This morning during a roundtable press interview at New York Comic Con, filmmaker, writer and comics retailer Kevin Smith rejected claims that his AMC series Comic Book Men presents a negative and stereotypical view of the comics community–a claim that many, including this writer in my review of the series premiere, have made in the past.”Season three–a miracle,” Smith joked. “Never thought we’d get here particularly when the first episode launched. There was a healthy contingent on the Internet that went after the f—ing show. They said ‘F–k you and your f—ing friends. You’re propagating a stereotype about what a comic store is and what they all do. All these dudes live in their parents’ basement,’ all this bulls–t. All of these guys are married except one who, to be fair, did live in his parents’ basement at the beginning of the show but other than that, we really didn’t feel like the show celebrated stereotypes. If anything, it was just like guys sitting around picking on each other.”He said that after that first barrage of criticism, the stars all felt that the show was likely not to be picked up for a second season, but that he forgot to take into account that “you have to flip the microscope” and realize that when you’re preoccupied with your own perception on the Internet, you miss the bigger picture that commenters online aren’t necessarily indicative of the whole audience.Comic Book Men returns on Sunday for its third season after The Walking Dead on AMC.
