Graphic novels were a $75-million U.S. industry in 2001; they more than tripled to $245 million last year. "They've risen dramatically to the point where they've doubled our comic book sales," says Martin Rouse, owner of Phoenix Comics in Calgary. "And I don't see that changing; if anything, it'll get higher." Unlike a comic book, which, like a soap opera, carries its storyline through several issues, a graphic novel is a standalone story in comic book style -- hence the term "novel."

Which is why fans such as Calgarian Erin Collins, who estimates he spent nearly $10,000 on comics and graphic novels in the '80s, say they're the perfect medium to transfer to film. "It's easier to make a movie out of a graphic novel than a comic book, because it's a self-contained, 100-page screenplay with all the storyboards," he says. "It's easier to extract a Sin City story than a Spider-Man one, which is spread over thousands of comics. That's the logical reason why they're making so many film adaptations.