If I didn’t have my nerd card before, I definitely do now.

Over the weekend Astro, a few friends and I went to Mall of America.

I went in with the expectation of finding some really awesome outfit at H&M, or another store unique to the massive consumer mecca that is MOA.

I came out with “The Silmarillion”, a comic and a shirt that says ‘I only date superheroes’… I didn’t even buy anything at H&M.

my nerdy purchases. Astro got a matching shirt, cause we’re so cool.

But I’m OK with that. Because I’m really happy with my other purchases. I’m stoked to start blogging my way through “The Silmarillion” — I plan to crack it open once I finish this post — and I’m really excited about learning more about comics.

When Astro and I started “The Nerd Maids”, we had an idea about how it would go: I would talk about Magic and Tolkien, and she’d talk about video games. I think we both realized, though, that neither of us had ever given comic books a chance before, and if we’re blogging about nerdy things we probably should.

So yesterday we wandered into a comic book store in Minneapolis and asked the cashier what he thought would be some good starter comics. He had us list what types of stories we enjoyed and disappeared into the store. He returned a few minutes later with a myriad of options. It was hard to choose just one to take — they all sounded so good! (Before you ask, no, I don’t remember all of them.)

I left with “The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity”, Astro left with “Fables: Volume One” and “I Kill Giants” and Astro’s boy left with “Batman: Year One”. We were all pretty excited about our new comics, and on the ride home I borrowed the Batman comic and read through it cover to cover. It was possibly the best way to spend a car ride.

And I’m very glad I read that comic first. It was about characters I’m familiar with, and it is one of the superhero comics that fueled the comic book industry for so long. It felt appropriate. I love “The Dark Knight” trilogy, too, so it was cool to read one of the comics that probably inspired Christopher Nolan. It also reminded me how fun graphic novels/ comics are to read (I went through a Manga phase in middle school).

I am really excited to read “The Unwritten” next because it is not a superhero comic. It’s something else entirely. I’m hoping that it will show me how dynamic comic books can be. Admittedly, I have some pretty high expectations for it. But I’m fairly confident it will live up to them.

All for now,
Bale