So... my local comic book store closed down after 25 years in business. It’s the same old story - they can’t make a go of it any more following a boom period in the 1990s.

I found out about it, oddly enough, on Free Comic Book Day this year, and was part of a conversation where the owner was discussing the reasons why his store was closing. One of his comments was that he had seen a decrease in comic book-related traffic in his shop over the years and that he had not seen new, younger readers coming in for comics.

The store had between 50 and 70 regular subscribers in a community comprised of three towns, totalling around 50,000 people. It’s a mostly rural area that’s been hit hard economically over the years - there are almost no aspirational jobs for anyone in their 20s, and the population demos have less than 6% of the population between the ages of 20-25.

My nearest store is now 80 miles away, a hike on any given day since that makes it a three-hour chore to buy comics. Hardly an ideal situation.

That’s why I like this initiative that Bleeding Cool reports about publishers making an investment in Point-Of-Sale systems for stores.

And then this story about what Diamond Comic Distributors is doing to help potential store owners offset the costs associated with opening new stores.

These two initiatives seem like steps in the right direction. For right now, though, my direction is digital, along with my annual trips to Comic Con International in San Diego, where I can stock up on graphic novels and check out stuff I’m missing.

[Photo: A Comic Book Store]