• Is it ever okay to refer to a character by ANY nickname?
• Is it okay to refer to a character by a pre-existing nickname (Spidey, Shellhead, Bones, Scotty, Chewie)?
• Does the motivation behind the use of the nicknames matter?

Ok, if people are that embarassed by the use of nicknames, why don't they just stop.  Ignore those of us who aren't embarassed by ourselves or our love of the genre.  If you are worried that people will think less of you for reading/working/doing anything with comics, stop.  Leave while you can. 

They are forms of entertainment.  When it is no longer entertaining or fun for you, it is time to go somewhere else.  If you are going to worry so much about how I refer to Chewie or Spidey or Stretch or Ronny (Regan) or MJ (thats Jordon), then you have WAAAY too much time on your hands. 

Remember, I am not teling you how to refer to these characters.  So don't tell me.

He said "maybe". You're the one reading minds, with your stance that it's always "disrespectful" whatever that means to lines on a page.

Different strokes for different folks. You don't care for nicknames, others do. That's really all it amounts to, and in the scheme of things it matters even less.

Who the hell cares what they're called???
If it's enough so that I know who you're referring to, that's fine.

Respect is not an issue. These are not deities. They're 2 dimensional drawings on paper. They're not real, and some people's views on here are suggesting otherwise. Those people seriously need to get a life. You just stereotype the Comic Book Guy character too well.

JB wrote:
"Do you see a lot of STAR TREK fans helping those folk along by refering to the characters as 'Kirkie' or 'Spocky'? (I can hear Trek fans' heads exploding all over the world, just because I typed those names.)"

No I don't see that happening, but then again, most of the somewhat ok Marvel nicknames actually originate from the comics themselves, which I do think make a difference. For example, as I am currently reading Essential Hulk volume 1, if we take a look at the cover of Tales to Astonish # 69, it boasts the text "See ol' green skin 'trapped in the lair of the Leader!'". To me it seems that Stan Lee and early Marvel really rooted these familiarity levels between fans and characters quite purposefully, and perhaps that was part of their original success in the competition with DC.

As for the "Maggie" and "Blobbie" version of things, it equally makes me cringe, so I'm definitely not saying that any and all nicknames are of equal value.

And, there's a time and place for everything, I don't think I would resort to nicknames when trying to talk to the uninitiated who have a rather strange view of the medium per se. There I am with you all the way JB.

JB also wrote (in response to nicknames such as Bones, Chewie and Scotty):
"And Kirkie, and Spocky, and Picky, and Rykie, and Sisky, and Janey, and Chaky, and Archy and Polly."

So JB, would you actually argue that the ones you just cited (that as far as I know are not in common use) are equal to the ones that are rooted in the shows themselves and commonly cited?
It just seems counterproductive somehow to view any author/creator's succeful attempt at creating familiarity between readers/viewers and characters as resulting in disrespectfulness. Just a very 'umble opinion here.

But you knew that.