Kevin Smith

They say it with a smirk. A knowing snarl of snark masked behind a smile. “Oh, you were ‘reading’ were you? Your little comic book?” And you look up, with your full beard and your receding hairline, and you know they’re laughing at a perceived childishness. A perceived inferiority. Most of the time it’s tossed aside as charming innocence, but a lot of the time it’s also condemned as weird. Just freaking weird. You’re in your twenties? Reading comic books? Do you still sleep in the same bed as your mother? (That’s really beside the point here).

This is the plight of the comic book fan. The upward struggle against the unceasing, relentless label of “low-minded freak-baggery.” It’s why the plight of mainstream – really, genuinely mainstream – comics has always failed (or at least a non-pricing/access reason why).

And guess what? This might be the most important year ever for ending the reign of casual dismissal against comic book nerds. As I’ve discussed, some of that has to do with the ultimate summer of comic book movies. And some of it has to do with DC’s own new 52 initiatives.

What I realized last night, though, is a lot of it also has to do with a newfound comic book tag team on AMC: The Walking Dead and Kevin Smith’s Comic Book Men

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