Tyee Video- Exploded medium: Vancouver fans, retailers writers and artists discuss the state of the comic from Justin Langille on Vimeo.

Comic books are enjoying a resurgence any way you measure it -- whether in blockbuster movie dollars, or in the vibrancy of the indie-comics scene in Vancouver, Montreal and other Canadian cities.

Hollywood has been mining Marvel and D.C back catalogues in search of profitable movie scripts for years now, and there is no apparent end to box office sales in sight. In 2008, Iron Man and The Dark Knight garnered $318,412,101 and $533,345,358 in gross domestic box office sales respectively, according online film industry reporting service boxofficemojo.com.

Meanwhile, manga masterpieces and long-form comics, or graphic novels, can be found alongside cherished works of classic literature at most reputable commercial book retailers. Waning music proprietors like HMV have taken to lining their shelves with comics and graphic novels at their Robson Street location in a time when corporate music models have proved unpopular.

The Tyee visited Comicon, a Vancouver comic convention at Heritage Hall on March 21 to talk to convention organizers, fans and artists about how the medium remains popular, what's influencing change and why keeping people coming back for more in an age when traditional publishing is changing by the minute.