I think the reason that a lot of the comic boom hasn't come from more people loving the capes and tights is that there's only so many people who want to read long convulted stories about people in capes and tights. Now, Naruto may be a superhero story at heart, but if I want some, there's Naruto in a neatly numbered compact little book numbered in order. I don't have to keep the ten different incarnations of Naruto straight. This is also pretty amenable to the way many people shop already. To me, something like American Born Chinese is a novel- indie comics are like those quirky literary novels that may not have a massive audience, but still have a place. Manga is like chicklit- it's popular, it's colorful, and much is well crafted. There's a particular trade dress to the series. And of course, there's the in between stuff like Scott Pilgrim. And yea, superhero novels are like westerns. They interest some people, but there's always going to be a segment of the population that doesn't like them.