Chris Walsh from B-Bop Comics South in Prairie Village, Kansas comments on DC and Marvel's announcement of lowering cover prices (see "DC Lowering Comic Prices in 2011") as well as various reactions to the news.

On Friday, the New York Comic-Con kicked off and, as to be expected, DC's roll back of prices led to some interesting discussion at the day one Marvel panels.  At Marvel editors Tom Breevort and Alex Alonso's "T&A" panel, Brevoort smoothly answered the question by saying the following: "Obviously we have to charge what we need to charge (in order) to pay the talent we need to pay and to make the books as good as possible."

This comment implies both that Marvel has higher caliber talent but also better production values than DC.  If one were to judge the two companies by the only available statistics, which is sales in dollar share and units sold, then I guess maybe Tom is onto something.  But if you're of a more esoteric mind about comic content, as I guess I am, then I think it's legitimate to raise the question, is Marvel's talent and production quality worth an extra $1 per book?

Tom Breevort was sure to close with this little shot, "Our books will be 22 pages."  This was in response to yesterday's announcement at DC that their $2.99 books will be 20 pages of story.  It was a theme that echoed through the day.

Then at the "X-Panel" later in the day, Alonso was heard to say, "The DC price drop brings the page count from 22 to 20, which affects the content of the books and the lives of the freelancers."

While I can certainly see how this would affect the life of an artist getting $200 or more per page, I do fail to see how the two less pages will affect content.  In fact, many are the Marvel books that use decompressed storytelling that would benefit from having two less pages a book to waste.

Over at Newsarama.com, one Internet poster pointed out "2 pages less a month over 12 months is 24 pages, or one issue's content.  So we're basically getting 11 issues worth of story while paying for 12.  Even when we win, we lose."

Given how often artists are late with their material in the modern era of comics, I tend to see this as something of a good thing.  If an artist needs more time per page, at DC they will be getting it.  If an artist is capable of producing more pages, then perhaps he (or she) will be given multiple assignments in the same time period.  I have often lamented that there are no Jack Kirby's in the modern age of comics, as Jack could seemingly produce two 28 page stories a month whenever he saw fit.

Most mystifying to me were comments made by comic writer Peter David, on hand to answer questions regarding his X-Factor book (I have never met Mr. David, but in my opinion X-Factor is the finest monthly X-title on the shelves).  "If prices drop," said David, "It means the retailers are going to make less per unit."  Which is true, to the tune of about 45 cents an issue by my calculations.  "But they're still paying rent, still paying delivery charges, still paying their staff.  We can't really roll the prices back, because we're going to be putting the retailers out of business."

 I scarcely know where to begin.  First of all, with Marvel putting more of its content on-line while simultaneously offering direct subscription service to readers at a higher discount than most retail outlets can afford, why is Marvel not already concerned with what they're doing to put those in the comic retail field out of business?

But if comics cost less, and we see a return of some of our old customers as well as an influx of new buyers, then won't the volume of sales make up for the money Mr. David cites we will lose per unit price?  After all, the reason stores are experiencing reduced revenue is we are selling less new comics.  As most retailers will tell you, the reason we're selling fewer comics is simple and straightforward.  Too many books are glutting the market, and prices are too high during the current economic recession.

But lest we think Marvel came to their hometown show unprepared to talk about sound financial moves, they did announce that Fantastic Four #587, in which one of the title characters is slated to be killed off, will come bagged.  In fact, Marvel is going so far as to call them "Death bags," made to prevent early release of the secret of which member is about to meet his (or her) end.  Which makes me even more nervous to walk past our 50 cent and 99 cent bins, where unbagged copies of Superman #75 sit decaying, day after day after day.

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.