Who Reads Comics?

I got this from THE BEAT, a more professional comics blog than mine, but they got it from Diamond Distribution, the main distributor of comics and related merchandise. Here's the profile of the avaerage reader of comics:

Average age: 34

Gender: 87 percent male; 13 percent female

Residence:
City — 48 percent
Suburbs — 38 percent
Rural — 14 percent

Education level:
College — 45 percent
High school — 33 percent
Junior college — 10 percent
Post graduate — 9 percent
Grade school — 3 percent

Music taste:
Classic rock — 27 percent
Metal — 16 percent
Adult contemporary — 8 percent
Country/western — 6 percent
Classical — 4 percent
Rap/hip-hop — 2 percent

Own a computer: 77 percent

Use the Internet: 86 percent

Own a home video game system: 68 percent

Big, Big Week!

Whoa, there's a lot going on this week:

• Sunday: Emmy Awards, season premiere of The Wire on HBO
• Monday: Season premieres of Everybody Loves Raymond (last season), Two and a Half Men and CSI: Miami, and Eagles on Monday Night Football
• Tuesday: Original Star Wars trilogy on DVD! Season premieres of NYPD Blue (last season), Law & Order: SVU
• Wednesday: new Starman TPB of comics I never read; season premiere of Smallville, premiere of CSI: New York
• Thursday: season premiere of original CSI
• Friday: Season premiere of JAG (this one's for you Dad!)

So big week if this is the kind of thing that excites you; there;s probably more important stuff going on, but this is what I'm focused on this week!

What'd I miss?

Smallville 4th Season: Jumping the Shark?

The 4th season of Smallville begins this week, with a whole lot of new characters and developments. So far, we’ve heard about:

• Lois Lane: Chloe Sullivan’s cousin will be around for at least the first half of the season, investigating her “death”
• Clark flies in the season premiere
• Not only does Christopher Reeve return, but in the 1st episode, Margot Kidder appears
• The Flash (well, Bart Allen) shows up this season
• Mr. Mxyplytk(!) appears

Wow, that’s a lot of lore brought in to help the ratings, which suffered a bit in the 3rd season, as people, rightly so, got sick of the Clark/Lana crap. But is it too much?

As cool as I think all the references to the comics/movie are, this may be a case of careful what you wish for. Does the Flash belong here? Mxypltk? So far the producers have done a good job of working the lore in, but now I’m a little concerned it’s a bit much in an effort to boost ratings (an understandable goal, certainly), but will we sacrifice the overall quality for stunts. We successfully escaped Kryptonite Freak of the Week, only to get stuck with Clark and Lana nonsense. Hopefully, they are past that now, and the show is getting a little broader to enhance its possibilities.

I also hope that we get a little more Lex becoming a bad guy soon. The quasi-homo-erotic friendship between Clark and Lex is getting old too. These two will be the greatest of enemies. Now it looks like they’re just spurned lovers.

Tune in Wednesday for either the resurgence or the beginning of the end. I’m hoping to do quick reviews after each episode.