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The Value of a 12 Cent Comic Book in Today's Dollars

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this isn't even an editorial decision. marvel has a stockpile of about 25 years worth of kid appropriate stuff they can stick in reprint digests until comics turned dark and grittier in the lateish 80's. they could have a high school intern make those editorial decisions. heck, they could license the whole thing to a company willing to put in the legwork to get these in the appropriate venues. it's all right there. and it's not like they're making money on much of this material right now as nobody is going to buy a reprint TPB of Marvel Team-Ups from 1978...yet those could be good reading for an 8 year old (scattered in with other stuff)

 

sure, some of the 60's stuff might be too juvenile for today's juvenile's, but i don't think the 70's - mid 80's stuff is

Correct. It's a decision that would occur at the corporate management level.

 

It really isn't an editorial decision. It's corporate. hm

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I blame McFarlane - wanted too much money for himself and his artist buddies.

 

That's why he will die a millionaire and many of those who went before him died penniless.

 

Can you do the calculator for the mid eighties?

I don't see how that's a bad thing. Instead of faceless stockholders dying millionaires while the actual talent dies penniless, now the talent gets dividends off their work. Someone was always reaping rewards from Spiderman. For decades they tried their best to give any to the people actually making it happen though.

 

It's a bad thing because even popular titles sell 100,000 copies.

 

How many kids and teens will go to see a Spider-Man or Superman movie? Tens of millions in the US alone? That's the potential market.

 

If Amazing Spider-man sold for $0.99, and was sold at every convenience store, how many would they sell? I'm just asking? How much more could the publishers get in ad revenue if their circulation went up 10X. I know that I'm dreaming, but why not dream big?

 

 

The unfortunate truth is even if you gave comics away for free, most people (including kids) would not be interested in them. There are just too many other entertainment choices for their leisure time, the biggest of which for kids is video games. The comic publishers know this, hence the reason they raise the prices to the point where the few interested readers complain, but ultimately stick around, maximizing their profits. It's also the reason the companies are not producing comics exclusively with the characters, but feature the characters in video games, movies, cartoons, etc.

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A lot of reasons have been given for why comic readership is down, but one of them is pretty obvious, they are too expensive! We bought them and read them as children because they were a good value.

 

 

I don't agree with this. Children don't decide on what they like based on monetary value.

 

I've said this many times in the past, and I'll continue to say it: I don't think the decline in comic readership has much to do with the prices of comics at all; it's more about competing forms of entertainment, including, but not limited to, video games, social networking sites, and message boards.

 

Comics need to get "plugged in" to these things, otherwise the medium is toast.

 

 

I should have read the thread further before responding since my earlier post is now redundant. I agree with your statements completely.

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A lot of reasons have been given for why comic readership is down, but one of them is pretty obvious, they are too expensive! We bought them and read them as children because they were a good value.

 

 

I don't agree with this. Children don't decide on what they like based on monetary value.

 

I've said this many times in the past, and I'll continue to say it: I don't think the decline in comic readership has much to do with the prices of comics at all; it's more about competing forms of entertainment, including, but not limited to, video games, social networking sites, and message boards.

 

Comics need to get "plugged in" to these things, otherwise the medium is toast.

 

 

I'm not sure I understand your point. Is it that kids won't read due to competition for their attention? If so, I beg to differ. I can point at the Harry Potter books that have sold over 400 million books worldwide. Young people are apparently willing to read.

 

If your point is that they are not being adequately marketed to through the media, it's hard to imagine any characters having more name recognition than Spider-man, Superman and Iron Man these days. Films have created a ready-made market for comic books.

 

I truly believe that it's only a matter of getting the right product, at the right price, and to sell it at a place most convenient to the customer.

 

The comic companies are doing that. That is why they are making movies, video games, and other non-comic items (toys, clothes, etc.) with the characters. Those are the products that the majority of people are interested in, not comics.

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if marvel or DC could sell $4 reprint digests at a six figure clip 10 times a year you'd think they'd give it a shot --- obviously it is profitable enough for the Archie folks (are they even all reprints still?)..but that would require some creativity and an acknowledgment that a 21 page reprint comic ain't worth $2.99.

 

To me the goal would be placement at the Wal-Mart checkouts etc... Make sure the cover has a big, colorful Spidey (or whichever character) image to grab attention, and not the current muddy, bland cover palettes.

 

I agree. Wal-Mart would be a great place to sell books. Lots of young people there. Supermarkets are also good.

 

I'm not a marketing expert, but I think that it doesn't take a genius to figure out that what is needed is

1. Content appropriate for young readers

2. A product that is a good value ($3.99 digest)

3. Placing the product where the most customers will see it. Wal-Mart, Target, Super-markets at the check-out. "Can I have this, Mom?"

 

I think it's time to write a letter to Marvel's editor in chief.

A good place to put them in would be the videogame section and also put them in Gamestops( maybe lcs should use them as a guideline for the modern generation on how it`s done).

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I think there are 3 big problems with new comics today:

 

1. Competititon with other forms of media & entertainment. The # of hours in a day has remained fixed since I was a kid, but the amount of things that compete for a kid's time has risen exponentially. When I started collecting comics in 1983, we had 3 network channels and a few people had a pay-movie channel - now there are hundreds of channels. Videogames were designed to be played for shorter periods - once your 3 ships were destroyed in "Asteroids", you were done - none of this completing entire missions stuff going on. Facebook and the Internet weren't even being imagined of back then. No smartphones, iTunes, YouTube and everything else that takes up time that we now take for granted. Comics were one of just a handful of cheap entertainment options. Now there are limitless cheap ways to fill up one's time.

 

2. Speaking of cheap entertainment options, comics arguably no longer qualify. In NYC, there are newsstands and bookstores which still sell comics. Since I no longer frequent an LCS, I will occasionally flip through a new comic when I see them at a newsstand and I am always left wondering: who would actually buy these? $2.99 or $3.99 a pop for 22 decompressed, poorly-drawn pages that make up 1/6th of a story at most? And Marvel's attempts at digests like the retail-marketed "Spider-Man Magazine" - the cover price on that reprint title is $6.99 or $7.99! When I was a kid, I think the minimum wage was $3.35/hr. and comics cost 60 cents each (and many were done-in-one stories). Now the minimum wage is $7.25/hr. and comics are $2.99-$3.99 for the most part. If I was a middle class kid today, I think there is almost no chance I'd be a comics reader - there's just too many better experiences one can have for the same amount of money or less.

 

3. Third is the lack of quality and user-friendliness in modern comics. As has been noted, kids will read if something really grabs them (like Harry Potter or Twilight - and note how many hours those books kill for the price of 6 or 8 comics which take maybe 1 hour to read in total). But, for the most part, the comics are geared towards 30-something readers who cling to the characters of their youth. I imagine it would be very difficult for a kid to jump into today's convoluted storylines as a new reader, and to expect them to hang around for 6 issues while an entire decompressed storyline is being told is really too much.

 

Most comics today are just a poor quality product and a terrible value proposition. From a corporate perspective, it's cheap R&D for videogames and films, so perhaps the people who control the purse strings don't really care if they are not cultivating the next generation of readers or if publishing is a loss leader. (shrug)

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If you want it placed at Wal-Marts, you'll have to start getting the comics printed in China.

I don't know why Walmart doesn't just make their store employees work the sweatshops. Save on shipping (shrug)

 

(tsk) no politics please

I don't know how that statement was political
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Most comics today are just a poor quality product and a terrible value proposition. From a corporate perspective, it's cheap R&D for videogames and films, so perhaps the people who control the purse strings don't really care if they are not cultivating the next generation of readers or if publishing is a loss leader. (shrug)

 

Agree with all of the post! (shortened quote for brevity)

 

Value in terms of cost/entertainment time leaves videogames way ahead. A $45-$55 video game often provides 40-80 hours of entertainment, so if you call it $1/hr, you can see that the $3.99 comic read in 15mins is far, far behind. :(

 

As far as the books being R+D +/- loss leaders, this may well be the case also. The companies, and parents TW/Disney, may not be motivated to address the question of target consumers or value.

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I like the chocolate bar comparison.

 

I was able to buy a couple of comic books, a chocolate bar and a pop for 60¢ as a kid.

 

If you can make money on that chocolate bar and sell it everywhere, then (shrug).

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