Comics Keep Me Sane

It’s very strange how prison makes people revert to childish ways. Walking around the unit it is hard to tell the difference between us and a group of 7th or 8th graders. Except we have bigger bellies and more facial hair.
People here do anything to pass the time: invent games, braid each other’s hair into intricate and weird designs, color, create collages, and make purses out of potato chip bags for their wives and daughters! But the number one activity is reading.
As a librarian I am one of 8 inmates who get to see what everyone is reading. Tastes are wide and diverse – also often surprising. Big, tattooed hillbillies devour Nicholas Sparks and Harry Potter. Black gang leaders love books on business, stock trading and biographies. Everyone reads Romance and Thrillers. Quiet old men get books on aliens, end of the world, and serial killers. We’ve also got tons of closet geeks devouring standard geek fare but also novels of Hood life. Young adult vampire romances (Twilight, Vampire Academy, Mortal Instruments, etc.) are insanely popular with rednecks and older black gentlemen.
For me it’s Horror, Mystery and the unique. But above all else are Comic Books. Since I was a boy I have always found solace in the pages of X-Men, Batman and other superhero comics. And I never outgrew them. Of course a case could be made that most comics have matured as their readers did. I mean Batman right now is featuring the Joker, who after slicing his own face off, is running around sending body parts of superheroes loved ones to them. Not stuff most parents want their kids to see.
I was hesitate at first to have comics sent in here; I mean this is prison, right? Everyone is supposed to be manly and tough, right? Yeah, not so much. I hadn’t even made it back to my cube with my first stack of issues when I have guys literally begging me to put them on a list to read them. Now every issue is read by no less than 9 or 10 people, and probably more that I don’t know about. They get passed around the compound in manila envelopes a couple times a month and we all love it. My Mom, who sends them every month without fail, who braves the socially inept geeks at the local comic shop, has no idea how many people she touches. The comics bring color, excitement, and laughter into lives filled with steel and concrete.
My time here has convinced me that our guilty pleasures are the most important ones we have. They exist for one reason, to bring us happiness. And really, why should we feel guilty about that?