Here in the Far East, kids (to some extent), but especially teens and uni students -- male and female -- cram into comic book libraries and shops all around the cities (esp. near universities) all hours of the day and until midnight every night, reading comics, which remain a thriving, popular industry. Why? The stories and characters are relevant to them, not to their grandparents.

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This is nonsensical. You are arguing that people don't read American comics because the characters are irrelevant, but flock to them in other media because the characters are irrelevant. The Dark Knight and Iron Man box offices aren't indicative of the general public screaming for kitsch. If the popular media with kids are TV, movies, and video games, their perception of Batman as a movie/video game character would indicate that Batman is relevant to them.

Of course, I use the word "comics" here to mean mass market periodicals
aimed at the widest possible readership, not elitist pamphlets targeted at an
aging and shrinking audience.

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When I was very young, as far back as three-four years old, I had older relatives who had comics and I was introduced to them that way. I'm sure this wasn't atypical, i.e., that the older generation of readers passed on that love of reading the comics to the next generation.

Are there any statistics showing how many (if any) kids 8-13 are buying-reading comics today?

Would aiming at the old readers mean having to create (almost) from scratch an entirely new young fan-base? Is that possible?

QUOTE: The future lies in the widest possible distribution of product aimed at the widest possible potential readership. Without that, questions of format become meaningless.

There's no wider distribution than on the internet these days!  The fact that more kids don't purchase comics online is less a distribution issue, and more a non-interest issue (either due to the content or format of a comic itself).

coming to the conversation a bit late so there's a couple of points I'd like to chime in on.

In regard to the paper, I believe that the reason it was stated for the change was that there was a shortage of newsprint and that if that was to be used, the price would be even higher.  I don't know how true this was, but I know it was said.  I think if I remeber rightly some of the X titles were printed in two different formats.  Almost like normal and HD.  But I can't remeber why, and how long it lasted.

Also, I think the problem with electronic distribution is that there is nothing to hold on to.  Whatever it is you're reading, holding in it your hands is a large part of the experience.  Music is the only thing that will really be accepted because it's not for the hands and eyes.  Once you press play, it doesn't matter if it's CD, Vinyl, Tape or 8-Track, or download.  The end product is the same.

Reading a book, comic or magazine is just not the same when read on a computer screen, even if it's portable.  This idea was even said to be stupid in the film 'Big' when it was first proposed.  Going back to the old style of retail is the only way to go.  Even if it was only the main line books that were issued through newsstands, etc it would still bring more people into the LCS to buy other books that could be printed in bigger formats and higher quality paper.  Like the old days.

But then even if the format is right and accessable, it's what's inside that really counts.  And at the moment, it's not really that good.