A 33% price increase in a dying industry, and in an economy where people are cutting back on luxuries?

I know there's new Marvel titles that I'm passing on, that I'd have picked up had the price been raised to $3.25.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Bloody hell, 33%? Yeah, can't afford that.

Actually, probably related: my home-LCS had a one-per-customer policy on Free Comic Book Day because they couldn't afford to do otherwise. Guys, you're killin' us!

And you know what? I would totally read black and white Marvel. In fact, haha, May and June I bought maybe five of those b/w phonebook reprints. WAY more than I bought in colour floppies. And honestly, more gripping. :/

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Gods, that Superman vs Venom fight is ridiculous. For one, Venom should NEVER be able to go toe-to-toe with Juggernaut to begin with, so whoever wrote that in the first place is as guilty as this writer is for using it as a reference.

IF Superman is only Class 100 strength, which is pretty lowball for most of his history, he STILL should be barely phased by a hit from the Class 10 (or only slightly above) strength of Venom. Moreover, a solid Class 100 punch from Superman should be a lot harder to just shrug off than what we see here. this is a glaring case of false equivalency between characters who should be a much worse mismatch than this.

Maybe it's just the GM in me, but I hate seeing character stats so blatantly ignored.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

I agree. And a punch from Superman would have temporarily liquefied Venom.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Superman pretty much always pulls his punches, which would be why Venom's not splattered.

As for fighting Juggernaut, I remember reading that mini. Venom had a temporary buff from some kind of mutating superpower virus, I think called "the Creep" that put him in Juggy's class.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Agreed.

Although in that last panel it looks like Venom didn't even hit Superman, so I have to assume Clark just got a sudden headache or something.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

I subscribe so that mostly evens things out for me. I just hope that they do more digital stuff so I can justify subscribing to that service as well.

(Reply to this)

And in the old days? They'd consolidate books, you'd end up with a book like Batman Family which would also take chances with odder creators(Michael Golden back then, say) and have a price like that but give you lots of comics to make up for it.

I'm sorry, but to pay that much per month for something that takes me about ten minutes or less to read? They're going to have to go to a digital subscription model to survive. Otherwise I'm perfectly content with what ends up here, and I can use my actual comic-buying money for BERLIN or AGE OF BRONZE or something else that gives value for money. I mean, the new LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN cost me 8 bucks two months ago, asnd I'm still enjoying it.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

"I'm sorry, but to pay that much per month for something that takes me about ten minutes or less to read?"

IKR? For about 8 bucks you could pick up a 500 page paperback and get hours and hours of more entertainment.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

So much this. I've just gotten into comics, and at these prices, I'm going to fall right back out.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

"To be honest, we still have a little of this stock left and have plans to use it on a “different” kind of project in the future."

This sounds really ominous to me and I don't know why.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

It's a sentence that should be followed by maniacal laughter.

"Oh, they'll never see the project coming. Never!"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

It amuses the hell out of my that Joe Q will not explain where his costs have increased to justify the price boosts. Paper costs? Industry is in the toilet. Printing? Companies are going bankrupt, they're desperate for work! Where are the costs rising?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

That golden comb will is not going pay itself, you know?

(Reply to this) (Parent)

He seemed pretty into the idea of 'best talent' and competing over people.

I see this as encouragement to be as critical as possible. Clearly, it's the crap writers and artists that're raising the costs of the substandard books they put out. Didn't they ALWAYS try to do special things for REALLY good artists and writers?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

aside from Venom's ridiculous strength here, he seems out of character to me in that one little speech box of his

anyone else getting that vibe?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Wait a minute...is he dancing to Thriller in that panel!?

(Reply to this) (Parent)

So that's their answer to sliding sale, making the comics more expensive instead of fixing the reasons why sales are decreasing.

Because for the titles I really want? I scrimp and save to be able to buy them because its my little luxury. But right now the only titles that don't make we want to burn the book is MA: Avengers, MA: Superheros, Super girl Adventures in the 8th grade, and Tiny Titans. I have started a pull on Re-born and Captain America (because Marvel is my abusive boyfriend and I just keep going back -and I apologize in advance if anyone takes offesnive to that. It's meant only in humor and not to belittle anyone going through abuse).

But if Marvel increases its cover price? I'm going to have to decide which goes. And it isn't going to be the DC titles.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

>>because Marvel is my abusive boyfriend and I just keep going back...

No, I think this is a very apt analogy in a lot of ways for the two majors' relationship to fans.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

All of these "reasons" Joe Q offers as possibilities are hogwash. It's simple: if people are willing to fork over an extra dollar then Marvel won't hesitate to ask for it.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

And then they're not.

DC's already done for me. Apart from anything Morrison or someone like that works on--I always follow only creators--I decided that, for me, FINAL CRISIS was the end of the DCU. It was a convenient tie-off point; I'm 40 and frankly, I think the number of reboots I've seen since I was a teen is quite enough.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

"It's simple: if people are willing to fork over an extra dollar then Marvel won't hesitate to ask for it."

Yes, god forbid they actually show an ounce of integrity and not try to squeeze as much money from the audience as possible. Somewhere out there, Stan Lee is weeping at what Marvel's become.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Sad.

(Reply to this)

It's not the price itself that turns me off so much as the product Marvel and DC deliver for it. A paperback novel, for example, may technically be better value for the money in terms of entertainment, but it's not the same experience as a comic book. But, for my money, no matter how good the creative team, $3.99 is simply too much for a superhero comic from one of the Big Two. I'd drop Secret Six in heartbeat if it made the jump and go to trade waiting, and the only reason I decided to put Streets of Gotham on my pull at all instead of waiting for a collection is because my LCS subsidizes my habit.

On the other hand, it would take a lot to get me to drop a good majority of my Image, Oni, Dark Horse etc. titles, even those that are already at $3.50 or $3.99 per issue. Reading an issue of Elephantmen, Usagi Yojimbo, Age of Bronze, or even something relatively fluffy like Gold Digger is a different experience from reading books from the Big Two -- there's an attention to the characters, the worlds they inhabit, and to their history that makes the most of the story-telling opportunities there. There's internal constancy. There's emotional impact and consequences that won't be swept aside or forgotten by the next team to come along, and story arcs that build in their own time and won't be cut off or derailed by editorial mandate.

For me, those stories are worth paying $3+ per installment to have them the day of release because I can truly become engaged and absorbed not just for those 22-32 pages a month, but for the long haul. I'm genuinely enthused to see what winds up in my pull box each month and there's no part of me wondering if I'm going to have to drop a book when the next writer comes aboard. Marvel and DC books just can't rise to the level where I'm willing to pay that much for their product simply due to their nature as company-owned trademarks with revolving creative teams.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Hey, here's a thought! What if they at the least did not waste resources on ugly garbage like the MARVEL ILLUSTRATED line, which so far has shat upon Austen and Homer, driving readers away from them for a lifetime?

I mean, have you seen these things? Those that like the authors would never read this trash, and they're not likely to interest those that don't know them. Pleasing no one, they go into the remainder bin. So why were they made? (The Iliad one, contemporaneous as it is with Shanower's brilliant AGE OF BRONZE, is particularly sickmaking)

(Reply to this)