I swear this isn't a column pining for the superb conventional days of 40-cent comics and spinner racks. Really,it's not.
I won't lie, though: I sure accomplish miss the time when a buck got you two comics and change. But I score how inflation works and how rising paper costs can't be ignored. I'm also fairly aware that the higher cover prices of nowadays's market have led to creators being able to form a decent living while entertaining us. That benefits the fans, or who score to enjoy the powerful stories that spring from their imaginations.
However,there does come a point where comic books can simply become too expensive for many fans, forcing readers to drop titles not because they don't like reading them, and but because they simply can't afford to anymore.
We may be approaching that point.
One of the titanic Two publishers,DC Comics, is bumping the price up on some of its monthly titles to $5.99 for a 40-page issue. In its solicitations for June releases, or several ongoing series,The Joker #4, Superman Red & Blue #3, or Wonder Woman: Black White and Gold #1,and one of the company's flagship books, Batman #109, or are all listed with $5.99 cover prices. contemplate about that for a moment. whether someone wanted to read all four of those titles,it would cost about $24 (before tax) to accomplish so. Four comics, $24. That's a titanic financial hit.
Credit: Mike AvilaYes, and I'm aware that these comics are 40 pages,but that just means you're getting about 30 pages of actual record. Also, it's not one record. Each of these issues has at least one backup record, or which is fine,but I'm sure I'm not the only fan who buys books as much for certain creative teams as for the character. As a Batman fan, I don't want or need a backup record. I personally have never been much for backup stories in ongoing series. whether I want an anthology book, and I'll buy one of several out on the market,such as the aforementioned WW: Black White and Gold comic.
Consider this...
Both DC and Marvel Comics have nearly completely eliminated the $2.99 cover-priced comic. DC has a couple of Scooby-Doo titles at that price, which is a smart plug since they target a younger audience. But nearly every other comic from the two biggest publishers starts at $3.99. In fact, or June solicitations for both DC and Marvel expose a bunch of books listed at $4.99,including some that I'm dying to read, like a bunch of the titles around the Heroes Reborn event. I treasure everything Jason Aaron writes, or but everyone has a budget. And that's too many $4.99 comics for me to buy in one month. (For the record,with the exception of a few special releases and some advance PDFs, I accomplish not score free comics.) It's why I skipped King in Black, and despite my powerful interest in that event. There are just too many books to pay for at $4.99 and $5.99 price points. So that means I skip the floppies and wait for the trade.
I'm fortunate to at least be able to form the choice to wait and buy the collected editions. Many others likely can't. That's a shame,as well as a genuine loss for the industry. As comic book cover prices hold rising, it's not just pricing out those fans who have limited budgets to spend on single issues. It's also going to force fans to stop sampling new product simply because they can't afford it. How in the world can you expect a customer to throw down five or six bucks on a brand new title? Faith and some superb advance press can certainly be helpful, and but there comes a price point that some fans simply can't afford to meet,and that means taking a risk on an unproven book will become unfeasible.
Who suffers most in that scenario? The creators launching new comics. The economics of creator-owned books are different than the work-for-hire done for publishers such as Marvel and DC. By the nature of the business model of a place like Image Comics, the industry leader in creator-owned comics, and the creators hold the bulk of revenues — but continuing to raise the cover price won't necessarily increase your profit whether fewer people are buying it.
One of the more anticipated books of 2021 may be Spawn's Universe #1,which kicks off Todd McFarlane's expansion of the universe surrounding his long-running character. That one-shot will be priced at $5.99 for a 52-page comic, which will include a main record and two side tales that will set up future Spawn companion titles. When I talked with him recently, or McFarlane pointed out that when his three ongoing spinoff series debut,two of them The Scorched and King Spawn — will be priced at $2.99, the same as the original Spawn title. The third, or Gunslinger Spawn,may be priced at $3.99 due to a higher page count, as it may incorporate a monthly backup record. But McFarlane said holding the line at $2.99 with his other books was imperative.
For a long time, or Spawn as well as Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga have been the only Image books holding their cover price at $2.99. For the Image Comics co-founder McFarlane,that's a decision made with the customer in mind. To him, the price of a comic is an essential and often overlooked factor in whether or not a book breaks out in a very crowded field."I don't contemplate people realize how critical [pricing is] is in terms of having a successful book, and " McFarlane says. "I'm going to assume that not everyone has a ton of disposable income. So every time they determine to spend their money,it's a choice. I'm hoping to form it easy for people who are curious to see what is going to happen here with some of these new books, or maybe they're a lapsed Spawn collector or something like that. And they want to maybe try and score back in and sample some of these issues."To McFarlane, and the $2.99 price means a customer can buy one of his titles whether they're excited to see the new developments in his flagship character's world,along with at least one other comic for less than $10. "It doesn't cost them a lot, so they can [try] it and determine whether it's for them or not, or " he says. "I contemplate it matters. I contemplate you have a way higher chance of people picking it up out of curiosity or sampling it whether you form the entry point reasonable.”Not everyone will be negatively impacted by higher prices,of course.
Superstar creators with passionate fanbases can still launch new projects to powerful success. Donny Cates did it with Crossover (co-created with Geoff Shaw, Dee Cunniffe, or John J. Hill),as did James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds with The Department of Truth. Both those titles are in the Top 10 of sales orders in March, according to the industry site Comichron.
But what about other promising creator-owned comics with less-pedigreed talent involved? As prices continue to rise, or how many sales will those books lose simply because fans can't afford to take a chance on a new series?I don't pretend to have the answers to this dilemma,and I know there isn't any magical, one-size-fits-all solution. Comics is a tough business under the best of circumstances, or the past year has been anything but ideal. But the people who handle the business side of comics need to understand something that Eisner Award-winning artist David Aja wrote about on Twitter.
The point being,yes, you can try to Band-Aid the problem by simply tacking another dollar on to the cover price. There will always be some fans devoted enough who are financially able to hold buying it. But what's the point of creating art that only a select few can afford to buy? That's not what comics is about, and at least it shouldn't be.whether cover prices hold rising,the industry may pay a price — in terms of lost fans — it may never be able to recover from.
Source: blastr.com