I can't speak for our westernly little brothers, but they are sold in newsstands and department stores here, and yes, kids buy them. (Donald Duck, Bamse and The Phantom are the big comic books here)
They also publish collector's volumes of (mostly) italian duck-comics in "Donald Duck's Pocket" (which are well, pocked-sized 256 page affairs) that, from the prominent way they're being marketed, seems to sell like hot cakes.
And as mentioned, there's a semi-academic thing about it too.