Comic Book Resources

Certainly Marvel Comics is the worst offender here. They raised their prices probably in an effort to make themselves more attractive to DISNEY.

Marvel Executives have redefined the term GREED once again. Which really shouldn’t surprise us – considering.

I’ve certainly stopped collecting ALL Marvel titles I used to buy.

I only buy Grant Morrison titles from DC now. And Warren Ellis titles from Avatar ($4, yes, but it’s only because it’s Warren Ellis)

If time lines are to be believe — and I truly do believe they should be trusted — the choice to raise the price of Marvel Comics came WELLLLLLLLL before any discussions began with Marvel. Your assertion is ridiculous.

Flip Maker, you may be right, but my weekly $30 to $40 in comics spending shifted from Marvel to DC precisely because of Marvel’s outrageous decision to charge $3.99 for their comics. (I’m pleased that there are so many good titles from DC for $2.99, especially those written by Geoff Johns…. )

Marvel is killing the industry, and I can’t imagine why….

I am hoping that having a huge backer like Disney would help keep the prices down across the board. Marvel is the industry standard.

And I thought crossovers helped sales. I know they aren’t very critically popular, but you always hear about an average comic getting a bump from being linked to events.

Anyone hoping that Disney will some how keep prices down obviously hasn’t been to Disneyland lately.

Yeah, Marvel’s killing the industry. That’s why Disney bought them for four BILLION dollars.

Although, with Disney backing them, it COULD push cover prices down. Marvel Comics has operated at least partly as a loss-leader for Marvel Licensing, but even then they had to raise prices before DC because affected the bottom line. With the clout of Disney behind them, Marvel Comics, Marvel Comics may not even need to show a profit, if the characters are doing well enough in other licensing areas.

@Rick Rottman:

The Disney parks are a slightly different animal. The vast majority of technology that you see in any theme park is pioneered by Disney before it trickles down to other parks. Audio-animitronics, ride simulators, Digital 3D.

But you’re probably right. It’s unlikely that Disney’s presence would drive down prices. But it’s nice to dream, isn’t it?

All of these problems Mr. Strasser lists are with the Big Two. Perhaps if retailers sought to diversify their stock and customer base, they’d be better off in the long run. I know it’s tough to run a small business, so it feels safer to depend on what seems like a sure thing, but what happens when that sure thing stops being so sure?

What we’re seeing is two differecnt strageties between DC and Marvel. DC has shown overall consistency and long term strategy in their properties and stories. The result is we have two incredible strong selling titles that have brought up sales on all their titles over all.

Marvel on the other hand has more than doubled the number of titles over the past year (including variant covers) and our customers are now dropping titles. Marvel has stretched the customer wallet to the point that they now make sacrifices on what they’ll get.

@ Jennifer dG: “All of these problems Mr. Strasser lists are with the Big Two. Perhaps if retailers sought to diversify their stock and customer base, they’d be better off in the long run. I know it’s tough to run a small business, so it feels safer to depend on what seems like a sure thing, but what happens when that sure thing stops being so sure?”

Amen.

I stopped going to comic shops regularly in the 1990′s when MOST of the LCS’s went from a Comic Book store to strictly a Marvel/DC/superhero books store.

You go to nearly every other type of book shop and you see variety.
You go to Comic Shops and you see the same-old, same-old.

And since when did Comic Shops object to high cover prices? When a publisher would talk about lowering prices in the past (especially with those 99¢ issues many tried over the years) we were told by shop owners that they couldn’t make a profit selling low priced comics.

So, now we hear that the individual comic book price rising is a bad thing?

I know this guy…he’s a whiner. He’s been threatening to quit the business for years.

“Marvel Comics has operated at least partly as a loss-leader for Marvel Licensing”

Not even a little true. I can’t think of a time when the publishing arm has lost money.

Last year, a Fortune columnist commented on Marvel Comics’ enviable profit margins as compared to other print & magazine businesses, which haven’t fared well in the last decade or so:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/10/news/companies/siklos_marvel.fortune

Also, though I don’t know the specifics of this particular retailer’s operation, my own LCS is the classic example of the dank, dark dungeon of dorkdom at its most unattractive, not trying to capitalize on the growing (booming even) diversity of the medium at all. Maybe the current economic climate is forcing the last of these oldskool holdouts to finally adapt and survive or go under?