Any "increased profits" are mainly going to the writers and artists, and not the publishers. There are people working in the comic book industry in this current era who are commanding ridiculous, greedy page rates. I don't think the Marvel/DC "exclusivity contract war" of the past ten years has helped there at all because it pushed rates higher and higher in an attempt to outbid one another.

The sales figures are all relative. No reason not to be proud of a book selling 100,000 units in this day and age, just because in the past 500,000 units would be considered average. Trades were almost non-existant back then, and now they're selling pretty well - it's the exception rather than the rule, but sales on the Watchmen trade have been, and continue to be, phenominal for DC - even before the movie was mooted. Trades are opening up bookstores and online retailers like Amazon and Play.com as a potential audience.

However, I totally agree with Jodi. We need to get monthly comics back into local stores, at more affordable prices for kids. The Marvel Adventures books are a good example of what can be done, but they should be retailing at $1.95. Reduce the paper quality, make the colouring less sophisticated, even trim a couple of pages of story out - no law says it has to be 22 pages of story and art. Use new talent who are happy to work for lower page rates as a way of breaking in.

I hear this comparison, but I hae a difficult time believing that any organization would care more about gross revenue over net revenue as an indicator, esecially in light of the more competitive marketplace children face for their shrinking economic value.

For the other parents out there, what does your child earn in allowance? My 7 year old can earn up to $7 per week. He has to save $2 per week, so that leaves him with $5.  Now, he could go buy 1 comic book and have some money left over. Or, he could spend/save the money on other things.  Right now, he has his eyes set on a lego set and a game for the Wii.

How can comic companies really expect to compete for that market at current prices?

Supply and demand will meet at the equilibrium.

Those who want to read comics desired better paoer, better color, etc. These came at a cost that actual comic readers were willing to pay. These higher prices drove casual, disengaged readers away.

It does make sense, in theory, to make more (not the same, MORE) on fewer items moved. This is what they teach you in business school. Move 10 items for $1000 each is better than $10,000 at $1.

As a business theory, it works. Somewhere along the line (maybe when Warner Brothers and/or New Line Cineman got involved) comics became a full fledged business as opposed to the distant cousin of artists, as it had been.

These businessmen quickly inserted into comic production everything they learned in business school. Promotion became more important than content.

They are making more money than ever, so I can only suppose they dwindling circulation numbers don't mean too much to them.

Which is to the detriment for those who view comics as a mode of expression, not of business.

Basically, the businessmen did to comics what they did to movies, other publishing, banking, lending, carmanufacturing, etc... warped it to the point where it is barely recognizable from its original intent and incarnation.

And those involved in the industry were too unsophisitcated (in business) to stop it. Or they saw it happening, and didn't want to say anything because cashing those big checks was so much fun.

See? for comics to go back to the "way they were" it would mean EVERYTHING goes back, including wages and treatment of talent, not just the things we don't like. Can't have our cake and eat it too, unfortunately.

I was pondering what I wrote above while watching the game, and thought of this. Maybe it relates, maybe not.

A lot of readers felt "betrayed" the industry when it decided to cater to speculators and the demands of big business. I have a theory that once you betray your readers, not only will a lot of them leave, but new ones will not come.

TV shows are like this. When a TV show goes down a bad path or a storyline that is not popular, and it loses viewers, it usually can't survive. The network doesn't advertise a new writer or new direction, the viewers are gone, they are not coming back and the network knows it.

There was a show called "The O.C." that was insanely popular for about 2 years, but went down an unpopular road and lost its fans. The show is not saveable. It is cancelled. The creator goes on to work on the tv version of Gossip Girl, essentially the same show about poor kids in a rich kid's world, and it is insanely popular. But the OC characters are dead, and nothing can change that.

Maybe I am stretching with the comparison, but its just something that crossed my mind. So many were put off by the industry in the late 80's and 90's, they will never come back, and their kids probably won't either...