While on a trip to the southwest, I stopped by Sante Fe's famed, and only, comic book store, True Believers Comics & Gallery for a chat with general manager Chris Diestler about the state of the shop and the industry.

Chris Diestler of True Believers Comics & Gallery

Here is some of what he had to say.

What is a strong seller? Y the Last Man trade paperbacks. We probably sell five times as many trades as single issues. There were a lot of people who got into the series late and it is too expensive to go back and buy the issues.

Also, we sell a ton of Image's The Walking Dead, Marvel Zombies, Marvel's adaptation of Stephen King's Dark Tower and the recently relaunched Buffy the Vampire Slayer written by  Joss Whedon. Actually, anything by Joss Whedon sells really well.

Store demographic: We sell a lot more Vertigo titles than the average shop and our store skews more towards the adult. However, with every Spider-Man and Fantastic Four movie that comes out, we get kids coming in to buy that kind of stuff. For "300," we started selling the trades back in November when they first started to advertise the film. Everybody said "Oh my god, Frank Miller."

Not so hot: I don't know if I should say that. What if Marvel reads this? Spider-Man was not a big seller until the movie came along but he did sell well during the Civil War when he was unmasked.

What I am reading? Scalped by Vertigo, that just started about six months ago. It's about an undercover Indian FBI agent trying to bust up a drug/gambling ring

Reason for the store's continued success: Our location caters to the tourists of Santa Fe and we do not have to completely depend on the locals. Although god bless them because they do really help keep us in business. The tourists will occasionally rummage through our back issue books and easily drop $100 or so.

Recent back issue sales: I just sold three Golden Age Superman books

Future of comics: It's graphic novels and trade paperbacks. Most people who are getting into comics now are finding them at major book stores.  Even when our regular customers miss the first couple of issues of a series, they will just wait for the trade paperbacks rather than pay higher prices on Ebay for the single issues.

Favorites in my personal collection: I really got into comics when John Byrne was drawing the X-Men and George Perez was on Teen Titans so those issues have a real soft spot in my heart and I would never sell them.

Hype around the death of Captain America: I had a waiting list for the book that was a mile long. I had people call me up ordering four issues over the phone with a credit card.

Comics as collectible: I do not sell to people with the promise that they will be worth anything. If you do not get your $3.00 worth of entertainment value out of it then you are spending too much money. People still ask for the Death of Superman issue all of the time and I can sell it for $5 to $10.
[note: weeks after its release back in 1993, the famed "black bag" issue, Superman no. 75, could fetch around $100].

- Joseph Szadkowski