Batman Cricut

Yesterday, a co-worker stopped by to ask about Batman's color scheme. She wasn't sure if it was black and grey, black and grey and yellow, or blue and grey and yellow. So she figured she'd ask the resident expert. Naturally, I responded -- in typically geeky fashion -- that all three of those color schemes were valid and it kind of depended on a particular artists' interpretation, but I could certainly come up with an image of any of them if she was trying to win a bet or something.

Turns out she's doing some craftsy stuff for her son's upcoming birthday party. She's big into scrapbooking and the like, and evidently has something called a Cricut which is something like a computer printer, except that it has blades and cuts out the images on colored paper. You can buy these cartridges that contain various graphics on them, and this Cricut thingamabob can churn out accurate and reasonably detailed cut-outs based around various themes. (I'm sure I'm doing a disservice to it in my explanation, but that's how I understand it.) Anyway, my co-worker got a Batman cartridge to help create decorations and invitations for her son's birthday, and wanted to ensure she got the colors right. He's only turning four but, you know, you wouldn't want to look like an ass 15 years later because Mom got the colors all wrong.

She also noted that the party, until recently, had kind of been a toss-up between whether it was Batman or Spider-Man themed. Spidey apparently won out for Halloween, but her son was fond of both and she wasn't sure which way he'd want to go for his birthday. (Personally, I went with the Super Friends for my fourth birthday, but I suppose that's a sign of the times more than anything else.)

OK, now, here's what I think is most interesting about that whole conversation I had about Batman's color scheme and birthday themes and whatnot: it was wholly ordinary and unremarkable. A comic-related discussion at work. With someone who is not herself a comic book fan herself. Initiated by her.

It was so normal and matter-of-fact that I put it out of my head almost as soon as the conversation was over. I only remembered it at all as I'm sitting here wracking my brain for blog post topic. Does that say something about me, or about the relative acceptance and perception of comics by the population at large?

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