PopSyndicate.com

It’s always nice to discover that someone else reads comics besides yourself. I don’t mean walking into a comic shop and bumping into the person next you, that’s too easy. I’m talking about the neighbor across the street, the co-worker, a fellow student, or someone else who you find to share your interest in comics. Discovering that they read comics is interesting, but what can be most interesting is the way that people dance around revealing that they enjoy comics.  Often it is as if neither person wants to reveal it first. In my experience it’s involves a lot of back and forth questions; each new question building on the previous, just so one person can get to the point of saying “I read comics, do you?”

There are people who have long boxes full of comics who refuse to share the existence of these long boxes with others. It seems they do so because they’re concerned with how people will view them and how that view will affect the interactions between them. Comic readers have stereotyped perceptions laid upon them that they have to break through. This has made comic readers second guess revealing their habit to casual acquaintances. It has caused readers to be creative in how they reveal that they read comics.

How do you reveal to a stranger that you read comics? In my experience, if you’re unsure about a person you shouldn’t come right out and say it. You want to feel it out a little bit or wait for them to bring something up comic related. It doesn’t have to be anything grand, it can be something mild like mentioning interest in an upcoming comic book movie. This information isn’t groundbreaking, but you can use it. The other person might have thrown this information as bait to gauge your interest or just mentioned it because the movie seems exciting. Movies are generally a good starting point for any casual conversation, which make the subject both good and bad for finding out if the other person read comics.

After enough banter back and forth about a movie, somebody will take the next step and ask a comic-related question. This may include asking about more movies or about television programs, like Justice League or X-men cartoons. More information is laid out and it’s up to see if the exchange continues. This slowly escalates until finally enough ground work has been laid that one person can comfortably say, “I read comic books, do you?” Success!  It’s the reveal each person has been waiting for.

This may seem pretty ridiculous, but these kinds of conversations do occur. On the up side of things, people are taking chances and not building foundations before they reveal that they read comics. It’s not easy but each person that does it makes it easier for others to do so. Playing the back and forth game in conversations can be exhausting so it just helps to get to the point. Next time just bring it up “I read comics, do you?”