So over the summer I rebelled against the idea of purchasing only trade paperback collections of my favorite comics.
I like buying the monthlies, The way they are made, the way they feel in your hand and all the little bonuses like the letters columns and even the promo's for upcoming titles. The only down side are the ads and those have had a place in comics since the very begining so who am I to question their place in the books. Although on a side note, they could be placed a little better than they are currently. I'm looking at you DC and Marvel.
So all seemed right in my little world of tights and capes. I was happily getting many a title and enjoying myself.
Then one day a few months back a rather heavy week of books arrived on my doorstep (I get my books weekly through a mail order service) and I saw how much that weeks books came to.
My eyes just about exploded in my head.
Now, I can't claim ignorance, I knew full well that some books were hitting at a higher price point than others and I keep adding books to my pull list in some sort of delirium that is now long since vanished.
Also of note is the fact that I recieve a very generous discount from my comic book store - 35%. You can't help but want to vomit blood when a week worth of books comes to near $100 AFTER your 35% discount.
So my gut reaction was to gut my pull list immediatly.
Cooler heads have since prevailed.
I dropped any upcoming mini series that were not yet started. Sorry Dark Reign: Ares. Took a hard look at my entire pull board and decided if I'm not absolutly loving a title I had to let it go. Apologies Red Robin. Next I took an even harder look and decided that if I'm paying $3.99 for a book it better have some extra content. So long Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Avengers.
But the choice was made. A new books that is tagged with a $3.99 cover price cannot be added to my pull list unless something else goes.
Now I can't claim this to be a perfect system. Pleanty of $3.99 titles still exist on my board. New & Dark Avengers leap out right off the bat. My rationale for keeping them around is that I'm this invested in the Dark Reign storyline I'll be damned if I drop thos books before the big payoff in "The Siege" story starting in a month or two.
DC recently increased the price of several of their titles but decided to add new back-up stories with character whos books were concelled. I liked this idea and to the most part I can support this. However, two books to feature this were recently dropped from my board because honeslty I wasn't digging the titles that much or in some cases the back-up were more interesting then the main story which didn't justify the cover price in my mind.
Marvel has recently started to add back-up features to help offset the $3.99 price point. Incredible Hulk & Incredible Hercules are now homes the new She-Hulk and Agents of Atlas tales respectivly. It's a nicer way of getting $3.99 out of my pocket then with the aformentioned Dark & New Avengers and the new line of Ultimate books. Also of note is that all new mini series being produced by Marvel are $3.99 as well. Some of those mini's feature back-up stores, mostly reprints of old material. To me that's not worth it.
That's not to say the $2.99 books are now safe. Red Robin, Gotham City Sirens & New Mutants are just some of the books I've dialed back on becasue they didn't really grab me.
While it may not be an entirly accurate statment, right now I view DC and Marvel as more of corporation than I do comic book companies. I feel a real disconnect between the the readers and the material. That may be just me. As far I know I'm the only guy who reads Blackest Night and doesn't have an errection while reading it.
This past year Top Cow had made a vow to hold their $2.99 price point. It was a bold statment and one that I found to be very comforting. Perhaps as a smaller publisher they can more readily relate to the woes that many of their customers are feeling financialy. Perhaps they saw a chance to win over other readers who would not be able to keep up with the rising cost of a comic. Whatever it was, for me it worked. I've been steadily increasing my purchases of their titles throughout the year. And while I hope they can hold the line at $2.99 for a while longer, I am well aware that they are in this to be a sucessful company and generate profit. This is America baby, capitalism drives this machine so I can understand if they raise prices. Right now they garnered a lot of good will from me, as has Image as a whole right now. I get the kind of vibe from them that Marvel and DC maybe used to have. But I'm only an outsider - I may be reading this all wrong.
If books like Withcblade, The Darkness or other Image titles like Invincible, Haunt or Spawn raised prices it would be a tough call to make on who would stay and who would go. At this moment my brain says I'd be looking to drop more Marvel or DC titles.
So maybe $3.99 isn't a hard line on my pull board. I'm getting the new PunisherMAX book after all. but it's the sort of invisible boundry that has forced me to really evaluate what I'm reading and just how much I'm enjoying books. Am I reading a title out of a loyalty to the character? Some sort of completionist mentaility? Or just some sick desire to try and read it all?
Whatever the case was, it is no more. I work hard for my money and I'll be damned if I just give it away anymore.
Besides, if I wait long enough I can raid the dollar bins at comic conventions!
