You’d be forgiven for thinking that everything is falling apart these days in the direct market, or the side of the comic industry comprised of comic shops.

When the conversation mainly orients on Diamond Comic Distributors’ bankruptcy, its varying after-effects, tariff fears, or the impacts those are having on publishers in the market, it can be easy to feel like that. And those feelings are only exacerbated by what has proven to be the standard operating procedure for the space. The comic industry seems to be hardwired towards always believing the worst. There are likely, and hopefully, very few industries more obsessed with its own potential demise. Fatalism is constantly greeted like an old friend by those within comics, something that’s as true today as it was 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

So, some may be worried that the end is coming. But if the results of my mid-year check-in with retailers prove anything, it’s that no one told comic shops and those who frequent them.

When asked about the year so far, retailers didn’t focus on doom and/or gloom. Instead, they described it as “record-setting” and “spectacular,” amongst a great many other superlatives. Those aren’t words most expect to hear about the direct market, especially when the focus is on the first half of the calendar year, a period often marked by glacial starts and unpredictable consumer behavior. But that’s what we’ve got after what’s proven to be a banner year so far for the shops featured today, 18 even if there still was a range of results amongst respondents.

Those gains didn’t come without surrounding pain, of course. The job of a comics retailer wasn’t easy to begin with, and it continues to grow in complexity 19 in the wake of Diamond’s bankruptcy. Complicating factors are still being uncovered as that bizarre saga (hopefully) nears its conclusion, with shops routinely having to reinvent what they do.

There may be challenges, as there always are. But it turns out that success is quite the remedy for the bad feelings those create, as we’ll cover in this check-in with shops at the halfway point of the year.

For those that are new to these parts, a typical version of this feature highlights a mix of shops that have seen gains year-over-year — which, in this case, is comparing the first half of 2025 to the first half of 2024 — and those that have seen losses. And when shops are up, they are usually only slightly so. Peak gains tend to be in the five to 10% range, with most growing by only a percent or two. There are anomalies, of course. But they’re exceptions, not the rule.

This year, the rule seemed to be that everyone was an exception.

Amongst those that reported year-over-year changes in sales, not a single shop was down. More than that, the store that brought up the rear wasn’t up slightly or a smidge or a bit. They were up 10%. That was Oakland’s Cape and Cowl Comics, whose owner Eitan Manhoff emphasized that “enthusiasm is high, customers are engaged, and the books are excellent!” That’s right. The shop that saw the smallest gain so far this year would have led most editions of this feature, and its team couldn’t be much happier about the results.

Cape and Cowl wasn’t far behind the overall pace, either. Most hovered around 15% up. Some went even higher, with Travis Pratt sharing that his two Current Comics locations were up a mighty 20 and 35%. That was nowhere near the top, though. This check-in’s leader delivered a number that was the single largest gain I’ve ever seen. Even with the caveats that this was only for the first quarter of the year 20 and that the shop had just moved to a new location last year, 21 it’s still mind-blowing that Jen King said her Shenandoah, Texas based store Space Cadets Collection Collection was up 53%. It even surprised her!

“I knew we were doing well, but I never dreamed of that kind of jump,” King said. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that we are having to order graphic novels now at a magnitude I never dreamed of before.”

Plus 10% to plus 53% is a pretty good range to be working from, but not all respondents shared a number this time. They didn’t seem to be hiding anything, though. Most were exuberant. Almost everyone described the year to date with some variation of “great.” Of course, the always enthusiastic Steve Anderson of Maryland and Virginia’s Third Eye Comics zigged while others zagged by describing 2025 as “awesome!” but results consistently exceeded expectations while doing so across most, if not all, product lines.

Business was so brisk that multiple stores reported record-setting results. John Hendrick said the first half for his shop, Dublin’s Big Bang Comics, were the “busiest six months” in the store’s history. While he didn’t go quite that far, Patrick Brower of Chicago’s Challengers Comics + Conversation said they saw “record high months” from four of the six so far. But even if everyone wasn’t setting records, they’re seeing exceptional results, and in a way they believe is more sustainable than the collector and speculator driven boom from the pandemic.