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Pricing
2007-05-29 15:39:37

SPIDER-MAN MEGAZINE #1

Received this question last week among assorted blog responses:

>Hey Tom,

If you're going to do some talking about the business of comics, could you discuss the pricing on comics? I'm not really complaining (though if you want to charge me less...), but why is the average cost of a comic $3-$3.50 when the average cost of a full-color, glossy, 200 page magazine is $6? Is the answer purely in circulation/advertising? I can't imagine the cost of content to physical production cost is significantly more than the editorial content cost for a "normal" magazine? Is it the direct market system? I mean, I can afford to buy the comics I want, but how far away are we from a $5 comic for a standard quality 32 page comic - 3 years? 5? That's probably the breaking point where I start buying only my top 25 comics rather than my top 50 or 60. Just curious what your thoughts are, and where we're headed.

Posted by mcross76 on 2007-05-01 19:43:30>

There are two factors primarily at work here, mcross: cost of production and source of revenue.

Let's look at cost of production first. For the average magazine of the type you're talking about, there's a nominal cost per page for the text and for any photographs or images that may be upon it. (And this depends on the magazine--at least some of what fills up those pages are often publicity stills provided by the makers of whatever movie or television show or product is being covered.) Whereas, for a page of comics, you're going to be paying the writer, a penciler, an inker, a letterer and a colorist, and the cost per discipline on a per-page basis is going to be greater than that of the average magazine--not to mention more time-consuming to produce.

But the bigger difference is in source of revenue. For most of the magazines of the type you're talking about, their profit comes from advertising--the circulation of the magazine and the profit generated solely from sales is not enough to turn enough profit to put it into the black. But comics make their profit primarily from the sale of the issues themselves--there's advertising revenue, to be sure, but it's a small drop in the bucket of the overall picture.

So it's this combination of higher per-page production costs and the need to recoup costs and make a profit from the sales of the individual issues themselves that have the cover prices for comics topping out where they do. And while some will no doubt ask why we simply don't accept more advertising in order to try to balance this out, cast your mind back a few months ago, to when Marvel was carrying about as many ad pages as story pages. The fan outcry was pronounced. So while there are some who'd like us to go this route, it's not a feeling that's universally embraced. The same thing goes for the thickness of the package--while you can find people who'll tell you that they'd love to have, say, all the X-MEN titles presented as one large magazine with beaucoup advertising at a lower cost, there are also those who'll complain that they're being forced to buy X-FACTOR in order to get their monthly X-MEN fix. So there's no overall consensus.

More later.

Tom B

Monthly Digests
Hi Tom. While you're doing Q&A, I have a question that I've always wondered about regarding the newsstands. mcross76 above mentions glossy magazines that you might find in a grocery store checkout or on a magazine rack, which are about twice the price of a comic book. I've always wondered why you don't ever see comic books on the shelf alongside Cosmo and TV Guide. Is it just hard to convince stores to stock them? In fact, since magazines are typically $5-6, why not bind two comics together for that price? Pick two popular books, like Spider-Man and Avengers or an X-Men book, and make those the newsstand gateway books that parents can buy for kids every month along with their own issues of Cosmo. The digests I usually see are older stories, but I think there'd be merit to having this month's current issues, so that once the kids do end up in a comic shop they can pick up the normal issues and not miss a beat.

Anyway, just wondering.

Posted by davextreme on 2007-05-07 16:26:06

Regarding you talking about the increased ads from a few months ago, why doesn't Marvel do this all of the time, but drop the cover price, say a dollar? I know the main thing I was annoyed with was that I was paying as much for the advertising as I was for the story pages. If the price were lower, I wouldn't care how many ads were in the comic.

Posted by ltfrankc on 2007-05-07 17:44:25

Really? Because I'm guessing an extra Dollar's worth of Ads per comic made would probably double the size of the book.

Posted by deworde on 2007-05-08 07:30:31

That'd kind of get in the way of the stories.

Posted by deworde on 2007-05-08 07:30:57

For every 1 page of story, you have to turn over 3 pages to get to the next.

Posted by deworde on 2007-05-08 07:31:33

Yeah
I remember those giant ads in the middle for the latest VHS RPG game that I had no intention of buying. And yeah, it did get to where there were almost as much ads as writing.

Though I'm curious, the ads I'VE seen lately are usually mostly for Marvel related items. You guys can't possibly be paying yourselves to put in Marvel ads. So is there such a thing as quality of ads versus quantity of ads? Are there advertisers that will pay more, or do they all pay a standard rate?

Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2007-05-08 09:45:04

fact is....
...that it is a pain in the heart to can not buy everything,and read everything...I'm okay if my favourite character have not his own title but at last, I dream of a ongoing with many characters that don't have their own titles, but are well threaten.
lucky also that the advertisers are not in the TPB edition.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-05-08 12:25:41

Question?
How much does it cost to make one comic? LIke for example the new spider man/ fantastic four #2, how much does it cost to make this comic? I understand if you cannot say but we here how much it costs to make a movie but it would be interesting to know a ballpark figure to make a comic.
The reason I ask is because I would like to start making comics and was wondering how much has to go into it to create a comic. Is it mainly the cost of getting the writer and artist that costs the most or is it the printing?
Thanks for any information.
Jason

Posted by spidey0402 on 2007-05-08 14:08:41

Hey, question. How many of your public libraries stock comics? Mine's got a limited tpb's section.

Posted by deworde on 2007-05-08 16:29:49

Marvel's been doing just that with their flip magazines which are priced at $3.99. They reprint two of our mainstream titles each issue.

Posted by MBeaz on 2007-05-09 10:23:45

Canadian TPB Question
One more question about the pricing scheme you have for Canadian customers. For example, Marvel puts out a TPB that will list for 14.99 U.S./24.00 CAN. Meanwhile every other comic book company would price list a 14.99 U.S TPB at around 19.99 CAN. I'm not really sure as to why you guys are so much higher in price. I mean, it's better off that we buy the individual issues than the trades. Which kinda sucks because I personally like the trades a bit better than the individual issues. I haven't bought a trade in a couple of years. Why haven't you guys at Marvel caught up with the rest of the world? I still think you guys are great, but I don't understand why the trades are so high.

Posted by Grayel on 2007-05-09 14:41:45

Late books
Do you think that late books hurt the overall sales of individual issues? I know that some people wait for trades because if they have to wait long periods between issues, they would rather wait for the whole story to come out so it can be read in one sitting. The other part of the question is arent exclusive creators in breach of contract if they don't produce issues in a timely manner. For example: I remember reading that Kevin Smith had signed an exclusive a few years back and was supposed to put out a certain amount of issues a year, which unfortunately hasn't been the case. I was just wondering, thanks.

Posted by wolviebeserker on 2007-05-10 15:01:49

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