That tells me kids still love comics!  As long as you present it well (my writing, art, and the printing are all at least pretty good, with self-contained stories) and make it easy for them to get it (sure, people love free stuff, but kids have always relied on stuff being given to them).  According to this little "experiment," at least 50% of kids potentially would love comics if given the chance!  That is potentially MILLIONS of readers--even today.

We'll never really know if kids would come back to comics in a big way until some company starts producing a quality line of family-friendly, not confusing or impenetrable, well-written and well-drawn books at a reasonable price and places them in a good venue.  NOBODY is really doing that right now.

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Those are crappy comics. Most of the time the covers that you can see are not very appealing. They end up in Salvation Army stores. Even there they stay on the shelves. 

The problem with these two products as a comparison is the re usability of the MtG cards as well as their collectability. Though, perhaps you live in a much more affluent area for an 18 to 13 year od to have $50 to throw down on a weekly basis. My 11 year old gets $10 if he does all his chores and that amount goes down if he misses any. 

You are right. Though it isn't about content.  Kids have older content readily available and aren't picking those books up either.  Whoever said ROI nailed the issue.  Kids are able to better discern the value of their options and a 22 page comic doesn't compare to other choices they can make.

My LCS has a deal with the local Alamo where they take comics on premiere nights and distribute them among the crowd. They have games and prizes and it helps bring business to the store. It's always been a kid friendly store but I've been seeing more kids since they've started doing this.