Comic Book Men

The other night, Harold wanted to give Comic Book Men a try.  As far as I can tell, this show is about the staff of a New Jersey comic book shop, who make nerd culture jokes and dick jokes. There are some funny moments, but a lot of the teasing is hard to watch because I’m pretty sure any character on the show’s staff would toss the other guys under a bus if Kevin Smith dared him.  Sometimes they sell a comic book or an action figure to a customer.

Or they make a podcast, on this one Kevin Smith discussed his favorite superheroine. “I was a big Batgirl fan, because you liked Batman and suddenly this is everything you love about Batman, but you can have sex with it too!”

This went on for a few minutes, as the comic book men discussed whether Barbara Gordon becoming paralyzed made you want to protect her or immediately dump her.

“Harold, dear,” I asked at this point “why do you think it is that women don’t enjoy comic book fandom?”

“I take your point.” Harold sighed, “I suppose this isn’t an accurate portrayal of people from New Jersey either.”

Edit: Turned this up when I was Googling to make sure I had the quote right. It’s things I wanted to say about that episode, but said better.

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7 Responses to Comic Book Men

  1. Bill says:

    Honestly, as someone who reads comics, I’m not too fond of the people they pretend you have to interact with in order to enjoy comics either. The guy who lives downstairs who thanked me for recommending Animal Man is a decent guy however.

    • Meg says:

      I think this type of thing is why most adult readers like to identify as fans of an author or an artist or a series, and not as a Comic Book Fan, because that seems to encompass other lifestyle calls too.

  2. Matt says:

    Comics Alliance’s Chris Simms also has a fairly scathing review of the show (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/16/comic-book-men-review-kevin-smith/). I’ve only seen the first episode but I pretty much the whole time asking “are they serious?”

    • Meg says:

      That writer seems to share my feelings on the total meanness between the characters. And the line “these are the guys that work at the shop you only go to when the store you like sells out of the comic you want” is way too accurate.

  3. Bill M. says:

    I own a comic / hobby shop and our conversations are far more entertaining than this show is. As much as I enjoy Kevin Smith’s movies, I cannot bring myself to take this show seriously in any respect. NOTE: We have also found out from one of our customers that this show is scripted as they were selecting people to venture into their store to create these scenarios.

    My review: This show is a bad satire selling itself as reality. If you want to see real randomness and humor come visit my shop.

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