Why do comic fans get stereotyped so much?

[superboyprime]

A friend linked me to this yesterday, and I just had to share. Written and drawn by some guy who works in a comic book shop, Our Valued Customers is a webstrip in which he quotes actual things he's heard his customers say.



Some other stand-outs beneath the cut...

Comments

[bradhanon]

God help me, I don't doubt a single one of these. Thanks for the intro to the strip!

[fai_dust]

Good God, these are horrifing. Not supprising though.

[omnipotent]

My thoughts exactly. :(

[fifthie]

#7 is probably correct because Geoff Johns writes shit, HTH

[shadowpsykie]

i don't think there is anything Geoff Johns has written that i haven't liked... really i kinda like it all...

[shanejayell]

I've heard more than one of these. *sigh*

[ravenous_raven]

To be fair, this is just the comic-book flavor of certain...shall we say, different customers.

[majingojira]

I must be living in a bubble, I haven't heard any of these.

And for that, I'm grateful, because I don't doubt the stupidity of the common idiot.

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, luckily I haven't really heard any of that in my LCS.

[jarodrussell]

Well my fanfiction is better than Geoff Johns'!

...

I mean...fuck.

[sun_man]

well hover boards do exist and Geoff Johns can't write for shit

[darklorelei]

But...but...Tesla IS awesome.

[espanolbot]

That's true, but it helps if you know who he wasm, what he did and that his name was Nikola, not Nicholas.

It's like saying that Rasputin's first name was Gregory.

[pyrotwilight]

This both amuses and depresses me. I can't even think of an icon to express this.

[liara_shadowsong]

Hm... I agree on the first part. As to the second, I don't think I can fully express it either, but this icon at least just barely scratches the surface, so that will have to do.

[northstarfan]

*really doesn't miss being The Girl Who Works At The Comic Shop some days*

[big_daddy_d]

What's weird is... a lot of these are spot on. I've been to the comic store plenty.. in which the one I visit regularly will be closing on the 14th of this month.. :(

Still, sometimes it's fun to have conversations with others and just geek out.. but there are times where you will hear some really weird shit being said.

Also.. Star Wars... way better than Star Trek.

Fans: "Oooooo.."

Star Trek Fan: "No he didn't.."

SW Fan: "Hahaha, oh yes. Yes he did. What are you gonna do about it?"

ST Fan: "Well..at least we don't have Jar-Jar!!"

SW Fan: "...Low blow dude..low blow. At least our hero didn't have a bridge dropped on him!"

ST Fan: "Now why do you have to go there huh?"

ST Fan 2: *speaks Klingon*

SW Fan: "Hey! You! Shut up! Seriously, how stupid is that? You guys actually adopted the language from a t.v. show!"

ST Fan: "As opposed to all of you speaking Wookie?!"

SW Fan: "Hey! Wookies make great travelling companions and will own Klingon ass any day of the week! You guys don't even have Jedi! They'll block your little phasers with their lightsabers!"

ST Fan: "Ugh! I get so fucking tired of hearing about Jedi and this Force shit! You know what? It's go time!"

SW Fan: "Bring it!!"

Annnd a fight breaks out... which let's be honest who wouldn't want to see geek warfare? lol

[dorksidefiker]

And then a quiet fan with a simple staff shows up, clocks them both over the head, announces "Ivanova is God," and goes on his merry way.

[drakyndra]

These are both hilarious and mildly terrifying.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Most of these are thoroughly deranged and hilarious, but a few sound semi-reasonable. I mean, the guy who's talking about how he wouldn't show comics with sexual themes to children - well, yeah, that's... one of those things you don't really do, right? It's a tad 'uh, yeah, we get that', but it doesn't exactly verge into 'WTF did he just say?' territory. The guy talking about 'Toy Story' may or may not be joking - a lot depends on what his tone of voice would be - and the girl who writes fanfiction is... well, she takes pride in her work. And as for the guy who's fretting over Catwoman, that's actually rather sweet. One gets the impression that, if he could, he'd send her some flowers with note saying 'sorry for your loss', or something like that.

[punishermax]

It's the "I Wouldn't EVER do that" because I really just imagined it said with shifty eyes and a nervous look around.

[jacknoir]

Yeah, I would much rather read bad fanfiction than most Johns stuff. At least bad fanfic is an isolated incident. When Johns fucks up, the consequences stick around the DCU forever and we all have to hear about how great they are.

[liara_shadowsong]

OMG yes.

[jjgalahad]

Jesus. That is both horrifying and hilarious. Horrilarious?

The absolute worst part of all this? I'm now suffering through a mental debate of Danger Room Vs. Holodeck. At this point, I lean toward Danger Room.

[newnumber6]

While I'd happily bankrupt myself converting my home into EITHER, I think Holodeck wins out (assuming you have the Enterprise computer on hand) with it's ability to recreate complex fictional worlds on the fly. I know, depending on the writer, the Danger Room can sometimes do some of that, but I never got the idea that you could spend a week in the Danger Room and not know you were in one (assuming you were put in one without your knowledge), like you could a Holodeck.

[stubbleupdate]

I have no experiences like that in my dingy local store because there's hardly ever anybody else in when I go in.

I wish I could move back to where I did my postgrad, because the local comic book guy there is ace.

[arbre_rieur]

One time at the comic book store I used to frequent, the guy behind the counter and his friends were talking about how awful it was that the rape scene in the new movie Hollow Man was censored, and how the DVD better include the full version because that's what folks want to see. The were being pretty loud, so that they had to know I could hear them. I was fifteen years old at the time.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I would agree with the censorship issue on general principle, but... the specifics? Dude - uncool. Yeesh.

[aelflar]

Bwahaha, Jane Austen`s gonna sue!! Oh noez!

[liara_shadowsong]

Maybe she's a Time Lord?

[khamelea]

Comic book fans have bad skin! That IS hilarious.

[janegray]

Are you sure the Toy Story one wasn't just a joke? Action figures get joked about all the time. "I'm a Marvel, I'm a DC" and Twisted Toyfare Theatre are all about that.

And I can't help but find the Catwoman one rather sweet. When the comic book industry sports gems such as "yeah, sure, cripple the bitch" (editor's reply to Alan Moore's request to use Batgirl in The Killing Joke) and "they needed a rape. Because there’s nothing quite so badass as rape, lets face it" (justification for the fridging of Sue Dibny), I actually find it a relief that a fanboy was so concerned for Selina's well-being. So what if she is a fictional character? If a fictional work can't get you emotionally invested in its characters, that means the work in question sucks.

[greenmask]

It's a pretty misogynistic joke, though, even if it is meant only for lulz.

[cuntfucius]

I work at a comic book shop.

I don't know how much of it is confirmation bias, and I tend to see it way more on message boards than in the store I work at, but oh my god the negativity. And weird, unfounded opinions and dislike! My God, why the hell are you guys having so much fun in NOT having fun!?!?!? At least laugh about it and don't take it seriously!

Also I just really hate A-lister only fans omg.

[cuntfucius]

And I actually get REALLY surprised -- i mean lkwelawe it's totally jarring to go to s_d and less pleasant places like cbr forums and dc message boards and see the cynicism and fear of change and love of the status quo and the "just because" opinions everywhere and in my shop, have guys and gals come in who are actually excited about new stuff coming out, excited about lesser known characters, and have fun talking about characters and even recent bad decisions/events by the companies without having beautiful gems such as thoughts like "She should just die" "I just hate him, he's emo" "She's whiny" "She's useless" "He's boring"

[punishermax]

My local comic shop sort of lost a lot of it's luster after I heard a customer actually use, in all seriousness, the phrase "God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve."

Who fucking says that? Who? For fucks sakes.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, evidently the customer did.

[icon_uk]

Thing is whilst, sadly, I can't dispute any of these examples as I've heard similar things too often, you could probably find analogues between this sort of extreme, and the things guys says in sports bars, or in the bleachers, or stamp collecting fairs. Every hobby has it's assholes, alas.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'd say most of these belong more to the lunatic fringe than in the category of assholery. Not all of them, of course - the guy talking about WW2 and the Danger Room/Holodeck guy are pretty clearly jerks - but most.

Powergirl's reaction says it all..

[big_daddy_d]

I just took a look at that blog. Some things were funny, some were just.. really out there and downright fucked up. Some of the things said, you can usually find in an internet forum, so it amazed me that they were said out loud like that. I can't help but think of the Clerk's tagline when I first saw the trailer, "We may serve you, but we don't have to like you." I think it was said a bit different but the meaning was the same. I get that impression reading that blog.

[cuntfucius]

That's what freaks me out! When people say stuff you'd normally see reserved for message boards. I can take customers spouting off fandom memes and laughing at their own clever fridge jokes or retcon jokes or arsenal jokes or whatever while I just stare blankly, but it's come to the point where I try to be super cautious when/if I talk about The 99 or the Question or Batwoman or w/e because I know I might hear something that just disturbs me. Luckily I get more positivity and open-mindedness than the weird pessimistic bigoted jerk attitude.