Comic books were bought by youts (what are "youts?" Oh, I'm sorry. Youths, your honour). They happily read them until around the '50's or '60's when the thought police decided that they were leading youths astray. Enter the Comics Code Authority. The ensuing self-censoring by the comic industry toned a lot of comics down and probably was responsible for the really campy comics (made famous by the Batman TV show) that were rampant at the time. At about this time, or shortly thereafter, Marvel Comics was founded, currently the publishing giant (if you ignore that bankruptcy issue). Marvel is often credited with keeping comics alive during this period, the Silver Age.
With the onset of the '70's things got better. More and more people got to collecting older comics, and modern comics were cheap and usually worth the read. However, since then, comics' prices have increased. Newsstands, formerly the mainstay of the comics industry, generally stopped carrying most comics. In response, the big publishers began to sell only to the direct market, which led to the rise of stores specializing almost exclusively in comic book sales. Not inherently bad, but the seeds of doom (muwahahaha) were there.
The problem today with the comics industry should be evident even to the layman. With prices awefully high, old-time readers have moved on to brighter and better things. With such a highly secluded and specialized market, new readers are either intimidated by the intricate plot lines that often leave newbies confused, or, simply, are not aware of the comics that are out there except through popular movies of questionable advertising value.
A concurrant theme to these problems is the fact that the American comic industry, after so long focusing on the age group of prepubescent males, has given comics a limited subject matter which is almost synonymous with "children's stuff." Thus, the average Joe on the street says, "Silly rabbit, comics and superheroes are for kids!"
