Cutting Prices Would Stop Comics Piracy

Hey I used to read and buy comics all the time before I got in college, but I had to stop because I was so busy, and I could not keep up with all the story lines financially and literally. I would still drop a 20 during breaks to get something in the "graphic novel" section (which usually meant a bunch of comics in one book covering a story line or part of one), but it was never more than once or twice a year. I heard of this DCP in my last year of grad school and have been "investigating" it for a couple of years now. I think it is very convenient for those of us who would like to "catch up" with everything that has taken place in the nonstop comic book universe. Otherwise I would have to depend on Wikipedia to know what is goin on, which is good but not as accurate, in depth or fun. During my "investigation" I was able to catch up on many stories lines I missed out on over the years. In addition, I was able to read comics that were written before I was interested in them as a kid.

Anyways I see the pros and cons of such a program: on one hand you can enjoy every comics you ever wanted to read and you can gain new fans, which is good for the industry because it keeps interests up of comics, but at the same time it hurts it because that means they are not making money. If anything they are losing money, which leads to less comics being made. They seem to be in a dilemma, if you ask me. Comics have become too expensive in a world in which there are more pressing financial needs that need to be met. Which leads me to my point, they need to drastically drop the price of comics and they need to do it fast.

I always like the saying they use in business, "supply and demand" but it is too simple. It should have been, "supply, demand, perceived personal value, and limiting distribution options". If you have a product that people like and they feel that it is priority in their life, but at the same time it can only be supplied from a limited source or experienced in limited geographical areas you’re going to make a lot of money (e.g., apple computers in 80’s, AT & T in the early 90’s and vacations near the beach since the beginning of time). Well that is not the case for music, movies (especially DVD’s) and comics anymore.

With the brilliance of the creation of Napster, they eliminated the whole limiting distributing options. This has been a problem for years, but it took a while for this technology to catch on for comics. B4 CDisplay, they used adobe and the comics where in a pdf format. This was not the most user friendly, but with the creation of CDisplay and more comic book fans using these "file sharing" sites they not only eliminated the limiting distribution aspect of the comic book business, they made it obsolete! Now they had a slight chance of surviving this, but then the economy faded, which has lead to more fans “investigating” like me. Yet, they continue to increase comic book prices, using the argument that is the only way to stay in black or not go out of business.

Why would someone spend the same amount of money on 1 comic that they spend on a gallon of gas, especially those of us who are old enough to remember when comics were a dollar? This goes for CD’s and DVD’s, even worse for CD’s because unlike movies you do not have to wait to get the product at its best quality (i.e. bootleg DVD’s from the theater are not that good, whereas music from “file sharing” site sounds just as good as if you bought the CD on its release date and sometimes b4 the initial release date). Right now that is the only thing saving the movie industry, someone has not found a way to record a movie in a theatre and maintain the quality; mind you they still have this problem once a movie comes out on DVD The music industry and the comic book industry know this but they won’t go against traditional business methods or practice and cut prices on a overall scale. If CD’s were like $3 to $4, I bet more people would more CD’s, would it stop all file sharing, of course not but it is better than nothing. I say the same thing for comics, make them $1 again and see what happens. I know someone with a business degree or knowledge will shut this down and say that is cost prohibited, because of the cost to produce the product, but what they have been doing is not working. It does not even have to be forever, just do it for a limited time and see what happens. Let’s be honest, if it wasn’t for their box office “success”, DC and Marvel would be in worst trouble than they already are, they can do something about this if they stop being greedy.