Comic book shops thrive, not just survive, in S.F.

Dennis Budd of San Francisco picks out comic books at Comix Exchange on Divisadero Street in San Francisco, Calif. Wednesday, December 24, 2014. Dennis Budd of San Francisco picks out comic books at Comix Exchange on Divisadero Street in San Francisco, Calif. Wednesday, December 24, 2014. Photo: Jessica Christian / Special To The Chronicle Photo: Jessica Christian / Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Comic book shops thrive, not just survive, in S.F. 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

When Brian Hibbs opened Comix Experience in San Francisco in 1989, with $10,000 and his personal comics collection, friends and relatives seemed unified in their prediction of a speedy retail demise.

“My parents tell me now that they totally, absolutely didn’t believe in me,” Hibbs said, laughing. “I don’t think anyone thought it was serious or real.”

Twenty-five years later, Hibbs is reporting his best year ever at the Divisadero Street business. He expanded in December 2013 to a second comic book store on Ocean Avenue, and that location is already breaking even.

While the struggles and closures of brick-and-mortar bookstores have made headlines in recent years, comic book stores have been the retail version of Wolverine from the X-Men — displaying an uncanny ability to adapt and survive. Comic book and trade paperback sales figures for North America in 2014 are expected to settle somewhere close to 5 percent higher than numbers in 2013 — which were already an all-time peak.

Few industries have endured more premature predictions of demise than comic book stores. Joe Field, longtime owner of Flying Colors Comics in Concord, says cartoonist Will Eisner used to tell retailers that he was warned at least once every decade to find another profession. Eisner’s pioneering career lasted from the 1930s until his death in 2005.

“TV, radio, movies, the Internet, the lowering of reading scores … everything is supposed to have conspired against comics to put us out of business,” Field said, in an interview last year. “But I mean this in the nicest, positive way: I believe that we’re probably the cockroaches of popular culture.”

Digital boost

The iPad was supposed to be the latest comics killer. John Jackson Miller, a comic book writer who analyzes sales figures at Comichron.com, said that if anything digital comic sales have helped retailers — readers get an introduction to comics, then later find their way into a store.

Shifts in popular culture have definitely helped comics store owners. Hollywood has ramped up a production schedule that will ensure big-budget movies based on Marvel and DC Comics for at least the next decade. Three new “Star Wars” comic book titles are about to launch in advance of “Star Wars: Episode VII.”

But owners point to other factors that have helped comics sales, including the weekly buzz from Wednesday release dates, and a widening demographic. Miller said comic stores greatly benefit from the comic publishers’ unique ability to market trade paperbacks that compile successful recent story lines, or heralded runs from the past.

“One reason that comic book shops are in such good shape is they have multiple different ways of selling you the same material,” Miller said. “Comics are the healthiest part of the magazine industry, and one of the healthiest parts of the book industry. … Time magazine can’t collect all the issues of the year in bound book editions and call it literature.”

To walk into a comic book store in 2015 is to break about a dozen stereotypes.

Hibbs may be bearded and have long hair, but he’s the antithesis of the unwelcoming “Comic Book Guy” on “The Simpsons.” Sitting down for an interview, Hibbs apologizes for the mess in a back room that’s actually pretty clean. The store itself is full of light, has room to browse and the floor looks clean enough to perform surgery — a barely familiar scene to anyone who patronized one of the dank man caves selling comic books in the 1980s.

Indeed, most of the surviving stores are user friendly. James Sime of Isotope Comics in Hayes Valley goes so far as to call his stylish shop a “comic books lounge,” encouraging a social scene as much as a retail business.

Comic book retailers had their own market implosion in the 1990s, similar to the tech bubble bursting in the early 2000s, and the video game crash in the 1980s. Miller said the number of comic book stores in San Francisco tripled to 25 in the 1990s, most of which closed by the end of that decade. (With two new stores opening in the past few years, there are now at least 10 comic book stores in San Francisco.)

'The walls are down’

Miller and Field said they don’t expect that to happen again. Growth in comics sales has been a healthy and seemingly sustainable 5 to 10 percent over the past few years. Field points out that the inventory is much more varied. Among popular titles last year were the introduction of Ms. Marvel, Marvel Comics’ first Muslim headliner. Archie is now surviving a zombie apocalypse.

“The walls are down,” Field said. “There aren’t any massive best-sellers any more. But there are a ton of titles that are going to resonate with a large, diverse audience.”

Hibbs said all the proof he needs is in Comix Experience walk-by traffic, which is better than ever.

“It used to be that 20 years ago, someone would walk past the store and you’d hear 'Oh, comics. They still make those?’” Hibbs said. “Now it’s 'Cool! A comic shop! Let’s go in!’”

Peter Hartlaub is a

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub