It's Read Comics in Public Day!

Back in 2010, a couple of comic book fans decided to start a world-wide event to celebrate the medium.

And thus, Read Comics in Public Day was born.

Aside from just being a lot of fun and a great excuse to be a geek in public, this event is an interesting opportunity for comic book fans. We're a group of people that are painted with a certain brush--movies and television portray comic book readers, especially adult readers, as socially inept, smelly types that live in their parents' basement.

I mean, think about nerds from television, and you'll get a good idea what people expect fans of this medium to be like.

 Read Comics in Public Day gives us a chance to prove that anyone can enjoy comic books.

It's been a weird year for comic book fans--especially fans of DC comics characters. Read Comics in Public Day this year is as much a chance to make a statement about the changes that we're for and against as readers as it is to just go out and read for fun.

A big (huge, enormous) part of the day is sharing. You're totally welcome to share cool stories here in the comments or to shoot an email over to thepoptartculture@gmail.com (maybe if there are some responses, we'll do a follow-up post). But I'd encourage you all to share in other ways.

If you keep up with DC Women Kicking Ass--and if you're not, you should be--you already know about the female-specific part of this day: Women Read Comics in Public. This site offers a place for anyone who identifies as a woman to share their Read Comics in Public photos and stories in an effort to disprove the idea that men are the only ones that read comic books. This is the third year of this, and this year the folks running the site suggest that those making submissions to include a note saying how much per month they spend on comics.

And guys, if you want to show the comics industry that men want to read female-led stories and books with female creators and not just interchangeable female characters with outrageous costumes and anatomy that were written, draw, and controlled by men, you should head on over to Men Reading Women in Comics to share the love. Aside from taking photo submissions, this group is organizing a campaign on Twitter, encouraging guys to tweet about their favorite female characters and creators using the hashtag #MRWIC.

I've already picked my date for the day.

So go, comic fans. Head to the coffee shop or the park with some comics and see what happens. Maybe you'll change someone's idea of a what a comic book fan is, or maybe you'll introduce someone new to the medium.

I'll see you guys out there and--I hope--in here.