The CGCization of Today's Youths

FIRST QUESTION
Do you remember reading and enjoying comic books when you were a youngster? The great feeling that the experience gave is the reason most of us continue reading comics into adulthood.

SECOND QUESTION
Do you remember displaying hermetically-sealed comic books on your mantle like safari trophies when you were a teenager? Whoa! Stop the trolley!

Over here you can see a  crystal clear version of the grainy photo shown up above. It shows a shelf in a teenager's bedroom and on the shelf are her collection of Beanie Babies and her framed comic books featuring Iron Man and Spider-Man and The X-Men versus The Teen Titans. Were comic books ever meant to be framed? Did the young lady ever read those comics? For that matter, did she ever play with her Beanie Babies? Have comic books and toys been reduced to interior design accents?

The source of the above photo is Chronicles of a Bed Unmade (A new Web site takes readers behind the velvet rope of adolescence), a New York Times article by Michael Tortorello that you can read for yourself over here. And maybe you'd like to read again what I've written about CGC and sealed comics over here.