Comic books have been verging on $3 for the last few years. Are the increasing prices consistent with inflation? Not really, as far as I can tell, though it’s difficult to calculate due to the changing comic book economy.

(Hat tip to Walter Williams’ column on gasoline which linked to a handy inflation calculator.)

A 20 cent comic in 1971 would, if adjusted for inflation, cost 90 cents today. Maybe that’s not a fair comparison, since a 1971 comic wouldn’t resemble today’s product.

What about the comics of 20 years ago? Crisis on Infinite Earths cost $.75 in 1985; adjusted for inflation, a comic like that printed today should sell for $1.33.

BUT…

Even that isn’t comparable to a modern comic. All of today’s comics are essentially what were published in the 1980s as “Direct Market comics”, with full-page bleeds and higher quality paper/inks/covers. So a better starting price might be one from a direct market book like New Teen Titans. The issue published the same month as the above Crisis issue, New Teen Titans #10 from July 1985, cost $1.25. Today, inflation would give that a $2.22 price tag.

$2.22? That’s not all that far off from the standard price of $2.50 for today’s DC comics, and DC’s prices a year ago were $2.25 for many of their mainstream titles. (Some, like Teen Titans, have been $2.50 for the last two years, hence the modifier.)

Thus, today’s higher prices compared to Bronze Age comics aren’t really due to inflation, but instead reflect the quiet changeover from “newstand comics” to “direct market” quality for the entire product line.

That’s something to think about…because back in the 1980s, I never bought the direct market comics, as they were too pricey. I was content to pay $.75. Actually, I wasn’t content, as that already felt like a lot for a comic book, since I remembered when they were 30 cents. I subscribed so that I could save a couple bucks on each comic I collected. I would never have bought ten or more comics a month if they were all $1.25 deluxe format.

Of course, then I was a 16 year old with no money, now I’m an adult in a two-income household. And as the son of a minister and a teacher, we had less money than the average household, so my account is anecdotal and may not even compare to the average teen back then. I look at teens today and they seem to have hundreds of dollars to spend at will, so whether comic book prices are considered high at $3 will require some actual market research. Too bad the comic book industry doesn’t do market research.

I hear from so many people who say that they’ll quit collecting if all comic books cost $3. Maybe they will, maybe not. I think the bigger problem is the shrinking comics audience and comics market. While I think prices are a concern, I think that if comics cost $1.50 there would still be a shrinking audience. The industry has to do something to get comics back where the average person can get them.