Owner Sharon Diaz’s fondest memories of Jumpgate stem from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Back then, the Portsmouth comic and hobby shop occasionally hosted gaming conventions at the nearby Comfort Inn, bringing in celebrities of the field to participate in local events. Diaz and her late husband Hector once even welcomed “godfather of role-playing games” Gary Gygax, the late co-creator of “Dungeons & Dragons.”

Those were the years before Hector Diaz began his four-year battle with cancer. He succumbed to the disease in 2006, but Sharon kept Jumpgate going with help from long-time manager Dan Rose, who’s worked there since 2002.

Sharon Diaz remembers the day Jumpgate opened—May 22, 1997—and she already laments the day it will close—Aug. 27, 2010.

“I’m gonna really miss it,” she said, standing behind the counter of the Route 1 shop.

The store is filled with comic books, graphic novels, used sci-fi and fantasy books, role-playing games, action figures, posters and toys. Sharon wore a Jumpgate T-shirt and stood under the large red sign and logo Hector created 13 years ago.

In the years since her husband died, Diaz has struggled against an ailing economy to keep Jumpgate afloat. She’s not alone. Nellie Woe’s Comics ’N Such in Dover closed in late 2008, citing tough economic conditions and inconsistent demand for comics. Other local comic book stores and gaming shops have all but faded from memory.

According to Diaz, there were a number of comic stores in the area when Jumpgate opened, but the only one still operating is Chris’s Cards and Comics in Seabrook. Although some new stores have opened, only a couple have been around for more than a decade.

Part of the problem is that comic book prices have increased dramatically. When Jumpgate opened, Diaz said, the average price of a comic was between $1.25 and $2. Thirteen years later, most run between $4 and $6. Those prices can deter potential comic collectors during a recession. 

“With everyone tightening their belts and limiting where they’re spending their pennies, it just gets harder and harder,” Diaz said.

At the same time, many people have turned to online role-playing games like “World of Warcraft.” Online games are easier to orchestrate than traditional role-playing games like “D&D” or “Magic: The Gathering,” which require groups to gather in one location. Numerous comics are now available online, as well.

“Things have gotten a lot more computerized,” Diaz said.

Only a handful of comic and gaming stores remain in the area. There’s Chris’s in Seabrook, Toys from the Attic in Somersworth, and Jetpack Comics in Rochester, along with a smattering of other businesses across New Hampshire.

Jetpack celebrated its three-year anniversary on July 26 and recently moved into a new location on North Main Street. Owner Ralph DiBerto is confident Jetpack will endure, but he agrees the industry faces difficult challenges, including an array of home entertainment options.

“I personally attribute video games and cable TV to really being the ultimate demise of comic books,” DiBerto said. “When I first got into comics, there weren’t thousands of forms of entertainment for kids.”

DiBerto opened Portsmouth’s first comic store, Comic Relief, on Bridge Street in the early 1980s (he sold the business in ’85 and it later closed). Nintendo was yet to release its home video game console, and television offered little more than a few popular cartoons. Comics, on the other hand, were cheap, colorful and exciting.

“Comic book collecting back then was a lot more affordable for people,” he said. “At the time that I had my shop in Portsmouth, I was selling in quantity probably three times what I sell now in single issues. People were collecting. People were investing in them.”

Chris’s Cards and Comics owner Chris Morse agrees. He opened his first store in Salem in 1980 and added the Seabrook shop in 1984. At the time, he said, many people bought comics because they expected them to increase in value over the years.

“It’s a different clientele now,” Morse said. “A lot of people in the ’80s and ’90s bought them as an investment. Now they buy them for entertainment, which is how it should be.”

Morse said he has always stressed the artwork and storylines as the real selling points of comic books. And there are now more stories to choose from than ever. Morse said he currently stocks more books, comics and graphic novels than at any other time in the store’s history, with around 5,000 different graphic novels on hand every day.

DiBerto, too, said he carries a large volume of comics. He also continually seeks creative ways to make Jetpack viable, focusing on pop culture trends. For instance, a new comic line is based on the HBO vampire show “True Blood.” DiBerto commissioned the company producing the comic to release exclusive covers with the Jetpack logo, and people from around the world have been ordering copies, he said. While each issue costs about $4 in the physical store, mail orders range from $15 to $20. He’s done the same thing with other comics, including Seacoast author Joe Hill’s “Locke & Key.”

While the release of comic-based movies like this summer’s “Iron Man 2” cause temporary spikes in sales of particular comics, they do not necessarily expand general awareness of the comic book market. The Hollywood trend of turning comic books into movies has begun to work in reverse. These days, DiBerto said, publishers commonly turn movies, TV shows and video games into comics.

“The comic book market is definitely a dying industry, so the publishers are always looking to revitalize it with whatever they can get a hold of to eke out extra sales,” he said.

Morse said the peak of the local comic retail industry came in the early ’90s, when DC’s “Death of Superman” series enticed millions of new readers. Jumpgate came along toward the tail end of that boom. Hector Diaz, a long-time comic junkie, was the mastermind behind the shop.

“He was a huge comic and gaming fan and really wanted to open a store,” Sharon Diaz said. “It was really his dream and his drive.”

A graphic artist himself, Hector authored and illustrated his own comic book in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Called “Landra,” it chronicled the adventures of a half-human, half-dragon woman who battled enemies on distant planets. A few issues were published, and some of the artwork remains on display behind the counter at Jumpgate.

Diaz’s memories of the store are indelibly linked to her family. Her two sons, ages 15 and 8, practically grew up in the shop, she said. Some regulars began visiting Jumpgate when they were 10 or 12 years old and still pop in as adults.

“I’ve seen them grow up and go to college,” Diaz said.

DiBerto said Hector Diaz was a regular customer at Comic Relief in the early ’80s. DiBerto was shocked to learn Jumpgate would be closing its doors.

“They’ve been around for so long,” he said. “I admire those guys for having stuck with it for so long.”

Jumpgate will offer discounts and sales for the remainder of the month before closing at the end of August. Everything except new comics is 30 percent off through Aug. 13, then 50 percent off through Aug. 20, and 75 percent off through Aug. 27 (only cash will be accepted during the final week).

Despite the spectrum of home entertainment technologies now available, Chris Morse believes people will always enjoy flipping through a comic book.

“There’s still nothing like sitting on a porch with a nice summer breeze, reading a comic,” he said.