Recently I've been selling a lot of my action figures on the New Zealand equivalent of Ebay. A fellow contacted me and offered to buy several for a good price, and today we were arranging a time and place to meet via text. Eventually we decided to meet at his parent's house as he'd be visiting them during the afternoon and I would heading near there anyway. A few moments went by, everything having been arranged and then I get another message:

"One more thing, do you mind keeping this pretty low-key? My parents don't know about this side of me."

At this stage I know nothing beyond the guy's name, and that he's obviously old enough to drive, not live with his parents and spend money on toys. I guess I'll find out more tomorrow.

My first reaction was to laugh, but then I actually felt kind of sorry for the guy. When I was living at home I had action figures all over my room, well into my early twenties. My dad was an outdoorsy fellow and rather good at sports during his younger years, but neither he nor my mother ever took issue with comics, video games or toys -at any age.

Any of you fine gents come across anything similar before?

When I was younger, my parents would rationalize my comic book collection as "an investment."

Generally, my parents never made a big stink about my collecting comics as a kid.

In my teens, my father occasionally criticized comics -- calling them junk reading and suggesting that I was rotting my mind and whatever literacy I might hope to possess. I went on to spend 25 years (and counting) supporting myself and my family by writing.

I've never come across anything like that.

I recently gave a friend a Grendel comic which he ended up liking a lot but he wanted to make sure I wouldn't tell his friends or any girls.
Then again, I also gave him a book to read that I thought he would like (Isacc Asimov's Robot Visions), which he did, but he always tried to hide it when having to carry it in public.

The kids these days -- boy, that sounds bad -- the kids these days don't know easy they have it!

To be a geek in 2012 is no sweat. You love computers? You're a future billionaire, the next Silicon Valley wunderkind. You love comic books? Great, half the movies and all the video games are based on your favorite heroes!

Everything that would get your ass kicked in 1978 now makes you mainstream.

Preach it Grandpa!

So I met the guy, turns out he's a huge nerd (we got along very well) and even frequents the same comic store as I do/did. After my meeting he had was taking a special needs kid out for the afternoon as part of his volunteer work. I'd say the guy was in his early thirties.

The reason he didn't want his parents finding was because he wanted "them to think I'm a responsible adult." I thought dude, if volunteering to take care of special needs kids doesn't give you Responsible Adult Cred, I don't know what does.

In the end he forked over nearly $800 cash, and we both went away happy. His parents didn't find out.

Until you told the internet.

Eight hundie? I wouldn't want my parents to find out either!

When I went to see a movie in theatre the screen next to mine was showing Daredevil. When a parent was leaving with an enthused son she said I suppose you will want to start reading the comic now, and he said, gasp, "what do you mean?"

I am glad I lived in an age when comics existed in the open, in more than niche shops and were thought of as more than vehicles of mass popular culture.