Michael Breakfield of Lone Star Comics in Arlington, Texas read Rick Newman's comments (see "Rick Newman of Pet Shop Comics & Collectibles on Buckley Interview") and Kendall Swafford's recent column (see "Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk--Marvel Titles vs. Marvel Share") and got him thinking.

I do the weekly Odinson column for the Lone Star Comics email.  After reading both Rick Newman comments and Kendall Swafford's column yesterday they got me thinking.  Nothing in our economy seems to inflate in price like gasoline and comic books.  Not to sound all "good old days" but I can remember when I'd walk into my local comic store with my twenty dollars I earned that week mowing lawns and I'd walk out of the store with a stack of comics nearly as tall as my forearm.  And, I'm not talking about the 1950s; that was in the mid-1980s.  Boy, it sure seems like a long time since the days of .60c to .75c cover prices.  Now, with prices at $3.99, twenty dollars doesn't go nearly as far as it used to.

I guess that's true for most things.  But I can still get bread for under $2.00, I can still eat lunch for under $5.00, and I can go see a matinee movie for under $10.00.  All this was true 10, 15, even 20 years ago.  But comics and gas seem to keep rising and rising.  It's true that comic companies put out more different titles each month than ever before.  But nobody I know can come close to affording them all.  When I was collecting 20 years ago, I enjoyed a wide variety of titles.  Thor, Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Captain America, Avengers, Batman, Detective Comics, Superman, Action Comics, Alpha Flight, Namor, Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, Justice League were all on my pull list.  And that didn't even include the occasional mini series or 1-shot.  I was a high school student with a car payment and girlfriend to spend money on.  And I kept up with all this working a part-time job at Dairy Queen.  

As the years have gone by and the cover prices of comics have increased, the titles on my pull list have decreased.  Where in 1990 I could afford a dozen titles a month, in 1997 that became 6, in 2006 that dropped to 3, and at present day I only buy the issues that really, really catch my eye.  In twenty years I went from buying around 5-10 comics a week to maybe buying 1-3 comics a month, and price is the major factor in that.

I don't have charts, graphs, or statistics to back up my point, but if I keep hearing about how the comic industry, an industry I absolutely love, is in trouble, then why would it be a good thing to continue to gouge the
consumers for more and more money for essentially the same amount of content per issue as twenty years ago.  If it's the talent pool that's driving up the prices then maybe the industry's talent scouts should be a little more
assertive in finding new good talent.  Surely, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of eager writers and artists trying to break into the business.  Why not do an American Idol or America's Got Talent like contest and find the next Ed Brubaker,  Michael Bendis, or Geoff Johns?  There are countless untapped talented people out there just waiting to be discovered.

Just do whatever it takes to stop increasing the price of comic books, or before long, the industry may price their product right out of the market.  It's happening to CDs.  It happened to video rental chains.  Comic books could be next.

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.