Comic book publisher Chris Staros vividly remembers the near-death experience of Top Shelf Comics. The Marietta-based publishing company has specialized in literary, superhero-free graphic novels since 1997, with its two most profitable books receiving Hollywood attention: Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's dense Jack the Ripper deconstruction From Hell was made into a Johnny Depp thriller, and Doug TenNapel's Creature Tech has been optioned by 20th Century Fox.

In April 2002, however, Staros made the unpleasant discovery that the company that distributed a third of Top Shelf's output had gone bankrupt. "They stiffed us for $100,000," says Staros. "We desperately needed the money to survive -- it could have put us out of business in one sweep."

In desperation, Staros wrote an e-mail appeal to everyone in his address book saying that if they ever considered buying a book from Top Shelf, now was the time. "I sent it at 8 in the morning, it percolated across the Internet," Staros recalls, "and 12 hours later, 1,000 Web orders had come in. It took us seven weeks to process them all."

Top Shelf is out of the woods following last year's scare, and will publish its 100th title in January 2004. But last year's near-collapse illustrates the devotion of Top Shelf's readers as well as the company's paycheck-to-paycheck existence. "We've never been healthy," says Staros. "We put ourselves at risk every month. This is not an easy business. We rely on hitting a home run once a year."

This year he expects the designated home run to come from Blankets by Craig Thompson, author of Good-bye Chunky Rice, one of Top Shelf's most acclaimed titles. Blankets (see sidebar) will test Staros' theory that the graphic novel may see a brighter future in bookstores than comic book specialty shops. Bookstores have ordered more copies, 3-to-1, of Blankets than comic book shops, and Staros says Barnes & Noble plans to display the graphic novel on its front table.

But Staros ultimately doesn't mind if it's a bookstore or a comic store that sells a Top Shelf title like Monkey vs. Robot or Hey, Mister. In a market with a multitude of competing media, the sale itself makes him feel like a winner. "If we sell a comic book anywhere, we beat the rest of the competition that day -- movies, music, video games, everything. I'm elated."