With all the graphic diversity, explosiveness, and expressiveness in our midst, one might make the false assumption that comic books are more popular today than ever before. What’s bitterly ironic is that while comic books, superheroes, and comic book art itself have never been more influential in American pop culture – witness the boom in Hollywood superhero movies – the readership of the comics themselves has bottomed out to levels that, in a prior era, would have sounded the death knell for countless titles.