Last night at the comic shop

Last night at my local comic shop, Best Comics International in New Hyde Park, NY, a young man walked over to me as I was looking over my pull (for those that don't read comics, your pull is the comics that that you have your local shop put aside for you, that way you're guaranteed to get a copy vs. taking your chances an issue hasn't sold out) & said, excuse me, I really like the Batman logo on the back of your car. I smiled, said thanks man, I appreciate that, and went back to looking over my pull.

He later joined in on my conversation with Tommy, the store owner, on the previous night's episode of The Flash and was smiling ear to ear, eager to contribute. As Tommy was ringing me up I asked if there were any different covers to Chrononauts and the kid said he saw some on the rack and offered to show me, I joked to Tommy that the kid might be making him some more money. I saw that the only covers left on the rack were the same as the one I had in my hands, but that the kid had a bunch of different ones.

The kid then asked if I had intended on getting the different covers and he was holding his books out, as if he was about to offer them to me, and I just smiled and said, hey man, you got to them first, they're yours, have a good one buddy. I said my goodbyes to Tommy and was on my way.

It wasn't until this morning that I realized that I was that kid, back in the late 80s, buying comics at the Bookworms booth in the Metro Marketplace on Union Turnpike chatting up the owner, a nice guy named Hal who was always super cool to me and who helped my folks out & spoke fondly of me when they came in looking for ideas for Christmas or birthday presents.

And I wondered, was this kid having a hard time fitting in? Was he feeling alone or uncool? If he is or was, I wish I could tell him, what I've told my own daughter at times. Dig what you dig, don't ever pretend to like or not to like something to fit in. The people who are into what you're into, will eventually find you or you'll find them. Don't change to fit someone else's preconceived idea of cool. I hope that polite, nice, friendly kid has a ton of friends and that he enjoys his comics, as much as I enjoy mine.