CodeXAhex
I probably wouldn't walk into a comic shop if it wasn't for the TMNT. I don't really have any interest in modern Marvel/DC, and most of what I read is a few decades old, which means I'm more reliant on eBay or websites like MyComicShop than local shops.
my favorite is really Image Comics
I'm sure there's some good stuff out there by Image. All of the comics they publish are creator-owned, so there's bound to be some passion in some of those titles. I just can't be bothered to find those gems when most of the stuff on the shelves of comic shops is bad.
and stop pandering to audiences that don't even read nor buy them
Yeah, that's really the problem. I mostly agree with MNTC's assessment, except for a few points that I believe warrants further nuance.
It seems like MNTC's impression was that a lot of comic book fans are like the stereotypical "basement dweller" white guys, but I think that is an oversimplification. That's who comic book fans used to be. But those guys, who are in their 30s, 40s, 50s+ now, have mostly moved on, except for the dedicated "Wednesday warriors" who can't break the habit of showing up to the shop every week. Just think: the comic book guy from the Simpsons was depicted as a middle aged man and made his first appearance in 1991 — that guy would be around 70 years old today! Care to wager what the election map would look like if filtered down to 70 year old white men? We don't need to guess.
But let's ignore the based 70-year-old-former-basement-dweller for a moment, and imagine the less-elderly basement dwellers just for the sake of argument. Now, this might be ironic, counterintuitive, or an unpopular opinion, but I see this "basement dweller" character as the purest expression of masculinity. The most extreme caricature of this character is as follows: they do not have any female influences in their life besides maybe their mom, they do not have any care for their appearance (obsession over one's appearance is a feminine trait), they are disagreeable and care about their autistic facts and "canon" over social cohesion (unlike women, who capitulate to maintain friends and relationships), and they have obsessions and hobbies that they put a great deal of time, research, and investment into (a uniquely male characteristic).
Now, I'm not saying this caricature is virtuous or good. Personally, I have a wife, a house of my own, I try to get along with people in my personal life, and I have many friends who are women.
But the point is that comic book creators and fans now are the opposite of the caricature mentioned above. They are no longer this "basement dweller" caricature in my opinion, or at the very least, the "basement dweller" caricature is no longer the one being marketed toward.
Comic book fans are not the extreme bastardized "form" of masculinity that made up the "basement dweller" of ye olde days. Instead, they are the extreme bastardized "form" of femininity. A very different beast.
Instead of rejecting women or femininity, the "modern audience" embraces femininity to illogical extremes, even to the point where they themselves pretend to be women, play dress up, and wear makeup, despite being biologically male. And as MNTC said, they "love to read about plus size girl power" and "strong female leads." They don't care about stories with interesting conflict. They care about diversity and extreme "inclusion."
The juxtaposition between the basement dweller and the "modern audience" or new comic book fan is what I believe to be where the downfall of comics began.
The stereotypical basement dwellers of the 80s, 90s, and 00s, were repulsive creatures, but at least they knew a damn good story. When writers pandered to them, the stories were good. It's as simple as that. The stories and culture that cultivated around those geeks were obviously something special and highly coveted — why would trannies, feminists and huge corporations try to take it all for themselves and create huge empires on the backs of those geeks if their stories and culture weren't coveted?
But despite the stories originating from the stomping ground of smelly, highly autistic, disagreeable, disgusting men, they were stories that really anybody could enjoy and recognize as good. You didn't have to be a basement dweller to enjoy them — kids, adults, skaters, athletes, geeks, and yes, even women, could enjoy those stories. The autistic basement dwelling men were able to cultivate a culture that led to brilliant stories that drew inspiration from the conflict of virtue and vice, tropes and themes as old as time itself, classic fables and literature, and the human condition. In contrast, the modern brood of writers who reject their basement dwelling forefathers (and have ironically become something similarly repulsive, yet much less talented), draw their inspiration from... transgenderism and "queerness."
