Regarding Valerie D'Orazio's write-up of the Friends of Lulu panel at the The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art:
I hope that none of the talented young women cartoonists on the panel ever reach the point in their careers where they feel that they have to draw for Marvel or DC. If they want to--like Nikki Cook says she does--then that's fine, but then I hope they're coming at such an endeavor from a position of strength. These ladies already have graphic novels out or in the works from Top Shelf, Fantagraphics, First Second and Wiley; going to DC or Marvel would seem to be a step backwards in their careers. Let's hope that their inaugural efforts do well enough that they can continue to work on their own projects and not on corporate trademark maintenance.
Wednesday 3 October 2007
Floppy Comic Prices
Mike Sterling asks about predictions for the price of floppy comics from the big-2. He notes that we're already starting to see $3.99 per issue mini-series; often these are for 40-page comics, but sometimes (especially with Marvel's MAX titles) it's a regular 32-page comic with cardboard covers.
Right now your standard big-2 comic is 32 pages--21 or 22 pages of story and ten or eleven pages of ads--for $3, and as Mike notes they've been that was for a long time. Something has got to give, and probably soon.
I can't see just raising the price to $3.50 as working. While enough people are willing to shell out $4 for an IDW or Boom! comic to keep those outfits running, those books also have no ads interrupting the story (just house ads in the back of the book). I think there's a psychological barrier for the $3 price point that your average super-hero fan just isn't going to cross for a 32-page book.
Increasing ad space won't cut it either. Marvel has tried adding 8 extra pages of ads to a comic, to universal disdain. (DC has had ad inserts in the recent past too). When the amount of advertising reaches par with the number of story pages, consumers start to wonder why they're shelling out $3 for something that is mostly ads.
So I only see one way they can go: increase the price while also increasing story content. $3.50 for 27 pages of story (and 5 pages of ads) would work well, but more likely it will be $3.99 for 29 pages of story and 11 pages of ads.
Another option is to use lesser-quality paper; DC does this to keep the price of their Johnny DC titles down at $2.25, but in general consumers have shown a preference for the shiny paper stock and fancy computer coloring.
Ultimately I'd rather see 100-200 page anthologies (i.e. the 'manga model'), but getting to that point from the current model doesn't seem likely to happen. However, the industry does seem to be making a long transition to a trade collection model, and as that becomes more and more prevalent perhaps the large anthology-as-loss-leader model will become more attractive.
Right now your standard big-2 comic is 32 pages--21 or 22 pages of story and ten or eleven pages of ads--for $3, and as Mike notes they've been that was for a long time. Something has got to give, and probably soon.
I can't see just raising the price to $3.50 as working. While enough people are willing to shell out $4 for an IDW or Boom! comic to keep those outfits running, those books also have no ads interrupting the story (just house ads in the back of the book). I think there's a psychological barrier for the $3 price point that your average super-hero fan just isn't going to cross for a 32-page book.
Increasing ad space won't cut it either. Marvel has tried adding 8 extra pages of ads to a comic, to universal disdain. (DC has had ad inserts in the recent past too). When the amount of advertising reaches par with the number of story pages, consumers start to wonder why they're shelling out $3 for something that is mostly ads.
So I only see one way they can go: increase the price while also increasing story content. $3.50 for 27 pages of story (and 5 pages of ads) would work well, but more likely it will be $3.99 for 29 pages of story and 11 pages of ads.
Another option is to use lesser-quality paper; DC does this to keep the price of their Johnny DC titles down at $2.25, but in general consumers have shown a preference for the shiny paper stock and fancy computer coloring.
Ultimately I'd rather see 100-200 page anthologies (i.e. the 'manga model'), but getting to that point from the current model doesn't seem likely to happen. However, the industry does seem to be making a long transition to a trade collection model, and as that becomes more and more prevalent perhaps the large anthology-as-loss-leader model will become more attractive.
New This Week: October 3, 2007
What looks good at the comic shop this week?Top of the list is local creator Jane Irwin's Vögelein: Old Ghosts; I'm presuming that this modern faerie story will be as charming as the first Vögelein.
Marvel have the first issue of Jonathan Lethem & Farel Dalrymple's Omega the Unknown, a reimagining (I believe) of Steve Gerber's classic character.
Also from Marvel is the latest Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane digest; at only $8 there's no excuse for not picking the collection of this charming series. (Well, expect for the fact that there seems to be no mention of this collection on Marvel's Website...)
The second issue in BKV's Faith story arrives in Buffy #7 from Dark Horse.
Dark Horse also have the second volume of Adam Warren's Empowered; the first volume straddled the line between parody & exploitation, and I expect this one will do likewise.
Viz have the first volume of their new edition of Uzumaki, Junji Ito's fantastic horror manga. (There's tons of other manga from Viz, TokyoPop, and Del Rey too).
Enjoy your new comics, whatever you end up getting!
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