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I can't believe they are going to charge 12 cents for comics now..what a ripoff!

39 posts in this topic

They had the luxury of being able to slice their product in half over the year while still maintaining the same price point.

They also were able to get away with paying very low salaries and almost no royalties.

I wonder how much of todays comic prices is directly related to the royalties and benefits we fans helped win for the creators and current workers.

Would fans have been as supportive of creator rights if they had known the end result would be paying $3.99 for a razor thin product?

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I just don't buy moderns anymore. That solved my problem totally.

 

 

:)

 

Do the people who pizz and moan about modern comics while claiming they are so glad that they don't buy them (and I won't get into how exactly one is supposed to feel justified in complaining about a product they do not even purchase) realize that they are helping to hasten the demise of the hobby they claim to love? I have a tough time wrapping my head around that.

 

And I'm not singling Whisp out. This sentiment pervades this board.

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I didn't mind so much when Marvel Comics went from 12¢ to 15¢, I could still afford to collect all the titles. However, the increase from 15¢ to 20¢ contributed to my withdrawal from comics. The number of titles seemed to increase every month and the dilution of writing and art talent made reading less fun.

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Per inflation calculator - a 12¢ comic in 1961 should only cost 86¢ now. Wonder what the other $2.14 (on an average $3 comic book) goes towards?

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The first time I ever had an allowance and money to buy my own comics, they were 30 cents. The next month they went to 35, which really upset me. With my tiny allowance and not quite being the age where I could do odd jobs, I had to specialize. There was really no way to read the majority of a publisher's output. Pretty quickly I settled on the three Spider-Man titles, Iron Man/Avengers, Conan, Star Wars, and Sgt. Rock/Unknown Soldier. And I was buying more comics than anyone I knew. My runs were pretty much 30-40 issues long until i discovered D&D and suddenly all my money went to that for about a year.

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I didn't mind so much when Marvel Comics went from 12¢ to 15¢, I could still afford to collect all the titles. However, the increase from 15¢ to 20¢ contributed to my withdrawal from comics. The number of titles seemed to increase every month and the dilution of writing and art talent made reading less fun.

 

I wasn't too far behind you. The convergence of my age and the price of books going from 20 cents to 25 cents and then to 30 cents spelled the end of me being interested any more. There were other things to spend my measly $3.67 an hour paycheck on

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i dont mind paying 7.99 for the new series of Dark Horse Presents, because its all stories and no adds, and an oversized book.

The problems i have with Marvel(and i get almost every marvel every month), is that when a series comes along with a great story and great art(Captain Britian & MI 13) for example, it has a short run becuase they put out so much junk like, spider-man fear itself, xmen fear itself, 5 new limited series every month, putting several "HOT" books out 2 a month.

Marvel burned out Ghost Rider in the 90's, and it looks like they are gonna burn out Deadpool now, and for the few pages of story and art we get for a 2.99 book we have 5 pages of a preview for the new number 1 comin out, please.

I dont mind spending money on a good product, and i read everything i get, but it is getting harder each month to justify spending as much money as i do on new Marvel books, when there are so many old books out there i want.

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That's such an interesting point. And as a side note, look at Dell, which had lots of 32 pagers by the late 40s. But Dell/Western maybe also was paying more royalties (for the properties, not to the creators) and perhaps paid better too. (Barks was an employee with a retirement plan.)

 

 

They had the luxury of being able to slice their product in half over the year while still maintaining the same price point.

They also were able to get away with paying very low salaries and almost no royalties.

I wonder how much of todays comic prices is directly related to the royalties and benefits we fans helped win for the creators and current workers.

Would fans have been as supportive of creator rights if they had known the end result would be paying $3.99 for a razor thin product?

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MedianCover2.jpg

 

That's a great chart. Looks like comic prices have always outpaced inflation - but the gap between what comics cost and what they should cost has grown tremendously - especially in the '90s. Boy, it must have cost a bundle to keep superstars like Rob Leifeld employed!

 

This is probably the reason for the big explosion in B&W independent comics in that era as well. People were probably sick of paying 2.5X what they should for a mainstream comic book. I can't disagree - if Subway started charging $12 for a footlong sandwich, I'm going to guess that people would be looking for the $5 alternative.

 

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 22¢ in 1976 (actual 30¢ - difference of 8¢ or 25% above inflation)

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 32¢ in 1980 (actual 40¢ - difference of 8¢ or 25% above inflation)

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 40¢ in 1984 (actual 60¢ - difference of 20¢ or 50% above inflation)

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 43¢ in 1986 (actual $1.25 - difference of 82¢ or 190% above inflation)

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 51¢ in 1990 (actual $1.75 - difference of $1.24 or 243% above inflation)

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 83¢ in 2010 ( actual $3.00 - difference of $2.17 or 161% above inflation)

 

And if you consider the data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics regarding paper cost increase - that only accounts for a 27% increase since 2003.

 

Probably has more to do with this than anything:

 

ceopay.jpg

CEO Salary Increases Since 1965

 

Someone has to pay for salary increases!

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MedianCover2.jpg

 

That's a great chart. Looks like comic prices have always outpaced inflation - but the gap between what comics cost and what they should cost has grown tremendously - especially in the '90s. Boy, it must have cost a bundle to keep superstars like Rob Leifeld employed!

 

This is probably the reason for the big explosion in B&W independent comics in that era as well. People were probably sick of paying 2.5X what they should for a mainstream comic book. I can't disagree - if Subway started charging $12 for a footlong sandwich, I'm going to guess that people would be looking for the $5 alternative.

 

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 22¢ in 1976 (actual 30¢ - difference of 8¢ or 25% above inflation)

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 32¢ in 1980 (actual 40¢ - difference of 8¢ or 25% above inflation)

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 40¢ in 1984 (actual 60¢ - difference of 20¢ or 50% above inflation)

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 43¢ in 1986 (actual $1.25 - difference of 82¢ or 190% above inflation)

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 51¢ in 1990 (actual $1.75 - difference of $1.24 or 243% above inflation)

12¢ comic in 1964 should be 83¢ in 2010 ( actual $3.00 - difference of $2.17 or 161% above inflation)

 

And if you consider the data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics regarding paper cost increase - that only accounts for a 27% increase since 2003.

 

Probably has more to do with this than anything:

 

ceopay.jpg

CEO Salary Increases Since 1965

 

Someone has to pay for salary increases!

 

lol@your sig line..

 

 

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