Chick Lit

By Stacey Levin

As a new blogger to the site, I’d like to share my story of how I got hooked on reading comics.  Lots of women read them, some are starting to write and draw them, but the ladies still aren’t fully represented in the genre.  Hopefully I can be a tiny voice for the chicks.  Yo, where my ladies at?  Get your hands up!

Ok, so it’s not like I’d never read a comic book before in my life.  It had just been a while.  Fine, a really long while since I last read the odd issue of “Archie,” “Richie Rich,” “Star Wars” and “Wonder Woman.”  Those were a few titles I frequented when I was a kid.  But since then, not so much other than the occasional “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” book when I was at work.

So when I met Jason, fellow blogger, my boyfriend and writing partner, and he suggested I get back into reading them, I thought, why not?  I mean, how much could I have possibly missed?  Um, hello?  Was I living under a rock?  Apparently so.  A really big honking rock the size of Rhode Island.  Yeah, my bad.  Somehow I missed an entire generation of amazing literature.  I had a lot of work to do.

First he gave me some of his favorite titles to start with – “The Ultimates,” “Y- the Last Man,” “Spiderman,” “The Green Lantern,” and “The Umbrella Academy.”  He was worried it might be too much for me to start.  Pfft, whatev.  I got this.  They looked cool so let me at ‘em.  Wait, how many freakin’ issues do I need to catch up on??  And with that one little question, thus began my journey into finding my inner comic geek.

So, how does a typical “chick” who admittedly reads US and People weekly get indoctrinated into the comic book world?  By diving in head first, baby!  I started reading… and reading… and reading.  Before I realized it, I got so hooked on Y, I would lose sleep trying to finish issues before I went to bed.  And as fast as I would complete an issue or a title, Jason would be right there to replace it with another one.  It wasn’t   long before I began recognizing the names of writers and artists.  And as is typical for me, I started critiquing.  I liked the “soapy” stories like “Y” (yeah, yeah, I know, typical chick), the humor of “Spiderman,” the kick ass girls like “Batwoman” (I know, shocking) and the violent crime mysteries like “Greek Street” (ha, gotcha there, didn’t I?)  At that point, Jason told me I was ready.  Ready for what?  Did I pass some sort of test?  Yes, fellow comic bookers, I was graduating and it was time to go to the next level – time for my very first trip to… wait for it… Meltdown Comics!
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