I know that it is quite pointless to look for discussion on the subject -my experience blogging, writing books and running Yahoo groups has taught me better- but what happened to the real comic fans?
I am old enough to remember fanzines, letters of comment and even comic fans writing to one another. We travelled from around the country to get to conventions (this was before conventions stopped being about comics and became "media events" and a way to squeeze every penny out of people -seriously, you pay £250 for a table but if you have someone to help you out you have to pay for them to get into the event??).
What happened to groups like Denis Gifford's old Association of Comic Enthusiasts? There was quite a group of them used to meet up at the old Westminster Comic Marts.
We know comics became "chic" for a while and everyone wanting attention became a "comicologist" or life long comics fan (usually a veteran of 5 years with very dubious comic facts gleaned from equally dubious comic sites online). TVs The Big Bang Theory created a veritable plague of comic book geek chiques. The dealers loved them as they had cash and were stupid: "This issue came out yesterday but it's a hot-seller and you can't find it anywhere -cover price was $2.50 but you can have it for $35!" and they sold the books. How did that market collapse work out in the end for the greed merchants?
Five years ago I had 25 You Tube comic channels to watch (I was very selective). Out of those only one exists today. The others have closed up channel and left YT or very rarely post. Others have moved away from comics. In total, five years ago, I noted 75 comic related YT channels so went through the list yesterday. Gone. Every last one of them.
There are the slick looking channels with alleged 'comic fans' who seem to be more interested in mocking the comics than looking at them seriously. There are a few of the "This comic is worth $$$" channels out there but, be honest, they are NOT comic fans; their only interest is in buying and selling. The other channels are so engrossed in their SJW-Anti SJW warring that it is tedious and boring and, honestly, they need to just pack up and go away because videos full of sexist, homophobic (do not claim you had no idea that "soy boy" was the current term replacing "gay boy" because, dammit there are laws stopping homophobic comments) and right wing while claiming that the "Far Left" is guilty of these things -it IS about peoples politics and it is a blight everywhere.
None of that is fandom. It is fakery in the hope of getting more and more attention.
The fanzines are gone and if you want to buy Alter Ego or one of the other slick US fanzines in the UK you pay a high price! I produced a new version of the Comic Bits fanzine -absolutely no interest. Others have tried and failed.
UK comic forums are usually fully of bullying and trolling and owners turn a blind eye when this gets reported because they are either supporting the abuse or don't want to be bullied themselves -which is condoning what is going on. Grow a set of balls -if you are scared someone might say something nasty about you go hide in a corner and be quiet or close your forum down.
My Britcomics sites were set up on Yahoo groups in 2001 -the year they started after Yahoo closed down its 360 blogs. 30th January 2001 the groups started and I set mine up in February of that year. Then the Spammer/Troll Wars hit the groups between 2003-2005 when everyone who thought they could freely spam porn and other stuff (owners were innocent in those days and never moderated memberships) and in came the trolls attacking any and everyone and that destroyed many groups. Others (like me) purged the memberships because the groups were designed to get conversations going between fans and be friendly. I bought in a rule, later adopted by other group owners, that if someone was rude to another member and there was no reason then that person had a choice: apologise to the member involved and the group or receive a lifelong ban. It worked.
The Britcomics group looks at Golden and Silver ages British comics and has 147 members and the albums boast the largest collection of creator/publisher photographs as well as 2,600+ images of comic and annual covers, strip samples and long list of links including some to videos on British comics. Although members can use a pseudonym on the group when they ask to join they do have to give their real name because that way the nastier elements can't interfere with the group.
But look at CBO and its lack of comments -logically, since the site was moved to blogger in 2011, at least a few of the millions who have visited should have commented.
That fan need to learn more (accurate) facts about comics and creators and see hard if near impossible to find images seems to have gone. The Hooper Interviews was published a LONG time ago -Marv Wolfman, Donna Barr, Mike Western, John Cooper, Mike Cho, Francavilla and many more interviewed therein. Not a single copy has ever sold yet it is the type of book that in the days of real comic fandom we would have grabbed with both hands.
True comic book fans are now on the Red (Endangered Species) List.
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