I was taking. It’s still one of my favorites that I probably never would have picked it up without that class, but I digress. A guy in one of my other classes, who I thought was pretty cute from day one but never would have talked to because I didn’t talk to people. I liked (still do) to just keep my head in my books. So when I was reading Maus in class he relocated to sit next to me and struck up a conversation about comics. This gradually led to him walking me to my car for several weeks, finally working up the nerve to ask for my email and AIM and then eventually asking me out. We went out for quite a while and he told me he never would have had the nerve to talk to me at all but the fact that I was a girl reading a comic book was too good to be true and he had to take the risk that I'd laugh in his face. Though we’re no longer dating we’re still good friends talking daily to discuss comics and other things. We even hung out at a convention this weekend, I bought him the Justice Riders elseworld he'd been looking for and he bough me cookies.

I transfered schools recently and am now in a different city. I've been trying to meet people with similar interests in the area but it has been slow going, lucky for me I dragged a friend to the same school. This past couple weeks however has been pretty good to me comic people wise. I’ve been trying to catch up on my comic reading between classes because of late it’s the only time I have to read them. I had a very spirited conversation about who the best Green Lantern was with a random fanboy who stopped to talk to me while I was reading Green Lantern Corps before British Lit. It warmed my fangirly heart to have such a discussion since in my class prior I was reading before it started and got the dirtiest look and the incredulous question of “Trying to keep your comics perfect?” from the the person sitting next to me when I was slipping the book back into the bag and board. I don’t recall the green lantern guy's name anymore but I hope to bump into him again, because although we don’t share he same favorite green lantern, he knows what a green lantern is.

A few days before that I’d been sitting in the hall again, I tend to sit in halls a lot reading, it’s quieter than the areas with actual seating. So I was studying for class but had The Absolute Watchmen next to me, I’d checked it out earlier in the day from the library so I could look at the extras as I just own he regular tpb of it. Anyway I had a guy approach me awkwardly and ask if he could flip through it because he’d never seen the absolute edition, this lead to a short but pleasant conversation about Watchmen, the upcoming movie, and the craziness that is Alan Moore’s brain. This encounter made me quite happy as earlier in the day I was discussing movies coming out in 2008 with someone in another class and to my horror they asked “Who’s Ironman?” I so often forget how many people have no knowledge of comics. Anyway back to Watchmen guy, I hope to run into him again as well. It’s so hard to meet new people to make new friends with who are into comics as well.

In hindsight I probably should have asked for an email address or something to see if they'd be interested in hanging out between classes and talking comics but oh well too late. I hope this coming week brings more random comic people meetings. I think I’ll be reading the 80s Booster Gold series and the 80s Blue Beetle series, maybe even some JLI and JLE so if anyone is wandering around Cooper Hall 3rd floor or the SOC at USF I’ll be sitting on the floor in a hall reading some comics and up for some comic conversation if you are so inclined.