Comic Prices Increases - Publishers Struggle to Sell

"Independent comic book publishers like Image Comics are struggling as a result of inflation. Truth be told, everyone is having a tough time financially right now. There isn't a single industry in the United States that is not affected by the current trend of inflation facing the American economy – and that includes the comic book industry, as book prices continue to spike.

The AV Club tackled the problem head-on in a piece talking to multiple comic book creators – including Image Comics President Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn – about the state of the comic industry as book prices rise from $3.99 to $4.99, the highest comic book prices have risen in twelve years.

This industry-wide investigation sought to get to the bottom of whether the comic book industry can survive following a 25% price increase for standard 32-page comics, especially when it comes to independent publishers, such as Image, Skybound, DSTLRY, and more.

Creators From Image Comics, Vault, and DSTLRY React To The Current State Of The Comic Book Industry

...."

screenrant.com/comics-expensive-price-economy-indie-publishers/

they could try writing comics that people would read and almost certainly buy, but they choose not to. its not out fault they want to market themselves to no body rather than everybody

This. Although Image is a bit better, it isn't a fully evolved service like it would be if it was something that was created post comic crash.

That's nice anon. If only the very first thing the OP tells you is that it's because of inflation.

writers write worse because of inflation

Thanks Obama.

No single issue of a comic is worth five dollars. Period.

okay. ill keep that in mind when i never buy an issue of a comic.

Fpbp. Marvel, DC, Image... It's mostly trash. I pay $4.99 if I know it's going to be one of those rare titles that somehow got past the editors or faggots at Warner/Disney. Like Fantagraphics publishing a new Hate from Peter Bagge. The first issue was going on eBay for $15-$30 even tho the 4 issue mini series is getting a paperback next year.

These publishers would have no problem if more people actually bought comics. Less to do with inflation and more to do with no demand for trash comics with uninspired digital art.

Well that and no one wants to pay $5+ for only 19 pages as a fraction of a story.

I hate that inflation doesn't mean anything anymore. It's supposed to mean a loss of value in a fiat currency as a result of more bills entering the money supply but now it's just used to mean any increase in prices.

What the author here was trying to say is that disposable income is way down which reduces demand for just about everything that actually has elastic demand (unlike, say, food)

probably not because of gay kissing given that happens maybe once or twice a year across all books outside of the token pride anthology oneshot.

I miss the good ol halftone on newsprint days when you could get 25-29 pages for $2.25

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is it inflation that's negatively impacting all companies?

no it's the comic publisher's fault

Which would be a great place for an inferior good, such as a really thick adventure type comic that's semi-frequent and acceptable.

They grew up and got bored of capshit.

I dont understand how the industry hasn't shifted into the black and white manga format. Its massively successful both abroad and locally. FOREIGN comics blowing your industry out of the water both in quality and in cost. Why stick to glossy pages? It always felt unnecessary, outside of like a center piece.
Even this would be incredible. I just want good stories not over priced art books where it takes 10 issues to shift the story forward an inch.
except it literally is. Look a comic sales in the past decade, its been a steady decline practically nonstop.

For manga you need a successful infrastructure and feeder system, which necessitates the creation of magazines and online publishers for the sole purpose of churning out as much comic as possible. While we do already have good online publishers (or at least sustainable, because good does not ever come to mind when you say Vox) nobody has gone to making one for comics yet due to the lack of seed capital.

It was enough for them to decide Superman was a lost cause.

they want to market themselves to no body rather than everybody

that's the thing tho, they want to make one kind of comic but for everybody, instead of many different kind of comics. The problem is viable economy of scale in united states is fundamentally different from that of japans.

while i would love for the west to just fully copy the manga formula, I still dont understand they they cant or dont just put out a "DC weekly". Black and white, you have 30 shitty comics a week anyway. Plus, it makes tying story lines together easier.
Fair enough we dont have the entire set up for it, why not just move floppies back in b/w singles? then they become more affordable, release trades cheaper, plus you get the "color release" of anything thats actually popular.

I'm not paying $5.99 for a comic. Suck my dick

B/W singles doesn't really solve the problem that a bundle would, but the problem is that investing in a 300 page bundle is a 60K hole and we don't really have a great bench of writers or artists for that already. It would probably still recoup by 30-40 percent, but would it keep people coming back?

i-if o-only th-th-the writing would b-be better comics w-w-would a-aut-automatically sell better!

It’s like talking to a child.

Okay, what's your solution?

I hope the comic industry dies and every single person in it at every level becomes homeless and gets AIDS

EGGS

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Tired of comics that are just cape shit or are embarrassed to be comics and just try to ape movies and realistic artstyles instead

Not that anon but I read far fewer comics than I used to even though I have far more disposable income now. They aren't making a quality product

I'd pay that much for an issue of a Watchmen-level or better comic.

The article says Todd is an exception, so naturally in the ways of modern journalism they don't tell us his cover price. (Still $2.99 with cardstock cover)

this. modern writers arent creative enough to write anything that isnt modern woke slop and forcing real life bullshit into comics in subpar boring ass stories that are safe and boring. I stopped reading modern comics and just went back to the 1930s through 1990s for comics and wow look at that I love the stuff I read and all the interesting and creative ideas those decades have in them. modern tho is just trash writers with uncreative trash brains who can only write in modern day trash situations and anything that attempts to go beyond that fails and is garbage slop. now im going to go read through miss victory stories again and enjoy my night.

pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Miss_Victory for those curious

Or will it make them better? I still miss him bros

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Relative prices. Back in the "All in Color for a Dime" days, a comic was 10 cents. For the same dime, you could get a nickle coke and a candy bar. That's about what you can get now instead of your $5 comic, abet the comic now is smaller but with --- uh -- better paper? Nicer colors?

That makes too much sense.

That’s a nice anecdote.

Is that before or after the Trump tariffs add 25% to the price of everything because they're printed in Quebec?

Trump isnt even in office yet

So before, then, meaning in a few months they get to go up another 25%.

Give it up. American comics are irrelevant. I won't say they're dead but they're culturally irrelevant. Anime and manga are the mainstream media everyone loves now and eventually, Korean and Chinese comics will become popular too. You'll see Westerners ape anime/manga here and there but they'll just be pathetic imitations. They won't even be appealing like Chink and Gook comics are. People won't even talk about comics vs manga anymore. It'll just be Manga vs Manhwa vs Manhua with no one caring about comic books.

There's more faggotry in comics than that. It permeates everything and should never be included anyway.

Dump the writers. Reduce page count to 2. Just print alternate covers because that's what collectors, the only paying customers buy.
Ultimetely you could do away with this legacy business and just push out another movie per year.