It’s easy to get mired in the challenges the direct market — or the side of the comic industry comprised by comic shops — faces from time to time. That’s both because of how information travels these days and because there’s often plenty of options to choose from. That combination of ample opportunities and algorithmic desires can be a deadly one, and it regularly colors the tenor of the conversation about that space.

And yet, the direct market is not without its success stories of late. Whether you’re talking about the impact of the format boom or the surge in nostalgia-fueled hits, there are tactics that are moving the needle for comic shops. But if you polled retailers and asked them to rank the biggest ones from the past year and a half, the burgeoning micro line trend would likely be at or near the top of the list.

You might be wondering, “What is a micro line?” Well, first off, it’s not an official label by any means. It’s one I created for a tactic that an increasing number of publishers and even creators have been using of late. It’s an easy one to understand. Each micro line unites three to five titles from a publisher in a single branded grouping, with those titles typically oriented around a central idea.

Most of the time, that’s a new universe, like Kyle Higgins’ Massive-Verse, 7 Skybound’s Energon Universe, Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, and DC’s Absolute Universe that officially launched this week. Other times, it’s a shared idea, with each title orbiting a concept like you’ll find in the Ghost Machine imprint, 8 The Horizon Experiment, and the upcoming Ninth Circle, all of which are at Image. While the defining element of these lines can change, the heart of it is simple and consistent. They’re small groupings of comics designed to make it easy for readers to get onboard, and for each title to act as a gateway into the others.

Its first steps towards becoming a capital “T” thing came with the arrival of Skybound’s Void Rivals #1 in June 2023, an issue that revealed that the series would be the first in the larger Energon Universe, one it would share with Hasbro-owned properties in Transformers and G.I. Joe. And the usage of these smaller universes has grown dramatically since that launch, and for good reason: these micro lines have been a hit.

Retailers I spoke to reported that this concept is working for them and their customers. That was true in my mid-year check-in with comic shops, and it’s even truer now as Absolute DC is introduced to the world. These lines — but most notably the Energon, Ultimate, and Absolute universes, with a slight nod towards Ghost Machine — are popping in a real way.

Each shop has experienced slightly different things on this front, of course. The direct market isn’t a monolith but a sea of unique experiences thanks to the wildly different customer bases and focuses you’ll find at each. But there were some consistencies.