BlackGeekdom Science-Fiction from a Different Perspective

If you are regular comic buyer you probably have noticed that publishers are inching toward a $3.99 per issue price. That’s a 25% increase from the current price of $2.99. Yes, I know paper costs, artists, and writers all drive the production costs up. Inflation is something that happens to the cost of everything. My problem is that the cover prices seem to be rising faster than inflation.   I took some the average cover price for an Uncanny X-men comics from 1963 until 2008 and adjusted them for inflation.   The adjusted price is what it should cost in 2008 dollars if the price increases where based on strictly on inflation.  

 I started reading around comics around 1983,  which means it cost me around $.60 adjusted for inflation it would cost around $1.67, which isn’t too bad.    The problem is that they don’t cost $1.67 they cost $2.99.    Thats 44% more than it should cost.    I want to know why?   I would love to see the break down of who gets what percentage of the cover price.   Is it the labor costs(artist and writers), printing costs, distribution (the distributor, local comic shop) or is it the publisher driving the increase.  

 A soon to be $3.99 cover price is a pretty steep for 15 min of entertainment.    When you balance that against a movie which costs an average of $7.08 (it seems low but that the number) for a 1.5 to 2 hour movie or a video game that costs $50.00 (which seems steep but if you factor in 30 hours of play its a bargain), its easy to see why kids don’t care about comics.   Comics have lost their entertainment dollar value.   

If you take a closer look at the movie number you notice something real interesting the cost of a movie is pretty close to its 2008 adjusted value.   If you use the year 1983 as we did in the comic example a movie that cost $3.15 in 1983 adjusted for inflation is $6.82.   Thats a 4% difference from the actual cost.  Translation Movies are growing with inflation and  comics exceeding inflation.

Whats does all this mean?  Nothing.  Its entertainment people will pay what its worth to them. Inflation and dollar values only matter when you arent enjoying the comics enough to justify the cost.   Goodbye 2.99 it was nice knowing you.

Posted under Fanboy Rants