It’s easy for fatalism to take hold in conversations about the direct market, or the side of the comics industry comprised of a couple thousand comic shops from around North America. It and its most famous product — the single-issue comic book — have been said to be dying since each was born, with those beliefs often exacerbated by changes in the industry and economy. And with money being tight for consumers and the ramifications of Diamond Comic Distributors’ filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy looming, maybe it’s no surprise that some believe that this, yes this, is the time it’s really dying.

And yet, those kinds of statements are typically made by people operating outside of that space rather than those who know it best. That’s evidenced by where we find ourselves now. While the familiar sounds of doom and gloom still arise on occasion, my recent check-in with retailers about 2024 in their shops was…cheerful? Optimistic? Hopeful?

There were frustrations, of course. Issues, assuredly. There are certain things they’d prefer to be different than they are. That’s both true of the product and the varying systems that make this market go — and that was true before the news about Diamond hit. But overall, the results from the year were positive. More retailers reported being up than down, and even the ones that saw a dip didn’t feel too bad about it.

Maybe more importantly than the results, though, is how a common sentiment from my July check-in spread even further this time. Instead of offering a continuation of 2023’s ill tidings, this year brought a reversal of vibes. The sentiment reflected the numbers, and in a good way. In fact, if there was a theme to this edition, it came from Aaron Trites, the owner of San Diego’s Now or Never Comics, who told me, “2024 was a huge rebound from 2023!”

Now, it’s important to note that this check-in is with just a small selection of shops from around the direct market. This isn’t meant to represent every shop’s experience. But with a latter half powered by a series of absolutely incendiary debuts, 2024 proved to be a good year for those featured today, even if the experiences were as unique at times as the shops themselves.

Shops belonged to three separate camps in terms of the actual year-over-year results, none of which were purely negative. Those groupings were: shops that were up; those that are feeling good; and those that were down, but with caveats. The even better news is it leaned heavily towards the former two, with most sharing a positive report. And the shops that were up didn’t just eke out a positive year; they crushed it. Three different retailers said they were up double digits.

“2024 was 22% up over 2023, continuing a multi-year string of sales growth,” shared Dan Wallace of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Impulse Creations Comics & Collectibles.

“Company-wide, we were up 35% over 2023,” said Steve Anderson of the Maryland and Virginia nerd culture chain Third Eye Comics. “But keep in mind, that includes a new location opening. If you take the new location out of the equation, we were still up 12.5% over 2023.”

Those were both big wins. They may have been expected as well. Both Impulse Creations and Third Eye have been growing for years now. Now or Never Comics, on the other hand, was coming off an 18% decline in 2023. They were hoping to bounce back. They did just that.

“Our sales in 2024 were up 16% from 2023,” Trites said. “It ended up being our second-best year ever, just 2% down from our biggest sales year in 2022.”

Travis Pratt from Monterey and Salinas, California’s Current Comics didn’t see the gains those others did, but he was happy with the results. He described 2024 as “actually pretty great!” It wasn’t just sales inspiring that, either. Current Comics was up 2.5% in 2024, and supporting metrics are pointing even further upward. Pratt saw “a bunch of new monthly subscribers at both stores.” That isn’t just growth for today. That’s growth for tomorrow.

That blend of results and sentiment can create some strange brews, though. Take OK Comics from Leeds in the United Kingdom as an example. Its owner Jared Myland described the year as “much busier,” but it required he and his staff to “work harder than ever to keep up with the demand,” a difficulty that was exacerbated by increased employee turnover. There was improvement, but pain in the process.

Winchester, Virginia’s Four Color Fantasies had its own mix of up and down. Its manager Erik C. Jones shared that 2024 felt “the same if not slightly better because we’ve had a lot of new faces and subscribers.” The year seemed up, but they ultimately were slightly down year-over-year. Jones felt good about it, but reality lagged behind those feelings.

The other three all fit into that “down, but with caveats” group. A rosier example of that came from Bruno Batista of Dublin’s Big Bang Comics. The shop was “slightly down” on the year. That had little to do with how comics performed, though. Its year-over-year decline was entirely because its main action figure supplier released less product in 2024.

Jen King of Shenandoah, Texas’ Space Cadets Collection Collection had a curious year. Her in-shop sales increased, but those gains were “tempered by losses in our eBay and Shopify sales and our live sales.” That resulted in an overall dip of 6%. Adding to the complexity, Space Cadets moved to a new location this past year, and that led to “a big change in costs.” Those decreased by 32%. That meant that while sales were down in 2024, the shop was more profitable. It’s an unconventional path to a win but a win, nonetheless.

As those two shops proved, context matters when you’re talking about this kind of thing. Not all down years are created equal. Brandon Schatz from Edmonton, Alberta’s Variant Edition Graphic Novels & Comics might know that better than anyone. Variant Edition was “down by roughly 25% year to year.” That might sound apocalyptic to you. It’s actually miraculous given the situation. The shop started its year with a flood of its previous location, which meant Variant Edition didn’t have a physical store to operate out of for part of the year. But the shop survived long enough to move into a new location and is now thriving, with the retailer suggesting that they’ll “have no problem blasting past 2024’s total in 2025.”

While the results were a mixed bag on the surface, each shop was either up or can make a case that they would have been if not for some crummy luck. 2024 was a solid year, one that left retailers feeling good as they headed into the new year.

The product itself is a big part of that optimism, especially with single-issue comics having a bit of a resurgence in 2024.

“Of the increase we saw in sales from 2023 to 2024, nearly 50% of that came from new comic sales,” Trites said. “There’s no one book that we can point to that’s responsible for that kind of shift, but there are some obvious standouts that helped drive those numbers.”

Leading the way were DC’s Absolute Universe, Image/Skybound’s Energon Universe, and Marvel’s Ultimate Universe. Each delivered enthusiastic readers and strong sales for comic shops. There’s a reason for that, according to Schatz.

“There is a through-line with the books that are fueling much of the direct market. They aren’t sprawling, they are curated,” Schatz said. “Tight, curated lines with interesting creators and concepts are fueling sales.”

Pratt said those lines “made 2024 the year it was, financially and conversationally” for his shop. But while each was a winner, Absolute DC led the way. Everyone raved about the heat they’re generating. While Absolute Batman is at the top — Myland was shocked that OK Comics “sold three times the amount of Absolute Batman #1 than we do of the regular Batman series” — all three titles are thriving. Trites said each was amongst Now or Never’s 10 best sellers in 2024. Others saw similar things.

The other two lines aren’t quite as comprehensively successful. Ultimate Spider-Man and Transformers clearly carried those two initiatives, with the former towering over its mainline twin in Amazing Spider-Man and the latter being one of the best sellers of the year. But the rest of the titles weren’t quite as prolific, even if they did well enough. 1 For most, those lines were hits, even if Absolute is clearly at the top.

DC was more than just Absolute, though. The publisher impressed shops overall. Jones described the All-In initiative as “fantastic,” while Anderson said new title launches like The New Gods and Justice League Unlimited showed “some of the best new series performance we’ve seen from DC in a minute outside of Absolute.” Betting on books like that was made easier by the publisher offering retailers a discounted rate if they ordered bundles of certain titles. 2 That incentive worked.

“DC’s program to provide retailers with lower cost bundles of comics after hitting ordering thresholds have also been fantastic sales tools and have helped us to meet the customer demand on a number of titles that we otherwise likely would have under-ordered on,” Wallace said.

Word is DC’s been more collaborative with retailers of late. Those discounted bundles are a great example of that. And in an incredibly risk-averse market, publishers taking on a bit more of the risk can lead to gains for everyone involved, as DC adventures with bundling proved. That led to bigger sales for a bevy of DC releases this past year, as well as more love from shops. That helps everyone.

There were other notable successes, of course. The relaunch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Jason Aaron and an all-star lineup of artists was one. Pratt noted that the series saw massive gains from its previous volume, while Trites said its first issue was his shop’s “best-selling book ever.” 3 That series popped in a real way.

So have an array of other licensed comics. Trites emphasized those were “a consistent hit” in his shop. Obviously major licenses like the Turtles and Transformers are going to be there, but they’ve found that even “smaller” ones like Dick Tracy and Flash Gordon are “outselling Big Two flagship titles like Fantastic Four and Detective Comics.” While some of that comes down to the enthusiasm for nostalgia-fueled comics like those, part of it was the publisher of those two books. Multiple retailers noted that Mad Cave Studios had a good 2024, with King emphasizing that the publisher “gained traction and readers” this past year.

Not everyone is thriving, of course, and it’s the biggest name that tops the list. Anderson said Marvel is “in a weird spot,” while Trites emphasized that “there is less excitement for Marvel than I’ve seen in the last five years, especially in the core books.” That was a consistent take: Marvel’s dragging right now.

The X-Men line seems to be the most challenging one to dial in. Some are seeing success with it. Wallace said it “has been firing on all cylinders” since launch. But most of his peers were disappointed to varying degrees. Myland said “even long-term X-Men fans are canceling their subscriptions” after an “initial flurry of interest,” while Trites said the line is well below “where they were during the Krakoa Era.” Even readers seem confused by the line. Jones said every first issue sold out at Four Color Fantasies then “died on the shelf” over the next few issues before there was a resurgence. There’s very little consistency in terms of performance.

That’s true of most of Marvel’s line, though. Even its usual playbook isn’t working. Events and crossovers seem to be costing shops readers rather than gaining them ones. Trites said Amazing Spider-Man’s Gang War story and the X-Men’s Raid on Graymalkin crossover resulted in a net loss of readers. And when heat is generated, the publisher seems ill-prepared to capitalize on it. The announcement of Robert Downey Jr. playing Doctor Doom and arrival of Marvel Rivals led to increased interest from customers, but there was little material in-print and orderable at that moment to build on excitement. That’s typical. While there are still winners at Marvel, they’re rarer than they have been in a while.

On the graphic novel and collection side of things, the usual suspects like all-ages graphic novels and manga did well at shops. Schatz said the former “fueled our store” in 2024, while King noted those categories were Space Cadets’ biggest sellers.

“We increased our store square footage and forward-facing display for all those items, and we can see by our constant need to reorder that that decision was a wise one,” she said.

While your One Pieces and Dog Mans continue to perform as they have for years now, 2024’s heaviest hitter on the collections side was a newcomer. That’s DC’s Compact Comics. Retailers raved about those value-priced digest-sized collections. Batista said they defined the year for Big Bang, with the shop selling “nearly a thousand” of them. For a shop of its size, that’s a big number.

“They were the runningest running away success of the year when it comes to graphic novels,” Batista said. “They were an unmitigated hit with customers, where the only real complaints we got were ‘why aren’t there more of these?’ and ‘why aren’t there any of these for Marvel?’”

While other digest-sized releases did well for retailers — Invincible was solid and the Mighty Marvel Masterworks books did well too — there was one surprise from that slate. No one seemed to gain any traction with Saga’s digest editions, with some pointing to the regular sized first volume being the same price point as the reason while others noted that the material is less fitting of the demographic that loves the format. Whatever the reason, it was a tougher sell than at least I expected.

It wasn’t just digest-sized collections working, though. Other formats succeeded as well, with multiple shops highlighting the DC Finest line and Image’s compendiums. Much of the success of these formats comes down to how reasonably priced they are. Getting both Batman: Year One and Year Two for $34.99 or all 47 issues of Revival for $59.99 is a great deal. That makes sense, of course. People love good values. What surprised about the format conversation, though, was how the opposite was true as well. Some shops found that higher end releases thrived in 2024.

“There was a time when a $20 book was the top end of what I’d expect our customers to pay, but I’m now consistently surprised by how many people will buy $40 and $50 books,” Myland noted.

The retailer pointed to IDW’s Artist’s Edition for Batman: Year One as an example. This oversized collection of artist David Mazzucchelli’s uncolored art from that story made a killing at his store. The shop normally orders one copy of each Artist’s Edition, and Myland said he’s always “ecstatic when it sells.” They sold 40 copies of the Batman: Year One release at a cool $150 per book. It wasn’t alone. Other expensive books did well in shops too. That was a surprise, but it’s like Trites said about the subject: “Folks are still absolutely willing to spend more for larger volumes provided the quality and quantity justify the price tag.” 4

While it isn’t product specific, several shops noted that engaging with their community led to wins for them. Sometimes that meant just talking with customers and hand-selling the product, as Wallace and King noted. With the immense number of releases these days, having a guide can make a big difference. Other times it was events, whether that was in-store ones or selling product at reader-oriented book fairs like Schatz did. Both are effective ways to create excitement and possibly find new customers.

While that kind of engagement can lead to immediate gains through sales, there’s also a long-term benefit. Pratt said he saw real growth in monthly subscribers in 2024, with a lot of them being “first-time comics buyers” and “little kids” in the 3 to 10 range. That’s atypical, but important. Getting new readers excited about the medium is powerful, especially when comics are of a high quality as they are now. And retailers are seeing it: customers are excited, and ready to read more comics.

The unfortunate thing is 2024 reinforced that comics really aren’t the problem. It’s everything else, with what that entails being varied and unpredictable. Wallace said it’s “usually the unknowns that come up and cause problems,” while King said it seems like “each shop might have completely different struggles,” many of which have more to do with non-comics difficulties like staffing and rent increases. Even the most concerning ones on the horizon are things like the threat of tariffs rather than the quality of the material.

But when shops were asked for their biggest concern, there was a clear answer. That’s the state of single-issue distribution, with Diamond Comic Distributor’s troubling close to 2024 leading the way. Even before the bankruptcy news hit, this posed a real problem, as Jones noted.

“The quality of comics is higher than it has ever been, but if I can’t have the books for my customers when they expect them, what does quality matter?” Jones noted. “They can’t enjoy a comic they can’t buy.”

The short explanation of Diamond’s recent troubles is they closed one of their two warehouses during the busiest time of the year, a move that proved “disastrous,” according to Schatz. The retailer noted that, “I have yet to have a shipment appear without at least a full week’s delay since the end of November.” He’s not alone.

That was the initial concern, but now it’s taken a turn. Diamond revealed it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it does what it can to save its company. Unsurprisingly, the response was immediate and of great concern. But there are two things you need to be aware of before you take that path. One is that this doesn’t mean the immediate end of Diamond. This type of bankruptcy lets them reorganize their efforts while being protected from those they owe money to, 5 which allows them to keep operating as they sell off different parts of their business. They are “committed to continuing business as usual throughout this process” and still plan to support Free Comic Book Day.

The other big note is it’s happening in a much different world than the one where Diamond was the only game in town. Not only is Diamond different than they once were — several retailers talked about how the company has been in decline for years even before these troubles hit — but other single-issue distributors have entered the fray in Lunar Distribution and Penguin Random House. The direct market is in a much better position to survive this type of transition.

Beyond that, several retailers featured today already moved away from Diamond for most of their orders. They haven’t regretted that decision. And because of Diamond’s recent struggles, several were either considering or in the process of moving more of their ordering to those other distributors. Each has their own weaknesses, of course, but they are undeniably much more stable than Diamond. I imagine those who were on the fence will be thinking even harder about moving now. 6

Understandably, the concern about Diamond is real. And that concern is exacerbated by the fact that there are many publishers who are exclusively distributed by Diamond. The big names are DSTLRY, Dynamite, and Titan, but that trio should have little problem finding a new home if they so desire. There are dozens of others who strictly work with the wounded distributor that might not find it as easy. A lot of it will come down to how willing and capable Lunar and PRH are to take on more publishers. Additionally, there are other comics-adjacent products that shops order through Diamond that could be under threat, to say nothing of ComicSuite, Diamond’s point of sale system that many shops use. There could be real problems if this turns in an even worse direction, and for everyone.

But when I did a straw poll of retailers 7 about their concern level — both for their shops and the direct market — on a 1 to 10 scale where 1 was no concern and 10 was the maximum amount, the result was surprisingly tranquil. The average was just under 4, with the most common responses being 1 and 6. 8 But even the most worried retailers had little doubt that they and the direct market itself would survive, even if there could be pain on the way.

“We’ll be fine, but the industry as a whole could face hardships,” Wallace said. “I believe that there are solutions to everything but sometimes those solutions can be difficult to find quickly enough.”

And that isn’t the only headache with the whole system that distribution is a part of. Another related issue is that everything takes longer than it did before the pandemic. One distributor becoming three has added time and unexpected challenges to the process. That makes everything harder than it was before, turning the job into a grind at times. But that’s a well-known and established problem at this point. What’s a quieter one that adds significant time to the job is how messy things are on the back end.

That showed up in a couple ways. One was Wallace’s biggest gripe. The retailer shared that “a very small number of publishers” will solicit and then re-solicit products when they aren’t ready, creating a situation where titles “get delayed endlessly” even though consumer interest is already there. Per Wallace, this causes problems with the shop’s customers. They don’t understand why the comics aren’t there. As a result, they blame the shop even though it’s the publishers making the mistake.

“Occasional delays will happen on any book but putting a stop to this repeated abuse of the FOC 9 system would benefit the industry,” Wallace said.

Another is the data situation. Anderson said that is the biggest issue facing shops. Retailers are constantly dealing with bad data and unavailable material like cover art from publishers, something he describes as “insanely detrimental.” Incomplete information makes it harder to order, sell, and track the product. And the biggest publisher is one of the biggest offenders. It’s Anderson’s belief that if Marvel “had at least 60% of their cover art ready by the time the catalog went live, our Marvel sales would be 25 to 30% higher, easy.” But it isn’t. While efforts are being made to resolve these data issues, the current state is a challenging one — especially at the top.

Compounding these problems, of course, is the sheer number of comics today. Everything is multiplied by the lengthier than ever release lists, with each of those multiplied further by the staggering number of variant covers. I asked each shop how they manage ordering with the number of titles these days, which inspired Pratt to wearily respond with, “As best we can, David. As best we can.”

How shops manage this comes down to three things. One is using subscriptions and pre-orders as a guide. There’s no better predictor for what customers might buy than those. Another is data collected by a shop’s point-of-sale system, with anything from historical sales to the results of marketing efforts being used to gauge possible interest. Lastly is “gut feeling,” as Wallace noted. While everyone orders what they think they can sell, sometimes you have to make a bet on a title you believe in and hope it pays off.

“You have to try new things, and your customers may surprise you with what they want,” Jones said.

Now, sometimes those bets don’t hit. Trites probably spoke for everyone when he said he’d “rather sell out of a new book than sit on unsold stock for months.” Ultimately, it comes down to finding a balance and trying to determine which titles are worth taking a risk on. That’s why everything comes back to curation for Schatz, who says that retailers need to ignore the glut and tailor their orders to what they believe works best for their shops and customers.

Everyone does their best, but as Pratt said, there are just “too many variants” and “too many comics in general.” Even the 312 slots King dedicates to small press comics aren’t enough. She’s having to put multiple titles in individual spaces because there are just so many releases. That volume makes everyone’s jobs more difficult, and as King said, it makes “it harder on the customer as it overwhelms them with choices.”

If you can get ahold of them at all, that is. King emphasized that reaching her own customers is one of the biggest challenges she faces at Space Cadets. She’s not alone. Multiple shops noted how the changes in social media — both in terms of the splintering across multiple platforms and what’s happening with each’s algorithms — have impacted their ability to reach their audience. And with so much of the onus of marketing falling on retailers these days, that’s a real problem.

Hand-selling customers helps. That can create awareness and interest. But staffing problems make that a challenge. Several shops noted that it’s become increasingly difficult to both hire and keep staff. Take OK Comics as an example. It has four employees, and as Myland noted, “that fourth member has left and been replaced four, maybe five times in the last two years.” That constant turnover has meant more days where they’re short staffed and more time dedicated to recruitment and training.

“We’re only a small shop,” Myland said. “Going through the whole routine multiple times in a short space has taken its toll on myself and the other two long term members of staff.”

“We’re exhausted.”

It’s tiring, but there’s a reason Myland and his team puts in the effort. A comic shop is nothing without its people, and that’s true of its staff and customers alike. While the latter visits so they can buy comics and other related products, the reason they come back is something else these shops offer. According to Jermaine Exum, the owner of Greensboro, North Carolina’s Acme Comics, that’s having a place to call their own. And making sure they have that is what Exum is excited about in the coming year.

“I’m looking forward to continuing to be a third place for people. The place that isn’t home or work but is an important part of modern life. The place where a person is recognized and can speak about their interests among others who know what they’re talking about. A place where people can come to recall things they were interested in at an earlier and maybe simpler time in their lives,” Exum said. “I think this is a valuable service that a good comic store can provide, whether it knows it is doing that or not.

“I think people will need that service. And we can provide it.”

That idea of the third place, a location that’s for you that isn’t where you live or get paid to be, is an essential part of the comic shop experience. That’s why Wednesday isn’t just a regular day for some. It’s a personal holiday, an opportunity to see some pals and talk about things they’re passionate about. That’s a powerful thing, and something we’ll likely need more of going forward, as Exum noted.

Maybe that’s why community engagement came up as often it did when shops shared what has them excited about 2025. Retailers know how important the product is, of course. But they also know that they need to give people a reason to be there. And the good news is, many seem to be succeeding.

Now, being a third place is important, but you still need to remember why people are there in the first place. Continuing to deliver what people are there for while creating enthusiasm in those customers is at the heart of the job. To do that, the retailers themselves need to feel that excitement as well — and they do. Just look at Anderson. He loves his job, and when he talked about what he’s excited about this year, it was all about how incredible the upcoming slate looks and how he can’t wait to share those comics with his customers.

He’s right to feel that way. For this to all work, comics need to be good. And right now, customers are enjoying what they read. That makes a huge difference, and it’s resulting in gains for these shops.

“Customers are excited, and we’re signing up more subscribers that we have in years, which is always a good sign of both reader enthusiasm and financial stability,” Trites said.

It’s worth noting once again that all this came before the Diamond news, and before we have any real clarity on a) whether tariffs on goods imported into America will happen and b) what they’ll look like exactly if they do. As The Comics Journal highlighted this week, the impact of those could be substantial for publishers and everyone down the chain. What comes from Diamond’s bankruptcy and those tariffs could dictate the future of the direct market. Because of that, 2025 might test shops in a way that’s unlike any year that preceded it.

That’s all true. But it’s also true that while much of the analysis about the direct market focuses on things of that sort, there is little that moves the needle more for shops than great stories that generate excitement in customers. That might seem idealistic, but it’s true. It’s also why Schatz says he’s “always hopeful,” because comic books — the medium — are in a great place.

Of everyone featured today, no one had more reason to lose hope this past year than Schatz. Few retailers think more about the value of creating that third place for their customers than he does, or what it takes to connect readers with the right material in the first place. And yet, Variant Edition found itself without a place to its name for much of the year after its previous location flooded. He could have given up, but instead, the shop met those challenges head on and came out stronger on the other side. While growth is good and big sales are always desirable, for Schatz, his year of hardship proved that something simpler can be even more powerful for the retailers that make up the direct market — and it’s something that might be crucial to remember as we move further into the year.

“We survived,” Schatz said.

“And that, I think, is important in this industry.”

If you enjoyed reading this feature, consider subscribing to SKTCHD to read more like it and to support the work that goes into it.