Comics Grow On Trees But Money Doesn’t, by Mike Gold

You can’t make this stuff up, so we don’t!

Comics Grow On Trees But Money Doesn’t, by Mike Gold - Brainiac On Banjo #105

Posted by Mike Gold at 9th February, 2009

The big announcement at last weekend’s New York Comic Con was DC’s raising their price to $3.99, except for those titles that will be $4.50. You know, the smaller circulation stuff like Vertigo and those titles they’re about to cancel.

That’s not how it’s supposed to work. In a depression, supply goes up as demand goes down. We’re in a depression (just ask the folks at Mad Magazine), but DC is violating this most basic law of capitalism. Therefore, by raising its prices DC is showing its true communist leanings. Tsk, tsk.

What does it cost to follow a reasonable number of DC Universe titles? Nowadays, given the massively amusing (perhaps not in the way they intended) perpetual pseudo-events like Final Crisis, if you don’t have about $100 a month to spend on four hours of what you hope to be entertainment, you’re going to be twisting in the winds of multi-tracked contradictory continuity. At best. Maybe you’re going to be spending your money on other things. Perhaps health insurance. Or food.

Yes, I know. Marvel Comics has slowly and quietly raised the cover price on most of its books to $3.99, and most of their top titles are all at that price point. That’s true. But here’s the lesson DC management and DC’s hardcore fans have never, ever learned: DC Comics is not Marvel Comics. You might think they’re better and that’s swell, but that’s your opinion. The marketplace has told us loudly and clearly that the top selling regularly published comic books have been from the House of Idea for the better part of 40 years.

OK. So perhaps we can now formally admit that the 32-page pamphlet is held in the same esteem as that lady who just Jiffy-Popped babies 7 through 14. It’s a loss leader for the trade paperbacks, and in the case of the “major” publishers, the trades are all too often loss leaders for their media and merchandising efforts.

If the comics shop owners are lucky enough to maintain the same dollar volume, they’ll make do. Maybe. But that assumes a lot, particularly in a depression. And each issue that they’re stuck with creates a bigger stain on their balance sheet. They’ve got to figure out how to compete with the big box bookstores and online sales companies with little help from the publishers. Good luck with that; we can see what happened to the other independent booksellers.

Comics aren’t dead, and right now at least, neither is comic book publishing. I sure hope Borders doesn’t go out of business, or Books-A-Million or Barnes and Noble. But that versatile pamphlet that you can hide in your textbook or read on the toilet… it’s a goner. At these prices, they simply aren’t worth it.

As George Harrison said to the Beatlemaniacs and Tonto said to the Lone Ranger, all things must pass.

Some of these sentiments, in completely different yet equally witty language, appear in Monday’s Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind on The Point rant, with swell musical accompaniment from Pink Floyd, the Beatles, The Who, and Frank Zappa. And remember, Mike’s Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind blatherings can be heard every Monday and Friday on The Point podcasts, available right here at www.michaeldavisworld.com, as well as at getthepointradio.com, comicmix.com, zzcomics.com, and ravenwolfstudios.com. You can subscribe to The Point at iTunes by searching under “The Point Radio.”

Category : Brainiac On Banjo

Comments

Jeremiah Avery February 9, 2009

On the one hand, these prices really make sure I buy what I enjoy to read, not just to be a completist. However, for maybe a few dollars more you can buy a small paperback novel which will outlast the comic. I enjoy comics, don’t get me wrong, but this news (amongst other practices) are even further pigeon-holing the medium into a niche market (even moreso than it already sadly is).

Alan Coil February 9, 2009

I hadn’t heard that news.

This does mean the end of the comics industry. I had previously felt it was going to happen around 2012 anyway.

Simply put:

Without the weekly trip to the comics shop, people will begin to forget about comic books, thus bringing the end. With prices this high, people will stop going to the comics shops.

Jeremiah Avery February 9, 2009

Plus with writers writing for the tpb, it’ll be more cost effective to just wait fo that instead. However, a lot of comic shops cannot sustain themselves on quarterly or semi-annually sales. Though given the “punctuality” of today’s market, it definitely gives more credence to wait until the trade because then you’re not left waiting for that final chapter.

Hard to tell whether the business practices of the publishers are the result of incompetence or sheer apathy.

Mike Gold February 9, 2009

The possible demise of the pamphlet might cause a similar impact to the comics shop… but maybe not. Certainly, the shops will have a challenge competing with the Big Box Bookstores, but if they are clever and can manage their inventory properly, they’ll realize they stock a much wider range of tpbs and can actually use the big stores to help create their customer base. If you’re looking for a specific tpb and Barnes and Noble doesn’t have it, you’re going to get it from Amazon or from your local friendly neighborhood comics dealer.

Comics shop owners are going to have to continue to expand their wares. They’re going to have to reach out to women, to college students, to young kids — audiences that some have previously disdained because they “don’t spend enough money.” Sure they do; you’ve just got to offer ‘em what they want.

Marc Alan Fishman February 9, 2009

My local shop has started a reach out program, as well as a graphic novel discussion club, amongst other things.

I guess I’m still an optimist (and a DC fan more than marvel, but really, not by much) and 3.99 won’t sway me away from buying my books. However, ask me 10 years ago, and I’dve told you “I’ll just stick to trades… they’re a better deal anyways”. I don’t know.

With a fanbase that seems in flux (outside the CORE that exists) I still don’t see the raise causing anything more than the cancelation of books that don’t sell; a practice being done now anyways. The truth of the matter is when good books get the axe, you have to look back and ask “how did they market and push those books anyways?” … and marketing within this industry is poor poor poor. I know, I’m in marketing by day.

I’m hoping in the face of this economic downturn the big boys of comics take a look inward, and make changes for the better. I hope creators continue to use social networking to guerrilla market (see Tony Bedard’s REBELS as an upcoming example) their wares… and I hope in the not so distant future, sites like MDW and Comicmix will do what they can to spread the word about their online materials, which still stands as an unexplored, and truly “not reaching it’s potential, but I think I know why” medium.

M.O.T.U February 9, 2009

I have a lot of history at DC Comics. I love Marvel also but I have always considered my self a DC guy first and foremost.

Much like my move to L.A. I still claim New York as my home, no matter how fucked up I feel about being there (the view from my New York loft was the World Trade Center and I would rater stay in a hotel on short visits than stay there ) I will never ever EVER claim L.A. as my home.

I’ve had some run ins with the brass at DC and that’s an understatement on the measure of saying the Beatles were an OK band is an understatement.

That said; DC will always be my home as much as the bad seed can have a home after a huge fight with the family. They will most likely never let me back in.

And you know what? That’s O.K. I don’t need DC comics and they certainly don’t need me.

I have noticed that as good a creative flow that they have at the company due in no small part the culture set up by Jeannette Kahn and headed now by Paul Levitz when it comes to making moves that ‘give a shit’ about the rest of the world, they seem to be lacking.

In my opinion it’s because of one or two reasons. The first is Time Warner (DC’s parent company) are just dicks when it comes to DC and care little about the company as long as they safeguard their 3 golden children, Bat-Man, Superman and Wonder Woman for other media outlets and marketing opportunities.

The second reason I think is Paul above all else is concerned about the talent and the books working on the highest of levels so when it comes to fighting the good fight with TW in regards to business he chooses to safeguards the work.

Now, this is my own slanted take on the way DC runs it’s business and I may be really wrong. I most likely am. Here’s a fact however, one in which I can prove-I don’t buy ANY DC books anymore.

I have no idea why I stopped because I truly still believe they do the best books in comics. I just stop buying them. Now because I decide what I can or can not do with my money I don’t have to explain shit to anyone why I stopped buying DC books.

However when a few hundred thousand people decide they no longer want to buy those books somebody at DC will have to GIVE A SHIT and they WILL have some explaining to do. I hope that explanation comes before it’s to late for them and us.

Russ Rogers February 9, 2009

“All things must pass.” That’s what I said when my toddler swallowed two marbles!

Mike Gold February 9, 2009

That may be two more than DC has.

The Point Radio Live

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE FOR FREE or go to GetThePointRadio for more including a connection for mobile phones including iPhone & Blackberrys.