Canadian writer Jim Munroe burst onto the comic-book scene in 2007 with his self-published graphic novel, Therefore Repent Set in a post-Rapture Chicago, the book featured mystics, talking dogs and machine gun-wielding angels hell-bent on purging the world of any more sinners. Munroe returns to that world with his new series, Sword of My Mouth , which moves the focus from Chicago to apocalyptic Detroit.

The first issue in the series was released in May. The second came out earlier this month – but it's only available online, as are the remaining four issues that complete the story. This is one of the first times a comic series has jumped online in mid-story, forcing readers to move with it. Graphic-novel collectors will have to wait until 2010 when the complete series will be released in hard copy. Some industry watchers see it as the end of the comic-book industry as we know it.

“The benefit is that he's hitting every market,” says Robin Fisher, a comic-book aficionado who runs the website cartoongal.com. Fisher points out that Munroe's plan attracts people who enjoy the tangible by releasing the first pamphlet in stores.

“He's grabbing them with the first one and forcing them to go on the Internet if they want more,” she says. “It's a really wise decision.”

Munroe says it is time to experiment with a new print business model.

“People are constantly complaining about how print is dead and it seems to me like there is a lot of talk about this controversy, but very few alternative models are being floated,” says Munroe about his decision to relegate the subsequent issues of Sword of My Mouth online.