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Warning: That guy at the comic shop who talks over everyone during new release day
Last Wednesday at Midtown Comics I watched a dude in a Deadpool hoodie spend 45 minutes telling anyone nearby why his take on the X-Men Krakoa era was the only valid one. He literally cut off a kid trying to ask about a first issue and said "you wouldn't get it." Has anyone else noticed these gatekeeper types getting worse since the big movie boom?
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the_brooke17h ago
Wait, he actually told a kid "you wouldn't get it"? That is wild to me. I've been going to comic shops for like 15 years now and I've met some intense fans, but blocking a new reader asking about a first issue is a whole new level of rude. Krakoa was a big deal for some folks, sure, but gatekeeping like that just scares away the next generation of fans. In my experience, those types usually don't have a great social filter and the movie hype definitely makes them feel more validated. Take this with a grain of salt, but I bet that same guy complains about comics dying while he's actively pushing people away from the hobby.
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james_ross16h ago
Did you ever try just jumping in with something simple like "oh man, where do I even start with this one"? I had a similar thing happen to me at a shop where a teenager asked about getting into Hellboy and some older guy just shut him down. I ended up just handing the kid a library edition and saying "start here, don't worry about the timeline, it's all good." That guy shot me a dirty look but the kid ended up coming back the next week with a stack of trades. I mean, it's not like we need to be professors about this stuff.
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