Wired editor in chief Chris Anderson in Long Tail From How to Master the Art of Selling From How to Master the Art of Selling From Overachievement From Overachievement

Any freak in a costume can sling webby wrist goo or pilot an invisible plane. But it takes a special breed of superhero to use the "higher authority close" to sell welding equipment to a steel fabricator.

At least that's the conclusion of SmarterComics' new line of books, which transforms 300-page business best sellers into rock-'em-sock-'em graphic novels. Gone are the adamantium-clawed avengers. Instead, these books feature a new kind of mutant—wonky business writers endowed with bulging brainpans and killer neologisms.

The books may lack traditional comic book heroics, but there is still plenty of excitement. Thrill! as Tom Hopkins explains "how to develop a client participation technique into a powerful selling tool." Cheer! as Overachievement scribe John Eliot promises, "I will teach you, too, to be quite abnormal." But perhaps the unlikeliest superhero of all is Wired editor in chief Chris Anderson, whose Long Tail adaptation comes out April 16. In the first panel, he is shown carrying Earth—"the world the blockbuster built"—on his shoulders. And here we thought his only superpower was the ability to whiteboard any editor into submission.