Price increase on some DC titles as of June

[WillieMorgan]

There's no argument against doing this, unless you just want the fancy paper. Maybe you do. It's fine if you do. But a lot of people don't want to pay for it.

The prices have got to come down. People want them down. And there's one way to get them down.

Who are you actually attempting to communicate with by these constant open-ended statements? Because it sure as hell doesn't appear to be anyone on here that's trying to debate with you.

Your ability to completely ignore pertinent questions yet still make declarations of 'fact' like this is both uncanny and quite rude.

[Trey Strain]

Trey, for the last time, what would you do regarding creator costs after reverting back to newsprint?

They would stay the same. This is not cutting people's pay. As I said, the pay makes up only a small percentage of the the overhead for DC and Marvel. I cited the page rates earlier. They don't amount to much.

You're cutting production costs only, and passing along the savings.

[BaneBreaker]

Actually you're cutting printing costs, to say nothing of inks and colors that would have to be changed as well

[dancj]

Over objections from you and a few other people, I explained thoroughly in those threads why it IS possible.

And people pointed out the huge flaws in your explanations.

If you have an idea about how to get the prices of floppies down while keeping them on fancy paper, then let's hear it.

I don't know how to get prices down, but that doesn't mean your suggestion has a chance of working.

My best guess is that digital is the route to cheaper prices - but that would also need to come with a huge increase in readership.

[CaptCleghorn]

They would stay the same. This is not cutting people's pay. As I said, the pay makes up only a small percentage of the the overhead for DC and Marvel. I cited the page rates earlier. They don't amount to much.

You're cutting production costs only, and passing along the savings.

You said, but you failed to actually do any of the math involved in actually figuring out that "small" percentage. With a distribution of 30,000, DC only gets about $45,000 for a $2.99 book. Assuming $500 a page for pencillers and writers combined (a low assumption based on your figures), 20 pages would cost $10,000 Add in a cover (higher cost for a page), letterers and colorists, and editors, and your "small" fraction becomes a major portion of costs.

Alterna, by their own admission, had a difficult time finding printers for their much smaller run. In fact, in their entire existence, Alterna has published fewer books than Marvel or DC does each in one week each. Mark Waid has also spoken about the lack of savings with a switch back to newsprint. I'd take his word over anyone else's who's been quoted in this entire discussion.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

What really confuses me about the whole paper argument is that the Big 2, though more Marvel, have just about never adjusted their prices according to the quality of their paper. Hell, arguably Marvel has never before used such attrocious quality paper and that hasn't stopped them from being the most expensive publisher out there; charging as much or more than smaller companies who print on much nicer paper.

[The Darknight Detective]

You said, but you failed to actually do any of the math involved in actually figuring out that "small" percentage. With a distribution of 30,000, DC only gets about $45,000 for a $2.99 book. Assuming $500 a page for pencillers and writers combined (a low assumption based on your figures), 20 pages would cost $10,000 Add in a cover (higher cost for a page), letterers and colorists, and editors, and your "small" fraction becomes a major portion of costs.

Alterna, by their own admission, had a difficult time finding printers for their much smaller run. In fact, in their entire existence, Alterna has published fewer books than Marvel or DC does each in one week each. Mark Waid has also spoken about the lack of savings with a switch back to newsprint. I'd take his word over anyone else's who's been quoted in this entire discussion.

Exactly. We're not talking apples to apples here. For DC to make this remotely workable, they would have to drastically reduce their creator costs. Of course, that would hurt their product since their talent would bolt to Marvel and elsewhere.

Would I buy newsprint comics from DC if they were available again? Sure. Do I think it's feasible? Nope, for a variety of reasons.

[Nick Miller]

Aquaman already went monthly.

I'd GLADLY pay a dollar more if that could mean no more ads and give the creative team a pay raise.

Are you saying u would pay 5 dollars?

I would for top creative on top characters

IF they were doing 24-28 story pages.

20 pages is pretty skimpy

[Nick Miller]

There's no argument against doing this, unless you just want the fancy paper. Maybe you do. It's fine if you do. But a lot of people don't want to pay for it.

People have been paying for it for decades and decades.

Nobody wants newsprint.

Maybe the new iphone will be a rotary phone for 20 bucks? Fingers crossed!

Its not hard to budget for your hobby. Drop your smoking habit. Less Starbucks (A cup made at home comes to about 5 cents.)

Burger King instead of Bakers Square

There u go, now u can read Justice League monthly.

[MajorHoy]

Maybe the new iphone will be a rotary phone for 20 bucks? Fingers crossed!

Seriously, how often have you ever actually used a rotary phone in the past? (I think I still have one somewhere in storage.)

Its not hard to budget for your hobby. Drop your smoking habit.

I don't smoke.

Less Starbucks (A cup made at home comes to about 5 cents.)

I can't remember the last time I bought a beverage at Charbucks. (I was doing Dunkin' Donuts recently when we were without power/without a working stove for about four days a couple of weeks ago.)

Burger King instead of Bakers Square

Not familiar with Bakers Square; apparently, the nearest location to me is (theoretically) about an 8 hour drive (one way) in Ohio.
And I don't usually do Burger King, though I generally prefer them over McD's.

There u go, now u can read Justice League monthly.

Well, that's not a problem for me: I'm not planning to buy Scott Snyder's Justice League!

(Whew! Crisis averted!)

[The Darknight Detective]

Seriously, how often have you ever actually used a rotary phone in the past? (I think I still have one somewhere in storage.)

The last time for me was back in '92.

[numberthirty]

You said, but you failed to actually do any of the math involved in actually figuring out that "small" percentage. With a distribution of 30,000, DC only gets about $45,000 for a $2.99 book. Assuming $500 a page for pencillers and writers combined (a low assumption based on your figures), 20 pages would cost $10,000 Add in a cover (higher cost for a page), letterers and colorists, and editors, and your "small" fraction becomes a major portion of costs.

Alterna, by their own admission, had a difficult time finding printers for their much smaller run. In fact, in their entire existence, Alterna has published fewer books than Marvel or DC does each in one week each. Mark Waid has also spoken about the lack of savings with a switch back to newsprint. I'd take his word over anyone else's who's been quoted in this entire discussion.

Biggie Ditto.

DC or Marvel would essentially have to create it's own supply chain to produce a product that there are no serious indicators that their customers are even remotely interested in.

Never mind that I don't think Trey has ever factored for readers that would just stop buying outright if you switched back to newsprint. I know I would need a sub-$0.75 price point not to laugh at the proposition of sticking with an inferior version of the books I am buying now.

[numberthirty]

Are you saying u would pay 5 dollars?

I would for top creative on top characters

IF they were doing 24-28 story pages.

20 pages is pretty skimpy

I would gladly pay ten bucks an issue for The Wild Storm.

[numberthirty]

Exactly. We're not talking apples to apples here. For DC to make this remotely workable, they would have to drastically reduce their creator costs. Of course, that would hurt their product since their talent would bolt to Marvel and elsewhere.

Never mind that there are existing examples of creators talking about how you aren't exactly Scrooge McDuck on current rates.

[Punjabi_Hitman]

Has the company that moved to newspaper print have any comics in the top 300 sales? If not why would Marvrl it DC undercut profit margins?

If they cut their books to half price, you do realize they would have to at the bare minimum double their sales to even match profit margins. Is there a market left to do that for every single book they release?

No company would make this move just to match previous profit margins, they make moves to increase profits. So for DC and Marvel to make this move would require atleast triple profit margins to appease their shareholders.