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It's been a pretty weird year for comic book prices. Monthly Big Two titles seemed to range from $2.99-$3.99 at random, with specials and one-shot cover prices bordering on $5 or higher.Honestly, I had stopped paying much attention and just estimated the cost of comics at $5 an issue so I always felt like I was getting a deal at the counter to help ease the pain.
DC did fandom a solid today, however, revealing to CBR part of the publisher's actual rhyme and reason for these price differences, even if they really just boil down to "We gotta make money, ya dig?" Basically, books with co-features are going to stay at $3.99 and books without co-features will go back to $2.99.
So I'm actually pretty pleased by Dan DiDio's explanation of DC's plans for 2010, even if I suspect prices could continue to climb. Comics are a business and fans should support the creators that produce their preferred form of entertainment, but it 's hard not to feel like you're getting bled dry without a little publisher-to-fan interaction.
The sooner publishers admit they're reacting to a shrinking niche market the better I'll feel about how much comics cost me in the direct market. So good on DC for now.
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Tuesday 22 December
By J
I would hazard the pricing is based on page count as much as second features.
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Monday 21 December
By Preston
Yeah, this article confuses me with its seemingly obviousness and slight redundancy. Anyone paying attention knows that DC has been very gracious and fair about pricing books that have 22 pages at the standard 2.99 and books with 30 story pages at 3.99.
Marvel is the erratic one (and the price gouger but that's another conversation), but at least within a given series you could expect one issue with more pages to cost more than another issue with less pages.
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Monday 21 December
By Preston
I wanna clarify that I wasn't trying to be snarky or know-it-all-like, I just thought it was already clear that, like J mentioned, the pricing is always based on page count for DC.
Tuesday 22 December
By calebandrew
You're both right, my statements probably do come off as a bit obvious to those who've been following the pricing debacle of late. Basically I just wanted to call attention to the fact that DC does something to stem the tide of buyer apathy while certain other publishers don't seem to (at all, really).
Prices seem more in flux than ever, and by participating in the conversation and having a more consistent pricing philosophy than Marvel, I think DC wins that round of PR.
Of course, Marvel has them beat in a lot of other areas when it comes to fan interaction, so I didn't want to harp on them too badly.
This post was intended to be something of a casual conversation-starter more than anything, so I'm glad to hear everyone's thoughts on not only pricing, but the ways publishers justify said pricing - even if like you said, it might seem like old news to some buyers.
Tuesday 22 December
By Preston
No, see, that's kind of what I thought you were getting at and I focused on the pricing more than your point. I should have figured from your line about not really paying attention about costs, sorry to derail the conversation.
I too really appreciate that Didio and DC are very clear about their pricing, and so it was the kind of policy that had me already assuming that books without co-features would go back down in price. But again I really do appreciate the communication that Didio showed today, even going as far as to explain why certain co-features were cut. And even though I understand how much more civil Didio probably is than myself personally, I kind of wish he would kind of rub the fact that they're still holding the line in Marvel's face, maybe just a little.
I mean Marvel has tried to do right in some ways, like how they lowered Thor's price when JMS left it, but the huge problem aside from their pricing is the lack of rhyme or reason in terms of said pricing. Like one would still have a hard time figuring out an unsolicited Marvel title's pricing these days.
Saturday 26 December
By Alton
Caleb, thanks for the update on DC pricing on monthly/weekly fare but their pricing (and Marvel's)on trades and graphics are erratic and unfair.Pricing should be solely based on number of issues collected not character/storyline arcs. DC's penchant for not clearly identifying on the covers issue #'s and years published on some trades is annoying as hell for anyone trying to catch up.The upcoming Deathtrap collection defeats the point of any possible Vigilante trade assuming anybody but me followed that title.
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