RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR
1 SECRET WARS #8 $3.99 MAR
2 DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE #2 $5.99 DC
3 STAR WARS #13 $3.99 MAR
4 BATMAN/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES # $3.99 DC
5 BATMAN #47 $3.99 DC
6 GUARDIANS OF INFINITY #1 $4.99 MAR
7 DARTH VADER #14 $3.99 MAR
8 HARLEY’S LITTLE BLACK BOOK #1 $4.99 DC
9 STAR WARS ANNUAL #1 $4.99 MAR
10 DARTH VADER ANNUAL #1 $4.99 MAR
How about that 5 of the top ten are over $4.98 per comic. Half of the top ten comics are $5 or more!!
Regardless of how much Snyder fights for us, like he did already when DC tried to raise his Bat book to $4.99 a few months ago, that price ($4.99) is going to be the norm for popular comics by the end of 2017. Maybe even by the end of this year. But I will give it two full years for it to really sink in.
Buyers have proven time and time again that they are willing to pay these ridiculous prices for these damn books so why wouldn't they raise the price, at least on the popular books?
Batman, Justice League, most Bendis books and Star Wars will sell at that price. I know everyone on the interwebs will say they would never buy a book at that price, but guess what ... either they lie, or people that buy the books are not on the internet, because people ARE buying books at this $5 price point. Not only are they buying, but they are pushing the sales into the top ten.
Master Race was $6 and people pushed it into the top 3.
While yes I know those are figures are just based on the LCS orders and doesn't indicate actual sales to the public, but the good comic shops know how to order to fit demand, so I don't think it is over-buying to the extreme. These titles may in fact sell out at some stores.
Now, on the flip side of this, if the companies start making the size of the books 50 some pages, like Master Race, then sure I can see the peeps being a little more forgiving, but for monthlies, that page count can't be maintained ... as far as the artists go. There would have to be rotating artists or arcs would have to be in the bag long before they are first released.
That is why I hope that new DC title Legends sells really well. It is an anthology. With anthologies we can get 60 pages of stories a month. Sure it is in 15 page doses per story and some of the stories you may not care for, but page count wise it is an easy way to do it. Make a $6 book, give us four titles in said book, at 15 pages of story per title. 15 pages is about 2/3rds of a book, so that isn't too bad. It would take 4 issues to tell what you would normally tell in 3 issues, but that's alright, right?
So look, if the companies are gonna start pushing comics to that price point, lets show them that anthologies are the best way to make both us and then happy. Buy the new DC comic Legends of Tomorrow when it comes out. Let's get the page count we deserve for the price they are heading for.