WLG #247: I Just Can't Do It!

By Michael A. Diaz

There really is no secret that I am not happy with these jumps in comic book prices. I recognize that they come from time to time; it's just how things are. Everything goes up in price over time; it's called inflation. One day it costs this much to make a comic book, then the price of paper pulp goes up three cents, or ink, or gas, or whatever. It's the nature of the beast.

I get that.

But a 33% jump in just two years?

That's a bit much in my eyes.

Also, I don't really get why there is such a big jump. I don't really watch the prices of lumber or ink, so maybe those costs have skyrocketed, maybe enough to justify this kind of rate increase. Like I said, I don't know, but I would think if that was the case I would have seen it somewhere on the news.

I haven't.

Now, I could totally understand a price increase due to increased shipping costs, something that might happen due to the price of gas being so high. Last summer I would have completely understood a price increase for something like that, but as it is gas prices are now less than HALF of what they were last summer, so again, it doesn't seem to ring true with me.

I am sure Marvel and DC have their reasons, I just don't know for certain that they're good ones. Take Marvel, for instance. Now that they control more of their characters and the movies that will be made from them perhaps they might be smart to consider comics a loss-leader in order to get more people reading them and hope to make more money on the backend when the movies and merchandise come out. Again, I'm no expert on how things work in the comic book industry, but I think of the music industry. Sure, the record labels made money selling CDs (and sure, they lost some as well as not every artist had a gold record), but the artists for a long time made their real money merchandising and touring. I remember reading a magazine years ago with Trent Reznor from NIN (actually, he IS NIN) and he said something along the fact that after Pretty Hate Machine and touring during the first Lollapalooza he could have sold off the merchandising rights (T-shirts, posters, etc.) for millions and retired right then and there. Now, things HAVE changed, because CD sales are not what they used to be, so record companies are now asking for a bigger slice of the touring and merchandising pie.

Perhaps comics could do something similar, I don't know.

I just look at things from my layman's seat and call it like I see it. Case in point: trade paperbacks. Trades are almost pure gravy for comic companies. They've already solicited the original issues, already paid the writer, the penciler, the inker, the colorist, the letterer, and the editors for the comics that came out. They've even already paid for the ink and the paper stock. All they have to do then is collect the pages that were already printed and compile them together and BAM! another revenue stream. Sales charts show trades and graphic novels have been selling much more the past 10 years than they used to, so comics are making money there as well.

As I said, I am sure Marvel and DC have their reasons, but from where I am sitting I don't see any good ones.

In the interest of full disclosure, I fully admit to picking up a book for $3.99 last week. Though I am not a hardcore Avengers fan I flipped though Dark Avengers #1 and liked what I saw; I brought it home and read it and was surprised by how much I enjoyed a book that didn't have anything to do with Green Lanterns (I kid!). I plan on picking up the next issue as well, based on the strength of the first.

This just goes to show that no, I'm not going to avoid every single comic that is $3.99 out there. Sometimes there are books that I might not be able to avoid, but it doesn't mean that I like that price point any more.

Like I said, though, I really liked that first issue of Dark Avengers.

But enough of my ranting and raving; let's see What Looks Good...

Welcome to the world of The Mighty! Alpha One – America's first and only Super Hero – is supported by Section Omega, an entire police force devoted to assisting him in his quest for justice. Lt. Gabriel Cole has worked his way up the ranks of Section Omega and his connection to Alpha One reaches back to his own tragic childhood and an accident nobody could have survived. But when murder strikes at the top of the organization, the case falls into his lap, and he'll begin to learn what being a hero is really all about!