I Can Take a Hint Comic Books...

Dear Comic Industry,

I get it now ok? I give up. You win. I guess I’m too old to be collecting comics according to you guys, I mean now that comics costing $3.99 each is the new trend apparently. I know that’s just your sly way of letting me know that this is not for me. I get the hint, I can’t afford to buy multiple comics every week at $4 a pop, I mean I got groceries to buy and rent to pay, gas is even less per gallon (yet the it takes me longer to burn the 1 gallon of gas then it does for me to read a single comic. Weird.)

I understand now that comics are meant for people with way more disposable income, like the old or the rich! Old & rich people read WAY more comics than kids or the poor do! I should’ve learned that a long time ago, I should’ve seen the signs coming. I guess I just figured if you kept moving the prices up at 25-50 cent increments slowly every couple of years that I would be able to adjust my income accordingly. That was just your way of encouraging me to succeed in life and make more money, thank you for that! Unfortunately I’ve failed and you’ve given up on me, no more chances for the regular guy.

Don’t worry, I totally understand, why market to the young crowd theses days? They’re used to all this free online content, they got their video games and ipods playing videos and music which gives them hours more entertainment value for their dollar. I mean you can get 4 songs for $4 which itself lasts longer than an average comic, and kids listens to the same songs all the time nowadays! What’s the use of trying to attract these guys? Stick to where the money is at: THE RICH PEOPLE! Rich people read way more than youngsters do, I mean they buy their fancy newspapers and magazines which usually cost 3-$5 a month anyways! So since they’re used to paying that much on something monthly logic dictates that they wouldn't mind paying that multiple times a week for stuff that’s 1/4 the size of a normal monthly mag!

Even Wizard Magazine is trying to give us the hint too! They took out their comic price guide section (but they didn’t fill those extra pages with content, that makes the fewer pages left more valuable – smart move!) Now it starting to look more like a “geek chic” magazine gearing towards pop culture in general, it’s good that they decided to try and compete with that crowd now. I mean, there’s barely any magazines about comics anymore so why waste time in that arena?

They even got a whole tv network for that sort of thing, so that’s got to be way more marketable than a magazine staying in the niche market it came from. Wizard even has this cool new way of organizing their content now, everything is separated in number sections that count down to 1! AWESOME! That way we can skip through all the “lower ranked” stuff and get to the end of the countdown, why browse through the whole magazine? I mean we couldn’t do that anyways because they took out the table of content but who needs that sort of thing?

They must be trying to streamline their magazine to look more fresh and hip, like Apple products are! But since those products are geared towards the younger crowd they had to make the magazine more confusing to make it more appealing to the older crowd! Remember comics aren't for kids anymore! Old people are confused most of the time anyways. Confusing stuff is way more exciting and readable! (that must be why most of the $4 comic books have plots that are hard to understand unless you’ve been reading them forever.)

At least they've been giving more hints than the "Big Two" comic companies have. The last few years they’ve had all their Conventions coincide with competing ones! That way less people & companies will go to each, since they can’t afford to go to both (who needs Marvel or Image at the Chicago Con anyways?) Because we're not supposed to be able to afford both, the rich folk are!

If an industry is dying anyways you might as well kill what’s left and scavenge the skinny carcass! They even took out their letters pages and shut down their online message board, why listen to all the poor people bitch about less content and higher prices? You never hear the rich bitching about anything! Nobody wants to listen to what the fans want, BURN BRIDGES!

I might just be more like the few comic enthusiasts that try and salvage their hobby by buying more Graphic Novels and saving money that way. At least since most people do that at bookstores that means they’re still fucking over the lifeblood of the industry – the comic shops! I might upset the 10 or so different stores I’ve shopped at for the last 15 years, but I’ve taken a cue from you guys. If the industry doesn’t care to make comics affordable to me then I should follow their example and not support the comic stores. BURN BRIDGES!

So I’ve taken the hint. I’ll stop buying comics and Wizard magazine. I know it’s not for us anymore, and my future kids don’t need to read either. Why try and snag the coming generations when the world is ending in 2012 anyways? Rich people are way more likely to buy a magazine called “Wizard” than I am and comics are strictly for adults. Kids don't need to read anyways.

Sincerely,

A Comic Fan.