Can we all agree that comics prices are getting ridiculous?

[dupont2005]

Those 5 Deadpool titles aren't stopping four other Marvel heroes from getting their own book, because it's not a zero sum game.

No, of course not. Marvel doesn't compete with itself. It competes with other publishers, for wall space and spending budget at the LCS. The more Deadpool comics there are, the fewer comics Dark Horse has on the shelf, because the LCS can only afford to buy so many titles. Lets say a comic shop has space and budget for two hundred comics a month. If Marvel only published 40, and DC only published 40, the rest of the comics industry would have 120 slots on that shelf. That might entice a customer to buy one, and once the customer reads it they may realize what utter drek Marvel and DC is, dropping all their titles in favor of comics they actually enjoy reading and don't feel the urge to get online and complain about every week. So the Big Two can't have that, so they'll put Wolverine in 79 comics a month and tie up the comic shops budget and wall space on another crossover, so the LCS customers never get to see that new Gilbert Hernandez series. This is why Marvel and DC must cancel thirty or more series a year and replace them with even more series that will have to be cancelled again next year. They know what the market will bear. They don't care. They want to have every slot on that shelf, and are willing to take a loss on a handful of titles to keep Valiant and Image off those shelves.

[adameastment]

I think this is the benefit to being in the UK for once, with my subscription I pay £2.30 per comic book then add P&P. So realistically if prices go up entirely across the board then I would consider dropping 1-2 books of my pull list, which would generally mean stop getting every single event going. But yeah, I can imagine that it is a pain having to pass over a $5 bill for each comic - $50 per month might seem a bit excessive.

Edit: it seems like the solicits that are 4.99 are largely specials, or books that are seeing in a new event and larger for the most part. I can see that being feasible, yeah they might cut the 45 page book to 35 page but in terms of pricing it seems at least slightly fair.

[CSTowle]

No, of course not. Marvel doesn't compete with itself. It competes with other publishers, for wall space and spending budget at the LCS. The more Deadpool comics there are, the fewer comics Dark Horse has on the shelf, because the LCS can only afford to buy so many titles. Lets say a comic shop has space and budget for two hundred comics a month. If Marvel only published 40, and DC only published 40, the rest of the comics industry would have 120 slots on that shelf. That might entice a customer to buy one, and once the customer reads it they may realize what utter drek Marvel and DC is, dropping all their titles in favor of comics they actually enjoy reading and don't feel the urge to get online and complain about every week. So the Big Two can't have that, so they'll put Wolverine in 79 comics a month and tie up the comic shops budget and wall space on another crossover, so the LCS customers never get to see that new Gilbert Hernandez series. This is why Marvel and DC must cancel thirty or more series a year and replace them with even more series that will have to be cancelled again next year. They know what the market will bear. They don't care. They want to have every slot on that shelf, and are willing to take a loss on a handful of titles to keep Valiant and Image off those shelves.

Except that really doesn't happen, the local shop owner not bothering with indie books because they need to get every Marvel/DC book. Most shops have certain titles that tend to be more popular, and sometimes those are mainstream superhero titles (the kind you refer to as "utter drek"), but sometimes they're not. It's on the owner to recommend titles. At my shop Hellboy, Knights of the Dinner Table, Saga, Fables, Rat Queens, and a slew of Zenescope titles (if you want to talk about drek, and packaged to appeal to perverts, there's some indie cred for you) all outsell Wolverine/Superman/Spider-Man titles by a good margin. Because the owners read them, liked them, recommended them to people, and it caught on.

Even licensed comics like Buffy, Star Wars, MLP, and Adventure Time sell better than most superhero comics at my shop. Granted, this is anecdotal but there's no reason this shouldn't be the case at every shop. There's no set number of issues or titles that a shop has to get, and nothing preventing them from skipping that 7th Avengers title in favor of a new Image first issue that looks interesting.

[dupont2005]

Except that really doesn't happen, the local shop owner not bothering with indie books because they need to get every Marvel/DC book. Most shops have certain titles that tend to be more popular, and sometimes those are mainstream superhero titles (the kind you refer to as "utter drek"), but sometimes they're not. It's on the owner to recommend titles. At my shop Hellboy, Knights of the Dinner Table, Saga, Fables, Rat Queens, and a slew of Zenescope titles (if you want to talk about drek, and packaged to appeal to perverts, there's some indie cred for you) all outsell Wolverine/Superman/Spider-Man titles by a good margin. Because the owners read them, liked them, recommended them to people, and it caught on.

Even licensed comics like Buffy, Star Wars, MLP, and Adventure Time sell better than most superhero comics at my shop. Granted, this is anecdotal but there's no reason this shouldn't be the case at every shop. There's no set number of issues or titles that a shop has to get, and nothing preventing them from skipping that 7th Avengers title in favor of a new Image first issue that looks interesting.

It's a fact that this is how and why Marvel and DC operate, it's the reason they have a hundred titles only to perpetually be cancelling thirty of them. Their business model is to tie up wall space and budget so other publishers are not an option. It's the reason they have multiple titles for the same character. The only reason. They're also at the front of the distribution catalog, their worst selling comic is listed before Image's best selling comic. The fatter the Marvel and DC section is, the less likely a shop owner is even going to make it to the back of the book. There's a reason there's a dozen comics with Wolverine in them and seventy two comics coming up with Deadpool on the cover, and the reason isn't because they want to make a good product. Making a good product is something they'd like to do, but it's pretty far down the list below things they NEED to do, like cross over, feature Wolverine, ship on time, and have plenty of fanservice. A good product is pure coincidence if it happens. If one of their illustrators decides to trace every panel directly out of a porno mag, it's going to print. They'll never say "This isn't good, do it again, the comic's going to be late!"

And as long as we're speaking anecdotally, my LCS owner had never gotten deep enough in the Previews catalog to have ever seen or heard of Fantagraphics as a publisher.

[CSTowle]

I'm definitely not arguing that may be Marvel and DC' s goal, I just disagree that it works unless the owner is lazy or inept (or both). Sounds like your shop's owner may be one of those, and you have my sympathies. The first shop I had a pull list at (the one that sold me all of those Spider-Man and X-titles as a kid) was a /sports card shop and tended to care more about cards than comics (when they were both being sold as "collector's items" to poor fools looking to pay for college with "investments" in funnybooks). They'd order heavy on anything with a #1 plastered on the cover or that was glow-in-the-dark, chromium, die-cut, etc. Because in the sports card world that meant it was worth more than regular product (at least it did at the time, before the sports card thing imploded they learned to copy comics and cover all of their crap with foil).

Since then I've been lucky enough to find shops that were run by people who were friendly, knowledgeable, and absolutely in love with comics (and not just from the Big 2). They've pushed things on me I'd have never stumbled across on my own and I owe them big-time (though I've spent enough in their shops that I figure we're about even). I probably would have left the hobby by now without them. I wish all shop owners were more like them, and I would recommend them if you weren't literally on the other side of the country. Again, sorry to hear it.

[Biff Pow!]

Again I have no problem if there are 5 Deadpool books or 12 Batman books coming out monthly, because I assume the publishing companies have done their research and know what the market will bear.

The market they've created is the problem. It's very insular and set up to sell thirty books to one reader, rather than ten readers picking up a few titles. Marvel and DC are obviously fine with that, but it's turned me off and probably plenty of others.

[CSTowle]

It's up to readers to be smart consumers, and if they're not (and usually they're not, regardless of whether we're talking about comics or food/movies/music/etc.) then that's on them. Can't blame a corporation for attempting to make money when that's what they're designed to do.

[Goggindowner]

It's a fact that this is how and why Marvel and DC operate, it's the reason they have a hundred titles only to perpetually be cancelling thirty of them. Their business model is to tie up wall space and budget so other publishers are not an option. It's the reason they have multiple titles for the same character. The only reason. They're also at the front of the distribution catalog, their worst selling comic is listed before Image's best selling comic. The fatter the Marvel and DC section is, the less likely a shop owner is even going to make it to the back of the book. There's a reason there's a dozen comics with Wolverine in them and seventy two comics coming up with Deadpool on the cover, and the reason isn't because they want to make a good product. Making a good product is something they'd like to do, but it's pretty far down the list below things they NEED to do, like cross over, feature Wolverine, ship on time, and have plenty of fanservice. A good product is pure coincidence if it happens. If one of their illustrators decides to trace every panel directly out of a porno mag, it's going to print. They'll never say "This isn't good, do it again, the comic's going to be late!"

And as long as we're speaking anecdotally, my LCS owner had never gotten deep enough in the Previews catalog to have ever seen or heard of Fantagraphics as a publisher.

This is the case in the vast majority of instances. I have been to a lot more shops that barely have a Dark Horse or Image section at all than ones that actually feature them.

Except that really doesn't happen, the local shop owner not bothering with indie books because they need to get every Marvel/DC book. Most shops have certain titles that tend to be more popular, and sometimes those are mainstream superhero titles (the kind you refer to as "utter drek"), but sometimes they're not. It's on the owner to recommend titles. At my shop Hellboy, Knights of the Dinner Table, Saga, Fables, Rat Queens, and a slew of Zenescope titles (if you want to talk about drek, and packaged to appeal to perverts, there's some indie cred for you) all outsell Wolverine/Superman/Spider-Man titles by a good margin. Because the owners read them, liked them, recommended them to people, and it caught on.

Even licensed comics like Buffy, Star Wars, MLP, and Adventure Time sell better than most superhero comics at my shop. Granted, this is anecdotal but there's no reason this shouldn't be the case at every shop. There's no set number of issues or titles that a shop has to get, and nothing preventing them from skipping that 7th Avengers title in favor of a new Image first issue that looks interesting.

In my own anecdotal experience, I've encountered this shop twice. Both within reasonable driving distance of my house. That's two out of the ten or so shops I have ever frequented. Not a great ratio.

[dupont2005]

This is the case in the vast majority of instances. I have been to a lot more shops that barely have a Dark Horse or Image section at all than ones that actually feature them.

Every time I hear of this fabled awesome comic shop with a huge selection of a variety of genres and publishers, it's from someone who thinks there needs to be eleven Avengers comics. I'm thinking they saw two titles without the Marvel or DC logo and thought it was an awesome selection.

[TheContentBloke]

Here in Australia we have to pay more than twice the cover cost of your average Marvel/DC superhero comic. Most of that extra cost is incurred from air freight charges. The tyranny of distance has been cruel to my wallet, so much so that it's rare for me to buy a hardcover comic nowadays. The general drop in quality of most mainstream titles, especially in penciling, and the mania Marvel has for stopping a comic's run so they can "revamp" the title by publishing it as a first issue again (and again and again) doesn't make me pine for any of the comics currently on the stands.

[dupont2005]

Seems it would make sense to print the comics out there to save on shipping costs.

[CSTowle]

I'm not a fan of digital, but is that an alternative you'd be willing to explore? Can't imagine it costs more to download.

[Trevor]

I'm not a fan of digital, but is that an alternative you'd be willing to explore? Can't imagine it costs more to download.

I'll never sell my physical books from the 70s to today; but I'm slowly moving towards digital only for new books. I despised the very thought of that idea until very recently, but tried them on a whim when I got an iPad. It's truly a great experience. The feel isn't quite there of course, but they look just as good, take up no space, and cost less.

[Goggindowner]

Every time I hear of this fabled awesome comic shop with a huge selection of a variety of genres and publishers, it's from someone who thinks there needs to be eleven Avengers comics. I'm thinking they saw two titles without the Marvel or DC logo and thought it was an awesome selection.

I am fortunate to live in a heavily populated area. There are two shops pretty close to me that have an entire wall of books. A lot of it is Marvel and DC, but they have entire sections dedicated to Dark Horse, IDW, Dynamite, Image, and any other publisher you can imagine. They even have an entire Adventure Time section. And a massive trade variety as well.

[dupont2005]

They even have an entire Adventure Time section.

Yeah, I bet eighty percent of their non Marvel/DC comics are licensed comics. That's common.