I was reading another thread ( They're Beeeooooooooo-tiful! ) and noted the price of the six comics shown.

At the time, I had 5 of the 6 comics shown and am pretty awestruck at how much good stuff Marvel was publishing at the time ... and how many titles I managed to acquire.

When looking at the price (40 cents ) of each one of these issues, I began pondering (again) whether current price is a factor in attaining new readers.

I'm pretty sure that at the time these comics were published, a comic book and a candy bar were roughly the same price. Now, however, due to better paper, inks, and other materials comparing the pricing of comics and candy it would seem that the price of a given comic book hasn't scaled well over time.

Back when these issues were out, you could take the bounty from mowing a lawn to the local convenience store, buy a handful of comics, some snacks, a soft-drink, and could still have change.

I'd be curious to find that even if the publishers began to penetrate the grocery store market whether the comics would be economically viable for a young person to purchase.

Thoughts?

I apologize if this has already been debated to death here or on other forums.

Jim

Apology accepted.

Jim,

In your comics vs candy bar comparison, I think, perhaps, the economics of scale has hindered the comics.

Also, the price of food stuffs has come down... while the price of paper has gone up.

Good point.

Perhaps a comparison the cost of an entertainment publication vs comics?

Maybe TIME magazine? Playboy?

Good points, all, but I'm not trying to zero in on the pure economics or entertainment economics; the toss-up when I was a kid was how to spend the cash I had in my pocket on items at the convenience store.

Nowadays, I think a kid could buy more of other diversions (pop, candy) for the price of the average comic.

There's been a lot of discussion about how to attain more child comic readers, but I'd have to tell you that it might be a tough sale for any kid who exhibits the same spending logic that I did.

The most sucessful comic in the American market right now is supposable "Shonen Jump" at 5 bucks a pop with 200 pages of reprint material. the biggest problem facing comics getting to the mainstream consumer is access to newsstands in grocery stores and gas stations. Most of these places don't want to rack comics because a $2.25-2.95 comic takes the same display space as a $4-8 dollar magazine. People will buy pricier comics if they see them and feel they get good value for they're money. The answer to the problems facing Marvel and DC Comics is to put together a bigger comic with a higher retail price. They wouldn't have to go to "Shonen Jump" size necessarily. I'm sure a 80 page comic of new original material priced around $5 or $6 would be successful.

I agree with what you're saying, John. The day is long gone that I would choose to spend X number of dollars on comics that were "nice but not spectacular". When books were $1 apiece in the early 1990s I felt like it was a good use of my disposable income to get a stack every month ... they didn't all have to be brilliant for me to feel that I was getting my money's worth, a dollar's worth of pleasure out of each book ... but at $2.50 or $2.99 a pop, the comic has to be truly wonderful and there just aren't that many which can measure up to that. Whatever our individual tastes, I expect that's true for most of us today. The money is better spent on other forms of entertainment which will deliver commensurate value.

Like Linda - I am much more picky these days because one book can cost quite a bit...10-15 years ago I would buy an indiscriminate stack cuase comcis were cheap...But then again maybe my tastes have changed too...

Comics only take up the same space as magazines if you rack them WITH the magazines (which, admittedly, is what most of the few supermarkets that carry comics do), but as I've said elsewhere, a comic book spinner rack takes up 2 - 3 square feet of floor space and can comfortably hold between 400 - 500 comics. As for the cover price, if memory serves (and I invite anyone to correct me if I'm wrong), the higher the print run, the lower the cost of each individual book. So back in the days of newssatnd distribution a title that sold, say, between 200k - 300k per issue would most likely have a print run of anywhere from 400k - 600k. I don't believe there are any books coming out these days with those kinds of print runs.

Everything you said about spinner racks is correct, Frank, but not very reasonably. Spinners have been gone from most retail outlets for awhile now. They make disruptive noise, they tip over easily, they look horrible,...etc. Spinner racks used to be used for a lot more than comics. Sunglasses, reading glasses, cassette tapes or CDs, Kool-Aid. All gone for the reasons stated earlier. Stores found places for most of the other stuff because they could still turn a good profit-per-square-inch on them. But once you put comics on the magazine rack the profit-per-unit is pitiful, so no more comics.

When you talk of reintroducing spinner racks to grocers and gas stations what you basically want the big comic companies to do is tell retailers, "You've been doing without us just fine for years now. But now it's time to change the way things work to better suit us." I can imagine how fast comic people would be laughed out of the office. The reason I advocate a magazine style (80 pages content, 50-60 advertisement pages) is that it gets comics back into mainstream retailers in a way those retailers are ready to handle the product.

On your other point about print runs. Increasing the run would have a negligable effect on price. Once you get above 20,000 copies your dealing in fractions of cents. The real cost of comics is in distribution, talent, advertisement, and office space.

My God, man!!! It's the 21st century! Surely we have the technology to combat these issues!?!?!?

Seriously, though, thanks for the info!

I can see it now. A solitairy man walks up to a podium with an anxious presscore waiting.

Man: I have come hear to announce the construction of an all new spinner rack system. Brought to us by the finest engineering minds on the planet and utilizing secret area 51 alien technology, this system will revolutionize the way we rack sunglasses. Each rack contains a tiny dark matter generator in its base to prevent tipping. Artificial intelligence will play music suited to the shoppers nearby it. Cybernetic arms enabling it to rerack any misplaced merchandise. And every night it inventories itself while plotting schemes of world domination...world domination?

Okay, who approved these specs.(':wink:')

What's the phrase? "They can put a man on the Moon, but they can't stop a spinner rack from squeaking?"

I've only just recently starting picking up comics again, the only thing worth buying to me is Doom Patrol and Superman/ Jim Lee, the cost is the main reason i stopped buying comics before.

Didnt Marvel under Jemas try a marvel Magazine a few yeras back that did not take off (with some Ultimate SPidey/Ultimate Xmen issues inside)..??

Marvel did have two magazines, Ultimate and Marvel Knights. They weren't very successful, but they were also poorly thought out. They were very thin with only two stories per magazine, reprinting books that were only a few months old at the time. The comics were designed for and adult/teen audience, but the copy was for young children.

It wound up as a package unsuitable for anybody. The comics wouldn't appeal to young kids. The character biographies and puzzles made me a little embarrased to flip through it, much less buy it.

Nice idea, poor execution.

Generally speaking, yes, price is a major factor into why I
personally buy less comics. There was a time, in my late
teens & early 20's, when I was spending about $40 a week
on comics. I just looked at the shelves & picked up any
comic that looked even remotely interesting to me.But now,
with bills & a mortgage to pay, I only buy comics that I
can't wait to read. Other titles that I'm just
sort of interested in, I wait for the trade.

But I don't just buy trades for monetary reasons. They
also take up less space & are easier to store. And, most
of all, many books these days just read better in collected
form. We all know about "decompression" & "writing for
the trade." I just finished Bendis' Ult. X-Men vol. 8 tpb, &
while I basically enjoyed it, I could definately see how
the individual issues might've seemed incomplete.
Azzarello's Superman also seems as if it might be better
when it's all over & you can read it all in one sitting.

However, if comic-books were much cheaper, say $1 or
$1.50 an issue, then I would definately buy more comics
than I currently do. Because they would be cheap enough
that they could be more disposable. Meaning, I could
afford to buy titles that are just mildly interesting to me,
& for the books that I really love I could buy them monthly,
& then still buy the trades later to save space, &
just give away or resell the monthly issues. So it would
definately work in my case.

I've also been a big advocate of trying the magazine-sized
"manga" type formate for American superhero comics. I agree
that those thick books with several stories in them just
seem like a better deal overall than a 22-page comic with 1
story (that's usually one part of a longer "arc") in it. But to
make it more financially viable for the Big Two, perhaps
they could start off trying it out as reprints, stories
that are maybe a few months behind where the original
comics. Like, keep the single issues in the comic-book stores,
where the current audience already shops, but sell the magazines
just in the bookstores, grocery stores, & newstands, for that new
audience. So right now they'd publish a "Shonen Superman"
book, printed on cheap newsprint paper, that features the first
2 Azzarello/Lee stories, the first 2 Rucka stories, & the first
2 Austen stories. For the current comic-book readers those
stories would be old, but for someone not into comics they're
getting 6 Superman stories that they've never seen before for
$5.99 or something. It could work. Or not. But it's worth a
shot.