In a ‘New World,’ Comics Are Making a Comeback
On the evening of October 9 at New York Comic Con, ICv2 founder and editor-in-chief Milton Griepp took to the stage to present his publication's annual white paper on the state of the comics industry. For the roomful of professionals at Javits Center, Griepp's news kept spirits high—in the past year, comic book stores have charted a major comeback.
Using data compiled from Circana BookScan, ComicHub POS, and informational interviews with comics sellers, Griepp painted a picture of an industry entering a new era. Several 20-year trends, including the bookselling channel's tendency to gross the highest numbers and the dominance of collectibles over new comics, appear to be slowing or, in some cases, reversing entirely.
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By far the starkest change Griepp noted was a booming 27% increase in comic store sales from January–August 2025 as opposed to the same period last year. "That's an incredible growth rate," he said. Griepp theorized, based on ICv2's interviews with comics sellers, that a new generation of readers coming of age post-pandemic are craving the in-person community that comics stores foster. Comics may also be appealing to Gen Z as a reliably "inexpensive, high quality" format, Griepp added. These younger buyers are also avid readers, Griepp said, which upends the previous importance of the collector demographic in propping up comics stores and publishers. "What is selling is inexpensive, reader copies.... That's a huge change from the past, where everything was about what's this worth?" he said. Griepp specifically noted the popularity of DC's new Absolute Universe imprint, which gives DC stars like Batman and Wonder Woman all-new storylines for contemporary readers that are easy to pick up with no prior knowledge of the DC universe.
In a ‘New World,’ Comics Are Making a Comeback
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