Comic Culture Warrior Issue #13 - Part 1

[brightpathcomics]

That's a good point.

I discovered your page a couple days ago and now I'm addicted to it. I've been watching all your shows and I'm up to the second season. I've been reading comics for well over 20 years and I've always been drawn to the art. I read so many poorly written comics in the 90's (image) that I never really thought about the importance of a well written comic. Listening to you guys has made me look at my favorite form of entertainment differently. Keep it up guys.

[comicculturewarrior]

Poor guy.  I think there's a support group for addicts like you. ;)

Elliott

[brightpathcomics]

I am a l Independent comic creator/self publisher and price is important to me. For 20 pages it cost about $1.40 a issue to print. When I take it to my local comic shop (on consignment) they want 50% of the cover . To make back my money in printing it pushes my comic over $3.00. Do you guys think $3.75 is to much to ask for a 20 page comic from some guy you never heard of or are you more willing to give a small press comic a shot than you wouldn't give to the big two.

Thanks

[comicculturewarrior]

That's a good question bpc. To me it all depends on the quality of the book. Of course you're going to be at a disavantage when it comes to pricing when competing with mainstream books, but can you give readers something that they can't get in the mainstream - or in other indies - that makes the extra 75 cents worth it? It's really a matter of opinion.  The other issue is page count when you compare yourself to other indies. That would be the biggest detractor from my perspective. Elliott

[camnick8923]

well this is what i have started doing...downloading books, and only buying the books that i must have

[comicculturewarrior]

That's a pretty solid idea. Are you subscribing to Marvel digital or going through a torrent site? (I hear Limewire is full of spyware, so I won't use it.) I kinda wish more companies would go the BOOM Studios route and let folks read the books on-line so that they can decide if they wanna buy the books later. Many sci-fi writers do that and report that their sales have actually improved.

Welcome to the conversation camnick8923!

[camnick8923]

yeah i use torrents, mainly mininova and pirate bay. i hate to do it but you gotta do what you gotta do.

[locusmortis]

Yeah, great show lads, really good to see bloggers really speaking their minds and sticking it to the companies.

Marvel have about 50% of the direct market, I think they're trying to hoover up all the fans money and drive the other companies from the market.

What DC SHOULD do is aggressively market $2.99 books and try and get market share back from Marvel and fans should start acting with their wallets and drop any 32 page 3.99 books. I dropped Astonishing last month.

[comicculturewarrior]

The problem, locusmortis, is that Marvel has a solid grip on the majority of the market share because too many 'Marvel Zombies' give in to their compulsions to 'keep runs complete' and buy the stuff that Marvel keeps marking up. Why are the X-books, Avengers and Spidey going up in price? Because those are the ones that sell best.

We're a bunch of enablers is what it is.

Elliott

[deemar325]

Guys this show is really growing on me, when I first watched I didn't really enjoy it. Then I realized it was me not just relaxing and listening to what you had to say I get it now and I'm on board for this ride guys

[comicculturewarrior]

Thanks deemar!

I do admit that our videos are different from other comic book 'shows' on the web. Jose and I are just hanging out and talking about comics and not trying to be funny, clever or - ahem - entertaining. But if you like listening in on our conversations, you're also welcome to jump in and participate.

Thanks for commenting and watching!

Elliott

[comicculturewarrior]

Smallmaniac,

Hm. You make some interesting observations there. I say that the indies need to go against the grain and actually offer LOWER COVER PRICES than the biggies to survive. But that's gonna hurt and indie creators aren't gonna be able to survive very long unless their titles catch fire.

Comics going mainstream? Dude, that happened in the 80's, so I don't attribute the cover prices to that at all.

It's short-term thinking that's causing it,

Elliott

[smallmaniac]

So, the prices are definitely going up. The only way I could think of them staying at $3 would be a boycott, which will never happen. So, I see 2 scenarios happening. 1) The independent, creator owned, Robert Kirkman-minded material will suffer, horribly. 2) People will leave the hard core originals and go to the cheap indy stuff. I can see the first option happening a lot more instead of the second. Frankly, it looks like comics are entering the mainstream, so the publishers are raising prices.

[comicculturewarrior]

Johnny,

See? That's the mentality that the bean-counters at Marvel are counting on you to have. If sales on a book like Ghost Boxes tanks, then they are less inclined to repeat that sort of stunt again.

Ah well, live and learn, eh?

Thanks for commenting!

Elliott

[johnnyhorror92182]

ashamed.....:(

[johnnyhorror92182]

"Ghost Boxes" should have been a back up story in Astonishing X-Men. Sadly, I bought both issues...I know I shouldn't have, but I'm a hardcore X-Men fan. I had too....