Drawing the Line at $2.99

Two years ago, DC launched their initiative – Drawing the Line at $2.99 – right before The New 52 Relaunch. I remember it because I even got a semi-cool promo poster at my local comic shop. Today, that poster has hopefully been recycled into something far more useful. Why did I throw it out you ask?  For starters, DC has now raised the line to $3.99 for everything that I want to read. Second, those promo posters that you can fold into the size of a napkin usually don’t stay on my walls very well.

When DC first started holding the line, their monthly books became 20 pages of story and were all $2.99. Shortly after The New 52 Relaunch, comics that had 20 pages of story and were 32 pages in total were $2.99, and comics that had roughly 28-30 pages of story and were 40 pages were $3.99. Although, those last 8-10 pages were often a backup story.

This past June, Superman Unchained hit shelves for a stomach-churning $4.99. It was a 32-page comic, but contained a foldout poster inside.. great more posters that are folded. Batman/Superman debuted the same month and it was $3.99 for a 32-page book.

One month later, Batman/Superman #2, Justice League of America #6, Justice League Dark #22 (seriously), and Superman Unchained #2 were all $3.99. They were all 32-page comics, and while DC claimed that we were getting TWO extra pages of story, I don’t think anyone really cared. I know I didn’t.

Did you notice a theme about the titles? Basically, DC realized that people would pay more to read their most popular content. Look, DC is a business, and I am not going to digress into the whole, “I understand it’s a business routine,” however, it’s not like they were marketing a new product or anything. They’ve been around since 1934; I am sure they knew fans would pay more for Batman than Static Shock. In fact, I would argue that they were just in doing so[1].

I don’t want to just bark out anecdotal observations, so let me speak to the data[2]. In January 2011, the line was drawn and every monthly book for DC was $2.99. They claimed 33.39% of comic sales based on units – second to Marvel at 44.95%. However, Marvel came away with 48.27% of sales based on dollars, while DC only accounted for 29.04%. We saw a very similar trend in February of 2011 even though DC had the top-3 selling books that month (Green Lantern #62, and Brightest Day #’s 19 & 20).

Fast forward to December 2013, and you’ll see both of the ‘top dog’ publishers lost footing in terms of the percentage of units sold and dollars. With that said, DC closed the gap on Marvel considerably in both categories. Marvel still had the highest percentage of estimated units sold at 36.32%; however, DC held relatively consistent at 33.83%. While that was only slightly up from January of 2011, at least they didn’t decline like Marvel (8.63%). Marvel was still tops in terms of the percentage of overall dollars at 38.76%, but DC pulled in 31.36%, and again, didn’t experience the decline over the last two years as Marvel did.

DC had six books in the top-10 for sales in December 2013. Only Harley Quinn was $2.99. If the other five books were all $2.99, and assuming DC would collect that entire extra dollar (they don’t), DC would have missed out on $500,067. That figure represented a little more than 6% of their total comic sales, and just from six books.

The rise of smaller publishers such as Image, IDW, and Dark Horse has eaten into the estimated percentage of units and dollars that Marvel and DC once held. Publishers like Valiant weren’t even in the top-24 of Diamond’s distribution list in January 2011, but in December 2013, they comprised 1.91% of the estimated units sold. A new trend is developing in which aspiring writers, inkers, and colorists are starting their own publishing companies, or banding together to form larger ones – i.e. Action Labs.

So while it’s upsetting that DC barely held the line at $2.99, raising their prices is more a systemic issue than one of malicious intent that some die-hard comic fans would have you believe.

Make no mistake about it; I don’t like paying $3.99 for my books either. But as I described above, as more up-and-coming talent finds a place with some of these smaller publishers, we might see a flight-to-quality which forces Marvel and DC to stop charging $3.99 for some of the dumpster fires that make comic book shelves each and every week. In the meantime, let’s just hope they’ve drawn the line at $3.99; otherwise, we all might need a second job.

[1] Okay, I am going to digress into how it’s a business.

[2] All stats per comicbookresources.com. These numbers are just estimates for the sales through Diamond to direct market retailers. It does not include any sales outside of the Diamond channel such as newsstands, book stores or overseas markets.