Another blow to Comic reading in the UK

[Foxy]

Bad news folks if you didn't already know. :(

Prices on new comics are about to sky rocket :bigcry:

With for an example on a $3 cover price your talking about another 20-something pence net, so I would imagine thats going to to be at least a 20% hike in uk cover prices retail wise.

They are pricing this hobby out of existance, average cover price is $2.95 and rising, and I would imagine soon is going to hit as high as $3.50.

Maybe we can blame the bad $-£ exchange rate, but many peeps are going to be put off by paying £2-2.50 for the average comic and will spend their monies elsewhere.

What do you think of this?

[WeaselFierce]

Bad news indeed.

When Diamond managed to gain a monopoly on comics distribution (started by Marvel taking out a sole-distribution deal with them) you new it was all downhill from here. Prices rose quite heftly then too.

This announcement (which is Diamond's decision, not the publisher's) shows such shortsightedness you wonder if anyone actually wants the comics industry to survive.

I love comics. I love the medium, and I love the originality that comes from the absolute creative freedom made possible with graphic storytelling. That said, I find it increasingly difficult to justify my own expenditure on this hobby.

I recently completed my full set of American Flagg back issues and started re-reading them from the start. Back then in the 80's (around the time I started reading comics) what you got was 28 pages of story and art in a 32 page comic. You also got a 2 page letter column.

Now? Now, we get 22 pages of story and a letter column if we're lucky. DC abolished it in favour of more ads (ironically advertising the latest movies and video games, ie. the competition). And we have cover prices that are really insane.

The common retaliation from publisher's over price tends to be 'oh, we've improved the paper quality though'.

Really? So I'm paying for my 10 pages of ads to be printed on glossy non-perishable paper? Thanks, fellas! I really appreciate that. Also, using DC as an example, most of their ads seem in-house for Warner Brothers movies. How much revenue for the comic does that raise?

I dunno, I hate the doom amd gloom that overhangs comics today but what's going on? Are Diamond deliberately trying to crush what's left of the industry?

All in all, I think we need one of two things to happen (or both preferably);One, that the publisher's realise that their monthly publications should be a cheap disposable medium (sure collect reprint volumes in books with nicer paper, but keep the monthlies at a decent price) and get those books back on the newstands where people can see them. This is the only way to encourage new younger readers to stick with the hobby.

Or, two, bypass the direct market bull**** alltogether. Publish Graphic Novels. Aim for the bookshops and find the place of respect this medium deserves in the mainstream.

I hope some good changes can be made in the near future because the industry currently resides in the hands of Diamond. And, quite frankly, I don't really think they give a toss.