For the final confession: I am thoroughly embarrassed.
In the last two months I have been dishing some behind-the-counter details and it has recently come to my attention that I have offended a number of you. I am so sorry. Honestly, that was never my intention. I only wanted a humorous approach to a point of view that isn’t widely shared but it seems, sadly, that I wasn’t able to achieve that.
For anyone who has read my past articles and felt victimized or uncomfortable, I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I love my customers and my readers and I never, ever wanted to make you guys feel badly about yourself or your association to me. I truly only wanted to spread the love to all the die-hard comic fans, I never meant to alienate or insult the masses.
I still think this column is a good idea, just maybe not by me. I hope some other comic shop girl, hopefully someone with better tact and self-restraint and maybe more talent in journalism, picks up where I left off and starts her own “Confessions”. In fact, I would love that because I would read the hell out of that article every week.
This will be the last Comic Shop Girl Confession for quite awhile. Maybe later on I’ll try again but as of right now I feel uneasy trying to write this column with the knowledge I have and, frankly, I just don’t trust myself anymore. This has been a very humbling experience, when I tried to be funny I came across as cruel, when I hoped to be complimentary my words were read as elitist, and when I wanted to sound grateful I sounded fake. It took me a couple days to talk myself out of stepping down from this site completely out of pure shame and remorse.
Again, I am deeply sorry. I only hope that I haven’t scared away any fans or customers with my unpleasant words and harsh unprofessionalism. I know now that I have crossed a line and maybe I will gain back some of the trust I have selfishly and foolishly squandered. I appreciate your patience during my time of abject attempts at writing.
-Denise.
Hi Denise. I just wanted to let you know how sad I am to see your column go. There have been a lot of articles I’ve enjoyed on this site so far, but “Comic Shop GIrl Confessions” was consistently one of my favorites. It was not just a fun bit of weekly insight into the day-to-day of comic shop life – it was funny, thoughtful, and refreshingly candid. I was so happy to see the female side of geekdom – something I’ve seen geek males refer to all-to-often as “mythical” or “nonexistant” – represented in such an honest and relatable way. Additionally, you convinced me that some of the mainstream comic titles I’d long ago dismissed as hopelessly male-centric and sexist could be enjoyable to women, too.
Not knowing the circumstances of how you came to decision to stop writing these articles, it’s tempting to encourage you to ignore the protests of whoever felt “wronged” by your words and keep writing. Sadly, I understand that this may not be an option for you, especially if your friendships and even your job may be at stake. However, I will say the following: 1) NEVER stop writing, because you’re amazing and the world needs more of you, and 2) I hope this experience won’t stop you from writing with the same open and honest style that I’ve come to enjoy in these posts.
Best Wishes,
Amy
What Amy Said!! Hope you return Denise I enjoyed your articles as well.. But I wonder if a NEW mysterious Comic Book Girl confessional writer *COUGHPenNameCOUGH* will show up to continue a similar point of view. Best of luck buddy!
Luckily we at Agents of GUARD were able to use a combination of money, groveling, and honeyed words to convince Denise to keep writing. Denise will keep writing, just not this ongoing article.