GameStop (NYSE: GME) shareholders: Do you feel lucky? The brick-and-mortar video game retailer currently trades at a ridiculously low price-to-earnings ratio of 4.5 times next year's estimated earnings, with a dividend yield over 10%. A valuation that low is usually ominous, suggesting investors believe GameStop's earnings will rapidly decline in the coming years.

There's reason to be nervous. GameStop is facing the daunting prospect of remaining a brick-and-mortar retailer of physical video games, in an age in which traffic is migrating online and more games are being released in downloadable formats. There isn't really a great solution to the problem and the company announced in mid-June that it is "in exploratory discussions with third parties regarding a potential transaction." Leading up to that announcement, But GameStop's strategy seems to have been to prudently decrease its store footprint, while also diversifying into non-video game products.

In early June, GameStop unveiled its newest attempt at diversification, announcing it would begin selling comic books in a 40-store trial.

Image source: Getty Images.

Dipping a toe in the ink

The new trial will include 20 GameStop-brand stores and 20 ThinkGeek stores. ThinkGeek is a pop-culture toy company GameStop purchased in 2015. The company will partner with Diamond Comic Distributors to install comic racks in these test stores, and will sell mostly Marvel and DC Comics, with a few titles from Image and Oni Press. For perspective, GameStop operates some 7,200 stores in 14 different countries, so this is only a drop in the bucket.

Can GameStop avoid Hastings' fate?

GameStop is likely pursuing comic books due to the success of its burgeoning collectibles business, which it entered via the ThinkGeek purchase in 2015.

The company said in a statement that comics "are often a part of our promotional entertainment industry environment, including video games ... This is just a small launch to bring comics to some of our collectibles stores as they fit with the current trend of collectibles that are performing in the market. ... Should this prove successful, we may consider rolling out to additional stores in the future."

While GameStop expects its overall revenue and earnings to decline in 2018, the collectibles segment grew an impressive 29% last year. The problem? Collectibles only made up 6.9% of overall sales.

Clearly, the company is making a push to become more of a "game culture" store, with toys and now comic books playing into the theme. According to management, the collectibles market will reach $16 billion by 2019, leaving the company with an opportunity to expand on its $640 million in 2017 collectibles revenue. Last year, the company created a new position, senior vice president of collectibles, and hired Janet Bareis from Walmart to lead the effort. GameStop is also giving hundreds of stores a makeover this year. The new format is split 50-50 between video games and collectibles; it's aimed at expanding GameStop's customer base to non-hardcore gamers.