ComicNerd

Well, this day will live in infamy as the day (for me) my at times adventurous relationship with comic books has died.  In a move that portrays absolute stupidity and disregard, Marvel has unofficially announced through an interview with Joe Quesada that they will be raising their prices on standard comic books from $2.99 to $3.99.  It appears the justification is that “Many smaller publishers have already moved off” standard cover prices and increased them up to $3.99.

Wait a minute.  You’re undeniably the biggest publisher right now, steadily outselling all others and outpacing other IP’s in several different mediums and your excuse for raising prices is to compete?

No.

This is a time when a company who is in the lead holds the line, does not submit and keeps their consumers happy.  I have always been a Marvel kid for their characters and their story; but their business acumen and ethics are simply retarded and makes me sick with disgust.  No wonder your company has gone bankrupt 3 times, and narrowly avoided it a fourth.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

JM: Many smaller publishers have already moved off a standard $2.99 cover price into $3.50 or $3.99. Marvel and DC seem to be holding the line pretty well at $2.99. How inevitable is the bump up, and the death of the $2.99 comic? I know the standard answer is always “we hold the line as long as we can,” but what kind of thought process goes into making cover price determinations? How much are you involved on an editorial end? Or is it solely a business/sales concern?

JQ: I think it’s safe to say that the rising costs of everything everywhere are forcing us to evaluate pricing on a series-by-series basis. There are many things that go into the pricing of the book, but the ultimate driving force is cost. This can come from many places, from the physical material of the comic, to the shipping and distribution, to the price of talent on a book.

JM: Right now, it seems like pretty much all your limited series—Marvel Zombies 3, Big Hero 6, the Noir books—are at $3.99. Is this a planned “hedge” against a general price increase? Maybe you make a couple extra nickels here and can stave off bumping up Amazing Spider-Man and the like?

JQ: Let me leave it at this, Jim: We’re doing everything we can to insure that the largest number of customers and retailers can continue to get a large majority of Marvel Comics at the standard $2.99 price.

Everywhere across the internet, comic fans are lamenting this industry-altering event.   Message boards and blog comments are on fire currently - fans are NOT happy.  This, partnered with Diamond Distribution’s recent changes, not only forces consumers who decide to still purchase comic books into trades, but it also effectively eliminates independent publishers.

What a sad, sad day this is for me.  I am so angry right now it is hard to articulate how I feel.   I did however, read a choice quote from a Consumerist commenter, chris_I:

The comic industry is pricing themselves out of existence. At least with the indie publishers I can rationalize that they don’t have ads, but when Marvel pumps 1/3rd of the book with ads AND raises prices by 33%, that is just balls the size of grapefruits.

Very well put, in my opinion.  Why pay $4 for a standard-format comic book, laden with ads and which takes less than 10 minutes to read when one can pay a couple bucks for an entire episode of a television show?   Hell, for about $6-8 more dollars I will be able to enjoy the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie for 2+ hours, and even OWN the DVD when it’s released for only $5 more than that!  It was already hard to justify purchasing comics at $2.99, this has made it impossible.

As a consumer, I will not be forced to purchase trades.  Nope, I like them, and buy them in some cases, but I won’t do it because it’s the only affordable option in the face of corporate greed.  I regret that I have to make the statement below, as it goes against what I believe in the effect of compensating artists for their work, but my hand has been forced.

As of this moment, ComicNerd.com will no longer purchase any comic in the standard 32 page format for $3.99.  Instead I will TORRENT them off the internet, and those publishers who choose to gouge consumers will not see a dime from me.

I implore you to do the same.

Is the title a little dramatic? Maybe, but today it has been ‘leaked’ from PublisherWeekly that Diamond is making some pretty serious changes to how they do business that will have a very serious impact on publishers, retailers and consumers. They did not issue an official statement, but have instead been phoning several publishers to inform them of the changes.

Why are you trying to keep this under the radar Diamond?

You might be asking what the hell is going on. Well, some changes are logical; Diamond will be scaling back a lot of what they offer in their Previews catalog - removing an adult section, apparel etc.. This could be good for journalists and retailers, as this will cut down on the tedium of finding out what’s coming, and will help to alleviate some publishing/ecological costs. I’m all for these kinds of logical business decisions.

But, here’s where it gets ugly:

Diamond distribution is reportedly increasing benchmarks on what it will carry from $1500 to $2500. What this means is that if orders of a product aren’t consistently more than $2500 at wholesale, Diamond will no longer carry the product.   There is a very clear explanation from Icarus comics here.  Want an example of those affected?  Think of all the alternative books that have had a significant impact on you. There will be no more people like Robert Kirkman releasing sleeper hits in small quantities and building up an audience big enough to support part ownership of a publisher, Jonathan Hickman, Ben Templesmith, the smaller publishers like SLG, Picturebox, Avatar - what we will end up with is a consolidation of the biggest publishers with control over what we get every week. This is huge!

And all of this because Diamond distribution has a monopoly and can do these kinds of things. Throw a wrench in an industry that has had steady feet now for a good while, recovering from the calamity that was the ’90’s. Talk to any retailer and they will have plenty to complain about Diamond - but none will do it loudly. Monopolies are illegal in this country, and yet Diamond got out of legal trouble in ‘97 because they lumped themselves in the same category as book distributors. While a good argument, and legal, it’s not ethical.

What kind of impact will this have? These are what ComicNerd.com predicts will be coming in 2009:

• Much less comics on new comic day
• Higher prices on individual comics
• The secondary market of independent books will experience a small boon
• Lower quality in selection
• The number of retailers shutting down will grow
• Graphic novels will be cemented as the comic medium

How else do you think this will impact comics?  Add to this list - what do you see happening to consumers, publishers and retailers from this new benchmark?

If you ask the average Joe in the street to name a comic or creator then you would probably find that nearly all the people you ask could name one, Stan Lee.

He is the one man comic army famous for creating such incredible superhero characters as Spider-man. Yesterday the Spiderman shared his front cover with incoming president Barak Obama.

But now Stan Lee is about to create a new superhero that may become as big a story as Obama-man, he has announced that he is to pen a new superhero who will be openly gay.

The new superhero Thom Creed, will be a high school kid who enjoys all that usual high school stuff such as being on the basketball team

Like so many other characters, he will struggle to keep his superhero alter ego a secret, unlike other superheroes he will also struggle to keep his sexuality from becoming public knowledge.

According to Lee, the character is based on the Perry Moore novel Hero.

Lee did not give any indication what powers the new gay hero will have; we assume he will be able to spot a fashion emergency at six miles. But apart from that, he declined to give out any information about what the storylines may entail.

If anyone could make such a character work then we can be sure Lee is the man for the job.

There were lines around the block yesterday in cities across the country; these were not people waiting anxiously to buy Rolling Stone’s concert tickets, or even to see the latest Will Smith blockbuster sci-fi movie.

These lines of people were waiting anxiously to enter comic stores to purchase the latest blockbuster release The Amazing Spider-Man #583.

Perhaps a better title of this particular huge selling release would have been The Amazing Obama-Man #583, as the fuss and excitement revolves around the other variant that features in coming president Barack Obama giving a big thumbs up to an upside-down Spiderman.

The publicity in the national press and TV has been astonishing, as it seems that journalists simply cannot get enough of Obama and this news story with him depicted with Spiderman was a journalist’s no-news Wednesday dream come true.

Midtown Comics in New York’s prestigious Times Square even had to bring in a nightclub security man with a name right out of the Sopranos, Bronko Spaleta, to help control the swelling crowds.

This despite the freezing conditions gripping the Big Apple, apparently the line stretched for a full block.

It seems that Obama-man has already achieved super-hero status without even spending one day in the White House.

Much anticipated Stephen King spin-off The Stand: Captain Trips will be available from Marvel as a limited series in hardcover. It will only be available from direct market retailers.

The release will make its stand on March 10 at an advance release which will commence at 9PM EST - creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and creative artist Mike Perkins have gathered together the complete Stand: Captain Trips into the unique collection.

There will be two new covers one courtesy of Lee Bermejo and there will even be a gatefold version by Mike Perkins. There is expected to be a lot of coverage for the launch both from hobby publications and regular press sources.

Marvel say they will but putting their full marketing force behind the launch with a wide array of promotions. The company said it wanted to market it direct through those outlets that made the series a success in the first place.

They want to thank the fans by giving them the choice of the impressive gatefold or the regular cover for their collections. After the launch on the evening of the 10th the release will go nationwide on the morning of the 11th, from regular comic outlets and some online retailers.

So this is your chance to grab the whole story at once and catch up with the Campion’s in their full epic virus ridden adventures in one collection.

Did you read this series?  What did you think of it?  Would it be worth it to buy the whole shebang?