I’ve been asked a few times about the State of the Industry. I usually shy away from the topic, as I tend to think that the comics industry is doing ok, not great, and needs to join us in the 21st century. (Speaking as someone who only this year got a cell phone, I’m one to talk!)

But Brian Hibbs over at Newsarama has taken a hard look at the numbers and parsed them; the installment posted currently is dealing with bookstore numbers. The numbers aren’t perfect as he himself states, but they do give a ballpark estimation of sales at your bookshop — not the Direct Market morass that the comics publishing industry touts as being the best model, but graphic novel and other sales through stores like Barnes and Noble and such.