Like many of the best—and worst—ideas, this one was born out of some half-buzzed conversation over a round of draft beers. We were telling stories. Subway stories. The strange events that unfold every night—often in the wee hours—in the subterrean tunnels that snake below major metropolitan areas.

Everyone in the city has at least one—some are funny, some are scary, some are just odd. But in a place like New York, where nearly all residents rely on public transportation on daily basis, they’re one of the things that bind us together.

We asked a few of our favorite indie cartoonists to share their subway stories with us, and have received some tremendous work in response. For the first round, we cast the net around New York, a city with vibrant communities of artist and underground dwelling weirdos. We’d love get more artists—and metropolitan transit authorities—involved, however. If you’re an artist interested in contributing a strip, please drop us a line at dailycrosshatch@gmail.com. We’ll happily send you the details.

Our first subway story comes from a long time Cross Hatch favorite (and fellow Queens resident), Raina Telgemeier. Telgemeier is likely best known as the artist behind Scholastic’s recent adaptations of those perennial favorite YA books, The Baby-sitter’s Club. The publisher has also set a 2010 release date for Smile, the long-awaited collection of Telgemeier’s terrific auto-biographic Webcomic of the same name.

Telgemeier has also created work for DC’s Bizarro World, the Flight anthologies, and the Del Rey published X-men Manga book, Misfits. Check out her strip, after the jump.