MSN.com article about the state of comic sales

[runawayboulder]

http://movies.msn.com/parallelunive...r-itself/story/across-the-universe/?gt1=28140

It's not like this article provides us with anything we don't already know but it's always worth noting when this stuff is written about in the mainstream press.

 

[WolfCypher]

I do wish near the end there they specified that the "Death of Spider-Man" "event" is taking place in a different continuity. Just saying; if I was a semi-casual, semi-routine comic fan reading this article and only loosely keeping up with Marvel, I'd think Marvel was trying to kill off the "real" Spider-Man.

 

[iloveclones]

"Fear Itself" is the company's first crossover event -- meaning it spans not just the core series, but a number of tie-in books -- since 2008's "Secret Invasion,"

It's official....Siege never happened.

 

[runawayboulder]

It's official....Siege never happened.

YES IT DID!!!!!! THE SENTRY IS DEAD I TELL YOU!!!!!!! DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tron Bonne]

Well, this article really doesn't say anything really. It just seems to some kind of promotion for this year's events. Maybe the parent companies threw it out there to maybe peak interest outside the industry or something, I don't know.

 

[Docker2.0]

I think Marvel and DC should temporarily lower the price of comics, just to get sales up. I know they both said they won't go over a certain price now but in the long term, I say just cut the price to get people back into them again because it could get worse for the comic book industry.

 

[WolfCypher]

Isn't DC doing just that? They are heavily advertising that in most of their comics. 2.99 price, and no higher. Its Marvel that thinks people want to spend 5 bucks a pop.

 

[hippie_hunter]

The biggest problem is distribution IMO. It's time for the comic book industry to expand their markets beyond just comic book shops. It's why Gears of War was the highest selling comic a couple of years ago.

 

[BillPardy]

I don't even buy from a comic shop, its either the book store, HMV or Amazon.ca.

 

[Motown Marvel]

the number of tie in books with Flashpoint is beyond ridiculous and kinda surprising from DC. in recent history, they've been pretty decent with event tie-ins and their necessity to the main story. i dont know what prompted the change with Flashpoint.

either way, its great that DC is "drawing the line at 2.99" on their books. i hope it helps their sales. im surprised marvel hasnt responded.

 

[Docker2.0]

Isn't DC doing just that? They are heavily advertising that in most of their comics. 2.99 price, and no higher. Its Marvel that thinks people want to spend 5 bucks a pop.

They've been $2.99 for a minute. I say drop it to $1.50 or $1.75, but only for a little while. You'd be surprised what saving a quarter would do. It would get people to buy more books, maybe one or two more a week or month but the goal is to get people to expand their library and to spend more. Short term, you are looking at only a minimal profit but long term is the pure goal because you will have people buying more books. Kind of Mcrib sandwich McDonald's offers once every 2-3 years. Sure they do great business but when you offer that sandwich it gets more people in the door trying other products. Just saying..........

 

[runawayboulder]

They just became $2.99.......

 

[hippie_hunter]

the number of tie in books with Flashpoint is beyond ridiculous and kinda surprising from DC. in recent history, they've been pretty decent with event tie-ins and their necessity to the main story. i dont know what prompted the change with Flashpoint.

Here's a prediction since the vast majority of Fear Itself and Flashpoint minis seem to be ridiculously stupid we're going to see a lot of them just flat out bomb.

either way, its great that DC is "drawing the line at 2.99" on their books. i hope it helps their sales. im surprised marvel hasnt responded.

While Drawing the Line at $2.99 isn't bringing in new readers, if you take a look at the sales charts, DC's books for the past couple of months have been incredibly stable with very minimal drops, and even some of their smaller books like Booster Gold and Power Girl have seen very slight increases. Also with the two fewer pages, it also reduces the workload for writers and artists who have been late recently, trying to combat the recent problem of late books. In these regards, Drawing the Line at $2.99 has been a success. Meanwhile because Marvel still sells books like Avengers, Captain America, Invincible Iron Man, Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man, and Mighty Thor at $3.99, readers will be dropping the smaller books at much faster rates and is a reason why we see Black Panther: The Man Without Fear, Heroes for Hire, Silver Surfer, etc. with incredibly low sales.

 

[Docker2.0]

They just became $2.99.......

They've been $2.99 for at least the past 3-4 years.

 

[runawayboulder]

They've been $2.99 for at least the past 3-4 years.

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=342619

 

[hippie_hunter]

But Marvel and IDW were pretty much the only ones who went outrageous with the $3.99 price point. DC was rather conservative with it only using it on larger comics, event titles, and the major Batman books. The other publishers in a need to stay competitive mostly stayed with the $2.99 - $3.50 price point.

 

[Docker2.0]

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=342619

That's why I said at least. The least they have been is $2.99. At most the regular price was $3.99 but they were all at least $2.99.