You'll want to check this out on Bob Rozakis' blog... "The high cost of being a comics fanboy"


http://bobrozakis.blogspot.com/2010/10/high-cost-of-being-comics-fanboy.html

One of the admins ought to ask Mr. Rozakis if he'd consider doing a regular (monthly?) column for us.  He's certainly got the qualifications and the stories!

I remain,
  Sincerely,
Eric L. Sofer
The Silver Age Fogey
x<]:o){

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  • I get, and mostly agree with, his point, but his comparisons strike me as dubious. To wit:

    "DC will be releasing 56 comic books in December and it will cost $192.44 to buy all of them; in January, they will also release 56 books, at a cost of $171.44. Ninety-three Marvel comics in December will cost $353.07; in January they'll have only 75 books, with a total cost of $273.25. The grand total for every DC and Marvel comic for the two month-period: $990.20!"

    vs.:

    "Jump into the time machine to the same period in 1960 (when comic books all cost a dime) and you'll find that DC released 28 titles in each of the two months while Marvel -- which was still technically Atlas Comics at the time -- had eleven titles in December and nine in January. The cost of buying all 76 of those books: $7.60, roughly the price of two and a half present-day books."

    So, he's comparing all of DC's and Marvel's output in a two-month stretch today against 1960 -- 280 comics against 76 comics. That is not a fair comparison.
  • "Technically," Marvel was still Timely Comics in 1960; Atlas was the distributor.
  • Ten comic books today would cost between $30 and $40, but how many nine-year-olds get an allowance between $7.50 and $10 a week to enable them to make such a purchase?

    I....don't think $7.50 to $10/week is a particularly unrealistic estimation of what allowances look like these days, is it?
  • And, geez, who in the world would want to buy ALL of a companies monthly output? Even at my most crazy, I never did that.


  • Alan M. said:
    Ten comic books today would cost between $30 and $40, but how many nine-year-olds get an allowance between $7.50 and $10 a week to enable them to make such a purchase?

    I....don't think $7.50 to $10/week is a particularly unrealistic estimation of what allowances look like these days, is it?
    We give my girls $25 a month
  • It would have been just possible to buy all of a company's monthly output when I was a kid. Back in dinosaur times, a five spot typically bought me all of the comics I wanted in a given month.


  • Alan M. said:
    Ten comic books today would cost between $30 and $40, but how many nine-year-olds get an allowance between $7.50 and $10 a week to enable them to make such a purchase?

    I....don't think $7.50 to $10/week is a particularly unrealistic estimation of what allowances look like these days, is it?

    That might be a bit low actually. I got $7.50 a week back in elementary school.

    You can find cheap comics with just a little bit of effort. You just don't need to be too concerned about what is going on currently.
  • I would have been more satisfied if he had compared apples to apples. Say, the mainstay titles of the past vs. the ones still in print today -- Superman, Action Comics, Batman, Detective Comics, Wonder Woman, Justice League of America, Flash, Green Lantern, Legion of Super-Heroes for DC, and Amazing Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, Uncanny X-Men, Daredevil and Captain America for Marvel.

    That's nine titles for each company, and today's $3.99 price per issue vs. yesteryear's 10 cents per issue means paying $71.82 vs. $1.80 for all of them for one month.
  • Doc Beechler said:
    And, geez, who in the world would want to buy ALL of a companies monthly output? Even at my most crazy, I never did that.

    I would, at 10 cents apiece! At $3.99 each, forget it!

    Now, these days, buying, say, all the Batman or X-Men titles alone in one month would equal or surpass Marvel's monthly output way back when ...


  • Doc Beechler said:
    And, geez, who in the world would want to buy ALL of a companies monthly output? Even at my most crazy, I never did that.

    Agreed. I have never understood this line of reasoning. Even in my "golden age" between age 9-13 when I bought only Marvel, there were characters I didn't care for, and creators I wasn't interested in following. I think anyone who has ever purchased a company's entire output for a month wouldn't be honest if they said they enjoyed every book.
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