With the rapidly increasing technologies and benefits of online comic-making, it leaves one to wonder if there will in fact be a future for traditional comics.
More and more folks are using the internet and it is easier to download your comic rather than walk out in the rain and buy it at the shop. Personally, I will always prefer the feel and touch of the traditional comic but it is something worth considering.
In the next ten years, could we see the end of comic book shops?

Well, comic books shops themselves are declining, taken over by the expansion of online comic selling stores for single issues or big markets like Amazon.com for graphic novels/trade paper backs. However I think the print medium is going to stay around. It might lessen in volume, so that only the best will go to print, but I definitely think that there is more convenience to printed materials than there is to digital. I don't know though, soon we could be seeing mini-laptops which function as books. Screen are harder on the eyes though.

Personally I like paper. I like being able to read a printed piece of material anywhere, instead of being stuck in front of a screen.

Manga sales at the very least seem to get better every year, despite the changes in technology. I think what it boils down to in the end is price and availability. Since just about every bookstore carries manga these days, it's easy to find and publishers pump it out at lower prices than full color compilations. Comic publishers are starting to take the hint in some ways, but they really need to stop treating each comic like a potential collector's item. People are losing interest in single issue comics based on the same old superheroes. They want a greater variety of genres and more self contained stories.

I don't think print comics will disappear anytime soon. We may see some changes in modern comic presentation and writing, but that isn't really anything new. Comics have been evolving since day one.

hopefully comic shops becomes integrated to big book shops like barnes and noble.

They won't have a choice. That's basically what happened in the town I live in. There was this fantastic comic shop which managed to stay open for 14 years. However it finally closed last year and now the bookstore in town carries comics instead.

Comic shops will always be around. Don't you think music and movie stores will always be around? There's no difference, and there's always been less comic stores... Actually, now that I think about it, in fifty years... who knows?

I think, there's less of a future for continuing comic strips like Marvels and DCs that go on for ever and ever, but there's definately a future in graphic novels. I don't think comic book stores have much of a future, but they will continue to exist as part of big book stores and libraries. One good example is the japanese bookstore chain "Kinokunia" (im not sure if i spelt it right), where the comic book/ graphic novel section, represents a big portion of the store, instead of just a couple of shelves.

Don't you think music and movie stores will always be around?

No. It's the same deal with music and movie stores. Most are being absorbed by the more general electronics stores like Best Buy or they are expanding to become those stores. Tower expanded, stores like Suncoast got bought out. Around here, it's almost impossible to even find dedicated music stores, anymore. The local comic stores have moved in the same direction. You can still find the occasional comic store, but most of their revenue comes from CCGs these days and not comics. They tend to have to either expand to meet new markets or they fade away. Even the local video game stores have to carry anime, CDs, manga, and import goods to even compete with the Gamestops and Best Buy.

save trees..go electronic

It bother me personally. I mean, I'd rather pay a buck more for my comic, and have a cool place to hang out, meet friends, and know the people you're buying from. The only comic shops that survive anymore aren't relaly comic shops. They are card games shop, that happen to have comics. I've only seen one acctual comic shop in the last ten years, and it closed about 6 months ago because they couldn't afford to stay open. One guy worked there, the owner, he couldn't afford staff. I'd rather read paper than a computer screen any day. I figure shops will vanish, but paper printing will just be ordered of the net. At least private artist will be able to get their own stuff done now with printing getting cheaper and easier. But otherwise I hate it. I won't really miss marvel and dc's ongoing stuff though, I'm pretty damned tired of the classics. =P

I will always buy comic books. Simple as that. I love Here There Be Robots, but I loved it on a whole new level when I got my issues in the mail. Also, the quality to quantity ratio in print comics is waaay higher then on the web. The reasons for this are obvious... I am willing to bet, however, that the number of people who call themselves "comic book artists" has skyrocketed in the last decade or two however. All these people who wouldn't be making comic books are now because they suddenly have an instant audience... but is that good? Anyone can make a movie now too, but I don't wanna see all that crap.

Trade Paperbacks are selling really well from what I've heard, so yes. There is a future. Just take a look at how many shit webcomics there are, at some point some of them are going to be published, and some idiot will buy it regardless. Its going to become an endless cycle where if you don't have a web presence, you'll have nothing at all.

Look at Robert Kirkman for example, he has his own personal forum where he talks about stuff with his readers.

Comic sales overall are going down, however. More comics are on the market, but less people are buying them, making it harder for them to sell. I think manga has the best chance because it's cheap, the series are already over in Japan (most of the time) so you know they're going to keep coming out, you can find manga in most book stores, and each book comes with a lot of pages. American comics are much less sellable to the general public because people have this idea that you have to know all of the continuity, when in actual fact most series are limited these days. But people don't know that.

Also manga artists seem to be better at visual storytelling than American artists, who are most obsessed with making everything look photorealistic. The American comic artists are probably better artists, but they're not as good at comic art and making things flow.

That's not a constant of course. I admire American comics a lot for their complexity and the amount of work that goes into each page, when they're inked and penciled and colored all by different people. However it all depends on the story and the storytelling. A lot of American comics have crap stories. So do Japanese comics, but then there's all the cliches manga has which the fans get used to and flock to.

i'm pissed off at the comic industry 'specially the american industry where a creator comes in and does a couple of issues and then stop doing them without any resolution to the plot.

I'm actually going to do a column in the near future on this topic for Broken Frontier.
Here's my two pents:

Is there a future for comic books? Yes.
Though TPB sales are through the roof, floppies will always be around. I know that the big publishers would take a pounding if they ever completely did away with monthlies. I mean--check the Diamond Top 300 each month for comic books and then check out the top 300 TPBs. There is no comparison as to which format sells more copies. The "Big Deuce" is selling over 200k of each issue of "Civil War." It would hurt them badly to just discontinue monthly books. And, let's face it, publishers are all about making money. If they could make more dough by only publishing TPBs or presenting them on the web, they would have already done it. Believe that. :)