Fans of all persuasions go ga-ga for international Free Comic Book Day, lining up to get their hands on the 9000 free reads to be given out in Canberra.
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Impact Comics owner Mal Briggs said next Saturday, May 7, would be "madness" with storm troopers, superheroes and wall-to-wall crowds in store.
But for the first time this year, he'd planned a special treat, delivering a stack of top titles to the sick children at the Canberra Hospital.
Paediatric patients can feast on new stories from the Simpsons, Pokemon, Strawberry Shortcake, Batman and Superman series among many others.
The rivalry between Superman and Batman fans was revived after an Easter cinema release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice but Mr Briggs said in the world of comics Batman was the clear winner.
"If you look at monthly comic sales Batman is our biggest seller hands down," he said. "In two years' time Superman is going to turn 80 and Batman has been around for something like 75 or 76 years."
The most popular title for adults was Sage, an epic space fantasy described as sort of Star Wars meets Game of Thrones.
"It's an amazingly human story without a single human on the page; everyone has wings or horns or spider legs or something else going on," he said.
"But at the same time it is thoroughly adult and is on par with Game of Thrones with the amount of sex and violence depicted in there."
While the digital age has taken a toll on printed media and the retail industry, Mr Briggs said tangible comics were still far more popular than those consumed online.
"Digital comics really only exploded when the iPad was released," he said. "It experienced growth at the start but it has slowed down. Digital comics make up about 10 per cent of sales."
While 50 titles were going for free on the day, Mr Briggs said turnover at the store more than doubled at the annual event.
He sold comics to preschoolers in homemade superhero capes, Senators and political advisors as well as elderly retirees – there was no typical reader.
"Comics just have this lasting appeal and there are very few people alive that can remember a time when comic books weren't a thing," he said.
"The cool thing about comics, and you can see this with kids reading comics by just following the pictures, is it gives you a chance to experience language in a historical form where before words, we told stories and deciphered things through symbols and pictograms."
