Why the Hell Should We Pay So Much For a Comic?

So as I've been ringing customers up lately, it has become more obvious that people who buy more comics can split their pile up between the $2.99 and $3.99 price tag, and the pile with $3.99 books is growing more and more. What's very interesting to see over the past few months is that the bulk of $3.99 comics in those larger piles are more often Marvel Comics over any other publisher. Which isn't to say DC isn't sucking the cash from us either, but  Marvel does seems to be spearheading the overall push.

Now numbers wise, and this is just us locally, Marvel sales have dropped while DC sales have picked up. I expect this to be a different story across the entire US, but I also expect to see a lot of similar cases as well. Just doing the quick math, if you buy 10 Marvel Comics for $3.99 one week you're spending $40 give or take your discount and tax. The next customer who is sticking to DC or at least mixing it up but watching his price point at $2.99 is spending 10 bucks less or getting a few more for the same amount of money. Now, for me that $10 difference is about 5 bus rides or maybe a lunch. Maybe it buys me a few more groceries. Whatever the case I know other people are thinking the same way I am, and that's just how far they can stretch their dollar.

So knowing we are in a recession and knowing everyone is being a little picky, why would any larger publisher actually keep pricing higher and higher? I'm not judging smaller publishers, simply because the cost is much higher for them and they have very little backing. $3.50 for a copy of Atomic Robo is just fine for me, especially considering that the content is well worth it. So, the few reasons I've heard for the rising cost of comics include the cost of production, the cost of talent, and then overall inflation.

A) Cost of Production. Honestly, if I hear anyone else claim that cheaper paper quality would actually cost more without offering decent proof I will cave their skull in. I admit I am generally ignorant as to the costs of paper and printing, but I've spoken with a few people who I believe to know a bit more and they tend to agree: cheaper paper should not cost you more. A counter-argument I've heard is that the fancy coloring we have today wouldn't show as well on newsprint, even higher quality newsprint. Seriously, I'm going to take a poll one of these days. Who the hell really cares? I mean, fancy coloring is nice, but if we are talking about saving a meaningful amount of money for publisher and customer alike, then screw it I think we can suck it up until the industry regulates a little better and we can all afford pretty paper. If a publisher really wants to spend the extra cash on glossy that's fine, but if we can take the standard format back to newsprint I feel we can make a difference.

B) Cost of Talent. Ok, when I hear creators in the industry complain about how much other creators are making, I feel it's time certain people should be let go. Now I don't mean completely remove talent, but surely some of these contracts can be worked out a little more? Do you really need to be paying top dollar to someone who makes every regular flagship title they work on late? Usually when someone makes a mockery of their company, they tend to get fired not rewarded. I know there's no way to really regulate this, but is it too much to expect some common sense when it comes to paying people for work?

I'm not even going to bother with inflation right now, that would take a whole different article

Now, DC did experiment with some newsprint this year with the weekly series Wednesday Comics, but the $3.99 price tag kind of works against my argument. Considering the entire format and art direction of the project was one giant experiment, it's hard to pinpoint exactly why the hell that thing was worth $3.99 a pop. It was awesome, that's for sure, so it's a difficult argument. Was it awesome enough to pay $3.99 for a bunch of short stories, with a mix that almost guaranteed that most customers wouldn't like the entire package? Ehhhh that can go either way.

Now on the flip side, look at how the Vertigo imprint works. A number of times over the past year, the first issue of a new series (all published on newsprint) have been offered at $1.00 (Sweet Tooth, The Unwritten). The first volume of most Vertigo trades tend to be $9.99. Nearly all Vertigo series retain the $2.99 cover price, and Vertigo trades tend to be fairly inexpensive in general. Now, is this because the decision was made to tow the line, and that sales were regular for most Vertigo titles so the costs could be consistently balanced with guaranteed regular profits? Trade series such as Preacher, Sandman, Fables, Y the Last Man, and 100 Bullets are some of the most popular and highest selling trades in the entire industry. Obviously content has something to do with it, but does the fact that these books are not automatically packaged as $30 hard covers right off the bat make a difference? That you tend to never pay more than $19.99 for a large chunk of reading? I would hazard to guess yes.

Is financial backing a big factor? Does the fact that DC is backed by Time Warner mean they can suffer the cost (if the cost is really that bad) of pricing their Vertigo material cheap? Do the trade sales recoup the losses? Are there any major losses in the first place? And does the fact that Marvel is now backed by Disney mean they can trim their prices down now that they are part of such a larger corporate monster?

It just seems interesting to me that people don't take the time to look at the material their comics are made of, and that they might not think that a hard choice like paper quality is even on the table. The struggle of maintaining affordable comics is something that is forcing the industry to attempt new things and rethink the way comics are sold and formatted. If the problem of cost continues to affect the industry as it does, it could possibly lead to the end of monthly single issue comic books. If that were to occur, there could be a major shift in the way the medium of omic books is preserved. Would readers leave if they can't get their monthly comics? Would direct market comic stores still exist, or can they actually compete against chain book stores if they carry the exact same thing? Will this create more opportunities for creators, or will it limit their possible sales?

Two of the temptations of the industry right now seem to be aiming towards online comics (which would presumably reduce the material costs of production) and aiming towards getting more collections published and into larger book stores (Barnes & Noble). I'll focus more on these factors next time, simply because the race to get into Barnes & Noble is doing two things: Charging people up the wazoo for crap that isn't worth it, and driving sales out of comic stores.

Top pic via Joe D!