Comic prices

If comic companies started printing on cheaper paper and lowered the price would you buy more?

Would you still buy TPB's?

Even if TPB's were on better paper and the price was a little more?
(glossy paper)

No, because paper stock isn't the problem with American floppy pricing nor is pricing one of the main reasons that I don't buy them.

Misuse of glossy paper stock in reprints of old comics definately puts me off buying those volumes thougth.

Paper costs do push up prices. So, it is part of the problem.

Which comics do you buy?

Cost of paper is pretty negligable part of the problem compared to the distribution monopoly, low economies of scale, bad business models and the sheer fact that many of the publishers are just out to chisel as much money as possible out of whats left of the DM customer base. Changing to cheaper paper to marginally reduce prices would be like putting a plaster on a brain tumor.


Nothing in floppies anymore, largely because buying that stuff in collections is substantially more practical and drastically reduces the likelyhood of buying shit. Also, currentish Direct Market stuff is about 10% of what i'm reading thesedays anyway and I don't want to put money into the DM in its current form on principle.

This, 100% this. The sheer amount of greed and bad management in comics is pretty ridiculous considering the relatively small size of the market. Changing to cheaper paper would not only not effect prices but would drive most of us still reading them in physical form crazy.

That said, I'm still reading about 20-25 books at this time (mostly Marvel). I would consider going 100% digital, but I disagree with the current pricing model for digital comics. Especially when i get my books 35%-50% off by ordering my books online (from dcbservice.com). I get my books a few days later than if I bought them in store, but the discount is the only thing keeping the books reasonably priced enough for me to even buy comics anymore, so I suck it up.

I'd buy more modern comics if the stories were actually good.

The problem isn't the paper. It's the adherence to an outdated format and distribution system.

The monthly floppy format just doesn't work anymore, and the problem is compounded by increasingly decompressed storytelling. Paying $3-$4 for the tiniest sliver of a story, then waiting a month for the next tiny story sliver is ludicrous. It's like watching your favorite tv drama from one commercial break to the next, then waiting a full month for the next 7 minutes of the episode. 7 months later, you've finally managed to watch ONE episode. Hooray. Is there anyone who would watch tv that way? Of course not.

Just to put in context how utterly fucking rediculous and out of touch the direct market comics business is, have you seen whats at the top of the NYT Graphic Novel chart at the moment?

A 220 page OGN for young teenage girls that costs $10.99.

Which comics do you like?

I don't have a problem with the format. You can wait for the Trade.

You not having a problem with the format is fine -- for YOU.

Meanwhile the industry is dying all around you and the audience constantly shrinking. People today don't consume media the same way our grandparents and great-grandparents did. People don't use home projectors and 22mm film anymore; they use dvd and blu-ray. With music, never mind vinyl record albums, most people don't even buy CDs anymore; they buy digital downloads of albums or individual songs. Even tv by appointment is dying out. Yet comics are still packaged and sold pretty much the exact same way they were back in the days when people listened to records, movies were black & white and only in theaters, and television didn't even exist.

The 20-22 page floppy format does not work for modern audiences. That is evident from the sales numbers. Yet the performance of comic book movies like DKR and Avengers proves there is a gigantic appetite with the general public for material featuring these kinds of characters and these kinds of stories. So why doesn't the success of these movies translate to increased comic sales? The time for the artform to evolve is decades overdue, and the shrinking readership is the fallout of that.

People living in the past and insisting that comics remain the vinyl record albums of their medium are dragging comics down and keeping them from ever succeeding again like they should.