Reading Comics in Public

There are certain stigmas that come with reading comics. I'm sure I don't have to tell you. Ever since Dr. Wertham and the comic witch hunts of the early fifties, comics have been seen as something that's strictly for kids. It's not true, but it's also not a battle that I particular care to fight. The comics that I personally enjoy reading were definitely aimed at kids. I still enjoy them just as adult women can enjoy books aimed at teenage girls. So I stopped taking up that baton long ago.

However, when you sit down at a place like doctor's office and open up a comic book to pass the time, you're bound to get noticed.

When Lorie was pregnant with our first kid, we went to every doctor's appointment together. I didn't yet have a job as a computer programmer, and our life was drastically different. We would sit in the waiting room, I would reach into my bag and bring out a comic book to read, pop the tape, slip it out of the protective bag and board, open it up, and Lorie would die of embarrassment.

Lorie and I don't really have knock-down drag-out fights, as some couples do. We have quiet disagreements and make sure our stance is known by the other person. Lorie has made sure her stance on my reading comics in public is well known.

When my family goes to the beach, we usually sit in a semi-circle and read. All of us. the first time Lorie went to the beach with my family, after we had been married, she was shocked. We rolled down to the beach, spread out the blanket, set up the chairs, and pulled out books (Dad), magazines (Mom), and comics (me). Lorie was expecting sand castle making and swimming and ball throwing and long walks and boardwalking. We read. It drove her nuts.

I remember sitting at the beach a few years ago while the kids played in the sand. I was trying to read a trade paperback reprinting 1970's stories of Captain America and the Falcon by Jack Kirby. But with the kids at the beach, I'm constantly 'doing inventory'. Meaning my eyes slide from one kid to the other to the other making sure everyone's staying safe. Between that, assorted bikini girls, and the general beauty of the ocean, it's hard to get reading done. Nevertheless, the open book sat in my lap. One of my cousins, now an adult and in college, was less than impressed with me. He wanted to know how I could possibly be entertained by such juvenile entertainment. Rather than launch into any high-fallutin answers concerning historical criticism or 'comics as an art form', I chose to embrace my passion and cop to just loving them because I love them.

The iPad makes reading comics in doctor's offices with my wife a little easier. I can sit there with an iPad and no one would ever know what I'm reading. And Lorie's next to me with her iPad, usually playing video games. As is the kid next to her. Or the adult across the aisle with a mobile phone. The video game playing in our society is abundant, but it doesn't have the same stigmas that comics do.

Should a grown man be reading comics? Should he be reading comics in public? I'll tell you my answer. I don't care. Never have and never will. I'll read what I want to read, when and where I want to read it. And chances are... I'll be reading it while wearing my Aquaman t-shirt.

And my wife will be dying of embarrassment.

Thanks,
DCD