To understand this post, you must read Otto's post: Comics: The Elephant in the Room, or The Real Reason American Comics are Failing.
A quick history on my connection to comic books: I started on comics as a young lad, thanks to Otto. I collected for quite a few years, stopping in junior high due to the rising cost and my desire to spend my money on all things music. The world of comics was being flooded with Liefeld clones and suddenly it seemed as if every comic character had tiny feet, 5 feet shoulders and impossible muscle detail. I stayed away for many years until Otto reintroduced me in 1998. After we moved to LA, i religiously read the comics he picked up each week that I was interested in. Trips to Comic Con prompted me to start my Completist phase. I scoured the cheap bins to fill the holes in my existing collection. I continued to read Otto's comics until we parted ways and married our wives. Now, I read what I can of Bruce's and look for great deals on trade paperbacks.
If you look up geek, dork and nerd in the dictionary, you find that all three have similar definitions of people who are single-minded, stupid, foolish and socially inept. Whereas, some CB readers might fit under socially inept, I have met very few who are stupid or foolish. In fact, I have met far more sports fans that fit under those definitions that comic book fans. Am I being unfair?
I've been dubbed all three by my non-CB friends. Those that think because in the past I have enjoyed collecting toys or comic books, liked soccer and hockey and didn't give a rat's ass about football or basketball, that I must be one of the above. So be it. That's their opinion and I'm not going to change my ways to hope my friends will think higher of me.
As to decrease in CB awareness, I think a lot of that can be blamed on three words that moved rapidly from obscurity to mainstream over the past 20 years. Those three words: Nintendo, Playstation and Sega. The children of today, with their short attention spans and need for fast action, have found satisfaction in the heroes and storylines of Final Fantasy instead of the static glossy or newsprint issues of the Fantastic Four. Do video games based on CBs sell well, hell yes!
