So, today, I did a few errands with my kids before I took them to the water park to play. Summer is officially here, and it's fuckin' hot! A few of the errands requires me purchasing proper attire for said water park. So I take them with me to the mall. I just got paid, and so all was well.

After picking up the necessary stuff, I decided to see if there was a good, reasonably priced graphic novel or trade I could get. I've been unable to get my monthlies and I've been picking up Wizard every now and again, and I needed something to read!

I go to Barnes and Noble, and pick through their selection....just browsing. Next to me, is a father and son team, looking through the trades of Sin City. I'm one of those people that's always interested in what people are picking.

The Dad was probably around fifty, and his son was probably thirteen or fourteen. They were looking through From Hell and Back and Dad was mentioning how much he liked Miller's shading, but, not his faces. They got to the color sequence, and the kid was interested. "What's happening?" he said.
Dad replied with, "Looks like a dream sequence."

I'm the kinda guy who loves talking to people about comics, especially the newly inducted, because I like to get people excited about comics. I'm a geek. So I figure this was my opportunity to inject myself into the conversation.

"It's really a trippy drug halucination he's having." I chimed. The Dad looked at me and said "Really?!" I nodded.

Then, out of nowhere, he asks, "Are you a comic artist?" Now, I thought that was pretty cool, because until recently, I never thought of myself as one. I always considered myself 'racticing', or some shit. But, I didn't hesitate to look at him, smile, and say "Yeah, I do some comics."

Turns out, his son wanted to be a comic artist. So we started rapping. I told them if they like Miller, they might check out some of his earlier work. I told them it's neat to see artist end up compared to where they started from artistically. Then the Dad asked if I had any recomendations. I told his son that if he was serious about doing comics, then it would probably be best that he know what they are all about. One of the books that really helped me understand this wonderful medium was Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. I pulled it out, handed it to him, and said, "This is your toolbox" I told him when he was done with that, he might check out the other books he has written.

It was inspiring to me, because the kid looked like he got a real charge out of talking to me. Which was cool, because really, I'm Jo-Blo Nobody, right? Just the fact that I think they genuinely were interested in finding out more about comics was just really cool. They thanked me graciously, and I, the self-depreciating SOB that I am, apologized for turning his ear.

He told me that he felt fortunate that we were able to run into each other.

How fucking cool is that? I felt awesome for the rest of the day!