Funny-book funk briefly brightens - Los Angeles Times

Funny-book funk briefly brightens - Los Angeles Times - Tim Cavanaugh: "Dying media don't come much dying-er than monthly comic books. From the great post-silver age watershed to the who lost Junior controversy about how this classic kids' medium became a forum for middle-aged comic-shop losers; from the death of Charlton Comics to the government war on head shops, all funny-book stories are variations on a single theme: a depletion that's been going on so long, and moving so slowly, that nobody's even sure if there ever was a boom time. To find a sadder tale, you'd have to look to the never-ending death of the American newspaper.

So it comes as quite a surprise to find that sales of comic books have been increasing steadily for the last five years. And that doesn't just include graphic novels—the perfect-bound trade paperbacks that have become the default format for the medium. Diamond Comic Distributors Inc., the company that has a practical monopoly on comics distribution, has seen improving figures in almost all formats."