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It's less a question of "Do they"? than of "Can they?"

And the irony here is that the people who are making comics utterly inaccessible to "kids" -- and thus cutting the industry off from its vital life giving supply of "new blood" -- are indulging the worst kinds of fanboy fantasies, and forgetting the comics that first drew them to the hobby.

Do kids read comics now?

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They can't find them and they're mostly inappropriate if they do find them.

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My eldest son is six and I don't think I was much older when I came across a copy of Avengers #202 (how and where is lost in the midst of time).  I probably didn't "get it" completely at the time, but there was nothing in it that I couldn't read.  Just good old traditional superheroes doing what they do best. 

The second comic I can recall was a Marvel 2-in1 teaming up the Thing and the Human Torch in a fun adventure with them chasing after a man trying to tick things off his wish list before he turns thirty (like being a fireman).  Many comics now seem to operate in a different way and the fun has gone - not saying I necessarily don't enjoy them but I'm sure my son won't.

I don't want to paint in broad strokes but alot of creators aspire to move beyond comics so they won't "dumb down" their writing for kids. Who cares if what you're writing doesn't appeal to a new generation when you're going to be in Hollywood in a few years. Or worse, if you're a Hollywood writer that's just doing comics on the side. You're scratching an itch, not necessarily caring who reads it. 

Take a guy like Mark Millar, it wasn't until he starting writing mainly for adults (with rape and murder as his subjects) that he was able to make a name for himself. Where is he now? Hollywood.

I'm not sure if I've already told this story but there are a few people coming into my LCS who are looking for comics for their kids. One guy was looking for a good comic with the Avengers and Hawkeye because his 3rd grade son was really into the Avengers after the movie and that he knew nothing about comics. The owner and I told him various Avengers comics that he could pick from the back issue selection after he wasn't quite sold on the current Hawkeye comic. He picked a couple of the Avengers issues (maybe a West Coast issue as well). Another guy came in looking for Fantastic Four for his son and daughter. The owner opens the bin and says "Pick any issue by John Byrne and you'll have everything that you need to know in one issue." He wound up grabbing a few. I actually saw the "Hawkeye" dad and his son last night combing through back issues with one of his son's buddies. So there's kids out there looking for comics, the big two need to acknowledge that.

So there's kids out there looking for comics, the big two need to acknowledge that.

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We raided the loft and brought down the first five or six issues of Power Pack.  May not have been everyone's favourite, but it was an almost perfect read for Dad and his six year old to enjoy together.