Video: National Comic Book Day Reveals The Upside Of Brick And Mortar

Among our many valiant missions here at Benzinga, one the most savored is to enlighten our audience on information they didn't know previously. For example, most of our readers are blissfully unaware that today, Sept. 25, is National Comic Book Day.

Comic fan or not, you would be forgiven for your ignorance of this holiday. Compared to the industry-wide observance of Free Comic Book Day, held the first Saturday of May since 2002, National Comic Book Day is more of a calendar oddity than a full-fledged event, kind of like World Milk Day or National Forest Products Week (just around the corner).

See Also: The Life And Death Of The American Comic Book Shop: How A Distributor Monopoly Is Killing It

Even the proprietors of local Detroit comic shop the Vault of Midnight are quick to couch the celebration in terms similar to Sweetest Day's relationship to Valentine's Day. However, store manager Amanda Aquino is also blunt about the fact that everyday might as well be national comic book day inside a comic shop.

"We're happy to celebrate comic books whenever," she said.

And, despite the rest of brick-and-mortar retail's well-documented struggles, comic slinging has actually maintained a reason to celebrate. Sales of both hard and digital copies have remained on steady rise through the past five years, with comic shops themselves racking up $570 million in sales through 2016, according to data collected by Comichron.

Benzinga stopped by the Vault of Midnight to talk with store clerk Miles VanMeter to get his perspective on the "holiday" and provide his privilaged view of the comics retail scene from behind the counter. You can watch our interview with Miles in the video below.