Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics Comics and Games in Whippany, New Jersey, took issue with the way Marvel is pricing its upcoming hardcover books (see 'Marvel To Launch Hardcover Program' for a description of the new format).  Here are his comments:

 

How is that Marvel continuously makes bad decisions to the detriment of the future growth of the comic marketplace?  Why do their editorial and management boards even bother to ask anyone in the retail community for feedback, information, comments or ideas?  This current rant of mine is fueled by the introduction of Marvel's 'Supersize Hardcover Line' and the unbelievable pricing disparity among the initial offerings.

Origin, reprinting the high demand Logan story, is 208 pages with a $34.95 price point.  Ultimate Spiderman, clocking in at a massive 352 pages, is also $34.95.  And finally, The Complete Frank Miller Spiderman is 216 pages long at $29.95.  Anybody else see a problem here??  Since these three books are from the same line, I have to assume that they are being designed to the same set of editorial and physical specifications.  If that is true, and it should be if Marvel is trying to engender sales by presenting the line as homogeneous in concept and execution, then the cost structure should be similar for the three books. The truth however is that there is a great price disparity, and that disparity smells of market manipulation at its worst.


Why, for example, does the Origin hardcover sell for $5 more than the Frank Miller hardcover, especially considering that the latter is 8 pages longer??     Secondly, how can the Origin and Ultimate Spider Man hardcovers sell for the same price when one is 144 pages bigger than the other?!!?  It's immediately obvious that the pricing desicions for these books were not made based on Marvel's ability to deliver quality product at consistent pricing levels.  Rather, it seems safe to assume that those decisions were based on the fact that Marvel perceived greater demand and less price resistance for one project rather than another.

Marvel is asking its customers to pay 16.84 cents per page for the Origin book, but only 9.96 cents per page for the Ultimate Spiderman book. If Marvel could deliver the latter book at such a lower price, implying significantly lower production costs, then why does the same not hold true for the former book as well?  If we extrapolate, then at the lower per page price point, our customers would only have to pay about $20.95 for the Origin book (or conversely, they should pay about $59.15 for the Ultimate Spiderman book at the higher per page price point).

Interior content notwithstanding, Marvel gives no indication in its solicitation for these three books that there are differing physical or manufacturing characteristics among them to account for the price differences.  Therefore, the retail prices are arbitrary and represent capricious marketing decisions at best.  The main reason for consistent cost and margin based pricing should be to sell the books (and future offerings) as a line. And as a line, the books would become a collection, but not collectible(s), as they are reprints, so Marvel can't use that line of thinking to justify their ill-advised pricing decisions.

Once again, just like their inflexible no reprint policy (Wal-Mart and other non-direct shops notwithstanding) and their overcompensation for having no trade paperback presence by over-saturating the market with trades, Marvel has shown that they are incapable of developing a long term plan that incorporates not only Marvel's well being, but also the well being of its direct market retailers and the industry as a whole.  What's left is an extremely disparate pricing structure that punishes consumers who, ironically, are the real losers due to Marvel's previously misguided editorial and or marketing mishaps, some of which prevented those same consumers from getting the books being reprinted in the first place.