Comic books cost $3.99 now. I’m done. That’s too much. I can’t do it anymore.
You publishers! You have made a mistake. I long for a return to a cruder product. Print those things on cheap pulp! They are not precious collectable works of art. They are comic books! They are enjoyed in stacks, you can’t buy just one a month! You are going to have to increase the quality to make them worth four bucks! These things don’t take 10 minutes to read any more.
Seriously. Publishers need to rethink the biz. Crude production never put me off a comic. The slick package appeals to the ever shrinking (30 year old) fan-base, but to survive they’ll need to hook the new readers. Reverting to pulp, utilizing computer programs’ ability to optimize two-tone and black and white printing. The the thing a publisher should be asking, what would it take to publish a comic for a buck again? Answer: Cruder production, higher quality content and a larger audience. Maybe it will never achieve the dollar goal, but having it as the goal would only help.
Worried no one will buy a B&W comic? Manga is B&W. Manga is outselling comics. Do the math. Print comics that appeal to intellegent kids! Don’t continue to nickle and dime the middle-aged continuity-obcessed Legion of Asperger’s fanboygeeks. Their parents will eventually die and they will need their money for rent. Then who will buy your inbred, obcessive fanfic?
Cruder production will piss off the hardcore fan boys. They will bitch and moan. But they won’t stop buying comic books. They can’t. If they could stop buying comic books, Infinite Crisis would have already put DC out of business. If shitty content won’t make them stop, I doubt cruder production will.
As it stands now, it’s a rich kids hobby. Except for the lucky ones who know where to get cheap back issues.
Update: Regarding the “Legion of Asperger’s” comment. I had in mind people who say “I think I have Asperger’s” (I’m guilty myself, it’s a fad) and not people actually diagnosed with said syndrome when I typed that. I doubt any of the 3 people who read it were offended…
