Renderwrx Productions

Every comic reader knows how comics prices keep going up and up. Douglas Wolk over at Techland.com sums it up for me very succintly.

"... the price of comics has zoomed far ahead of the cost of living: $20 in 1990 is the equivalent of a bit over $33 now, while new mainstream comic books have more than quadrupled in price. And what happens when comics abruptly increase their cover prices by a third while adding little or no extra content--and the $20 standard gets you all of five 22-page comic books that take a few minutes apiece to read--is that that value proposition gets a lot less enticing."

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And on the other side of the counter, the comics retailer has his own ordeals. Indy comics are largely overshadowed by mainstream comics at most comics shops.

Steve Bennet over at ICv2.com talks about the ordeals of trying to buy and sell indy comics at the modern comics shop.

"For years I’ve believed that the simplest way for a creator or publisher to get a retailer to order their comic is to send them a copy, though I understood why most people don’t do it.  Back in the old days when I was doing the ordering this would have meant mailing either a physical or photocopy of your comic which would be cost prohibitive for most people.  But now you can send a digital copy to every comic shop retailer in the world almost instantly and the only costs that I can see are in terms of time and energy (and if I’m wrong I’m sure somebody out there will be happy to correct me)."

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Plus what about printing comics? That ain't cheap either.

"Depending on the amount of extras, 192 pages is the equivalent of around 8 issues, so selling out a color run of 3000 copies with a $19.99 cover is about the same net income as 8 issues with a cover price of $3.99 and a circulation in the neighborhood of 2500 copies each."

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