When I was a kid, it seemed comics were uncool. Only we geeky kids read them (though I was also involved in summer and winter athletics, so perhaps I don't fully count).
In high school, I didn't give a shit who knew I read comics. I was popular, a good student, I didn't give a fuck as to the coolness factor. I got laid by the time I was 18 anyway.
In college in the 80s, comics were cool. We had a direct sales retailer in my small college town and I saw students from university there all the time buying stuff.
And today, it seems cool for the kids. My daughter's friends are unfazed by her reading comics and she's never said anybody gives her any grief over it. We did not slink into our retailer and slink out, hoping to go unnoticed.
And as a guy just past his 30s, when I go in on my own, I'm not the least bit worried. And all my colleagues have known I read comics since I left graduate school.
Coolness factor? Irrelevant to me.
