DC Drops Page Count, Prices

Mike Gold

ComicMix's award-winning and spectacularly shy editor-in-chief Mike Gold also performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com and on iNetRadio, www.iNetRadio.com (search: Hit Oldies) every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check www.getthepointradio.com above for times and on-demand streaming information.

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20 Responses

  1. Chuck Williams says:

    I agree that there are pros and cons to this, but there’s one fact that I appreciate: someone within the industry acknowledging that $3.99 is too expensive a price point for a monthly book.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Well, sure, and I completely agree. But let’s not forget it is a vile and pernicious attempt to pull the rug out from the other publishers (outside of Archie) who can’t afford to match their price. You know, the stuff that really IS less expensive because you don’t have to buy a hundred other books in order to understand their latest “big deal event.”

  2. Chuck Williams says:

    I agree that there are pros and cons to this, but there's one fact that I appreciate: someone within the industry acknowledging that $3.99 is too expensive a price point for a monthly book.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Well, sure, and I completely agree. But let's not forget it is a vile and pernicious attempt to pull the rug out from the other publishers (outside of Archie) who can't afford to match their price. You know, the stuff that really IS less expensive because you don't have to buy a hundred other books in order to understand their latest "big deal event."

  3. Anonymous says:

    Half of Steve Ditko’s run on Spider-Man was made of 20 page stories, including the three of the four best issues. 67 issues of Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four were 20 page stories, including the best ones. So were over half of his Kamandi stories, including the three best issues.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Apples and oranges, Anon. There was about as much story in a 20 pager back then as there is in a typical graphic novel today. Hell, Eisner and Feiffer put a lot more in a seven page Spirit story in the 1940s than you get in a 24 pager today. So it COULD be done, and it HAD been done… but not so much in the past 20 years.

    • Raphael Sutton says:

      Yes, but back during the Ditko and Kirby days, as Mike mentioned, the stories weren’t anywhere as decompressed as they are today. These days multiple pages are wasted showing something that could have been done in a few panels.Here’s a recent example: I was just reading issue 4 of the new Flash today; at one point in it Flash rescues the pilots of a falling police helicopter attacked by Captain Boomerang while also clearing the people in the street below. This was done over 7 pages, 8 if you count the page where CB attacks the helicopter. Considering that the whole story was 20 pages long (with a two-page FlashFacts backup rounding up the issue) I really don’t feel it was worth the $2.99 it cost. I don’t know about the rest of you but I buy comics to read them, not just to stare at a bunch of action shots.Of course, the flip side of this decompression is that if the writers decide to tighten the current pace a bit they could still tell just as much story in 20 pages as they were doing in 22. Somehow I don’t see that happening though.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Half of Steve Ditko’s run on Spider-Man was made of 20 page stories, including the three of the four best issues. 67 issues of Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four were 20 page stories, including the best ones. So were over half of his Kamandi stories, including the three best issues.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Apples and oranges, Anon. There was about as much story in a 20 pager back then as there is in a typical graphic novel today. Hell, Eisner and Feiffer put a lot more in a seven page Spirit story in the 1940s than you get in a 24 pager today. So it COULD be done, and it HAD been done… but not so much in the past 20 years.

    • Raphael Sutton says:

      Yes, but back during the Ditko and Kirby days, as Mike mentioned, the stories weren’t anywhere as decompressed as they are today. These days multiple pages are wasted showing something that could have been done in a few panels.

      Here’s a recent example: I was just reading issue 4 of the new Flash today; at one point in it Flash rescues the pilots of a falling police helicopter attacked by Captain Boomerang while also clearing the people in the street below. This was done over 7 pages, 8 if you count the page where CB attacks the helicopter. Considering that the whole story was 20 pages long (with a two-page FlashFacts backup rounding up the issue) I really don’t feel it was worth the $2.99 it cost. I don’t know about the rest of you but I buy comics to read them, not just to stare at a bunch of action shots.

      Of course, the flip side of this decompression is that if the writers decide to tighten the current pace a bit they could still tell just as much story in 20 pages as they were doing in 22. Somehow I don’t see that happening though.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Half of Steve Ditko's run on Spider-Man was made of 20 page stories, including the three of the four best issues. 67 issues of Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four were 20 page stories, including the best ones. So were over half of his Kamandi stories, including the three best issues.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Apples and oranges, Anon. There was about as much story in a 20 pager back then as there is in a typical graphic novel today. Hell, Eisner and Feiffer put a lot more in a seven page Spirit story in the 1940s than you get in a 24 pager today. So it COULD be done, and it HAD been done… but not so much in the past 20 years.

    • Raphael Sutton says:

      Yes, but back during the Ditko and Kirby days, as Mike mentioned, the stories weren't anywhere as decompressed as they are today. These days multiple pages are wasted showing something that could have been done in a few panels.Here's a recent example: I was just reading issue 4 of the new Flash today; at one point in it Flash rescues the pilots of a falling police helicopter attacked by Captain Boomerang while also clearing the people in the street below. This was done over 7 pages, 8 if you count the page where CB attacks the helicopter. Considering that the whole story was 20 pages long (with a two-page FlashFacts backup rounding up the issue) I really don't feel it was worth the $2.99 it cost. I don't know about the rest of you but I buy comics to read them, not just to stare at a bunch of action shots.Of course, the flip side of this decompression is that if the writers decide to tighten the current pace a bit they could still tell just as much story in 20 pages as they were doing in 22. Somehow I don't see that happening though.

  6. Brandon Barrows says:

    I don’t read DC except Warlord, but $2.99 across the board seems alright. Until you get to the lowered page count. Obviously, in the triangle of production, when you lower one point you have to either lower or raise at least one other. If it’s lowered price you’re aiming for, either quality or quantity has to come down.How about using slightly less slick paper and keeping the page count the same? A lot less DOES go on in the average comic issue these days (most 5 or 6 issue stories really seem like 2 or 3 issue stories artifically padded out) and now they’re telling us we’ll get even less story for our money? Will stories be stretched even further out and an extra issue added to each to make up for it? I doubt it. There’ll just be less story across the line.

    • mike weber says:

      Of course there’ll be one more story per arc – that’s how they make up the price cut…Kind of like how, due to royalty-rate differences between the UK and US, the Beatles’ first four or so albums Over There became six or so over here.

  7. Brandon Barrows says:

    I don’t read DC except Warlord, but $2.99 across the board seems alright. Until you get to the lowered page count. Obviously, in the triangle of production, when you lower one point you have to either lower or raise at least one other. If it’s lowered price you’re aiming for, either quality or quantity has to come down.

    How about using slightly less slick paper and keeping the page count the same? A lot less DOES go on in the average comic issue these days (most 5 or 6 issue stories really seem like 2 or 3 issue stories artifically padded out) and now they’re telling us we’ll get even less story for our money? Will stories be stretched even further out and an extra issue added to each to make up for it? I doubt it. There’ll just be less story across the line.

    • mike weber says:

      Of course there’ll be one more story per arc – that’s how they make up the price cut…

      Kind of like how, due to royalty-rate differences between the UK and US, the Beatles’ first four or so albums Over There became six or so over here.

  8. Brandon Barrows says:

    I don't read DC except Warlord, but $2.99 across the board seems alright. Until you get to the lowered page count. Obviously, in the triangle of production, when you lower one point you have to either lower or raise at least one other. If it's lowered price you're aiming for, either quality or quantity has to come down.How about using slightly less slick paper and keeping the page count the same? A lot less DOES go on in the average comic issue these days (most 5 or 6 issue stories really seem like 2 or 3 issue stories artifically padded out) and now they're telling us we'll get even less story for our money? Will stories be stretched even further out and an extra issue added to each to make up for it? I doubt it. There'll just be less story across the line.

    • mike weber says:

      Of course there'll be one more story per arc – that's how they make up the price cut…Kind of like how, due to royalty-rate differences between the UK and US, the Beatles' first four or so albums Over There became six or so over here.