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Who's Who In the SBCU Update 2003
In his dreams Alan
Donald is a multi-award winning writer of comic books,
animation, theme park shows and rides, children�s books,
novels, television, internet animation and more.
In real life Alan
writes this column, which has been described as more than a
lifestyle than a weekly column. He used to write SBC's All The
Rage.
PAST
ARTICLES
Do
Comics Cost Too Much?
Tuesday, December 30
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Should People Read Comics?
Tuesday, December
23
Best
Thing In Comics Over Last Ten Years?
Tuesday, December
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Toe Or Not To Toe
Tuesday, December 9
Superheroes
And A World In Crisis
Tuesday, December
2
MORE |
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Do Comics
Cost Too Much?
By Dawn Donald
Print This Item
Here�s to a
very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to one and
all:
Cheers!
Welcome to the Panel where the movers
and shakers from across the industry come together to answer
your questions!
Don�t miss out on your chance ask the
big guns a question or two, send them in now to: [email protected].
Don�t forget you still have time (just!) to get those questions in
for the 25th anniversary column.
Most of the Panelists should
be known to you but if not, don�t panic I�ve got a few details on
them at the end of the column.
This week�s question comes
from Benny (who wants to know why his comics bill keeps going
up!). The question is:
�Do comics cost too
much?�
Craig Lemon: �Yes.�
Shawna
Ervin-Gore: �It probably seems to most people that comics
cost too much. Considering the brief time it takes to read most
single-issue comics, I think it can be hard to convince the
uninitiated that the cover price of a quick-read comic is a good
entertainment value. However, knowing how the books are produced
from an insider's perspective, the reality is that comics are an
excellent value considering the vast amount of work it takes to
create one. With the exception of very high-selling comics titles,
or creators who have enough name power to draw a big paycheck, most
comics writers and artists make just about a decent living wage, and
not much more. Similarly, most behind-the-scenes professionals
(editors, designers, production people, etc.) are paid modestly. It
tends to be the paper itself that adds the most expensive element to
the comics-making process, and as paper is a natural resource,
there's only so much to be done about that factor.�
Lee
Dawson: �Yes! BUT...working inside the biz I can tell you
those costs aren't made up and no one is really getting rich in this
industry. Unfortunately comics just cost a lot to produce now days.
Even though I work in the industry, I still am a comics fan and buy
90% of my comics off the stands and feel the money pinch every time
I walk up to the counter. Regardless of the reasons or quality of
work, $2.50-$3.00 or so is a lot to pay for one comic in terms of
overall entertainment value. I can't offer solutions, other than to
say as long as there are still great titles coming out I will still
buy single issues...But boy do trades get more and more appealing
every day!�
Devin
Grayson: �No. In addition to covering the writer, penciler,
inker, colorist, publisher and distributor, the cost of comics must
also support editors who can catch typos like "to" in time to change
them to "too." ;-)�
Mark Chapman: �Hmmm, tricky question. I think
there is a perception among non- or casual comic buyers that
comicbooks, graphic novels and so on are quite expensive, based on
the fact that compared to prose books, you tend to get less pages
for your money. However this doesn't really take into account the
fact that strip work is generally more expensive to produce and
publish than regular novels, and that print runs tend to be smaller,
hence offering less chance to offset the basic costs.
As with
more or less any product, the cheaper you make it, the more likely
people will buy it, especially impulse buyers. Take the monstrous
success of cheap black and white Manga in the US book and comic
trade, for example. But comics publishers need to make a certain
amount of money to survive, and paring the profit margins right down
to offer a cheaper comic can result in publishers getting into
difficulties.
With both the 2000 AD magazines and graphic
novels, there has been a policy of keeping the cover price as low as
possible for as long as is viable, to interest the widest possible
spectrum of readers, which does seem to be having the effect of
bringing in new fans willing to take a punt on something they've
never read before.�
Fiona
Avery: �I think everything costs too much today. But in
general, if I can get five comics for around $10 I'm a happy girl.
On a related note, I keep track of Diamond Distributors sales list
and I do notice that there is a large drop in volume whenever my
books (on any series for any house) are sold for $2.99, and not the
nice $2.50. Just thought that statistics might be helpful
here.�
Alonzo
Washington: �Everything about comic books cost too much. The
printing, production, computer equipment, shipping & paper are
all too expensive. Therefore, the actual product (the comic book) is
going to be expensive. The majors should be able sale comics for
less because they print so many of them. The more you do the less it
cost. However, the mainstream industry companies are all about the
money. Independent companies have to sale their comics for more if
they want to compete or make any money. Although, the comic book fan
is the loser because if they want the comic book they have to foot
the bill. However, if you want comics to stay around you have to buy
them. This is especially true for independent companies. So buy more
comics!!!�
http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/panel/<a>Alan
Grant: �I'm inclined to say yes. Since the 1950s the price
of comics has rocketed far more than other entertainment costs, like
Mars Bars, pints of beer, and cinema tickets. If I recall, Comics
International published a piece about this a few years ago, showing
relative price increases for a range of items. The rise in comic
prices left everything else standing.
But...the Jackie Chan
comic sells for around �2, and is supposed to have shifted 700,000
copies of issue #1. Which would seem to negate what I said above,
especially as the JC comic is much more likely to be bought by kids
than older comics fans.
So I guess the proper answer to the
question is: some comics cost too much, some comics don't cost too
much, and (presumably) some comics don't cost enough.�
[Millidge]Gary
Spencer Millidge: �Well, yes they do cost too much. But then
again, most things do. While the cost of production (especially in
colour books) has decreased enormously (in "real terms"), the cost
of paper, inks, offset lithography, binding, packaging and
distribution remains more constant. A huge amount of electronic data
can be reproduced very cheaply via CDs or DVDs these days, but print
media will always remain relatively expensive, and will probably
become more so. And it's obvious that a mainly textual product, like
a paperback novel or magazine will provide more reading hours per
dollar than a comic ever could - and in most cases they can be
printed more cheaply. But comics and graphic novels have more to
offer than simply a set number of reading minutes. The art should be
good enough to warrant savouring in itself, and revisiting on
several occasions. The whole comic package should justify its price
by additional text features like letters pages, quality
presentation, an artefact in its own right - like a special feature
laden DVD of the latest blockbuster. You can't equate "reading time"
with value for money. There are many highly priced art books with
very little in the way of reading material, but endless hours of
visual enjoyment. No one ever claimed Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" was
overpriced because it didn't take long to look at. A comic or
graphic novel should be priced according to its quality of story
art, production values, development time and suchlike in the same
way a DVD is priced to reflect the money and time spend on the movie
and the additional material; or to reflect a computer game's
development costs rather than the cost of production of the disc or
cartridge. Was Gaiman's "Endless Nights" hardcover overpriced? No.
Expensive? Yes. But good value? Yes. But I wouldn't want to buy
manga in that format. Manga should be printed in a small, thick,
chunky format on cheap paper, as its origins suggest. Not in
bite-sized, over formatted, poor value pamphlets as many publishers
insist on doing. In general, I think most of Marvel and DC's output
is overpriced by some way. Shiner paper doesn't really compensate
for the lack of real quality in production, the lack of added value
letters pages and a repetitiveness of storylines and genre. Too many
are a quick read, and the insertion of garish ads for computer
games, rock CDs and sweets (which are increasingly difficult to
distinguish from the actual comics themselves) are distracting and
intrusive in the extreme. In fact they carry so many ads, I wonder
why they shouldn't be given away for free. Comics' big disadvantage
is that the volume of sales - and therefore the print runs - on the
majority of titles published aren't large enough to offset the high
set-up costs of printing and give the creators decent remuneration
for their efforts. Many smaller, more independent and self-published
titles offer better value for money, despite being in monochrome,
because of their lack of ads, and their attention to detail because
the comic is a labour of love, not a corporate money-maker. Spend
$2.25 on an issue of Cerebus and you can consider yourself a patron
of the arts, become a member of an exclusive community and have
hours of reading. Or, spend more than twice that on yet another
retelling of the origin of a superhero that was hokey pulp fiction
fifty years ago which takes eight minutes to read (if you skip all
the ads), but this time it's on even shinier paper. So yes, some
comics are expensive. Some are not so. Support the little guy who's
trying and tell the big guys to shape up.�
Alan Donald: �Do comics cost too much? Bloody
hell yeah!
I'm sorry folks but the excuses over paper cost
etc are absolute bollocks. You compare the cost of comics with that
of glossy magazines and lb per $/� comicbooks are revealed as a
total rip off.
Then of course we have to consider the sharp
price rise that comics have gone through... this isn't inflation it
is rampant extortion. And it isn�t any easier for the retailers as
there isn�t a lot of money to be made by them either.
I'm
sorry but I don't want to talk about this any further as frankly
this is the one thing that has destroyed the comicbook industry more
than anything else comicbooks need to be cheap and plentiful, that
is it.�
Dawn: �Um� yeah, well, I agree with everyone
but when I look at what is left in my bank account after Alan�s been
up to Automattics (great shop, highly recommended, that�s in
Corsham, Wiltshire by the way) I�m more than happy to say that
comicbooks cost far too much.�
Summary: As always this is a difficult thing
to summarise. A large number of the panel do believe that comicbooks
cost too much but those on the inside of the industry are keen to
point out that there are a wide range of reasons for this. For many
it comes down to value for money; we pay a price because comicbooks
are so damned good but in comparison to the other forms of
entertainment that pull at our purse strings�
This Week�s Panel: Craig Lemon (SBC�s
second-in-command), Shawna Ervin-Gore (One of those fine Editorial
folks at Dark Horse), Lee Dawson (Another one of those fine Dark
Horse folk, he�s their publicity guy), Devin Grayson (Devin writes
stuff, she is really rather good to be frank, check out Nightwing if
you don�t believe me), Mark Chapman (Once upon a time Mark was the
publicity guru at 2000AD and now this jolly nice chap has gone
freelance as a writer thingy, he needs a job if you�ve got one),
Fiona Avery (Says that she plays in the Marvel Universe, and with
Wildstorm at DC and is also the creator of No Honor), Alonzo
Washington (Is not only the creator of Omega Man but he is also a
noted black rights campaigner, God is this the 21st century? How can
he still need to do that? What a bloody awful world we live in where
someone like Alonzo needs to campaign? Bloody sinful), Alan Grant
(Look, do I really have to introduce Alan frickin� Grant? The guy is
beyond legendary he wrote Batman and Lobo for years, heck some of
the best Judge Dredd stories that weren�t written by John Wagner
were done either by Alan on his own or with him! It�s Alan Grant for
goodness sake!), Gary Spencer Millidge (Has created and
self-published the excellent Strangehaven for donkey�s years now.
This guy has fans buying tickets to UK conventions just to pick up
the latest issue of his books (or to bug the hell out of him about
their progress)) and Alan and Dawn Donald (We�re not interesting so
push off and leave us alone).
Next Week�s Question: �Who do you believe
to have been the biggest positive influence on the comicbook
industry and why?�
Have the Panel
gotten it right?
Have your say on the hot topics of the day at
the Panelology
message board.
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