CBR: Where The Hell Am I - Dec 8, 2010

[CBR News]

Jason looks at Marvel and DC's current pricing strategies and weighs the pros and cons of both approaches, explains the motivation behind the "Wolverine" back-up stories and the difficulty in writing a 20 page comic.


Full article here.

[chrisgiff]

"Let's just get their asses in the seats...And then do our best to give 'em their money's worth."

well put. seems like everyone but the big 2 is in line with that.

[andybmcd]

Excellent article.

[grphxkindaguy]

If the 'big two' have to remove pages to keep the $3 price, I'm all for it. $4 an issue is my breaking point for this hobby I've loved for 30 years.

[Matt Spatola]

Nice article. I appreciate the honesty in the pages vs content discussion. Personally I would have loved a little more insight into his thoughts on the Marvel price structure. Still it was very nicely done.

[md62]

If the 'big two' have to remove pages to keep the $3 price, I'm all for it. $4 an issue is my breaking point for this hobby I've loved for 30 years.

Same here (although it's 40+ yrs for me). And I'm sure the writers can adjust to tell the story in 20 pages. After all a few decades ago stories were only 17 pages & they were pretty good.

[jediracer]

boo 20 page comics

I'm a Scalped trade waiter. If they are removing 10 pages form the story arc, does that affect the price of the trade as well?

[fever00]

I knew this was going to happen. I asked Brian Wood how this would affect the last year of DMZ, and he said it wouldn't but.. fuck. Aaron is right, and I'm pissed. I'm pretty sure some books will be OK, but this has the potential to dramatically affect older that are nearing the finish line.

[glennsim]

Hopefully any lost income from the DC page reduction will be made up in greater sales from those series due to the lowered price point. I'm not under the impression that artists get paid based on sales; but increased sales would result in the series lasting longer, which would ensure ongoing steady work, instead of having one thing get cancelled and having to move on to something different.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

$3.99 is too much to pay for a comic - even great one's don't feel like value at that price - and that it all started at Marvel to 'maximize profit', presumably to boost up for the Disney sale, just feels really sleazy.
Just because we're fanboys and would walk nude through a blizzard for our comics doesn't mean we should be fleeced!

Even with DC's backups, I don't think it really felt like value - the only really good back-up I've read was the Jimmy Olsen one.
If they were all that good, I'd be happy with four bucks* an issue, but they aren't.

I don't mind losing two pages an issue, although I am shocked that they are doing to Vertigo books.
Very surprised that teams on creator owned books weren't told, but not surprised they didn't tell freelancers until it happened - that's the nature of the beast, in every industry.

This column jogged my memory of an old one Steven Grant wrote for CBR, about getting rid of the 22 page story!
It doesn't entirely mirror this situation at all, but I found it interesting that Jason, who presumably has been working with 22 pages for his career, finds it a good length, whereas a writer from a generation or two before, thought it was a really bad one.

*closer to six or seven in Aussie dollars - even with dollar at parity, it still costs more due to international shipping.

[TheDanHale]

This growing rift between rising print costs and the free content of the internet (not to mention a stagnant economy) makes for a pretty sad print marketplace. I will restate my theory, the first big comic company that sells a $50 digital subscription to all of their titles every month could grow their audiences instead of chasing the ever-shrinking print market. You could also sell "The Batman Package" or whatever for a discounted price. I still like print books but everything points to a digital comics future and as an artist/writer I do not plan on being a dinosaur :)

[Trey]

Its baffling that publishers went straight from 2.99 to 3.99, which is a huge price increase for any product. Think about it. If the initial jump were $3.25 (which is about 8%) across the board, I guarantee fans would not have been so vehemently opposed.

In my industry, across the board price hikes are 3-5%, not like the exorbitant 33% hike Marvel/DC tried to charge.

[Trey]

This growing rift between rising print costs and the free content of the internet (not to mention a stagnant economy) makes for a pretty sad print marketplace. I will restate my theory, the first big comic company that sells a $50 digital subscription to all of their titles every month could grow their audiences instead of chasing the ever-shrinking print market. You could also sell "The Batman Package" or whatever for a discounted price. I still like print books but everything points to a digital comics future and as an artist/writer I do not plan on being a dinosaur :)

Thats not gonna happen, that would be 33 cents an issue. (150 titles for 50 bucks)

The casual fan (reads 3-4 books) is not gonna want that either.

Unless you think they will get millions of subscribers?

Correction: more like 100 titles for $50, so 50 cents an issue

[ian33407]

why not bringing back the missed pages, still to $ 2.99, but with a less exhaustive paper...you know, the 'pulp' stuff.

if the editors maintain the 20 pages issues, then i want more cases...( that ain't for you Jason, just something i noticed reading 'Essentials' ) even for the current 22 pages issues, that work too.

[ian33407]

more cases.
...with uh, something in it.