Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett talks about a comic store he hadn't visited before and Congressman John Lewis's appearance on The Daily Show to promote his graphic novels.

I'm lucky enough to have someone in my life who really "gets" me.  I present into evidence this past weekend, when, without any prompting, she came up with a perfect Sunday afternoon for me.

First, for lunch, there was a buffet at an Indian restaurant we'd never gone to before.  Next was a trip to the little Indian grocery next door where I was able to get some extra hot curry powder, stuff that makes the variety you can get at Krogers look like the weak sauce that it is.  And, finally, a visit to nearby comic book store, one I'd never been to before:  Nostalgia Ink in Mason, Ohio.

Well, it was actually more like "nearby with an explanation:" I'm glad that she had spotted it while shopping, because there was no way I would ever have been able to find it on my own.  It's situated in a corner of a strip mall not visible from the street.

It was a neat little store that made good use of its limited space.  I was especially taken with the display of issues and trade collections of Saga and Black Science up front on the left as you went in.  I would tell you more about what I thought of the store, but given that we want our stores to be inviting to those who aren't our customers but could be, I think we could all benefit from actually hearing from them.

Someone like my friend who's no longer a regular comic book reader, who wouldn't have gone inside the store if I hadn’t been with her.  She found Nostalgia Ink to be "…clean, pleasant, and professional."  We were waited on by the store's owner, Kevin Kluck, of whom she said, "He really made visiting a pleasant experience:  he was personable, affable, asked us the right questions (did we need help?  Had we found everything we needed?) and was happy to chat with us about the field and about his shop."

In case you missed it Congressman John Lewis appeared on the Monday edition of Comedy Central's The Daily Show.  There he discussed the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," the March from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 and promoted the first two volumes of his graphic novel memoir of the civil rights movement trilogy March created with Nate Powell and Lewis staffer Andrew Aydin.  If it seems in any way incongruous that he would want to tell his story in the comic book format it shouldn’t, because it was a comic book that he read when he was 18 years old that changed his life.

I'm speaking of Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--The World's Most Dangerous Comic"), a 16-page comic book published by the Fellowship of Reconciliation.  Written by Benton Resnick, an editor and writer for Al (Li'l Abner) Capp's Toby Press and officially drawn by the "Al Capp Organization" (though it's been rumored the art was actually down by Dan Barry, the artist best known for his work on the comic strip Flash Gordon).  I called it "The World's Most Dangerous Comic" after finding this quote from Joe Wos, founder and director of Pittsburgh's ToonSeum who said that at the time in the South "People were told to read it, memorize it, and destroy it because if they were caught with it, they could be killed."

Congressman Lewis has been quoted as saying "that comic book inspired me to make trouble.  But it was the good kind of trouble."

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.