For years… decades, really… I didn’t know what my upper individual comic book price limit was (or if I even had one), but I think I’ve recently hit it and it’s $4. Especially considering today’s “decompressed” storytelling, the bang:buck ratio is way out of synch.
I used to be a completist, but now I’m content to dabble in a random sampling of a given company’s offerings. Collecting a title is no longer the lifetime commitment I once thought of it as. I gave DCnU a try and I plan to give Marvel NOW a try, but recently I have enjoyed (or am enjoying) projects of limited scope, such as “Kirby Genesis” or “Before Watchmen,” which offer the taste of a universe, without the “lifetime commitment” (and if Valiant soon plans a line-wide crossover such as Unity, there’s another one I can tick off my list).
So what’s too expensive per issue and how have your buying habits changed?
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I do look at a $4 issue pretty hard in the shop to decide if it's really worth it to me. Matt Fraction has talked about that in interviews how, as a comic fan himself, it weighs on him knowing that his 19-22 page story is going to cost 3 or 4 bucks. He works extra hard to try to make it worth it. The $4 comic was the price point that made me look at Comixology sales more often and move my dollar to more things like the Monkey Brain titles (Bandette by Paul Tobin and Colleen Cover is amazing and 99-cents for a 19 page issue) or big, cheap, digital anthologies like Double Barrell by the Cannon brothers.
I mentioned about a year or so ago that $4 is pretty much my limit right now. I have to be real damn interested in it to take the plunge. Also, I am more likely to try a $4 comic from an independent than I am from DC or Marvel. It was one of the reasons I buy so little Marvel comics now. Many of their series are $4, plus they double ship a lot of them as well. They made it easy to pass them by.
The main difference in my buying habits is that I have a quicker hook on a series. I gave Winter Soldier one arc, and bailed. Earth 2 moving too slow for me? Gone 3-4 issues in. Even on mini series which I used to always ride out until the end. Now I have no qualm bailing on one even if there is just one issue left.
I seriously limit what I get from DC and Marvel these days, especially Marvel and their "twice-a-month" books. Once I got 90% of their output now it's around 50-60%. Once I would have bought every #1 issue. Heck, once I would have bought multiple copies of every #1 issue. And Annuals, specials and minis.
I also don't do the company crossover thing anymore. If there's a chapter in a book I don't normally buy, sorry but no more.
Right now I'm about to drop at least a dozen DCnU titles (Batman & Robin, Fury of Firestorm, Nightwing, Catwoman, Justice League International, Swamp Thing, Dial H, Superboy, I...Vampire, Fairest, Batman Beyond) and some are on the edge (Batgirl, Batwoman, Green Arrow, Savage Hawkman, American Vampire, even Fables). *
Marvel is cancelling a bunch of books already and adding more, so I have to see what the fallout is but off the top of my head would be Venom, Winter Soldier and FF.
*Subject to change as I plan on rereading some of these before I make a final decision.
especially Marvel and their "twice-a-month" books.
I understand the thought, but if it's a good book, coming out twice a month should be a good thing, right? If it can't fit my budget, I'd cut something else that's at the bottom of my pile, although I guess cutting something to make room for twice as much of something else could be a touch call.
That schedule is making it clearer that the value isn't there. We shouldn't be saying, "Oh man, not another Potato Man issue this month!" if we really like it.
The bang/buck ratio is difficult to justify with a lot of the mainstream super-hero comics, because it takes so many issues to tell a story, and sometimes they don't especially care if they divide up their story into 22-page sections that give enough bang. OTOH, I'm seeing a lot of independents stay at $2.99 but cutting their page counts down to 24 pages, which isn't a good deal, either.
I actually find I enjoy books more that are open-ended; I like knowing they'll be going for awhile rather than only four or six issues. If nothing else, those can be picked up in the ultimate trade, sometimes for less than the issues (and with better flow and some extras). I guess I like the options that opens for new characters and adventures. If nothing else, a lot of mini-series don't have a strong resolution anyway.
I tend to follow creators more than characters these days, probably because I've read every character plenty over the years. And, as with Travis, I have a fast hook. I ordered Earth-2 but dropped it after one issue when I saw it was a Tangent variation with no relation to anything I might know.
When I looked at how long the stories go on for and add up what I have to pay to read the whole thing, it's not hard to see whether it's really worth that much money. Especially now that most people are realizing these things aren't much as investments.
Anybody watch Collection Intervention on SyFy? They had a guy who had long runs of Batman, Spider-Man, Quasar(?) etc. from the late 1980s-1990s, all bagged and boarded. He took 2000 of them to a dealer to get an offer, and it was 25 cents a book. The consultant seemed surprised, but I coulda told her that would happen.
-- MSA
I did watch Collection Intervention and quite vividly remember that episode. The owner wanted $1 per issue which one would think is reasonable for books over twenty years old. The quarter per book offer didn't surprise me either though I thought that was lowballing it. I'm sure that the dealer was going to sell them for at least $3 for most of the runs. (What is the value of Quasar #1 anyway?)
Also the owner said he had 30,000 comics. My first thought was "Hah! Amateur!"
Extra issues of terrific books are great -- but they make it tough to budget. For one month this spring, Daredevil -- ostensibly a monthly -- had four issues of its regular storyline (two issues of the Omega Effect crossover, plus the regular and a Point One issue). To follow a book I'd expect to pay $3 for, I wound up paying $13 that month.
Marvel got that $13 from me, so that's a win. But at the same time, I'm EXTREMELY gun-shy about starting up another Marvel title. Under normal circumstances, I'd be trying Indestructible Hulk, Fantastic Four and FF in the new Marvel Now initiative. But -- in large part because I can't budget for them because of crossovers and double shipping -- I'm not planning to pick up any of them. My very limited Marvel reading happens via trades, because once a book is published, I tend to know what I'm getting -- the price is the price, and I can usually get it at a discount. But more often than not, the excitement from the initial publicity has faded*, and I buy far less than I would otherwise.
*(And that's if I read Marvel publicity at all. I'm not emotionally invested in the MU right not, so there's not much inclination to do that. And when I do, I run the risk of spoiling the trades I haven't gotten yet. Because I don't read the singles, their publicity machine doesn't really have its hooks in me.)
I'm not willing to pay $3.99 for a regular sized issue. I don't mind the extra dollar if I'm getting an extra 8 or 10 pages but for a 20 or 22 page comic, it's too much. I was planning on trying the Valiant books until they set the price at $3.99... oh well.
Beyond the variety thing, (and the watered down creative teams), I always assumed people were culling these from the middle or bottom of their pull. I know with the comics I get, I have three satisfaction levels. Basically, comics that are consistently excellent, comics that are generally enjoyable but not quite as consistent, and comics on the cusp that have been good, and I'm hoping will improve again, but have had a couple of bad issues in a row. I'd be delighted for extra comics from the top layer. Extras from the bottom couple of layers would get me weighing my options.
Exactly, Border Mutt. Extra issues of Daredevil strain my budget, but they're worth it. I'll buy Fatale as quickly as Brubaker and Phillips can make it (though that's only once a month at most, sadly). But $3/month is probably the most I'm willing to pay for Red Hood or a dozen other mid-level superhero books. Heck, I'll even pass on a second helping of a favorite like Fables, when that second helping feels watered down. (I like both Jack and Fairest alright, but they both pale in comparison, and make me feel like I'd be better off buying something that was being sold as its own thing, not as a good book riding the coattails of a great one.)
I simply buy many fewer comics these days. This is OK for me, because there are many fewer comics nowadays that interest me. Even if money was no issue, I wouldn't buy that many more books. It's funny, but when I was little and my grandparents would slip me a five spot, that would be my comics money for the month, and I would pretty much be able to get all the comics I wanted. Times sure have changed.
What surprises me is that Marvel and DC don't work themselves a little harder to prove their comics are worth $4.
Why not include a "Marvel Universe" style entry at the back of each book? (Cuz you can find the same info, more thoroughly researched on the Internet, I suppose)
But you get what I mean. Make the book worth $4. That's all I'm asking for.
I've written this same response before, but here it goes again: I've pretty much stopped buying ANYTHING new. I still buy stuff -- old stuff on sale, in the discount bins, lots from eBay, flea markets. Anywhere I can buy cheap, I buy.
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