Don’t Believe the Hype! – Price Increase In Comics

It was around this time last year that our esteemed founder, Jason Montes, first gave us the heads up on the rising cost of comics.

“Starting in January,” Jason emailed the staff of WCBR, “Marvel’s going to raise the price of the majority of their comics to $3.99. We need to follow this, because this is going to be a huge issue for our readers going forward.” I saved Jason’s email because I agreed with and believed in the value of his request, and wish dearly that he was still with us to read this column because I think he would have really enjoyed it. With the emergence and increase in the number of titles with $3.99 price tags from Marvel and DC, it seems to me that the industry has reached an important crossroads that will need to be addressed immediately if it’s going to keep the audience it has, and grow the audience it wants. A conflict is brewing over your buying dollars and how the comic industry wants you to spend them. On one hand, monthly, serialized comics continue to be the staple crop of Comicdom, although their sales figures have been a pale reflection of what they used to be fifteen to twenty years ago. On the other hand, graphic novel releases of serialized comic storylines are gaining in popularity as well as sales in local comic shops and major book retailers like Borders, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble; such serialized comic storylines are now tailored and written for their release as graphic novels.