A high-stakes battle for survival is underway in the comic book universe, and superheroes such as Wonder Woman and Wolverine have been enlisted in the fight. Even President-elect Barack Obama -- and an impostor -- have been recruited to help Spider-Man.
With mixed results, the nation's comic book publishers and hundreds of neighborhood shops are fighting off a deteriorating economy, online piracy, rising costs and changing consumer tastes.
Comic book sales were down for most of 2008, even at behemoth publisher Marvel Comics. And many small comic stores are closing one by one.
Just last week, Marvel released a special edition of Spider-Man in which the superhero notices two identical Obamas at today's presidential inauguration, uses basketball to weed out the phony and is thanked with a fist-bump from the new president himself.
But times are stark, and it may take more than Obama and his illustrated posse to revive business, as the industry nervously trains its spider sense on the notoriously feeble January sales month.
"Because comics are an escape, they're a little more protected from the economy," said Jonah Weiland, executive producer of website Comic Book Resources. "But I wouldn't say they're recession-proof. Everyone is preparing for a slump."
There's still an appetite for fantasy -- experts said the comics market has been resilient, weathering the wilting economy better than other forms of media. At the Los Angeles Public Library, thrifty fans turned comics into a hot item at the checkout counter last summer.
"If you want to read a series, there could be anywhere from three titles to 50, so it could be a very expensive experience," said Albert Johnson, a collection development manager at the library. "That's a big reason why we're seeing more traffic."
But even after a year stuffed with blockbuster films based on comic books, growth in all sectors is stalling.
There are no statistics available for comic books sold to customers. But the number sold to merchants is dropping. For February through November of 2008, the amount of top comic books sold to shops was lower than the same period in 2007, according to online research group Comics Chronicles.
Sales figures in broader comics categories, including magazines and trade paperbacks, nonetheless increased in the January-through-November period, though just 0.5% more than a year earlier, said John Jackson Miller, a Comics Chronicles researcher.
