[Yoc]

Seem's Marvel figures the time is right to bump their books up to $3.99 and issue for 2009.
Good thinking guys!   

http://tinyurl.com/5dqep8

22pgs or so for $4.  Wow, sign me up!

[darkmark]

Who cares?  Nobody's reading the comics, they're just going to the movies.

[boox909]

Who cares?  Nobody's reading the comics, they're just going to the movies.

The only current book I read is Justice Society of America -- and I wonder why bother buying it given that the same dang story has been ongoing for over a year now.

I saw Black "yarrgg" Terror #1 the other day on the stands....$3.50 to have my intelligence insulted?! I giggled at my retailer that he better watch how many copies he orders of Ross' quickly forgettable slock...although Ross is doing wonderful covers on JSA...circle of life I suppose...

B.

[rez]

Someday a monthly download to your mailbox per subscriber charges.

Folks, I think it's coming. Might be a while but it's the way of the future.

[John C]

The "ideal" plan for all businesses is Marvel's current digital model:  For a monthly subscription fee, you're allowed to look (but not touch) all the comics.  Not coincidentally, that's also how Microsoft and Apple want to charge you for software.  They don't want downloads, because they equate downloading with piracy.  And, frankly, they probably don't want issue-by-issue purchases, because they can't subsidize the entire line.

It sounds stupid, but looked at from a "how can we soak these aging fanboys for every penny" perspective, it makes a lot of sense...

But I suspect the pricing is mostly about the rising cost of printing, and you can expect DC's prices to jump, too, if that's the case.  I seem to recall reading that the printer both DC and Marvel use lost government subsidies AND a paper deal, so the real price spike is further up the pipe than the publisher itself, for once.

[narfstar]

What about the wowio model? The big two are just that BIG. Wowio offers a lot of little guys to read online for free with ads or to download for a buck. Where you will find books by Shoulder of Giants that include some of our scans. I am not sure if they are currently making any money. The offer a lot including Hero's entire line and most of Moonstone. You can read the entire run of Champions if you so desire. You could probably get the entire run for much less than a buck a book but not find every issue. You could fill the holes at Wowio. They offer all types of books besides comics also.

[OtherEric]

We'll see how the model changes over the next few years; but I can easily see myself reduced to buying an even smaller handful of new issues off the shelf as time goes on.  Not less comics overall; or even less new comics.  But I'm already moving to trades on almost everything I want to see from Marvel these days, and shifting that way on others as well.  Heck, Marvel is releasing lots of nice HARDCOVERS that don't cost much more- and frequently cost LESS- than the original issues!

[Yoc]

I personally try to find trades in the library system before looking anywhere else.
That's how I got to read all but the last issues of 'Y-The Last Man' and a good portion of the very enjoyable 'Fables' and 'Jack of Fables' series.

[John C]

I haven't followed Wowio in a while (their renovation completely lost me after I got a lot of good reading material out of them), and I give them credit for trying something out, but I'm highly suspicious of arbitrary advertising supporting free content.  I mean, I might be very wrong and they might have a far smarter model, but it smells a lot like the thousands of companies that died when the dot-com bubble burst a few years back.  I think that proved, rather conclusively, that only the ad brokers win that game.

That's not to say it's impossible to run things that way.  It might work.  But the model as I see it is only workable if every customer has a ton of money to spread around.

Meanwhile, I may find myself talking a lot more about this in the coming months.  Once I put my current project to bed (very soon, fingers crossed), I have a model I want to put together in hopes of trying to find that happy medium that pleases both the publishers and the customers.  It's so preliminary that I probably shouldn't even bring it up, but don't be surprised if, in the new year, I start asking if anybody knows a small company or two looking to go digital.

[misappear]

If the drop on readership is less than 33%, they make more cash.

The success of the Marvel movies, I believe, no longer requires the comics to exist.  It's possible that Marvel Comics is needing to prove its own value to the larger enterprise.   

--Dave

[darkmark]

Well, I really think the standard pamphlet (sp?)-size comic book, no matter how pretty the production, is going to finally grind to a halt.  As comps become the TV sets of the new millenium, purchasing a monthly fee to read them online (like a subscription) or grabbing the more convienient and more easily stored trade paperback are going to be the new means of dissemination.  Some paper comics will still exist (I still want my Archie digests!), but they're the horse and buggy of the new generation.

[Drahken]

What's really messed up about comic prices these days is that you're forking out that much cash for something that is still 50% advertisements. You're supposed to not have ads when you pay for something, or get it free if it has ads, the comic industry is just trying to screw it's customers every way it can.
*Remembers when all comics were only $0.75 each.*
I flatly refuse to buy new comics these days because of the inexcusable prices. The only comics I buy anymore are either used ones, or those packages of 3~5 comics bagged together & sold for $1 or $2, because the company printed too many & now they can't get rid of them all.

[narfstar]

Many indies may only be 28 pages but without ads actually more reading. Problem is many of them are already 3.99 without the ad revenue. I would rathe support the indies. BUY Femforce and Return of the Super Pimips and Miserable Dastards everyone 

[John C]

What's really messed up about comic prices these days is that you're forking out that much cash for something that is still 50% advertisements. You're supposed to not have ads when you pay for something, or get it free if it has ads, the comic industry is just trying to screw it's customers every way it can.

While I stopped buying comics a long time ago because of the price-to-content ratio, I disagree with the "advertising equals free" comparison.  Advertising offsets costs, meaning that the product can only be free if the advertising revenue exceeds the costs.  Figure that the publisher only sees a quarter of the retail price (the retailer and Diamond each need to take half as the book passes through their hands), and from that, they need to pay the prima donna writers and artists, plus throw some money at the inkers, editors, letterers, and so forth.

My quick estimates a few years ago suggested that only a few dozen of the top-selling companies actually turn a significant profit without ads.

That's not to say that they care about you in my model any more than yours.  They'd certainly suck you dry, given the opportunity.  But I think this is more "circling the wagons" than "getting the customer over a barrel."

[DennyWilson]

I don't expect DC to raise their prices yet - remember, they have a strong distribution deal with RANDOM HOUSE for the trade paperbacks,archives,showcases and other books.

[John C]

Something else that occurred to me is that the printer up Canada-way, used by both DC and Marvel, lost a huge paper contract earlier this year.  It's possible that this cost increase is because Marvel's costs have gone up, and DC wouldn't be far behind.

[Yoc]

Good point JC.
And frankly, what one does for prices the other quickly follows.  They always have.
Death, taxes, over priced comics.  *sigh*

-Yoc

[misappear]

I was at the library yesterday (a real New Year's Eve party animal, no?) researching some stuff on cave paintings for my students.  My desk guy, Greg the Invaluable, and I got into a chat about comics.  The library has shelf after shelf of graphic novels, trades, and comic histories, much more than I would expect for a city of this size.  Greg tells me that a lot of teens come in, and sit and read this stuff because, they tell hime, the price is too high to buy the stuff.  Greg tells me that the young folks are much more prone to suggestion when he hears of a new arrival that reviews well.  Furthermore, the number of young people coming in and either reading at the library or checking the stuff out has actually increased, according to Greg the Invaluable. 

Now this could be becase the collection continues to increase in size, or because the prices continue to rise, or a combination of many factors.  The end result is that there is a "market" being served out there that I never really thought about before, and its existence warms the coggles of my jaded and cynical heart. 

Oh, and Happy New Year everybody.

--Dave

[rez]

Just came from a New Year's meal with friends and family when an elederly lady told me of her experience when wanting to buy some comics for her grandchilden.

Went to a store somewhere and started picking up comics that had $5.99 written on them.
Said she had expected them to have gone up in price some but related that price shocked her.

[DOC]

*Remembers when all comics were only $0.75 each.*

Remembers when all comics were only $0.10 each.* THAT was a loooonngg time ago.

[darkmark]

They really are pricing themselves out of existence.  No wonder the Archie books sell so well.

[rez]

Doc,
You must dye yer hair!

heh heh Sorry, couldn'resist.

*Remembers when all comics were only $0.75 each.*

Remembers when all comics were only $0.10 each.* THAT was a loooonngg time ago.

[DOC]

No actually I was exposed to a meteor back my caveman days which DC used..to..oh never mind, my family just grays slow or it was all those drugs in the 70's.

[John C]

They really are pricing themselves out of existence.  No wonder the Archie books sell so well.

Well, that, the more general distribution, the readable (if not my cup of tea) stories, the clear (if uncredited) house art style...