$3.99 Comic Books - The Final Nail in the Coffin?

[Kamino_Neko]

@Bryan_Ekers

There may come a time when the comics themselves are considered business expenses rather than revenue streams. Marvel and DC have to keep publishing in order to maintain their various character trademarks, with the real profit being in merchandising and adapting these trademarks to other media including toys, cartoons, and live-action films. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the merchandising of Superman got Warner more money than the publishing of Superman, but if they abandon the latter, it puts the former in jeopardy.

As I understand it from various interviews I’ve seen with publishers and editors, this is pretty much the case - at DC and presumably Marvel, in any case…small publishers are obviously in it for the art, and medium publishers like Image and Dark Horse are questionable, but for the big guys, the comics are definitely primarily IP generators, so far as the parent companies are concerned.

[Talon_Karrde]

@Lynn_Bodoni

I don’t know if I am a common sort of comic buyer, though. I got started by reading Gaiman’s Sandman, worked my way through Preacher, and now I’m into Fables. I tried a couple of Lucifer basic comics, but I’d rather have them in TPBs, if I’m going to buy them at all.

I would definitely consider getting the Lucifer TPB’s. I didn’t like it until around the third or fourth but at that point they became great.

[Ceejaytee]

@Tengu

Those last two posts pretty much show us the problem with the comic book industry today…

Not that they don’t make those comics - because they do - DC and Marvel* both have lines aimed at kids, and several smaller companies have awesome kid’s books… Johnny DC books are even priced cheaper than other books (I just checked my copies of Family Dynamic, and they’re $2.25/issue).

But nobody knows they exist. Comic book distribution is crap, so, unless you go into a comic shop, you don’t know what’s out there. And few people who aren’t already fans are going to go to a comic shop.

We read the Marvel Adventures The Avengers series to our 4 and 7 year olds. They’re really good; we enjoy them as much as the kids do. I found out about Marvel Adventures here on the Dope. But yeah, you have to go into the comic shop and ask. Our local shop puts all the all ages stuff in the front of the store, which is nice if you’re trying to get your kid past some of the more gory or racy covers.

But I don’t know how many kids are reading these. We’ve never seen any other kids there when we go in. Maybe we’re just at a bad time, but I wonder how many of the kids’ books are selling.

[shy_guy]

@Ceejaytee

But I don’t know how many kids are reading these. We’ve never seen any other kids there when we go in. Maybe we’re just at a bad time, but I wonder how many of the kids’ books are selling.

Joe Quesada (Marve EiC) said a while back that Marvel’s #1 subscription title was Marvel Adventures Spider-Man. Of course, I have no idea how many people still have subscriptions.

At any rate, the writing has been on the wall regarding the monthy, 22-page pamphelet for a long time now. The format just doesn’t work and publishers have been way too reluctant to let go of it.

That doesn’t mean that monthly comics are going to go the way of the dinosaur, though. I’ve been saying for years that we’re probably going to see an American Shonen Jump-type magazine sooner or later. I’m guessing that American publishers will eventually just totally ape the Japanese method of monthly comic production, and I’m totally fine with that.

[Gangster_Octopus]

If $3.99 turns out to be too much, the industry will adjust and figure out some way to provide content in a more affordable way.

[Spoke]

@Gangster_Octopus

If $3.99 turns out to be too much, the industry will adjust and figure out some way to provide content in a more affordable way.

Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. Businesses don’t always make good decisions (see GM). And sometimes, formats just fade away (see Big Little Books and pulp fiction magazines).