Comic Book Guy

Jeff Albertson, commonly known as the Comic Book Guy (CBG), is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and Eisner-nominated spin-off comic book series Comic Book Guy. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the second-season episode "Three Men and a Comic Book", which originally aired on May 9, 1991. Comic Book Guy is the proprietor of a comic book store, The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop. He is based on "every comic book store guy in America" and represents a stereotypical middle-aged comic-book collector with a supercilious attitude and obsessive knowledge of pop culture minutia. He is known for his distinctive accent, disagreeable personality, and his catchphrase, "Worst [thing] ever!"

Comic Book Guy (who states Jeff Albertson to be his real name in the episode "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass") is a nerdy, snobby and quarrelsome man. He is best known for his eloquence and crabby, sarcastic quips. He is obsessed with collecting comic books and is an avid science fiction buff. He holds a master's degree in folklore and mythology (having translated The Lord of the Rings into Klingon as part of his thesis), as well as a degree in chemical engineering, has an IQ of 170, and is a member of the Springfield branch of Mensa. He is morbidly obese and has long hair, which he always keeps tied in a ponytail.

His catchphrase is the declaration "worst/best [subject] ever", sometimes to the point of breaking the fourth wall. For example, in the episode "Saddlesore Galactica", he wears a T-shirt saying "Worst Episode Ever". Another example of breaking the fourth wall occurs in an episode when Comic Book Guy's chair collapses, and he sarcastically says "Ooh, a fat man falls. Real original." Despite his solitary life, in The Simpsons Movie, minutes before his anticipated death, Comic Book Guy says that his obsessive comic book collecting has been a "life well spent". However, in "Treehouse of Horror VIII", when a nuclear missile homes in on him, he says to himself, "Oh, I've wasted my life", although the Treehouse of Horror episodes are not part of the normal Simpsons canon. In the 2008 episode "Any Given Sundance" it was revealed that he is also a writer and posts to his own site called "Ain't I Fat News", a take on the real-life movie review website Ain't It Cool News.

Comic Book Guy was once married in an online role-playing game. He and his Internet wife contemplated having children, but that would have severely drained his "power crystals". In Season 16's "There's Something About Marrying", he hopes to wed a Xena: Warrior Princess cardboard figure. While part of an intellectual junta that briefly ran Springfield in "They Saved Lisa's Brain", he proposes plans to limit breeding to once every seven years (a reference to the Vulcan blood fever of mating, called Pon farr), commenting that this would mean much less breeding for most, but for him, "much, much more". He was a virgin well into his forties, but becomes sexually and romantically involved with Principal Skinner's mother Agnes. He later dates Edna Krabappel after she leaves Skinner at the altar. They are nearly married at a science fiction convention with Skinner and Bart trying to stop the wedding, but Edna changes her mind, preferring not to be tied down to a relationship. Comic Book Guy is not particularly surprised by this, saying, "There are a million valid reasons, but which one did you pick?" When Edna gently explains "It's like I'm DC Comics, and you're Marvel", he accepts the comparison without any rancor. In "Married to the Blob", Comic Book Guy marries Kumiko Nakamura, a Japanese manga artist. As of "The Dad-Feelings Limited", he and Kumiko are trying for a baby.

Comic Book Guy is the owner of The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop, a local comic book store. The comics, collectibles, and toys he sells are of wildly varying quality and often have very high prices. His store is his sanctuary, where he holds some level of self-esteem, imperiously lording over pre-teen kids, like Bart Simpson and Milhouse Van Houten, using a heavily sarcastic tone and often banning certain customers for minor infractions. His store contains a lower level full of illegal videos (which include Mr. Rogers drunk, Alien autopsy, Illegal Alien Autopsy, a "good version" of The Godfather Part III, and Kent Brockman picking his nose).

In "Husbands and Knives", the store was closed due to bankruptcy when a rival comic book shop opened across the road, run by an owner with significantly better customer service and social skills. Although his old store was bought by Marge Simpson in the same episode and not returned, Comic Book Guy continues running his store in future episodes and the rival store is usually not mentioned, though it was referred to again when its owner showed up in "Married to the Blob". Also Bart and Milhouse became managers of The Android's Dungeon for a time in "Worst Episode Ever".

Comic Book Guy was partly inspired by a clerk at the Los Angeles comic book shop who often "[sat] on the high stool, kind of lording over the store with that supercilious attitude and eating behind the counter a big Styrofoam container full of fried clams with a lot of tartar sauce." Groening noted:

I can't tell you how many times people have come up to me and said, "I know who you based that comic book guy on. It's that comic-book guy right down the block." And I have to tell them, "No, it's every comic book store guy in America."