tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19387347.post5615833962795063672..comments2024-03-19T06:14:23.325-04:00Comments on Kleefeld on Comics: It's NOT The Economy, StupidSean Kleefeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10492399469370737192noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19387347.post-44814482940827273602010-09-20T07:49:17.650-04:002010-09-20T07:49:17.650-04:00Great correlation of the two trends Sean! I don...Great correlation of the two trends Sean! I don't know that I would have arrived at the same conclusion, but you logic seems perfect. An excellent article!<br /><br />And of course I agree with you about the dismal state of today's mainstream comics. There are *some* good ones there, but more than not, I find myself shuddering when flipping through modern comics.<br /><br />- JimJim Shelleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05006833955333061262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19387347.post-41455938497208766502010-09-20T01:16:50.614-04:002010-09-20T01:16:50.614-04:00Always liked following your blog, and always mean ...Always liked following your blog, and always mean to keep commenting, so there's no reason why I shouldn't start now! <br /><br />Another point about the 99 cent comics is that the price model in the past has always been to lower the price on comics that "don:t matter." People will spend X on Amazing Spider-Man because it is Amazing Spider-Man, and will not spent 99 cents on Untold Tales because it isn:t Amazing Spider-Man. People are already buying things that matter to them, and dropping prices aren:t going to make things matter more to them.<br /><br />In other words, if suddenly all comics dropped in price by half across the board, you wouldn't be picking up half as many MORE comics, you would just say, "hey, I have half as much cash in my pocket, let me spend that on this an extra iTunes purchase" or whatever. (And my "you" I mean "the majority of generic consumers that actually affect sales and not the few exceptions.)Dannyhttp://www.marvelflipside.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19387347.post-24510833602800465322010-09-19T21:06:34.750-04:002010-09-19T21:06:34.750-04:001. Late by at least a year and a half. And while I...1. Late by <b>at least</b> a year and a half. And while I admittedly haven't read very much of either Marvel or DC lately, I haven't seen any appreciable change in tone with the actual content itself.<br /><br />2. That goes to what I was saying about Marvel and DC recognizing where they're reading readers' values accurately. You weren't really buying their books at $2.99 a shot in the first place, so raising their prices doesn't lose you as a customer. It's more of a dis-incentive for you now, but if the likelihood of you buying one of their books was already around nil, the needle doesn't have much of anywhere to move.<br /><br />3. That was 1996. I think Brevoort is the <i>only</i> guy who was at Marvel then and is still there now, and I'm pretty certain he'd be the first one to point out that, with the exception of <i>Untold Tales</i>, those 99 cent books were all crap. I'm pretty sure he'd also be able to point to any number of other factors (poor marketing, association with other bad books, too rooted in the 1960s for a '90s audience, etc.) why <i>Untold Tales</i> didn't do so well. That said, though, that all reinforces my point about how readers would NOT return to current books if Marvel dropped their prices back to $2.99.Sean Kleefeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10492399469370737192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19387347.post-85388797195120840092010-09-19T19:14:48.671-04:002010-09-19T19:14:48.671-04:00Some thoughts:
1. Both Marvel and DC, in their (o...Some thoughts:<br /><br />1. Both Marvel and DC, in their (odd, to say the least) seeming synchronized way, seem to have launched a big push for "hope, optimism, heroes," etc. Did they run the "doom, darkness and terror" themes too long before this U-turn? And will it last anyway? Dunno.<br /><br />2. I think the comics are overpriced in a way that is new, at least to me. Four dollars for a baseline, standard new issue from even the best-selling titles just feels like too much, somehow. Even if I had more more money to spend I would dig in my heels on spending that much; back issues are a far better bargain and even new books will come down if I wait for a sale or convention. I don't know that it's anything I "protest against," though; Marvel and DC can run their businesses how they want.<br /><br />3. I suspect that at least at Marvel, at least some people may still feel burned from their 99ยข experiment when it comes to arguments that "we'll buy more if you lower the price." Admittedly most of the dollar books were garbage, but 3a) a lot of the full price books were and are garbage, also and 3b) Untold Tales of Spider-Man was excellent, critically-acclaimed work that basically gave fans what they claimed to want, and still didn't set the sales figures on fire. Rightly or otherwise, I feel like Tom Brevoort, et al., are going to say "nope, we met your demands for cheap once before and you were nowhere to be found."Matt Khttp://edgeofspace.net/alchemynoreply@blogger.com