I have mixed emotions about this article in the Guelph-Mercury of Ontario, Canada. On the one hand, I'm glad that the guy has found his niche drawing pictures of mammary un-glanded reptiles. On the other, I'm lying and don't care about him one way or another. Here's the most important bit:
When Ryan North was a kid in Ottawa, the comic shop was next to a pornography store and he always felt it was unsavory to go inside.
"Even today a lot of comic shops have giant images of She-Hulk in a bikini in their window, so it's not a very inclusive environment and the medium still has this stigma of being for nerds and socially underdeveloped people," says North, whose webcomic, "Daily Dinosaur Comics," is viewed by an average of more than 100,000 people each day online.
Because his local comic book store was located next to an adult book store, he condemns the entire institution of comic book shops as smut shacks. Better still, his solution to the nerd "stigma" is to scribble internet comics featuring dinosaurs. You don't have to be a nerd or "socially underdeveloped" to be interested in She-Hulk in a bikini - it helps but is hardly a prerequisite. Dinosaurs, on the other hand, are pretty fucking nerdly. Consider this link.
Finally, what's going on in Canada that comic book shops are being denounced as "not...very inclusive"? Fine - don't go in. I don't go into hippie new age stores, either, because I don't feel they're very "inclusive" of people like me, who like it when people bathe and don't stink of patchouli.
(I call bullshit on the adult bookstore being next to the comic book shop, by the way.)
She Hulk in a bikini in a window
Where are these stores located? I have not seen such displays in any NYC comic store since the Joe Jusko poster came out.
Devil's Advocate
To be fair, I know of at least one comic shop exactly like the one he describes: one where the front windows are plastered in print-outs of naked models with superheroine outfits poorly photosphopped onto them. Other comic book shops that I know are run by more sensible individuals.
Also, I think you've totally misinterpreted what Ryan was saying. Reading his quote above, it doesn't seem like he's saying that he personally thinks "comics are for geeks", merely that the he's noted that the stigma exists, which is unfortunately quite true. I don't think that he is "condemning" anything at all, except perhaps society's own illusions about the comic book industry.
One final note: Dinosaur comics isn't really about dinosaurs, despite exclusively starring them (if that makes any sense at all). It's definitely geeky in its own way, but perhaps not in the way you imagine.
11th Commandment
OK, Ryan - here it is. One thing you'll learn over time is that reporters will always twist your words to fit their purposes. I could tell you not to say anything you wouldn't want to see in print, but that's too broad, so instead I will give you a new 11th commandment to which you must always adhere when speaking to press:
Thou shalt not denigrate comic books when speaking with a representative of the media.
(I was gonna add a twelfth, to the effect that thou shalt not cast aspersions upon displays of the form of She-Hulk, but that would probably be pushing it.)
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