The shame of buying comics

[Stoner_Fanboy]

Late last night I was in Wal-mart with some friends because we have nothing better to do. I saw these pretty cool 3-D Marvel posters and I picked up an X-men one. When I went check out the chasier goes "How old are you?" and I say "23" and she's goes "This is for you?" and I proundly say "YES It is!" and she's says "Ok". It just gets me how close minded people are about comics. I was thinking the same thing when I got out of the movie theather last night from watching The Matrix. Yeah The Matrix is cool and all but I read this type of stuff ALL the time in comics, so it's nothing really new to me. If people would keep an open minded for 2 seconds they would see that comics are NOT childern's reading material. I guess that's why even when comics were sold in non-comic shops I still bought them at comic stores because I hate getting looks from people, even though I'm not ashamed to buy comics I just don't like dealing with redneck hicks who can't even read giving me looks. When will this world see that comics offer so much more than movies do? When will the world stop being a world filled with idiots?!

 

[FlameHead]

That'll likely happen when the computers take over and create a whole new dream world using humans as batteries.

I hear what you're saying though... and the funny thing is, the majority of comic collecters aren't kids. They're adults and a lot of them are way beyond their 20's.

 

[Godlovinspidey]

Yeah, a lot are teenagers, too. I used to be afraid that people would make fun of me if I told them, but then, I just stopped caring, and lots of people ask me questions about them, and its pretty cool since I don't, and not too many other people, care if I do. Its not embarrasing like it used to kind of be.

 

[Rizmeister]

I don't give a **** what people think. **** people.

Though I don't like to be associated with most comic collectors, they're a bunch of nerds.

 

[mg_productions]

Regardless of what we may think chicks don't dig comic collectors unless she too is into them.The trick is to sucker them in,and THEN tell them.Make sure they kinda like you first.But be careful,they can run pretty damn fast.

 

[Stoner_Fanboy]

Originally posted by Rizmeister
I don't give a **** what people think. **** people.

Though I don't like to be associated with most comic collectors, they're a bunch of nerds.

What's wrong with being a nerd? lol Personally I'm ok with people calling me a nerd for collecting comics but being called a kid or "childish" pisses me off.

 

[Stoner_Fanboy]

Originally posted by mg_productions
Regardless of what we may think chicks don't dig comic collectors unless she too is into them.The trick is to sucker them in,and THEN tell them.Make sure they kinda like you first.But be careful,they can run pretty damn fast.

Oh yeah I tottally agree, but I would never try to get a girl to read comics unless they had at least some mild interest. I actually met a girl once that was into comics AND punk rock, two things I LOVE but she got pissed at me because she found out I smoke pot lol oh well, I don't let anyone change who I am.

 

[Rizmeister]

Originally posted by Stoner_Fanboy
What's wrong with being a nerd? lol Personally I'm ok with people calling me a nerd for collecting comics but being called a kid or "childish" pisses me off.

Well, I'm a nerd, I was joking, but still, a lot of comic fans are really stupid. They are just obsessive. Like the geeks who nitpick tiny inconsistinces in continuity. Not like now, when there is no continuity, but like back in the early 90s when it was damn near perfect. And someone would complain about graffiti in Fantastic Four not being in ASM.

 

[Godlovinspidey]

Originally posted by mg_productions
Regardless of what we may think chicks don't dig comic collectors unless she too is into them.

Not true.

 

[Orko Is King]

Every time someone at my school sees me reading a comic, they always ask if they can see it. And sometimes they get really excited about it and start asking questions.

 

[Big Dirty Ogre]

Originally posted by Stoner_Fanboy
What's wrong with being a nerd? lol Personally I'm ok with people calling me a nerd for collecting comics but being called a kid or "childish" pisses me off.

i'm the same way.
most people don't say **** about it, though, because i'm rather large.
btw, stoner fanboy, what part of louisiana are you from? i'm from Abbeville, near lafayette and erath.

 

[mg_productions]

Originally posted by Stoner_Fanboy
she got pissed at me because she found out I smoke pot.

Yeah,the pot smoking thing will usually lose them if the comics won't.heh heh.That's great.

 

[Computron2005]

Im 17 and I started collecting when I was 15. Most people in my high school think comics are cool and I know quite a few collectors.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Most of my co-workers know that I draw and buy comic books and say that I have real talent in drawing and often suggest that I look into breaking in the comic book field.

Instead I'm stuck working at Mickey D's. *sniff sniff*

 

[Marvelous]

Great point, Stoner_Boy, I totally understand and agree. And yet, I still believe that comicbooks about superheroes should be all-ages material, for the most part (especially long-established characters that always were in the first place). Comics are stories you can discover as a kid, and still enjoy as an adult. I disagree with those who seem to think that making superhero stories more "realistic" and "mature" will give them legitimacy in the eyes of the people you describe, much less improve sales. I think it's had the opposite effect, over the last 15 years or so...

If I had to make a choice, I'd sooner accept people seeing comics as immature than being unsuitable for their kids.

 

[incurock31]

Comics aren't just for kids, and anyone who thinks so is an idiot. I dare them to read Preacher or Transmetropolitan and say that afterwards.

 

[Godlovinspidey]

Yeah, seriously. I don't think I've seen little kids looking at comic books in almost any bookstore I've ever been in. That's just a stereotype because kids read them back in the 60s at drugstores all day while licking lollipops.

 

[Stoner_Fanboy]

Yeah not often anyone will see a kid in a comicshop but I did not to long ago, and I have to say it brought a smile to my face to see a 12 or 13 year old checking out comics.

 

[FlameHead]

Yeah, it gives hope for the future of Comics.

 

[Lt. Figgnuts]

Stoner_Fanboy, you fool! She was a keper!
Anyway, Stoner, I totally agree with you on the thing about a Matrix thing. Ever since I saw the first one, I've thought it was the best comic book movie not based on a comic book. All of the action sequences seem like they could jump right off a comic book page.
And it always bugs me when people look down on the comic book industry or think people who read it are immature or ******ed or something. For example, the other day, I needed a binder for school. I told my mom that I needed one, and she said to me, "Well, you should have spent your money on something productive, instead of those comics." That always makes me mad when she says stuff like that. Grah.

Anyway. I'm a fan of continuity. I'm not uber-sensitive about it ("Holy crap! Peter Parker's hair is longer this issue than it was last issue! Last issue, that building was next to this building, but this issue, it's next to that building!"), but I think it's a nice, healthy thing, as long as you don't have to be up on years and years of comics just to pick up a stand-alone issue or arc. It should be there, but it shouldn't dominate. It should be there and at the same time allow a newcomer to pick up an issue and more or less understand it.

 

[eris]

screw all of you, you have no idea, what do you think its like to walk into a comic shop & get the "what the hell are you doing in here?" (& im not that pretty, ok maybe they are cheaking out the rack)...thank gawd for the snail (comic shop with a lot of female staff)....or the odd look when you buy a toy or the searching for the rug rat that you are buying it for...not to mention getting shown the E games for your kid or the "i think your boyfreind will like this one" when you are looking at ones with an M...not to mention him sulking when you beat him at a game or being mistaken for a groupy at a rock show...so

 

[THE8th]

Originally posted by Stoner_Fanboy
Oh yeah I tottally agree, but I would never try to get a girl to read comics unless they had at least some mild interest. I actually met a girl once that was into comics AND punk rock, two things I LOVE but she got pissed at me because she found out I smoke pot lol oh well, I don't let anyone change who I am.

Thats a bummer. That sounds like a awsome chick. I my parents dont ridicule me for my intrest in comics. I dont think I've ever spent hard earned money on comics. My mom has just always bought them for me. But for this I am lucky. I some times wonder why I do so bad with girls is becouse comics have made me such a freak. Without comics I dont know what I ever would have done. I'd probably would have turned out the way I am without comics. Through my adolecence and my teens I didnt snowboard, skakeboard, I wasnt into video games, comics were my only hobby. Which is what I think probably striked the problem. But know ones really ever told me "dont read comics, comics are for little kids" However its mostlly soicety that puts that lable on comics. Sometimes I think I should get out of them so I dont become like those fat guys who work in comic stores(it so errie,their just like comic book guy from the simpsons)

But if this topic is of intrest to you you should read scott MCcoulds understanding comics. This guy knows so much.

 

[guj19]

From the girl standpoint, if it comes up, it comes up. i wouldn't bring up a love of comics up on the first date or anything. I dated a really hot girl and she didn't seem to mind so long as i admitted my dorkiness.

I'm 22 and I goota tell you, I don't look like i belong in a comic shop when i go there. The reason for the stereotype of the loser is... sadly, those are the guys at the shop. If a guy can't have a conversation without interjecting something about comics in the mix, he's a comic geek loser, plain and simple. another problem is that most people who read comics don't care about the story they are reading so much as the pictures they are looking at. I agree that it is always a pleasure to look at great art in a comic, but that does not constitute a great comic. how else can you explain all those years X-men was just horrible in writing and still garnering the top selling spot in comics? We've all been stereotyped as people who would rather look at the pictures rather than read because of the people who made runs like that possible. sorry if you are one of 'em, but you need to realize that comics are still a form of literature and you really should seek out the best stories, not just the best art.

To me, a comic is just like any book i've ever read, but having an artist's rendering of actions taking place. The artist can show you "his hand trembled in fear as he moved closer to the door" with a single picture. The same sensory description is conveyed and you don't need to read the long paragraph about it. if you read comics, read them because they are good and you think they are good, not because Wizard Magazine told you it was or simply because it is a comic book. There are comics that suck. Really bad. it happens in everything. If you try to entertain your mind all the way, people will begin to understand that we aren't all just looking at the pictures.

 

[Doomed_hero]

Comics arent just for kids. I read and really dont care what others say. I would like them to read The Wacthmen and still tell me comics are for kids.

 

[Atomic Angel]

Originally posted by Doomed_hero
Comics arent just for kids. I read and really dont care what others say. I would like them to read The Wacthmen and still tell me comics are for kids.

Tell them to read Vertigo comics and let's see if comic books are for kids.