LIKE an old school superhero, the comic book industry is facing a strong foe - and doing just fine.

More and more reading is done on electronic devices, but according to Troy Loveday the physical thing is best, especially when it comes to comics and their larger siblings, graphic novels.

“I do tend to read some books in digital just for the ease of it – novels and things like that, so I can carry around a Kindle and I’ve got four books on there that I can’t fit in my suitcase when I go on holiday.

“But I will go out and buy the book in its physical form if I’m really into that book. I’ve got books on my shelf which I’ve read in digital but I’ve never read the actual book. I just had to have it, had to own it, because I appreciate it.

“If you go and buy a first print novel, a lot of them will have a nice dust cover, a nice hard cover, and it’s just a thing of art. It’s the same sort of thing with comic books. You get that cover, you get the interior pages to look at, you get extra art pages at the back. There’s just something about it. A pdf on a screen doesn’t cut it – it’s not the same thing.

“If it’s digital you’re almost renting it. You don’t own that book. It can be lost. If the company goes bust, that server is gone, your account is gone. You only have those books downloaded on your device, so when you lose those they’re gone.

“The difference is that with a physical book you’ve bought it, you own it, you can lend it to a friend, you can give it away, you can sell it.

“If there was no value or interest in the physical copy of a comic then digital would take over, but the fact of the matter is that people love to buy and sell, pick them up and display them.

“It’s because they’re art. If you go and buy a painting to put on your wall, you’re not going to put a digital picture of that painting on your wall, are you?”

Troy and co-owner Johnathan Brown, former colleagues at the Wyvern Theatre, founded the business in 2011. Initially based in the tented market, it came to the Brunel Centre two years ago and moved to its sire opposite Waterstones on the upper floor last year.

Although the shop also sells memorabilia, figurines, models and board games, comics are at the heart of the business.

They range from big-sellers published by titans Marvel and DC to the work of quirky independents, and Troy, a fan since childhood, insists there’s something for every taste.

Like most people in the business, Troy shrugs off the claim - usually made by people who haven’t read a comic in decades - that the medium is somehow inferior to conventional literature.

“The thing that grabs people with Marvel and DC is the fantasy element of it, being able to escape the real world, but also the fact that it’s grounded a little bit in the real world, with real world problems and political standpoints.

“Although you’re escaping, you do still get a slice of other people’s lives. I suppose it’s a bit like a soap opera in that way, but just way cooler!

“What keeps bringing people back is the ongoing storylines and great writers and great artists.”

Troy, like business partner Johnathan Brown, is a great believer in the value of independent shops, which he insists support local jobs and local economies as well as providing individuality in the midst of online and offline corporate sameness.

“It’s important for people to go out into their high street and keep the money in their town, keep it circulating rather than keeping it online and complaining about the state of the high street!

“You can have a look at a product, you can pick it up, you can ask questions about it, you can get advice and recommendations. You can’t get that online – all you’re going to get is an algorithm that tells you, ‘You bought this book and this is by such and such and he wrote this book so buy that book.’

“You’re going to do it because the internet told you to, whereas we might say, ‘Yes, he did that book but it wasn’t quite like this.

“How about trying this other book?’

“They just go on hits, sales, keywords. We go by experience.

“As long as people have got stories in their heads and can tell them, you’ve got comic books, and as long as people want to read them we’ll still be here.”