Comic book snob at my local shop tried to tell me I was reading comics wrong

I was at Cosmic Cat Comics in Omaha last Saturday picking up the latest issue of Shazam and this guy in his 40s in a vintage X-Men shirt starts lecturing me about how DC is for kids and I need to read real comics like Saga. I told him I've been reading since I was 10 and I like what I like, and he just rolled his eyes and walked away. Has anyone else had a fellow fan try to shame them for their taste like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

shanes6620d ago

MAN that guy sounds like a total buzzkill. @sam_cooper nailed it with the gatekeeping air comment, I heard someone on a podcast recently say comic book gatekeepers are just mad that other people are having fun. Like seriously, who made him the king of what counts as a "real" comic? I've seen this exact thing happen to a buddy who only reads manga, some dude told him he wasn't reading "proper" comics. It's ridiculous, we're all just people reading stories with pictures, doesn't matter if it's Shazam or Saga or whatever.

sam_cooper20d ago

Gatekeeping comic books in 2025 is like gatekeeping air. Did you ask him if his vintage X-Men shirt came with a certificate of superiority?

xenam8420d ago

Gatekeeping anything with superheroes is just weird energy... nobody owns the fun. Funny how the people who care the most about what counts as "real" comics are usually the ones who haven't picked up a new issue in years. Maybe we should all just let people enjoy their hobby without making it a whole personality thing.