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RevengeOfTheToxicRodent
July 27th, 2010, 06:53 PM
I have never got this. Why are you so obsessed with them? Why do middle age guys collect them?

Just seems weird...

RevengeOfTheToxicRodent
July 27th, 2010, 06:54 PM
Wrong section. Please delete.

RevengeOfTheToxicRodent
July 27th, 2010, 06:56 PM
I have never got this. Why are you so obsessed with them? Why do middle age guys collect them?

Just seems weird..

cprofitt
July 27th, 2010, 06:56 PM
You certainly have some strange posting habits and topics...

is that due to the toxicity?

cascade9
July 27th, 2010, 06:59 PM
Its not just guys, and not just americans......

I know one 40 year old woman (shocking, yes) who has about 800 or so 2000AD comics (not from the US but UK instead, and a quality comic).

I wouldnt buy them myself, but I read hers when she gets a new lot in.

LowSky
July 27th, 2010, 07:02 PM
I have never got this. Why are you so obsessed with them? Why do middle age guys collect them?

Just seems weird..

I only read graphic novels, which is basically a run of a series in one book. I just think of them as books. Their some of the best science fiction/fantasy story telling out there right now.

Why do you think so many movies are now based on comic books these days.

RevengeOfTheToxicRodent
July 27th, 2010, 07:03 PM
You certainly have some strange posting habits and topics...

is that due to the toxicity?

No. It's considered perfectly normal in the parallel.

Tristam Green
July 27th, 2010, 07:04 PM
lol, OP. You silly hipsters and your condescension.

lisati
July 27th, 2010, 07:05 PM
Threads merged.

RevengeOfTheToxicRodent
July 27th, 2010, 07:09 PM
Threads merged.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to delete the other thread?

RiceMonster
July 27th, 2010, 07:22 PM
Maybe because they like them? Is there really a reason to justify such a thing?

RevengeOfTheToxicRodent
July 27th, 2010, 07:25 PM
Maybe because they like them? Is there really a reason to justify such a thing?

Is there really a reason not to ask?

KiwiNZ
July 27th, 2010, 07:25 PM
People collect all sorts of things, it adds to the rich tapestry of life.

I collect Diecast Model Aircraft, mainly Corgi Aviation Archive Series.

theraje
July 27th, 2010, 07:57 PM
Its not just guys, and not just americans......

In fact, I'd wager that the US isn't the country with the most comic-book collectors. Not many Americans really collect comic books (well, there is a good number of them, but not nearly as many as the OP might have one believe...).

Never been much a comic collector myself. I do have some, but probably fewer than a dozen. I'm more into board games, dice, and playing cards.

RevengeOfTheToxicRodent
July 27th, 2010, 07:59 PM
In fact, I'd wager that the US isn't the country with the most comic-book collectors. Not many Americans really collect comic books (well, there is a good number of them, but not nearly as many as the OP might have one believe...).

Never been much a comic collector myself. I do have some, but probably fewer than a dozen. I'm more into board games, dice, and playing cards.

I'm not trying to make you 'believe' anything, that's just how it seems.

realzippy
July 27th, 2010, 08:06 PM
that's just how it seems


Where?

theraje
July 27th, 2010, 08:12 PM
I'm not trying to make you 'believe' anything, that's just how it seems.

Sorry, I didn't mean to say that you were. I meant it to say that it's not as overly common as one can interpret your post as saying.

Either way, it's a hobby. I can think of far more useless, and far more expensive, things to collect (believe me, I've collected FAR more useless/expensive things than comic books). :P

SunnyRabbiera
July 27th, 2010, 08:21 PM
Comic book's are an interesting subject matter, sure I never read many in my day but I can really understand why people like and collect them.
Its all modern mythology, superheroes are the greek gods of our time.
If you question why read Watchmen, maybe that will swing you around

McRat
July 27th, 2010, 08:24 PM
Comics books used to be a staple in America with kids. They were 10 cents when I was growing up, and there were lots of different titles..

Today, they aren't for kids, nor as popular as they once were.

Footnote of American Comic Book History:

Comic books saved American Lives -

The M-16 rifle made it's debut in Vietnam with the Amercan/UN Peacekeeping forces. But they changed the barrel spec to a non-chrome-lined barrel and type of gunpowder that was gummier than the stuff they used in testing. So the rifles would jam.

The Army didn't believe the M-16 would require cleaning, so they didn't train the soldiers to field strip and clean them.

Well, classic training manuals are seldom read, and it was critical that the young soldier read the cleaning instructions; his life depended on understanding the instructions. So they printed up comic books with cleaning instructions.

aysiu
July 27th, 2010, 08:32 PM
I have never got this. Why are you so obsessed with them? Why do middle age guys collect them?

Just seems weird...
I don't know if this is true (what you're saying). I've attached a poll to the thread. Let's see how folks vote. My understanding (though I've never been there myself) is that the Japanese are more obsessed with comic books than Americans are.

As a matter of fact, in America, comic books are thought of as "just for kids." It's only recently that graphic novels have hit the mainstream (Watchmen, Maus, Sin City, Persepolis, etc.), and even so most adults who are not comic book geeks will have only zero or two or three comic books in their book collections.

Frogs Hair
July 27th, 2010, 09:25 PM
I never read comic books, and the two collectors I know are adults over 50.

sanderella
July 27th, 2010, 09:51 PM
I don't know if this is true (what you're saying). I've attached a poll to the thread. Let's see how folks vote. My understanding (though I've never been there myself) is that the Japanese are more obsessed with comic books than Americans are.

As a matter of fact, in America, comic books are thought of as "just for kids." It's only recently that graphic novels have hit the mainstream (Watchmen, Maus, Sin City, Persepolis, etc.), and even so most adults who are not comic book geeks will have only zero or two or three comic books in their book collections.

Yes, Japanese women, they love anime. :KS

ubunterooster
July 27th, 2010, 09:52 PM
Used to collect LEGO BIONICLE comics, but now the only thing I collect are Linux books ;)

BTW linux+ comics = http://xkcd.com/272/

grief -l
July 28th, 2010, 12:12 AM
Ha... I know at least four 50+ comic collecting men. One has his car parked out in the weather and his collection of popular mechanics stuffed to the ceiling in his garage. Another collects playboy and such, a guy I was at school with collects choppers magazines and has done so since school in the late 60's, and a neighbor has so many national geographics you have to walk through tunnels between the piles to get from the front door to the kitchen. He's the only one who ever smiles - the others are just so sad. Gabe

Random_Dude
July 28th, 2010, 12:43 AM
I like to read comic books. Not so much for the "collecting" thing, but because I like then.

benerivo
July 28th, 2010, 01:25 AM
I think comic books provide many people with the superheros they desire. Like the title of a book says, our 'Gods Wear Spandex'.

chriswyatt
July 28th, 2010, 03:47 AM
It combines visual artwork with storytelling, what's not to like? It's a great medium.

Spike-X
July 28th, 2010, 06:03 AM
With the top ten titles selling between 70,000 - 130,000* copies each, in a country of what, 250 million? I'm not sure you can generalise about "you Americans and your comics". As much as the dedicated fans would like to believe otherwise, it's a niche market at best, and getting gradually smaller all the time as they degenerate ever further into doom-laden, continuity obsessed fanwank-fests. DC Comics, in particular, seem to be doing everything they can to expunge every ounce of what could possibly considered fun from their titles.

* Not huge figures at all when, 20-odd years ago, titles were being cancelled if they "only" sold half a million copies per issue. Of course, this was when they were sold at every newsstand/newsagent, rather than being consigned to the direct market ghetto to languish in relative obscurity.

handy
July 28th, 2010, 08:54 AM
The OP imho should have included the following choice in the poll:

American politics read like a comic book?