How I Found Love At The New York City Comic Con

How I Found Love At The New York City Comic Con

When I posted "Goodbye To Comics" in November, it painted a very bleak picture of the life of a woman in the comic book industry. And I'm not apologizing for that -- the story was what it was.

But now I want to tell a very different type of story.

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I almost didn't go to the New York City Comic Con this February. I was too tired. I was writing the story of my life for my agent. In part, it was a review of every major relationship I had in my life. Kinda like 50 weeks of therapy crammed into 1 month.

Of course, most of my relationships had revolved around comic books.

Among the more notable:

* My long-term platonic alliance with Sid Lonesome, who met me when he was 32 and I was 16. We worked at the same comic book shop. I had just run away from home and was scared to death. Though Sid couldn't give me sex, he gave me companionship, nuturance, and a sense of security. The negative side was that by the time I was in my very early twenties and ready to mature to the next level, Sid absolutely refused to leave. Picture the end of the movie "Ghost World" with Enid not leaving on the bus but staying with the Steve Buscemi character. Whenever I try to explain Sid, I refer to Buscemi in "Ghost World."

* Rocco, Sid's erstwhile roommate. Rocco was like James Dean on cocaine. If Sid was like Scott Summers, Rocco was like Wolverine. Rocco was dangerous, artistic, and full of sex. He was in his twenties. I was 17. He took my virginity in a bathtub. I didn't regret it one bit. But then Rocco became possessive. He stalked me. He walked with a rifle past the the comic shop where I used to work and where Sid still remained. Rocco wasn't really a comic fan, but he liked The Shogun Warriors, so I'm lumping him in with "fanboy."

* Furlong, who was one year younger than I was, 15, but looked like he was ten. They said that all that smoking stunted his growth. He was a hoodlum. We never had sex. He wanted sex from me, but he just looked too young. But we had a lot of interesting adventures together. I remember one time we walked down the railroad tracks and this band of little kids (more hoodlums) started chasing us and pitching pebbles at our heads. We couldn't escape, there was a wall on either side. We could have turned around pitched pebbles right back, but there were just too many of the wee suckers. So we ran. Rocco wanted to beat Furlong up because he thought we were having sex with each other. Furlong hated Sid and stole around $4000 worth of comics from him, including Frank Miller "Daredevils" and Liefeld "New Mutants." Then I had to literally throw myself in front of my front door so Sid wouldn't kill Furlong. I confronted Furlong about the theft. We physically battled. I think he got out all his sexual frustration with that fight. It was a draw. I never spoke to Furlong again. The last I heard of him, he tried sticking up a Dunkin Donuts using his girlfriend as a fake hostage.

* Danny the Vampire. A tall, blond, strikingly handsome, bisexual man a couple of years older than me. I was 18, he was 23. He was a comic book fan and a vampire. He was interesting. I've had an interesting life.

* Wiccan Molly. We met in college. It wasn't a sexual relationship, but it was very close. She was into Wicca. She thought she had superpowers. She bought me jewelry. I wrote her poetry. College is a funny time that way. I wasn't dating men during that period. Molly was paranoid that I was gay. Molly had issues about homosexuality. One day an "out" bisexual girl kissed her on the back of the neck during lunch. Molly told me that if I ever did that to her, she would "punch all my teeth out." At first I wasn't angry at what she said, then I was very angry. We stopped speaking to each other. When we made up, we were closer than ever. I idolized Molly. I wanted to prove to her that I wasn't gay. I wanted her to know that I was "normal." So I made an effort to have sex with this guy I was flirting with for a while. Then I called Molly to brag about it. I thought she would be happy. But she wasn't happy. She said she hated my guts. She told me that she never wanted to speak to me again. I felt so bad about that. But I also felt very confused. I took all the jewelry Molly bought me and buried it by a tree so I could forget her. A car ran into that tree.

* Professor West. Me and Molly both attended Professor West's classes. Molly & me theorized that West was CIA and that the special program we were attending was part of some grand New World Order conspiracy. That might sound crazy, but the program was financed by the Ford Foundation and the curriculum quite literally revolved around a "New World Order." West had a knack of singling out talented girls and sucking them into his life and his world. I was his current "find." He wanted to shape me into a Rhodes scholar. He got me into Phi Beta Kappa. I was under a lot of pressure to succeed. When I won a scholarship to study in England, he wanted me to stay with him at this hotel rather than use the dorms. He gave me a big wad of cash for the trip. I thought about it, but then I gave him back the cash. I didn't know if he was CIA but my instincts told me to be afraid of him and whoever he was working for.