It's Saturday. There Is Rugby on TV...and I do not have a TV!

Claude is, he tells me, a regular CBO viewer and he can't understand why I don't make as many posts as I used to.

First point: No, Claude is NOT a regular CBO visitor. If he was he would have left his comment ON the blog instead of messaging me.  Second point: No, Claude is NOT a regular CBO visitor because if he was he would have seen the number of posts about WHY I no longer spend my time doing mega posts or chasing up stories and news.

CBO in one form or another or server has been providing free news, reviews, previews for well over 20 years now. There are other people -leeches- who take what I publish and use it as their own with no credit given to my work. You expect that with the internet. There are others who see me publish on something and will steal that and declare themselves the 'expert; on the matter.

I have tried repeatedly to get financial funding to keep CBO going.  Selling books is one way. No, no one buys. PayPal Me? Gofundme?  Nope...no one wants to support the work I do and this IS work.

I chatted with a couple of female cosplayers I've known for some time and both told me I was "the wrong sex" and that a lot of female cosplayers finance their work via Patreon with "Not Safe For Work" photo-shoots. I knew a large number did this and asked how their male counterparts managed: "NSFW photos!" was the response because, it seems that women like to see scantily clad buff buys -What??

I ould always go back to the old "Play Ed of the Month" I suppose.....no. There's enough horror in the world.

But here is how Isee things -and this post on my Face Book page was prompted by hearing that a couple more small publishers have been forced into retirement. A few "bad" words but I don't really care.

Someone asked me about my comment that comic fandom is dead.

Statement of fact.

3-4 years ago as the comic book chic craze struck and everyone was a 'comic geek' -the Big Bang Theory TV show popularised that but most true comic fans would see it as an insult. Hey, that comic came out YESTERDAY??? Must be worth a fortune -ask a dealer! Comic store owners and the dealers made as much as fast as they could and now their greed is giving them a kick in the teeth. Good.

But 3 years ago there were 20 comic channels on You Tube that I watched. It was my weekly TV viewing. I ignored the ones where idiots waxed lyrical about spending big bucks to get an "upgraded copy" of a comic. Those were not true fans -it was the money that mattered and I heard -repeatedly- "not sure what the story is about" or "Is this a key issue for any reason -let me know".

You have the fucking comic in your hand -take it out of its cosmically pure Mylar bag and acid free backing board and actually read the fucker. You know something? Its bleak but you'll be dead one day and you cannot, whatever the Phantom Stranger tells you, take the comics with you. Here is another cold fact: despite what you may have been told that expensive Mylar and backing board -it is NOT saving your book for eternity and it is still decaying by the day. Bag and board your collection to avoid tears or damage but ENJOY the comic. Take it out and read it.

I've hit rock bottom and have tried selling any of the thousands of comics I have because I need to eat. No one wants to buy. "Its a buyers market" I get told and unless the dealer can cherry pick they are not interested. Great investment for hard times, right?

But going back to those YT comic channels. 20 of them three years ago. How many now? One. There are two other "occasional maybe" channels. You hear the complaints that the viewing figures have dropped but it is NOT about viewing figures it is about getting your love of the comic book medium out there and, hopefully, connecting with other true fans.

If you look at the views for the destruction and VERY (despite their denials) political SJW-anti SJW channels well those are dropping because after a while the gurning morons who like to hear people slating each other and comics off get bored. You like people who keep calling creators "Soy boys" -look it up. You cannot go around calling someone a "Gay boy" anymore so the term "soy boy" came into use to indicate an effeminate person. These people KNOW that full well and make it very clear.You do NOT want to get viewers that like that kind of thing. It has NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING to do with comics fandom.

Some You Tubers have left to cover other subjects or interests and that is up to them but when you go from 20 down to 1 channel it is bad.

With Comic Bits Online I posted daily to the You Tube Comic Community for three years. Hundreds of posts over that time to alleged real comic book fans. Reactions? Comments? ANYTHING?? Zero. Nothing. THAT is a community of comic lovers?

Comic Bits has, since I moved over to Blogger in 2011, had something like 8 million views and the same thing there. Thousands may have visited each day but apart from a couple people I've known a long time, no comments or feedback. Nothing.

The Yahoo Britcomics group has 147 members (occasionally three specific members will briefly comment but that is it. There are 149 Albums with 4,055 comic book images and that does not include those in various files.

I announced the return of the print run Comic Bits and the reaction -zero. The Hooper Interviews is a 300 plus pages book covering interviews from 35 years of comic journalism and included is Marv Wolfman, Donna Barr, Michael Cho, Franco Francavilla and others. In the old days we fans would grab a book like that. Since 2011 when it was published not one single copy has sold.

Others tell me similar stories but I stick to personal experience. If I had £1/$1 for EVERYONE who said that a book looked great and "I'll be buying that" and never do then I'd be well off.

I began in the publishing trade and publishing in the late 1970s and it seems that the internet has made everyone want things for nothing. A book covers 40 years of experience, takes months to write and edit and you price it very competitively because you are not finding it anywhere else and "bit expensive". No, I keep my cover prices low and have discounted so often that I have made no money (sales in the US I have to pay US tax on!), the printer and POD company get the biggest share.

The internet, of course, is not to blame but the people who use it and their mentality. Take illegal downloads and you ARE a THIEF. The biggest lie is "Well if I read it and like it I will buy a copy" -no. You are still a thief and robbing creators. You do that then fuck off because I'm not keen on criminals.

I see the industry from every angle and talk to people involved in the various aspects and to be honest most think the same as me.

Social media? Joke. How many of my Twitter or FB 'friends' read what I post. Judging by the reactions the same two. I talk comics with anyone and my record speaks for itself.

Comic fans are NOW falling into the precipice of extinction.