Format--Sure, video games might grab more kids today than comics, but comics conceivably are more appealing than "mere" books.  ("Words on paper?  How passe!")  As long as people keep reading, comics still have a potential audience.  People still buy collections of newspaper strips, illustrated Bibles (Go ahead and ask Sergio Cariello how many hundreds of thousands of copies of his ACTION BIBLE have been sold!), Scholastic's BONE collections, etc.  The comic format does not seem to be a drawback in these cases.  (As I've said before, fully 50% or more of the 200 kids I give comics to every Halloween get REALLY excited about them--and the other 50% might just be less expressive about what they like.)

Content--Are people sick of super-heroes (comics' greatest match)?  Apparently not, when Marvel movies (with versions of the heroes that most of us really like) make a billion dollars each time out of the gate!  And the "old" stuff (80's or before) seems to be big sellers in the graphic novel section of book stores--with heroes that were still recognizable.  But does anybody like any "entertainment" that is impenetrable and confusing?

So, we won't really know if comics are "dead" until somebody tries to marry old school content with the format kids (and more) are naturally drawn to--and nobody's really doing that right now.  I tell you, a third company following early 80's/late 70's Marvel's example (Byrne!  Miller!  Simonson!--on the right characters!) could turn everything around.  I'm really surprised that some investors with a few millions dollars haven't really tried this yet, with potentially billions of dollars on the table.  (Cross-Gen was the last really attempt and they did well with FANTASY books--comics' weakest genre!  They failed when they expanded too quickly but also by forcing crossovers and becoming impenetrable--comics' modern woes.)

There are three things they absolutely would have to fix to make them viable again -

1. Comics are over-priced (in part because they have aimed of the collector's market with higher-quality paper).

2. Comics are hard to find (again, selling mainly at LCS limits your customers.  The only "impulse buys" are by people already looking to buy comics and prospective new readers are not exposed to them like we were when they were in drug stores and convenience stores).

3. Comics are not written for kids (fun, fast-paced stories have been replaced by padded ones written for collected editions with too much adult content to make them appropriate for young children and continuity-dense stories that are difficult to jump in on).

Until the comics companies are willing to address this comics are not going to make any sort of a comeback.  Even if they do, there's no guarantee they would, simply because the powers that be have terribly mismanaged them for the last 30 or so years.

Notes from the Marvel Playbook:

If you build it, they will come. If you never pay it off, they will stick around forever in blind faith that one day you will. 

Diversify. Someday, you'll need a reason for why it all went wrong. You can always trace it back to this.

Ooohh. Shiny. Shiny is best. Like the Shiny.

Of course it costs more. We're Marvel.

"Paying more for less..?" Impossible. By definition, when you buy Marvel you buy more. Marvel is always more. Your argument is invalid. 

Children never bought comic books. Ever. We were always communicating with that young, free-spirited forty-eight year old inside of them. Hang on, note from the demographics department... fifty-two year old. The young, free-wheeling fifty-two year old inside them. Hang on... fifty-eight year old... 

Here's the next big thing from us: It's going to be like a Robert Ludlum or John LeCarre novel. Intricate. Complicated. Adult. Just like Ludlum or LeCarre. If they wrote themselves out of corners using time-stop bullets, Cosmic Dodecahedrons, and Infinity Mittens.

I've introduced my kids to certain comics (Archies, titles based on popular cartoons, etc) which they've really enjoyed. On the rare occasion we browse at a LCS, they stare blankly at the new releases and ask me where the 'good' comics are!