The Real Truth Behind the Marvel Price Hikes

[roach]

well my concern isnt Marvel losing money cause they really wont. Im more worried by LCS and people with limited budgets

 

[iloveclones]

That would have been rude.

But now that you mention it, I did predict that Sid the Kid would finally come through...


I'm keeping my mouth shut about Game 5, though.

 

[iloveclones]

well my concern isnt Marvel losing money cause they really wont. Im more worried by LCS and people with limited budgets

At this stage, I'm not too worried for the LCBS, because if Marvel makes money, they make money. The good ones will adapt. But there may be less of them.

As far as people with limited budgets, well, daily I see people on all kinds of public assistance talking on Blackberry's . Somehow, poor people find ways to blow money on frivolous things. And if it's REALLY just about the money, they could sub and save almost 50% immediately.

 

[roach]

I have a blackberry

 

[iloveclones]

Are you on public assistance?

 

[Anubis]

That doesn't mean anything, considering the discount on phones you can get by joining a plan or by buying them off Ebay, or Craigslist, or Pooh and them who got some when they fell off a truck.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I knew that was Pooh following my truck, man.

 

[roach]

Nope

 

[roach]

im required to have a means of communication on me at all times

 

[Anubis]

I knew that was Pooh following my truck, man.

Relax. He can hook you up with an iPhone for 30 bucks. Just ignore the numbers that are already in it when you get it.

 

[Spider-Jay420]

Relax. He can hook you up with an iPhone for 30 bucks. Just ignore the numbers that are already in it when you get it.

Heh. and ignore the pissed off dude who keeps calling and wants his phone back?

 

[Anubis]

Eh, f**k that guy.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Standard response: "Come get it, b****!" *click*

 

[moraldeficiency]

^ You're a bit older than I thought you were. You are talking Desert Storm, right?

Well the aftermath. Desert Storm was over for three or four years before I came in. I got a ride to Kuwait cause I was EOD and they still had land mines to deal with from earlier plus the guys there needed explosives training. It was the suck.

 

[NightBeetle]

''Cup O' Q&A: Joe's Final Word on $3.99''

What Marvel fans want is a general breakdown of these cost increases. Where were the most significant increases in the cost of producing comics in the last year? Shipping, printing, creative talent - can you tell us anything about that?
And what are you thinking after seeing fan reactions to the apparent incongruity?

Joe Quesada: People will always want to look for conspiracies where there are none so there's little to nothing that I can ever say to appease those that feel that way. Nor do I feel like trying because it'll be a losing battle and nothing I say will ever convince them otherwise.
As for giving a breakdown of costs and increases, that's something that I'm just not going to do -- ever! One of the major reasons I'm never going to do that is because as a competitive business, we would never want our competition knowing what we're paying or what our costs are. Wouldn't DC love to know how much we're paying our artists? Wouldn't every publisher? How about video game companies, advertising agencies, etc? I'm sure other companies wouldn't be too eager to do divulge that kind of info either, because if they did, trust me, I'd be taking notes. That's all a part of being competitive. Sorry, I'm not going to tell you what I pay our creators or our printers or our distributors, I'm just not.


Jonah Weiland: We’ve got a new round of questions on pricing, starting with Nick1980, who asked, "In a recent column you addressed the $3.99 price increase and said 'If we cut prices then everything from paper stock to coloring to the creative teams on these books [would be cut too.]' I don't see why you have to cut everything including the creative teams. As bad as the economy is I think most fans would be perfectly happy to just deal with a decrease in paper stock to keep the price at $2.99. Why isn't that an option?”

Joe Quesada: Because the truth of that matter is that that wouldn’t be enough to make a significant enough difference in the price. These days the price of crappy paper is almost as expensive as the good stuff so the minor savings versus the major loss in quality doesn’t even remotely add up.
Let me also add that while some fans say it wouldn’t make a difference in their purchasing habit of comics, it absolutely would. Sure some would be happy to get it in no matter what quality, but many more would care, as would creators who don’t want to see their work produced in the worst way possible. This is a very high gloss, fully rendered CGI entertainment world we live in. If comics went down to printing and coloring as we had back in the olden days, it would absolutely affect people’s desire to buy our product versus other things they can spend their money on.



Bells and whistles do matter and the shiny penny gets picked up. We have to continue to keep up with the modern world and lowering our standards or production would not help in any way. It would be like suggesting that we go to black and white. While there would be cost saving on that end, it would kill our industry.


Now, lets say I’m a top 10 artist working at Marvel and we manage to kick BC’s ass in sales almost every month of the year because Marvel does its best to have the very best creators in the world working within its doors. But now I’m seeing that my work is being produced like crap on the worst stuff possible with very poor coloring and production values, and I look over at BC and notice their books look great. Well, when it comes time to look for work, I’m going to start looking at BC as will many of my fellow artist pals. Before you know it, all the great artists that you pay good money for are at BC and their books are $3.99.



Oh wait, hang on, there’s more. All the great writers have now moved to BC because they want to work with the great artists and the best colorists who have all moved as well.
Before you know it, as a consumer you’d rather pay the $3.99 to get the best creators doing their best work along with the best production values imaginable for the price and those $2.99 Marvel books will be dying on the shelves and looking like yesterday’s comics.
This is the world of competitive publishing, this is the world of competitive business, this is the world that I live in on a daily basis. We do our very best to keep things reasonably price, but at the same time we must always remain competitive with an eye towards what’s next.

 

[iloveclones]

You know, a few years ago, I asked JQ the same question about using cheaper paper years ago, and got an abbreviated version of the same answer. Frankly, at the time, I didn't buy it. I thought, naively, "Hey, if all these newspapers can crank out product every day for 50 cents a day and make a profit, why can't they?" Well, it turns out newspapers weren't really doing all that well, as evidenced by newspapers now being on the verge of extinction.

 

[iloveclones]

strike two

 

[iloveclones]

strike three...I'm out...and officially a Pirate...

 

[Darthphere]

Yes, I know. 3 times now.

Also, I hate those type of interviews because they don't ask the real hardball questions. Like bring up the article that started this thread.

 

[hippie_hunter]

If I'm stuck paying $3.99 a comic then I demand that the quality of the comic itself be like Brave and the Bold, a comic that I'm paying $2.99 for, with the glossy thicker covers along with backup features. I want to feel like it's worth $3.99.

 

[Hypestyle]

we'll see what happens.. I hope things level off soon... better marketing formats.. make more books tabloid sized..

 

[Dread]

Maybe Cup O' Joe moves to whatever website will offer mothballs for questions. Granted, Newsarama was usually more moth-ball-ish than CBR. You'd think WIZARD would be the natural place, since they haven't been more than a big two cheerleader for a decade and could use the exposure. Granted, they are a sinking ship.

Joe Q has some points and he did seem a little like he was trying to browbeat a point to a lowly peon. I.E. his usual interview style. The follow up questions should have been something like this:

"Can you explain, then, if your $3.99 for the best talent, art, colors, and paper in the industry can explain why all of your books have what is called 'diminishing returns', where 2-4% of the audience leaves, or at least retailers order less by that degree collectively, even with hit books like NEW AVENGERS, every single month without a stunt or a gimmick or a 'hey look at me' act? Can you explain why some books within the last 6-8 months have fallen some 20-30% if your quality is what people want to pay for? Can you justify in the wake of the worst recession since the start of the Clinton administration asking people to pay $3 for less then ten minutes of entertainment while complaining about competing against video games, the Internet and TV when all offer far longer entertainment value for the dollar? Can you explain why ARCHIE, of all companies, whose comics barely sell in the Top 300, can afford to offer the children they are trying to coax a break of about two quarters on cover price, but a half billion dollar enterprise like Marvel feels too good for that?

While you are at it, Mr. Quesada, I would like you to explain and justify how selling more expensive copies of comics to steadily fewer customers over time is in Marvel's publishing arm's best interests? While I know thinking ahead even 6 months is something you people do not do, are you aware that in 1993, over 48% of Marvel's profits came from trading cards? At the time it was very profitable, but soon the bottom fell out and the company collapsed. There were stuffy hucksters just like you telling everyone the sky will never fall. You've pulled Marvel from that brink. Are you going to so casually dismiss the concerns of speculators? Or will you have to wait for your publishing division to collapse under it's own weight before learning? Do you believe that increasing the price of "hot" books because you can will merely increase the division of high and low sellers as retailers cut orders on B and C list titles to make up for having to pay more for precious issues of NEW AVENGERS? And finally, what of the article that spread around the Internet of Marvel Corporate telling others that you guys were hardly having to cut costs, and merely upped prices to gauge customer reaction, i.e. test thresholds of costumers for an increasingly niche cottage industry in the wake of the worst recession of a generation? Is that wise strategy?"

At that point, Joe Q would move CUP O' JOE to WIZARD and take questions from the two guys in a shack who run that joint, who have a lot of experience from going from KING OF THE WORLD to BOTTOM OF A SHOE in the comic realm.

 

[iloveclones]

Oh, puhhhhhlease. There isn't one person in the world who would put up with those kind of questions on any kind of a regular basis (as fair-minded and unbiased as they seem to be.) From Obama down to the local Dog Catcher. Except ,of course,for the morons that guys like Howard Stern seem to attract for self-loathing and abuse.

At least JQ answers questions. You might not like the answers or the delivery, but I think he's much more forthcoming than, frankly, I think he should be. Have you ever read a Stan Lee interview? I doubt in 40 years he gave an interview that actually shed light on the industry or the comics he was producing. Which is fine. i don't need to see how the sausages are made. Just keep making 'em.

JQ has, in my opinion, has presided over the best Marvel era since Jim Shooter, hands down.

 

[Dread]

I personally think Joe Q's Marvel is more cynically greedy than Jim Shooter's. The price of comics alone has only really jumped dramatically within the last decade or so. Prices remained fixed for a decade or more in eras before. Bill Jemas was a hack in many ways, but he was usually the one begging to keep cover prices low. Without him price hikes have been rather steady for the last 3-4 years, some $1.50.

(Jim Shooter never proudly sold $3 comics of something that was THREE YEARS LATE. He never dismissed lateness as "how the cookie crumbles". He never had any idea of a modern media connection via Internet. Back in his day at most you have oddball fanzine people at con's.)

Every EIC knew how to swing some male cow feces for their era. Compared to some Joe Q is at least honest to a degree.

Don't worry, you don't have to remind me that most people in charge never like answering hard questions, never like feeling accountable, and never want to hear any ideas outside of the "group-think". It is usually a reason why nothing ever improves, and nothing changes, and how industries remain insular.

 

[SouLeSS]

They're a business. Struggling one, at that, regardless that they're the top comic company. So, what's the easiest way to alleviate that? Boost some of you products a small percentage up.

An extra dollar an issue is worth losing 20,000 buyers when theres 150,000 people buying the book to begin with.