Hooray, I’m finally home after a long tour! One of my favourite things about traveling to lots of different cities is checking out their comic shops, and getting a brief glimpse into another comics community.

As a comic shop employee, seeing the way other shops do it makes me think about what separates welcoming, lady-friendly shops from the creepy, alienating ones. In my experience, it’s mostly the staff. A diverse crew of friendly-as-heck and knowledgeable-but-not-pretentious folks really set the tone for a cool comic shop.

Wired recently posted an article called Secret Lives of Comic Store Employees, showing the folks who sling funny books at their works and in their usually comics-laden homes. I was happy to read that most of them take the stance that I do: comics are for everybody.

When asked about the biggest misconception about comics and their fans, they said things like:

“There are people who say they don’t like comics, and they’re wrong. This is more like saying “I don’t like music” than “I don’t like rock music.” Sequential art is infinitely diverse, and this goes for the fans, too, because for every different type of person there is some form of sequential art that will appeal to them, whether they’ve been exposed to it or not. You can call it the funnies or you can call it a graphic novel, but you like comics. You do.”

You can really get a feel for the kinds of shops these people work in from their answers. The photos are great too. Check it!