Dursin's Dungeon
Due to some technical difficulties and holidays, the LOGcast was delayed, but you can still get you some editorial merriment via the written word here, courtesy of Dursin and his Dungeon.
The hot topic in comics recently has been the rumored price increase of most Marvel books. This isn't going to be one those "Back in my day..." rants, because I've obviously been collecting for awhile and I have seen the price go up steadily since I was nine. However, the increments were small, almost imperceptible. this time, they ain't messing around. Most books (if they haven't already) will be jumping to a cover price of $3.99 (which, let's face it, is four bucks.)
Obviously, this is kind of frightening, and it must be even more frightening for those people who routinely spend three times as much as I do every week (leading me to wonder when they actually read them, but I digress...) I seriously doubt that we will see a jump in quality worthy of the dollar increase. Personally, I wouldn't mind going back to newsprint if it meant that the price would drop (or even stay the same.) And I am not alone.
On Marvel's own website, they conducted a poll asking the fans what they thought. Not surprisingly, sixty percent answered, "Please, I beg of you... Keep it at $2.99." meanwhile, as of this writing, 9 very rich people answered that "$3.99 isn't that much." Now, I don't think I have a new take on this subject. I am just an average guy trying to make his way in the universe, and I personally enjoy my 4-5 books every week and that's about it. I don't generally have a lot of extra cash to spend, but when you consider the fact that I have been buying Marvel events, cross-overs and their respective tie-ins and one-shots for the better part of the last five years (House of M lead to Civil War which lead right into World War Hulk which lead right into Secret Invasion), that's a lot of extra money I was spending every week. And I'm sure I wasn't alone. Look at this sales charts for 2008. The top selling book for 2008 was Secret Invasion #1, which incidentally, had a cover price of $3.99. So, if so many people are spending all this extra cash on comic events they wouldn't have normally spent, why is there a need to increase the price?
There is not. In this economy, I think we're in a period of deflation. A lot of places are dropping prices so that they can actually sell stuff to people who are forced to scrimp and save, rather than increasing prices. Did ink suddenly shoot up? Not that I know of, plus, Marvel is putting out more and more books every year, and most of them don't relate to anything involving the bigger picture. Things like X-men: Noir may be a nifty idea, but it obviously does not tie-in to anything going on in the X-books nowadays, so maybe now is not the time to put out a book like that. Plus, more books means more creative people to work on them, and maybe it's just me, but it sure looks like the art has suffered. Besides, the Marvel U is pretty much run by four or five writers and artists, anyway, so the rest get all the other books, and there are only 24 hours in a day (that one hasn't gone up.)
I think i would be just as happy for fewer books with better stories and artwork, and all of them could be bi-monthly, and then maybe I would pay $4.00 for them then. That would be in a perfect world, however, which we all know this is not. The problem is that we, the fans, have proven, no matter what the polls say, that we will pay $3.99 for a book that is hyped enough, like Secret Invasion. We, the customers, are the problem, just like we are in every entertainment industry. We have proven that we will pay higher prices for lower quality movies. We have proven we will watch poorly-(and cheaply-)made reality TV shows. And we have proven, because we are collectors, that we will pay $3.99 for comic books, no matter what the state of the economy. The only way to hit them where it counts is the pocketbook, and that would be to not buy comics that cost too much that we might not enjoy week after week.
Of course, if we didn't buy them, what would we talk about? maybe $4.00 isn't so bad.
The hot topic in comics recently has been the rumored price increase of most Marvel books. This isn't going to be one those "Back in my day..." rants, because I've obviously been collecting for awhile and I have seen the price go up steadily since I was nine. However, the increments were small, almost imperceptible. this time, they ain't messing around. Most books (if they haven't already) will be jumping to a cover price of $3.99 (which, let's face it, is four bucks.)
Obviously, this is kind of frightening, and it must be even more frightening for those people who routinely spend three times as much as I do every week (leading me to wonder when they actually read them, but I digress...) I seriously doubt that we will see a jump in quality worthy of the dollar increase. Personally, I wouldn't mind going back to newsprint if it meant that the price would drop (or even stay the same.) And I am not alone.
On Marvel's own website, they conducted a poll asking the fans what they thought. Not surprisingly, sixty percent answered, "Please, I beg of you... Keep it at $2.99." meanwhile, as of this writing, 9 very rich people answered that "$3.99 isn't that much." Now, I don't think I have a new take on this subject. I am just an average guy trying to make his way in the universe, and I personally enjoy my 4-5 books every week and that's about it. I don't generally have a lot of extra cash to spend, but when you consider the fact that I have been buying Marvel events, cross-overs and their respective tie-ins and one-shots for the better part of the last five years (House of M lead to Civil War which lead right into World War Hulk which lead right into Secret Invasion), that's a lot of extra money I was spending every week. And I'm sure I wasn't alone. Look at this sales charts for 2008. The top selling book for 2008 was Secret Invasion #1, which incidentally, had a cover price of $3.99. So, if so many people are spending all this extra cash on comic events they wouldn't have normally spent, why is there a need to increase the price?
There is not. In this economy, I think we're in a period of deflation. A lot of places are dropping prices so that they can actually sell stuff to people who are forced to scrimp and save, rather than increasing prices. Did ink suddenly shoot up? Not that I know of, plus, Marvel is putting out more and more books every year, and most of them don't relate to anything involving the bigger picture. Things like X-men: Noir may be a nifty idea, but it obviously does not tie-in to anything going on in the X-books nowadays, so maybe now is not the time to put out a book like that. Plus, more books means more creative people to work on them, and maybe it's just me, but it sure looks like the art has suffered. Besides, the Marvel U is pretty much run by four or five writers and artists, anyway, so the rest get all the other books, and there are only 24 hours in a day (that one hasn't gone up.)
I think i would be just as happy for fewer books with better stories and artwork, and all of them could be bi-monthly, and then maybe I would pay $4.00 for them then. That would be in a perfect world, however, which we all know this is not. The problem is that we, the fans, have proven, no matter what the polls say, that we will pay $3.99 for a book that is hyped enough, like Secret Invasion. We, the customers, are the problem, just like we are in every entertainment industry. We have proven that we will pay higher prices for lower quality movies. We have proven we will watch poorly-(and cheaply-)made reality TV shows. And we have proven, because we are collectors, that we will pay $3.99 for comic books, no matter what the state of the economy. The only way to hit them where it counts is the pocketbook, and that would be to not buy comics that cost too much that we might not enjoy week after week.
Of course, if we didn't buy them, what would we talk about? maybe $4.00 isn't so bad.
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