STORY: Mark Waid on Print Vs. Digital Comics: 'The Old Ways Weren't Doomed'

Graphic novel sales as a whole are up 6 percent during the first nine months of the year, with The Walking Dead's continued crossover success pointed to as one of the main drivers of the trend ("Well-written titles" like Marvel's Hawkeye and Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga are also singled out for praise), but the surprise success story of the year is the renewed interest in manga.

The report describes the turnaround in the manga market as "dramatic," noting that the market has been in decline for years, with last year's results having fallen to the pre-boom levels of 2002. In 2013, however, manga grew faster than the overall graphic novel category due to several factors, including the success of Sailor Moon reissued material and the hit series Attack on Titan.

With the holiday period just beginning, the shape of the year still has time to change -- especially if ComiXology's new gift card program increases digital sales -- but all signs are nonetheless pointing to a healthy and, surprisingly, still-growing comic book industry in 2014. Not bad for an industry that has been proclaiming its own doom for decades now.