Part Two

 

The Comic Book Tax

 

Let me begin here by saying that I'm not opposed to reprinted comic collections per se.  I fully support Marvel's ESSENTIAL and DC's SHOWCASE lines and happily purchase them when my finances permit.  The collections have focused primarily on titles from the '60's and early '70's, many of which are either unavailable as back issues, or, if available, are somewhat expensive.  They are reasonably priced and allow the reader to indulge in nostalgia until their heart's content.  In fact, the only complaint I have about them is that they're too slow to come out with new editions, and haven't expanded to include titles from previous decades.

 

The reprints that raise my ire, and that could ultimately destroy comic books, are these full - color collections currently being produced primarily by DC and Dark Horse.  Many, like Geoff, view these as a great way to read comics and they're right.  I've enjoyed them myself, on occasion.  However, I've come to understand that what these collections represent is a form of taxation that publishers have figured out how to levy on comics readers, with all of the attendant drawbacks.  Think I'm crazy?  Read on.

 

To help illustrate my point, I'm going to need to stray a little far - afield and enter the realm of politics (don't worry:  it will begin to make sense before long).  There is an economic truism that taxation suppresses activity.  The more you tax a product or activity, the less you will have of it since the public will be less willing to pay the increased cost.  For their part, the public always does one of two things to deal with increased taxes they don't wish to pay: They will cease using the product or service being taxed - which leads to decreased economic activity - or they will find a way to obtain the product or service without paying the tax - which is what fuels black - markets and other potentially unsavory activities.  Both of these approaches inevitably lead to less taxes being collected than hoped - for.

 

A sterling example of this is the recent cigarette tax fiasco in Tennessee.  In 2007, the governor and several lawmakers - along with the usual coterie of anti - tobacco zealots - decided that it would be just nifty to raise the tax on cigarettes in order to fund a slew of expensive new programs, including providing health - care to the children of low - income families (despite the fact that these children were already eligible for TennCare - another government sponsored fiasco).  As a result of this, the cigarette tax was raised $0.42 a pack, making the total tax a whopping $0.62 per pack, higher than the tax of any of it's eight neighboring states.  The result was predictable:  A few gave up smoking.  Others clenched their teeth and paid the increased price.  The rest, including myself, screamed "Screw that!" and began buying our cigarettes across the border.  The results have been unfortunate.  Throughout the state, many once prosperous tobacco stores have had to close their doors due to the sharp decrease in trade.  A black - market in cigarettes is now flourishing in the state, resulting in more funds being spent in an attempt to enforce the tax.  As for the anticipated revenues that the bureaucrats were lusting after, they haven't appeared. Collections ran 62.3 million less than predicted during the first year, making cut - backs necessary.

 

For anyone with the most basic understanding of economics and the principle of cause and effect, this outcome was predictable.  Unfortunately, politicians don't deal with such realities, but live in a world of favors granted to the currently most powerful special interests (Indeed, pitting one group against another is the goal most passionately sought by them). 

 

So, what in the world has any of this to do with comic reprints?  Believe it or not, the situations share parallels.  Like governments, comics publishers are always looking for ways to get more money (not an unreasonable pursuit for a business, since that's what they're made for), but when businesses begin using an approach that would be envied by governments, then you've got a Hell of a problem.

 

Over the past decade or so, the industry has targeted two separate groups of consumers: The dedicated comics buyer who transacts his trade at the local comic shop and the casual comics buyer who prefers to make his purchases in bookstores.  Now, getting comics into bookstores has been the wet - dream of the industry ever since the collapse of the old newsstand system, since it has always been believed that this would be the best way to get comics back in front of the general public.  Like the comic shop patron, bookstore customers have a higher price tolerance than average, so they seemed like an ideal market.  However, it quickly became apparent that this tolerance did not extend to comic books, so the early efforts to get comics in bookstores met with little success.

 

Until the publishers began producing the reprint collections.  In spite of these collections being available in comic shops, it is clear that bookstores were the intended market for these items, and it must be admitted that they have done very well there.  Now, on the surface, this might seem to be cause for celebration.  True success stories in comics have become increasingly rare and any turnaround in the medium's fortunes should be enthusiastically embraced, right?

 

Not the way publishers are now playing the game.  Consider:  They aren't just confining themselves to titles published decades ago, but books that came out within the last few years - in some cases last year.  As a result of this quick turnaround from comic books to reprint collections, the stories being produced are now being written with collections in mind, rather than what best serves individual issues.  These books now all appear underwritten and the pacing of many very uneven, making the reading experience more and more unsatisfying.  However, the publishers must continue producing the individual issues in order to have something to bundle into their expanding number of collections.  They also use the income of the individual books to pay for their production costs, which includes the pay of the creative team working on the title.  They cannot fore go the individual comic books in favor of books, because they would have a much higher production cost than present and, therefore be much less profitable.  So, like politicians, they have figured out how to cater to one market at the expense of another.  They've come up with an unofficial tax on comic books.

 

Here's how:  Sitting before me is my copy of the 7th volume of "The Books of Magic".  This item retails for $19.95 ($32.95 in Canada, but who really cares what Canadians pay?), and it reprints 9 issues of the original comic title.  Now, I don't know what these issues originally cost, but let's assume a $2.99 cover price, which would be true of any collection published this year or the next.  The price of all of those issues would be $26.91.  If you subtract this amount from the price of the collection, you have a total tax of $6.96 that you have paid to DC comics to subsidize those readers who's C/E ratio is lower than yours!

 

It gets worse.  These collections also feature additional goodies, such as interviews or pages of original sketches that were never included in the individual comics.  So, the subsidized readers get even more than the non - subsidized readers!

 

So, what is the incentive to keep reading comic books?  There isn't one. The publishers themselves are discouraging the activity with their tax and the continuing decline in sales proves it.  Fans like Geoff are doing what the smokers in Tennessee have done and said "Screw it!  I'll buy the collections and avoid the tax!"

 

But, here's the problem:  If people stop buying the comic books, what are they going to produce collections with?  Like it or not, the comic book remains the foundation of the medium, and if you get rid of it, you get rid of the industry.

 

And that's it.  I think I'm finally done.