The Real Price of Comics

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090410-the-price-is-right.html

I couldn’t believe the excuses I was reading on Newsarama about the price of comics. I am going to address these excuses in as pleasant a manner as I can muster.

RE: Vince Hernandez, Editor-in-Chief of Aspen Comics.

"Any time there's a recession, people are going to be spending less, but publishers still have to pay the talent and they still have to print the books.”

Okay so your logic at Aspen Comics is, since people aren’t buying as many books, we’ll continue to print a large number of them and simply increase the price per issue to cover the ones that aren’t selling. Is that what you are saying?

"Costs are going up because printing companies need to make their profit and everybody's tightening their belt and reacting to the economy."

Ah, the generic “blame it on the economy” excuse. Did they raise the price of comics during the last recession during the 80’s? Seriously, raising the prices because people are buying less didn’t work for the car manufacturers, why would it work for a company that rarely puts out any books?

RE: Michael DeVito, publisher at Th3rd World Comics

First off, I’ve never even heard of this company and I spend a hell of a lot of time online.

“Despite making the top 300 in sales, we lost money on the book and ultimately the series. Raising the price would have made much better financial sense and probably would have had very limited impact on sales."

Or to put it in regular English, their book sold well enough but they didn’t make any money. Raising the price a dollar would have given them more cash in their hand. But what you are saying is that you wish you had of milked the people who bought the book for a little more cash, because it wouldn’t have affected the sales numbers all that much. Classy. Th3rd World has two Co-Publishers an Editor In Chief and a Business Director. That is where the money goes, boys and girls.

To say the rising cost of creators is partly responsible for the price increases is silly. Creators can only be paid what they are worth, if their books don’t generate the kind of numbers that are profitable, then they aren’t worth the money. There are many, many affordable creators out there that I’ll support in a $2.99 book. There are very, very few creators that can make me buy a four dollar comic.

Good old Joe Quesada, always good for a bit of corporate bullshit. He’s really like Stan Lee now, isn’t he? But without the creativity and charm.

“What I’m saying is that we do work very hard to keep the prices where they are and to keep the top talent here at Marvel and in comics. We could just let these people move to other industries but then where would we all be... Some of these guys could easily be making two or three times what they make in comics by working elsewhere."

Okay, so the Nu-Marvel logic behind the price increases works this way:
Marvel hires Damon Lindelof for Hulk/Wolverine comic that isn’t very good. The book takes forever to come out. However, because Mr. Lindelof works on such shows as LOST, you have to charge more for the books he works on? We’re paying more because Marvel wants to hire outside the comic industry, forcing the price of comics to rise? The industry did quite well without celebrity TV writers and I am sure he wouldn’t be missed. Of course good business sense would suggest that a name writer with mainstream success should be able to sell more issues based on name alone, those extra sales would great more profit and actually let you sell the issues at a cheaper price. But this is Marvel, it doesn’t have to make sense, its MAGIC!

Does this mean since Jeph Loeb was fired from HEROES, the cost of his books will go down now?

What does this image mean??

Well it probably means exactly what it looks like. Steve Rogers won't return. Not yet, they haven't even hinted at it and Brubaker is too good a writer to rush into this.

No, this black star means the return of "The Captain". Whether that is Bucky or The Grand Director, my money is the Director.

Or maybe Battlestar is back as Dark Star! :/

The original page.

Dr. Manhattan!

Cool Shots #3

Captain Carrot! Side by side with Superman and the Last Monitor.

I've spent ten years trying to break into comics. I read every news site every day and have for years. I was a member of the Event Comics forum when Joe Q. started Marvel Knights and I've had discussions with some of the industries most talented individuals. You know what I've learned? It's not Diamond's fault.

Let's not blame Diamond. I used to, but really, they aren't in charge. They have the power, but they aren't in charge.

Retailers are in charge. Retailers are the ones who are buying all the mega-crossover issues. Retailers are quarterbacks of the industry and most of them act more like cheerleaders.

See, the retailers are the elephants in the room. Fans complain about 'Event Fatigue" but retailers continue to order event books. Almost every comic fan wants to see more diverse books on the shelves, but the majority of retailers continue to buy only Marvel and DC.

Prices don't have to be that high. If retailers refused to order books with such a high price, prices wouldn't be so high. Comic retailers have to be the only guys in retail who have absolutely no control over the price of their product.

All the complaints you hear online from fans SHOULD be addressed by the retailers, not Diamond, not Marvel, not Dan Didio. Everyone likes to point out how the books Marvel and DC put out in the 90's crashed the industry. But I don't remember Marvel trying to convince me a $10 third printing of Spider-Man #1 was a good investment. We seem to always point out the bad marketing ideas of Marvel and DC but we never seem to question the guy trying to sell us this shit at his store.

A unified retailers group would have more power than Diamond because they are Diamonds customers, not us. The sales numbers don't reflect what the public is buying, only what the stores have stocked on their shelves.

Creators might speak out on issues, but none of them want to take a shot at the guys paying their rent, for the first time even I was reluctant to talk about this because I have a book coming out soon. The great industry crash of the 90's happened because comic fans simply got tired of their local stores trying to sell them shit they weren't interested in. The retailers then shifted to a more story focused mentality and fans came back. That is why the mentality of "fans speak with their wallets" is so dangerous, because sales in comics don't drop slowly, they drop all at once.

It is time for retailers to stop acting like fans in any capacity and start doing what it is their customers want them to do; provide better products, cheaper products, more diversity, more books that speak to minority groups and less focus on which books THEY like.

There are some good retailers out there but this industry will never grow without a drastic change in the mentality of the guys selling the comics.

Consider this an intervention for retailers. Diamond is nothing more than a catalog and a delivery company. At the end of the day, they are our front line troops and it is up to them to fight for their customers. It would seem like a risky venture, for retailers to experiment with new books, or working together with each other to dictate better terms, I know it wouldn't be easy.

But wouldn't it be great if retailers managed to band together and not only control what Diamond sells, but they could even dictate terms to the publishers!

I know there are retailers out there that are trying to change things, to provide better books for their customers and genuinely want to see the industry change, I know you guys are there. Let's here from you, because if there are enough retailers willing to say "THIS IS MY FUCKING STORE AND I WON'T SELL THAT SHIT" we'll finally get the changes we've been complaining about for the last 20 years. Because nothing has changed since 1999, except that the movies have done very well. But the industry is still the same, in fact it is even smaller than it was. That shouldn't happen.

Cool Shots #2

Black Wonder Woman does a microphone check. One two, one two.


Superman never made any money, singing songs about Solomon Grundy. And sometimes I despair the world will never see another man, like him.


Don't push him cause he's close to the. . .edge!
He's tryin' not to lose his head!

COOL SHOTS #1

I am going to attempt a weekly blog that shows off the coolest moments in comics for that week. The first one is a shot from Secret Six #5.

The loser villain Bane has been captured by a bunch of freaks looking for revenge against the six. Bane is the guy who broke Batman's back, allowing that idiot Azrael to wear the mask for a while.

To torture him, the creep in the hood has a stack of bricks he is throwing, one at a time, at Bane. At this point, Bane is ready to break.




This issue had a pretty disgusting twist, when you find out the identity of the hooded freak, you WILL want to throw up!

R.