What comics DIDN'T you buy today?

[Lew Stringer]

I guess but I'm kinda old school...

If anything is over 50p I take a sharp intact of breath and hear my fathers voice moaning... "£xx for that???!!!"

That's my trouble , I remember when comics were 2d a pint was 1s1d and it was less than 50p to watch a football match.Now that comics are £4 or more I have to take time out to adjust.

It's not as though it happened overnight though is it? Price rises on everything have been gradual over a long period of years. It always amuses me that people are naturally keen to have wage increases but are surprised when the cost of living isn't static.

[abacus]

I guess but I'm kinda old school...

If anything is over 50p I take a sharp intact of breath and hear my fathers voice moaning... "£xx for that???!!!"

That's my trouble , I remember when comics were 2d a pint was 1s1d and it was less than 50p to watch a football match.Now that comics are £4 or more I have to take time out to adjust.

It's not as though it happened overnight though is it? Price rises on everything have been gradual over a long period of years. It always amuses me that people are naturally keen to have wage increases but are surprised when the cost of living isn't static.

The comments are not serious Lew, but I have sons who probably buy a T-shirt for £75 and tell me that it's a bargain
and I and the wife joke about it afterwards.

[koollectablz]

That's true up to an extent.

But then in America the price of comics stayed static at 10 cents for decades.

Even in this country, comics were very affordable for me as a nipper when I got 50p a week pocket money in 1978. I used to buy quite a few comics out of that. Beano, Dandy, Buster, TV Comic... Plus had change for sweets and pop.

So if I received the same amount (adjusted for inflation) of pocket money, which would be £4.66, I should be able to still buy quite a few comics.... Hmmmm, lets see

So....... 2000AD is £2.55, more than half of my available pocket money!!!

Comics have, in contrast to hardback books, increased in price out of all recognition to what they historically cost.

Comics are incredibly expensive nowadays.

[paw broon]

You're bang on with that, koollectablz. I go back much further than you and comics were good, cheap entertainment for decades. Now it's almost a con. $3.99 for many American comics - some cost more - is too much for a 10 minute read, no matter how good the story and art, and many of these comics are not that good that you want to read them more than once or twice.
I bought Black Widow #1 (Marvel) last week and it is a good, well done comic, but even taking my time to follow and get right into the story and layout, I arrived at the end in 12 minutes. £3 is a bit steep for that.
Oddly enough, I find Doctor Who Comic and Tales from The Tardis are good value at over 80 pages for £3.99.

[koollectablz]

That is exactly my take on it too.

Good, cheap entertainment.

I very fondly remember my dad taking us kids to the shop on a Saturday for us to pick out our comics for that week. My sister and I had an understanding that while the comics that we bought would belong to us the other person would also be given chance to read them.

I always got Buster, that was my mainstay, and she always got whizzer and chips. Then it was another five or so between us out of what was available.

Saturday morning after chores was comic time. Such an enormous part of my childhood that I looked forward to so much I counted down the hours from Thursday night onwards....

And oh my gosh.... When we heard there was a new comic coming out!!! That was BIG news!

But it was always affordable, that was the whole point.

[abacus]

Market stall yesterday had a lot of UK Spiderman comics plus 1/2 dozen or so Spiderman annuals, unfortunately I have never been a Spiderman fan.Later when I went to a charity shop that had hundreds of DC/MARVEL type 70s/80s comics I spotted a comic called Spider Ham.This lampoon type comic I would have bought but having reached the limit of what I wanted to spend decided to leave it for now.

[koollectablz]

Talking of Spiderman... He looks good at the end of the new captain america civil war trailer.

A guy at work knows I like comics and brought in a big box of eighties DC, mostly batman and detective. Made him an offer but he seems to think theyre worth thousands, i passed.

[geoff42]

As regards cheap comics from the seventies and such, there is something to consider why they are more expensive now in comparison: I imagine that artists/writers command a larger fee than they did in the happy times. And, I'm quite sure, other factors will also have an impact on overheads. So, can't complain really. Two large bottles of Coca Cola for an issue of 2000 ad... keep your sugar tax

[Lew Stringer]

As regards cheap comics from the seventies and such, there is something to consider why they are more expensive now in comparison: I imagine that artists/writers command a larger fee than they did in the happy times. And, I'm quite sure, other factors will also have an impact on overheads. So, can't complain really. Two large bottles of Coca Cola for an issue of 2000 ad... keep your sugar tax

Page rates hardly impact on it. Proportionally we're paid less than artists and writers of the 1960s/70s (who were very well paid indeed).

As I've said before, these factors are partly responsible for the cover prices:

Retail giants such as Smiths, Asda, Sainsburys, etc charge thousands for shelf positions. That didn't happen years ago.

As sales decline, the unit cost goes up.

Production costs such as printing, distribution, always increase every year.

[David McDonald]

2000ad 1982, newsprint, 4 pages of colour, 18p, weekly sales of over 100k

2000ad 2016, decent(ish) paper, usually around 20 pages of colour, 2.25, weekly sales of 30K give or take.



Hmmm... 2.25 not too bad!

[NP]

As regards cheap comics from the seventies and such, there is something to consider why they are more expensive now in comparison: I imagine that artists/writers command a larger fee than they did in the happy times. And, I'm quite sure, other factors will also have an impact on overheads. So, can't complain really. Two large bottles of Coca Cola for an issue of 2000 ad... keep your sugar tax

Your imaginings are always cute, but you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Even in 2000AD an artist could make a very decent living drawing 2 black and white pages a week in 1981. 35 years on, to get paid the same level he would have to do six pages, and in colour. Don't blame the contributors. If you don't like artists being paid, you're doing your best to make that happen by not buying comics.

[abacus]

Comics whether expensive or not are well hidden from the public in specialist shops not in the area you live,
I like to look at a comic before buying.
I'm always baffled when I pick up the free Metro newspaper in town(do they make a profit?)
Thirdly I'm surprised over the months reading this forum how scathing the comments can sometimes be with people who are supposed to be on the same wave length.It gives you a great insight into human nature.

[Lew Stringer]

Comics whether expensive or not are well hidden from the public in specialist shops not in the area you live,

I see you live in Leicester. There's a Forbidden Planet International on Silver Street in the city centre. Well stocked too.

[stevezodiac]

I mentioned to someone the other day that When the Beano came out in 1938 it was 2d in old money and by 1968 was only 3d (or 4d). So a penny or tuppence hike in thirty years. Nowadays magazine and comic increase by ten shillings a step. But then a weekly wage in 1938 was probably a fiver whereas now its more like £400.

[abacus]

Comics whether expensive or not are well hidden from the public in specialist shops not in the area you live,

I see you live in Leicester. There's a Forbidden Planet International on Silver Street in the city centre. Well stocked too.

Even so comics mentioned on your blog I have not found in there.
Generally the majority of people are not near a comic shop and searching online is a matter of luck.
I like to flick through a comic before deciding whether to buy or not.
We did have another comic shop in town that closed down.It opened mid morning .i go into town early and was on my way home before it used to open

(thank you edit button for allowing me to correct spelling mistakes which occurs often)