Dave Brzeski of The House on the Borderland in Peterborough, United Kingdom has been following the recent discussions about the current state of the comic book industry and thinks something has been missing from the discussion.

I've read with interest the comments on the state of the market that have been recently posted.  People have brought up the usual stuff about multiple covers/incentives, crossovers and price hikes versus the economic climate and I thought I'd share a piece of logic that I know to be relevant.  From discussions I've had with many of the customers that I've lost recently, many, many customers have less free cash available at the moment.  What do you do when that happens?  You cut down your expenditures.  What happens in the mainstream comic market?  You can't afford all the titles you once bought, let alone the variants and the extras you need for the big crossover stories.

And because of the endless crossover stories, you can't just cut back to a handful of titles since they constantly refer to events happening outside of that title and/or even tell you to go read a different title altogether for the next part of the story!  So, you simply give up buying comics altogether.  End of story.  Another customer lost and most likely permanently!

I remember a long time ago when customers cut back when they were feeling the pinch but they kept coming in and eventually, when things got better for them, their purchases increased again.  That doesn't happen anymore... ever!

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.