Death watch: Retailer Ed Sherman ups the ante in ICv2's comic format debate by predicting the "pamphlet" (oh, how I hate that term) will be "gone within five years or less."

His points, while mostly valid, are nothing new: Comics have a short shelf life. They're overpriced. Collected editions look pretty on your bookshelf. Girls prefer trades.

Again, they're fairly valid points -- although the aesthetics of shelf display seems pretty low on the list of selling points -- but none of them adds credence to Sherman's "Logan's Run"-like expiration date. The same arguments could've been made five years ago. So, why the magical "five years or less" prediction?