r/comicbooks • u/Randomdays99 The Thing • 22d ago
Hard to be a kid these days collecting physical monthlies
When I was a kid in the '70s, comics were 25c, and then in the next few years quickly went up to 40c by the end of the decade
As a teen in those years in a low to mid middle class family, my parents gave me $5 a week allowance for having good grades and doing chores like mowing the lawn
I could go down to the spinner rack at local 7-11 every week and get at least 6-10 books, a bag of chips, a Hostess treat and either a soda or a Slurpee and have a good afternoon.
Now, 10 standard books cost about $50, and adding in the snacks would probably up it at least another $10. I don't know, but I think most families can't afford to give their kids about $250 in allowance every month.
I'm glad that there's the cheaper trades and the subscription apps out there for them to get their books, and they have a much larger backlog to go thru, with 50 more years of reading than I had.
But for us older readers, there's nothing like the feel and smell of those books with the cheaper paper in your hands while you read with your snacks.
And I never got the sea monkeys I wanted.
Edit - thanks to the many commenters here and the upvotes. It's great to hear so many memories of others and what's going on now. Almost all the comments are civil as well, with very few trolls showing up.
It seems I also had a much better deal than I thought on my allowance than most people. If my mom hadn't passed I'd thank her for that and many other things I took for granted.. She was one of those that let me free range on my bike a lot back then, just being home in time for dinner.
Edit 2 - added a couple of covers to highlight - an original comic for 50c and a new fascimile of the same book for $8
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u/Cygnusthegoddess 22d ago
Do kids want physical comics these days? I rarely see any kids in my comic shop (aside from the TCG section), I think digital versions, video games, or even TPBs are more popular. That being said, I'm one person, seeing a slice of one location so don't want to speak for everywhere.
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u/weirdoldhobo1978 Mystery Archaeologist 22d ago
The biggest comics publisher in the US is Scholastic Books by a wide margin, so yes kids want physical comics these days. They just seek out a different and more accessible form factor (and wider choice of genres)
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u/warrends Iron Man 22d ago
Every Halloween we are now officially known as the “comic book house”. I started handing out my cheap unwanteds a few years ago, along with candy of course. It’s really cool when both kids and the parents say “Yes please!!!” when we point to the other table and say “Take one. Or two!!” So yeah, there are lots of kids that want printed comic books. At least in my small part of the world.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 22d ago
August used to be the cutoff for the Halloween Fest ordering.
Ask you LCS if you can order some bundles from them. You might even want to suggest they can stamp the store name on the cover, and include a discount coupon! (After Diamond's collapse, it's unknown what's available. There might be some old new stock in a warehouse somewhere...)
Or maybe they have some surplus freebies from FCBD, or those dollar comic reprints.
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u/warrends Iron Man 21d ago
I paid $5 or $10 last year for a small bundle of Marvel Halloween specials. Really wasn’t worth it. Plus I have enough of my own for giveaways for the next several years. But asking for FCBD books isn’t a bad idea. Though I think they get rid of them soon after FCBD. Small shop and not a lot of storage. But can’t hurt to ask. Thanks for the idea.
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u/Rude_Ad1496 22d ago
When i went to Heroescon this year, I was surprised at the number of young collectors I saw (teens and preteen).
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 22d ago
Good to hear. I know the demand is way down, and I think the actual print runs for physical is much smaller per issue than it used to be to reflect the switch to digital, and the fact that kids read far less of anything than they used to.
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u/JGar453 22d ago edited 22d ago
I think they do want physical comics but the classic serialized format is kind of dead in favor of full graphic novels. On a per page basis, it's a better deal. Comic shops also haven't fully adapted to the fact that kids are into different genres now. Manga is mega popular. DC/Marvel not so much outside of the movies. This is more to do with subject matter than exoticism.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 22d ago
AHEM... Comics is not a genre. Superheroes are a genre. Isekai is a genre. Manga is comics.
I'm seeing Otaku stores, catering to the manga/anime fandom. Generally because comics shops don't have the expertise or square footage.
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u/JGar453 21d ago
I hope I wasn't implying they were, wasn't my intent. I know manga are comics, my point is just the popular mangas cover vastly different types of stories that are very different from the bread and butter in America.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 20d ago
Not anymore.
The bread and butter of American comics is the middle-grade reader sold at Scholastic Book Fairs and Target.
It is NOT superhero comics.
Walmart had a big Spider-Man fixture, selling merchandise to tie-in with the movie this summer. Guess what wasn't found in this stores, anywhere? (DC was little better. They had the $15 newsstand special.)
A month later, they featured a big display of the "variant cover" metallic ink Dog Man books.
Don't believe me? Take a look at the New York Times Bestseller lists. It is very rare for any Marvel or DC title to make that list.
https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/graphic-books-and-manga/
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u/Gr8NonSequitur 21d ago
I think they do want physical comics but the classic serialized format is kind of dead in favor of full graphic novels. On a per page basis, it's a better deal.
Actually, it's a "better deal" because it has a defined beginning middle and end (at least of a specific arc). I suspect page count has little to do with it, it comes down to "Oh it's $X to read this full story (like a traditional book), ok."
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u/GoblinTradingGuide 22d ago
I have been trying to get my nephew into comics and he just doesn’t get it. Got him some Batman and TMNT hardcovers and I’m not even sure he read them lmao
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u/Soranos_71 Captain America 22d ago
I finally convinced my son to give comics a shot with the Absolute Batman series because he kept talking to me about current comic story arcs and I am like "where the heck are you getting this from??"
Come to find out he was watching YouTubers cover current comic runs instead of actually reading the books.....
He likes video games and the hero shooters that have comic book heroes in them or the Fortnite collaborations and wanted background information on them.
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u/GoblinTradingGuide 22d ago
My friend Matt does this.
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u/BradleyNeedlehead 21d ago
It's frankly insane to me how many adults do this. It's like reading the Wikipedia pages of movies as a hobby.
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u/peddlinghermit0012 Punisher 22d ago
Same here it's insane amount of comics I got my nephew and I don't think he's ever read one
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u/CulturalChemistry860 22d ago
I tried to get my kids into comics too. They left. Daughter is 30 soon and son is 26. They will be interested when im gone
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u/SmokinBandit28 22d ago
Subjectively based on what I’ve seen volunteering at my LCS it’s that kids under 12-15 usually have a parent who will (understandably so) vet everything especially if the parent them self isn’t a comic reader.
So that right away narrows the options down.
Then you’ve got to add in the parents that would rather buy a full tpb, they don’t want to be dragged back to the shop every month for a single issue or two, they want to just get a story with their kids favorite character on top of this they are considering storage and how a tpb is less likely to get messed up like a single floppy would.
Then you’ve obviously got cost being a factor.
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u/PleaseBeChillOnline 22d ago
Yes kids never stopped loving comic books and graphic novels do great.
The part of comics that has been hemorrhaging money since the 90s is American Big 2 superhero comics.
Jujutsu Kaisen is doing great. Dog Man is doing great.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 22d ago
I saw variant cover Dog Man editions at Walmart! I think for the anniversary. And YES!!! they were metallic covers!
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u/topofthedial2 21d ago
Exactly. My kids love comics: Chainsaw Man, Bungo Stray Dogs, Haikyuu, etc... but my local LCS doesn't really carry manga, so we go to Barnes & Noble instead.
The market has moved but many LCS haven't followed the younger customer base; the stores are still stuck in the past focusing on the superhero genre.
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u/Soranos_71 Captain America 22d ago
Marvel/DC/Image have the digital Netflix model of comics. I got my son reading DC comics on his tablet with the subscriptions.
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u/casecaxas 22d ago
Maybe my perception is a bit skewed, but imo it's a lot more easier (sometimes cheaper) to handle and collect volumes or compendiums.
Besides, a single issue gives you a fun afternoon, but a whole volume gives you at least a weekend's worth of content
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u/IAmtheAnswerGrape 22d ago
It really depends on the parents. I hold about 2-3 issues per month for my 8-y-o son, and he loves coming to the LCS to see what’s new in the kids’ section. He generally likes picking out a TPB when he’s at the shop. However, it’s tough to get any of his friends to start the hobby.
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u/starswtt 21d ago
Yeah, tpbs are actually doing fine. They're essentially the only comic format that's doing remotely well among younger folk (and even then, marvel/DC are only doing okay. They're growing, but not that much. Original graphic novels and manga are popping off, not sure about non big 2 American monthly comics making collects.) Hardcovers are down but fineish, and floppies sales are catastrophically bad. And outside comics, physical books is doing well
There's just not much attracting kids to try serialized physical media in general these days. Following weekly or monthly issues is a generally foreign concept these days, it's not like they can impulse buy comics at grocery stores anymore, etc. LCS have always been terrible at attracting new readers, you have to already want to go to bother going. There's a reason the most common age group in lcs is 30-50 year old men despite non lcs stores having very young average audiences with relatively high gender balance. Because big 2 comics abandoned general retail by the 80s, and an extra decade for culture to shift away from comics, and that's nearly the whole lcs consumer based.
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u/Gr8NonSequitur 21d ago
Do kids want physical comics these days?
They do, they understand the simplicity of "this is mine" and it works without a charger or update anything else. My son doesn't collect "comics" as in Marvel / DC but he is building up a fairly impressive collection of manga, all physical.
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u/Competitive-Road-206 21d ago
Most kids spend a considerable amount of their time playing games and honestly I was like that too. I only recently got involved with comics in the last 3 years or so.
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u/Rude_Ad1496 22d ago
When i started buying comics in 1982, I only got $2 a week for allowance, but i was able to buy 3 60 cent comics with it. When the expensive annuals or double sized issues came out it created some hard choices.
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u/MagpieLefty 22d ago
You got a lot more allowance than most of the middle-class kids I knew in the 70s. We all got more like a dollar a week. Those 25/40-cent comics were a big chunk of our allowances.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 22d ago
I always looked for the bargains. The DC 100 page giants gave me a lot more reading for my money, and a lot of them had none or very few ads in them.
I was also lucky in having a large local Flea Market nearby where I could find cheap older books.
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u/Emergency-Bonus-7158 22d ago
This is really more of a general economic problem as opposed to comics specific. Like, why do you think they have to sell them for $5 in the first place?
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 22d ago edited 22d ago
In the 70's they said it was due to the price of paper going up.
I recognize everything costs more over time due to inflation, but I think that this is one of the tings that have outpaced earnings.
The Compact and Premiere books are a good way to go, I think and I'd like to see more of that.
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 21d ago
12 cents in 1961 equals $1.35 in 2026.
My question is... National Geographic is the same trim size as a comicbook, but it's roughly 100 pages with few ads, and high production values and costs $10.
A recent Batman magazine special with three reprints costs $15.
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u/hamlet9000 21d ago edited 21d ago
National Geographic has 1.65 million subscribers. Not only are their creation costs amortized across more copies, but the cost per page to print drastically reduces at larger scales.
They're operating an order of magnitude larger than a bestselling comic book. Two orders larger than many.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
The point of the post - the price increases have far outstripped wage increases and they should cost less.
Comparing it with Nat Geo though - things that might matter to the price - less popular, photos might be cheaper than pages that have to be sketched and inked. The people there may get a smaller paycheck. They're not owned by money hogs like WB and Disney.
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u/wakeupangry_ 22d ago
25c in 1970 is like maybe $2.25 in today dollars.
Comics have outpaced general inflation.
I’m not sure why tho.
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u/A_wild_so-and-so 22d ago
Probably lower demand. As another recent post pointed out, kids today are just reading less in general, probably due to social media and other media options being more accessible. Plus the digital subscription model is more attractive to people who don't have a local place to purchase comics, don't have the space to house physical media, or are looking for a more economical way of reading comics or aren't interested in collecting.
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u/WarriorNeedFoodBadly 22d ago
I was told that's why comics don't have ads anymore. No one cares to advertise in them because circulation is too low. It's not seen as worthwhile. No idea if that's true, but your comment reminded me of that.
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u/0rionNe5ula 22d ago
I mean, what's not outpaced inflation? Rent has, food has, clothing, etc. all of it.
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u/wakeupangry_ 21d ago
And comics has doubled. Like it’s not healthcare or a college education or a CEO salary. 🤷♂️
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u/PM-ME-YOUR-BREASTS_ 21d ago
After a very quick google search the sales of single issues seem to have almost halved since 1997, the price of comics have also doubled since then so basically since their customer base shrunk they had to charge each customer more. I imagine the customer base shrinking is because of moving to comic book shops, which obviously isn't great for bringing in new customers.
Trade paperbacks and digital have gotten more popular though. So its not like the amount of comic readers have decreased. They just don't want to sell their individual issues at a loss.
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u/Emergency-Bonus-7158 22d ago
The materials and shipping costs rise
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u/wakeupangry_ 22d ago
More than double general inflation?
I would assume shipping is tied to overall inflation. Maybe paper is higher.
I assume it’s talent too.
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u/Emergency-Bonus-7158 22d ago
Well, they’re noticeably selling a lot less these days as well. But yea honestly I would assume that the biggest culprits are the costs of ink and gasoline for shipping.
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u/greatrudini 22d ago
Tell us why you tease!!
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u/Emergency-Bonus-7158 22d ago
Inflation? The rising cost of materials required to print? Everything is more expensive, from the production to the shipping. Sorry, didn’t realize this answer wasn’t obvious.
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u/krang989 21d ago
Hard to be a human being doing anything (that requires money) these days.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
As someone else said, there's still the library and Hoopla.
And retired, I try to get in a good walk everyday to "touch grass" as reddit likes to say.
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u/Accomplished-House28 21d ago
My library dropped Hoopa. Too expensive.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
That's a shame. Check into archive if you haven't It's like an online library where you can read online and sometimes download for later.
You'll need a free account to borrow. Some of the downloads are in libby format which I think is what the library's use.
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u/Accomplished-House28 21d ago
You mean the Internet Archive?
I didn't know they had comics.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago edited 21d ago
yeah - tons. I just saw they had a lot of the Marvel Masterworks there among others.
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u/DukeBabylon 21d ago
I lost my shit when they went from 75¢ to $1.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
And now Disney owns Marvel. And Disney loves money more than kids. The same with DC and WB.
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u/NoAmoeba9449 21d ago
It’s not about kids anymore they only care about catering to manchildren, same with the toy industry
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u/Meftikal 21d ago
So this is what I’m told directly by a comic shop owner. Kids are used to paying $70 for a video game and $20 on one skin for a single character in that video game. They see $5 for a comic book as being cheap. A lot of the time the conversation he has with new readers goes exactly like this. “I want to get into comics but I hear they’re expensive.” “Well actually new issues run about $4.99.” “Really that’s cheap!”
These kids never knew an era of $1.00 comics. I see this all the time where adults are projecting their experiences onto a new generation. The problem with this attitude is that it doesn’t take into account the cost of creating new comics. Even if they could somehow go back to newsprint, which isn’t even feasible for a ton of reasons, the cost of books would still be similar. I know this from interviewing a number of people who work in the printing and distribution side of the industry for an industry podcast I used to do. The biggest problem the comic book industry has with developing new readers is at the retail level. LCS’s that take an active approach to create new readers and fans thrive where the classic comic dungeon stores struggle.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
Good point, but after reading a single issue in 10-15 minute, the kid might say "that's it?", where the video game would last a long longer.
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u/darksideoflondon 21d ago
Why? Did you back in the day, or did you flip back to the front and re-read it? I read every comic three times when I was a kid. Once cover to cover, once just looking for cool drawings, and once to find the words I didn’t understand, then I often read it again. I got hours of enjoyment out of every comic.
My kids love comics, and they get their friends into comics too!
You probably didn’t know this, but comics are seeing a boom period right now very reminiscent of the boom period of the 2000’s. Absolute Batman is selling 500,000 copies a month right now.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
Back in the day, yes. I used to love all the ads and the letters page as well. Now?
There's so many other things to grab a kid's attention. And with Marvel Unlimited and DCUI competing with print, kids could read a new comic every day 24/7 and never run out of books to read. Along with streaming shows and videogames to grab their time.
Print comics, baseball cards and just playing outside aren't taking as much of a kids time as before.
I'm glad your kids are enjoying reading them and I wish more kids did. And I'm very glad that books like Absolute is having a boom - but who's buying and reading them? probably older readers with money. Its got a mature rating for "violence, blood, and dark themes" and isn't recommended for kids at all.
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u/darksideoflondon 20d ago
16-25 year olds are the overwhelming buyers this weekend at the convention I am vending at. There are a ton of younger kids buying the 2.00 back issues I am selling too. Kids like comics. What you don’t seem to get is that comics are one of the few tangible things you can hold in your hands. It is why Vinyl is making a comeback, same goes for DVDs. The next generation wants to OWN stuff.
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u/Meftikal 21d ago
Most people don’t think like that. They tend to interpret art by enjoyment of the activity not amount of time spent. For people who do care about time spent I would direct them to trades. It’s important to talk to new customers and find out what matters to them. A lot of struggling LCS’s just don’t do that. When a new reader comes in and asks for something good to read they just give them a copy of Watchmen or DKR or whatever book the employee/owner considers great. Successful shops have this conversation verbatim. “What kind of stories do you like in other media?” Just by asking that simple question and having a conversation you can create new fans who otherwise might have read Watchmen and not enjoyed it and moved on to something else. For example my buddy always tells this story. When he got into comics he was already an adult one of the first books he read was Crossed. His brother recommended Crossed because he knew that would appeal to his taste. If he had been started on say Superman for all Seasons he probably wouldn’t still be reading books let alone owning 6 different shops.
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u/Mugwumpjizzum1 21d ago
But that would require comic book store employees to get off their ass and engage with the customers. Last year I went on vacation and went to at least 7 different comic book stores during the trip. Not one single employee greeted me or asked if I needed help finding something even though I was digging through the back issues.
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u/Meftikal 21d ago
That’s on ownership and management. One huge problem is that people who open LCS’s tend to be fans first with little or no retailer experience. Same with employees. A lot of shops will hire customers which is a terrible policy. When it doesn’t work out you’re not just losing an employee but a customer. People who love comics tend to be introverted as well which frequently doesn’t translate well to sales positions.
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u/Mugwumpjizzum1 21d ago
Oh I agree wholeheartedly. There's a lot of small business owners, not just in comics, that have no business trying to run one.
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u/LittleGuarantee7148 21d ago
$5 a pop is the norm now. Sucks. My son just waits for the TPBs now
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
At least he's reading
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u/LittleGuarantee7148 21d ago
The struggle of resisting spoilers while he waits is real haha. He's surprisingly good about it tho
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u/floydbot 22d ago
$5 in 1975 is equivalent to $32 now. Which would get a kid about six books.
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u/whalesum 21d ago
Just a poor lower middle class family affording to give their child ~1500 a year in allowance lmfao. Why do people want to role-play poor people.
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u/JetScreamer-212 22d ago
The direct market is the beginning of the end for children who wants to get into comics. It was geared directly towards mature readers and the products on the shelves reflected it. Marvel and D.C. were producing stories that were nothing like what kids were reading during the Silver Age. When you step into your LCS, the patrons are usually people in their 30’s and up. And with the average cover price at $4.99, kids would rather get their thrills with mobile gaming and social media. The industry has already lost two generations of new readers.
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u/big_ringer 21d ago
That's because kids got priced out of comics, because older fans were willing to fork over money, and the publishers pandered to them.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
True. Disney and WB owing the major publishers now means that the #1 priority is money. The normal price is bad enough , but coming out with a $100 version with just a different cover is ridiculous.
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u/big_ringer 20d ago
Look up stories about the Speculator Bubble.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 20d ago
I remember that. As P T Barnaum said, a fool and his money....
And from I remember the 90's books are some of the worst ones out there in term of value.
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u/fluffynuckels Wolverine (X-Force) 22d ago
I feel this way with magic the gathering now. I remember packs where like $3-4 when I started now they're like $6-9. I could get dropped off at the lgs with a $20 pay my entrance fee grab lunch and could get a pack or two
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u/MechaTyranitar 21d ago
I couldn't even really keep up in the late 2000's as a teenager. With maybe $20 a week or every other week, I could only get maybe 6 books weekly. Not much room to experiment if you want to be consistent. This was also the era of $20 greatest hits video games and bundle used game deals so it became hard to justify spending the money on comics when so many other things wanted my money and were more in the cultural zeitgeist. I couldn't talk to anyone my age about Green Lantern Corps, but Devil May Cry? I had to play that to get in the gist of things.
Now, with so many free to play games and free new manga chapters and manga volumes rarely being over $14, it's hard to justify the price in competition. Movie ticket and new game/console prices inflating the way they have is the one thing that's worked out to make them look better. Thank goodness for things like compact comics that actually try to keep prices low too.
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u/grin_ferno 22d ago
When I was a kid you got paid $5 to mow a lawn, now it's like $30. Kids used to babysit for $2/hr, now it's $20.
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u/MagusFool 22d ago
Okay, but $20 an hour for babysitting is a 10x increase from $2.
That would make a $0.25 comic go up to $2.50, but single issues today are selling for $5. That's double the inflation rate.
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u/grin_ferno 22d ago
Did kids get $2/hr when comics were 25¢? I'm more along the timeline of 50¢ comics. Never saw any for 25¢. $2hr for 3hrs is $6, or 12 comics. $20/hr now for 3hrs is $60 which is also 12 comics.
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u/The_Flying_Failsons 22d ago edited 22d ago
I honestly find it hard to justify buying a monthly for 4-5 when I could buy hefty prose tpb for 7 or 8. It's why I only get tpbs now.
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u/Gr8NonSequitur 22d ago
"Now, 10 standard books cost about $50, and adding in the snacks would probably up it at least another $10. I don't know, but I think most families can't afford to give their kids about $250 in allowance every month."
You answered your own question, They aren't giving kids $250 a month as they aren't allowing 40-50 monthly titles.
I am a 40-year reader and collector and though I have that to spend, I'm confident my "Core monthly recurring titles are fewer than 12." I take some additional monies and buy limited series as I see them and as I like them. One finishes, I may pick up another one.
Like you I was given ~$5 a week for comics, but that certainly didn't mean I could buy EVERYTHING. My mom wasn't a gatekeeper though, so she handed me $5 and said "buy what you like". Some comics were 75 cents, some $1.00, some $1.25 and the premium titles (like marvel age with 3 separate stories was $1.50), I could buy whatever I wanted "with the $5 I had".
Kids today [should] get the same bargain, "buy what you like, within this budget... " and let them figure it out.
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u/chewytime 21d ago
By the time I started collecting comics in earnest they were already $1.99 per issue so with my meager allowance, I would usually only be able to afford one, maybe two issues in a week (if I saved my money like if there wasn’t anything interesting to read the week prior).
For the most part I was only averaging 2-3 titles per month early on since we didn’t go to the newsstand or store too often. When I shifted to going to an actual comic book shop, I probably only went once or twice a month since it was a little out of our way as I was relying on my mom driving me there. Some of the best memories from my childhood.
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u/shineurliteonme 21d ago
when I was a kid the comics I bought came with a postcard inside that I could mail out with $20 to get a years worth of whatever comic I checked the box for in the mail. nowadays there's a website and it's about $30
alternatively, most kids nowadays have iPads and marvel unlimited or DC infinite are both excellent and fairly cheap for a parent to justify
the local library at least where I live has only grown more welcoming to comics and graphic novels over the years as well. your library is bound to have a selection to pick through or if it doesn't it's probably able to borrow from a connected library that does
there's no spinner racks at the store really but there's still options out there for kids
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u/whistlepig4life Wolverine 22d ago
While the cost differences are true. The average kid was also getting $2 for mowing the lawn or taking out the trash at best. And now they get way more.
Costs are a relative thing.
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u/MagusFool 22d ago
But the cost per issue is proportionally MUCH higher, even adjusting for inflation.
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u/Snooze78727 22d ago
Part of it is the quality of the paper. Cheap newsprint just isn't used anymore. Back in the day, the fancy paper was about double the price of newsstand editions.
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u/whistlepig4life Wolverine 22d ago
It’s still relative and while it is more. It’s still relatively easy to justify the cost.
The issue would be more around availability. In the 70’s and 80’s there were far more outlets with comic available for kids. From Drug stores or pharmacies to 5&10’s to grocery stores. Etc. today it’s pretty much a local shop and that’s it for most kids.
The cost isn’t the real issue for kids these days.
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u/RIP-TREOS 22d ago
It’s really not. I’m apparently younger, but growing up in the 90s I could walk to Osco Drug and buy comics for $1.50-$1.99 each, then cross the street to Texaco and buy a one liter of Cherry Coke for 99 cents (plus tax). A one liter of Cherry Coke now costs upwards of of $3, while a standard issue of X-Men is around $5. And comics are much quicker reads than they used to be (I know, recapping through dialogue and whatever other arguments. Still.). And the art on a lot of stuff is drawn on an iPad now, and I’m sorry, a lot of it isn’t very good.
I still love comics as a medium, but they priced me out of being a weekly buyer around 2020.
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u/whistlepig4life Wolverine 22d ago
Cool story. I don’t care to have an argument about who is right or wrong. You know what you “know”. Go with god.
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u/LawnmowerMen 21d ago
My kids read comics every night for about 30-45 minutes before bed. My 10 year old is currently reading through brubakers captain america omnibus and my 9 year old is making his way through a longbox i have of late 80s Disney comics. They both recently finished a stack of 20 or so Simpsons trades. They were both struggling with reading at ages 6 and 7 so for about a year i would take them with me Wednesdays cmfor new comic day and though they wanted captain underpants hardcovers and id tell them they had to pick out a single from new release wall. Id only get them one and they'd read it on the way home. My 10 year olds favorite comics are war stories from 1950s EC and my 9 year olds favorites are the asterix and obelisk 1960s/70s comics. So yes. Comics are too expensive for kids but there are probably 100,000 comic collectors in the US and very few share their passion or collections with the children in their lives. They horde their books in closets with DO NOT TOUCH DADS THINGS signs on them with the intention of (ironically) passing on these collections to their children as an inheritence when they die. Those children who care nothing for the books quick sale that inheritance for pennies on the dollar to a dealer or shop who in turn sells them to a new set of father's who hide them in basements and closets with DO NOT TOUCH DADS THINGS signs and the cycle continues without the books every reaching children's hands again. There are probably enough comics in closets with signs to give every child on the planet 10 books. So I guess my point is, the lack of access children have to comic books is not the fault of the shops or the publishers or the printers. Its the fault of the collectors. I rarely take them with me anymore or buy them books anymore. I just gave them access to my collection. If my sons asked me to read ASM 300 or fantastic four 52 or one of the hundreds of other valuable books I have i believe I would let them(dont hold me to it though haha). The joy of watching a child experience a part of a history which has importance to me would outweigh the then unrealized value of the book. So sir this isnt an attack on you at all but moreso an observation of a shortcoming in our community. I sell comics at conventions and I might see 1 or 2 kids in a whole weekend at my booth. I see a lot of dads though. 1000s of childless fathers. When I go to shows as a guest I take my sons. Its a lot. They get bored far sooner than me and then they get annoying and then we often have to leave before ive had my fill. Would I enjoy going solo and feeding my unquenchable addiction to paper alone? You better believe i would but thats not the legacy I want to leave.
Rant over have a good weekend!
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u/LeggoMahLegolas 22d ago
Man, I remember a decade ago when DC Rebirth happened and DC books were $3.
Now they're like $5-6...
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 22d ago
"Bring back spinner racks so kids can find comics!"
"If only every town had a comics shop..."
Go visit your local public library.
The best graphic novels, and/or the most popular graphic novels. FREE to checkout if you live locally. Or just sit in the library and read all day long!
AND! The librarians? They are experts on finding stuff you might enjoy!
If you don't mind paying postage, they can also get books from other libraries!
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 22d ago
Libraries are great. There's also archive that works a bit like an online library, and Hoopla if you can get it to work.
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u/oldcomicbook 21d ago
When I got back into collecting a couple of years ago I ran the numbers: the first 40 years of comics were the best $/page for the buyer; the last 40 years have been the worst $/page for the buyer.
The first 40 was because comics were disposable loss leaders, the next 40 because the publishers were hungry for profit.
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u/Boring-Bottle-6420 21d ago
Me and my nephew been going and picking up comics lately and it’s wild how up and down the prices are, I switched to getting manga tho
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u/HARLEM63 21d ago
This is why you have to give DC Comics some major props over the last few years. They've absolutely scored with not only their "ABSOLUTE" line, but with those $9.99 "DC FINEST" digest books.
I'm in My early 60s. If I'm not reading Non-Fiction books (primarily Black History, Music Bios, etc.) on My Amazon Fire E-Reader, My younger Co-Workers (Millennials) usually see Me reading Comics on My old RCA 11.6" tablet during My lunch break. So they tend to have all sorts of questions for Me. Other than thinking it's "cool" that I read Comics. Because their Comic knowledge is primairly "Movie-based". Quite a few of them have actually purchased those "DC FINEST" books due to our discussions. Though many of them tend to want to talk "X-MEN '97" more. I have to tell them that "X-MEN" history is way too "convoluted" for Me. LOL
Yeah. Comics are definitely EXPENSIVE these days. But today's kids are lucky in a Publisher's sense. They have various aspects of collecting the medium. Digests, Omnibus, Digital, etc. And for us Older Fans, these aspects are great ways to relive our Childhoods. Especially for those of us who no longer have our Collections.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
Same here but I've retired. Buying physical monthlies as in the main post is worse as I said, but having so many other options is great.
I don't ride a bike anymore, but out on walks on hot summer days, it brings back the memories of heading out to check the local 7-1l's and gas mart stores to check out the spinners and bring the haul back home to read
Doing a lot of reading on my tablet now though I still have some old books for the smell and the feel of them.. Besides the main Marvel and DC books, I used to read just about any publisher back them. Archive has a lot of collections for Harvey, Archie and Gold Key to either read online or download to read later.
I switched from reading by title to reading by month like I did back then
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u/Ampersandbox 21d ago
Kids these days can’t afford the expensive monthly singles, but we didn’t have trade paperbacks when I was a kid.
The library I most frequently visit has heaps of trade paperbacks that can be borrowed for free. That’s a wild advantage I couldn’t imagine when I was younger.
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u/Miskatauntaun 22d ago
There are exceptions, of course, but generally speaking, comics aren't for kids anymore.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 22d ago
True. I do like seeing the "all ages" books that come out for the younger kids. The Marvel Age Spider-Man books did s good job updating the early books
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u/LosIngobernable Kingpin 22d ago
It’s why I wait for trades/omnis (looking at you, Absolute Batman).
Also, Inflation sucks ass and I cant believe it’s happened twice (maybe 3 times?) since the Pandemic. Assh0les. 😡
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u/Livueta_Zakalwe 22d ago
I’m a bit older and miss the days of my $2 weekly allowance for chores when I could get 8 books and a candy bar for a buck and a penny. I quit reading (for awhile) when the price got up to 25 cents! Price doubled in 5 years.
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u/particlesmatter 22d ago
My friend owns a comic store. He said kids love the super hero movies but don’t read many comics. Maybe some truth to that
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u/Guitar-Hobbit 22d ago
Unfortunately the number of younger kids who I see regularly picking up comics isn’t very high. Lot of college age kids, though. That Absolute Batman really brought them and in and a lot of them have gone on to branch out to Ghost Machine and other Indy books, too. Really fun to see.
I think partly a combination of cost and there being fewer mainstream books that are aimed at a younger demographic. The kids who are into it are really into it, though. It’s great.
Far too often I see a parent bring their kid in hoping to foster reading but instead of floppies the child wants a labubu or something lol. But, a lot of younger kids are reading Manga or graphic novels. Kids are still reading, just less and less are keeping up with the monthly adventures of Batman or the nearly weekly Spidey comics
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u/One_Scientist8578 22d ago
So true. I was 10 in 1967 so I was paying.12c. Today it's like 5.00 for a new book, I usually pass because of you're following 3 titles it gets really expensive.
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u/piscian19 22d ago
Theres no way in heck Id collect singles in this day and age. In all honesty the first thing I hit at any comicbook store is the graphic novel bargain bin. Its a stretch when I spend more than $15 on a graphical novel even.
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u/Snooze78727 22d ago
Yep. For me it was the 80's and I recall paying .75 for issues of Marvel and DC. The first issue I remember buying was Fantastic Four during the John Byrne run. Comics were cheap, ubiquitous and easy to get into. Shortly after, I discovered direct sales at comic shops printed on fancy paper going for $1.50 and up. That included indie titles I never saw before, which was cool. Prices today are ridiculous. I guess the publishers want readers to go digital. The last physical monthly I used to buy, the Simpsons, was ended a few years ago.
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u/GonkGeefle 22d ago
You can order sea monkeys online.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 22d ago
Not the same these days. That ship has sailed. Maybe Marvel can bring FOOM back and I can join that.
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u/GonkGeefle 21d ago
I get it. I ordered sea monkeys as an adult, and my experience can be best summer up as "...So that's it, huh?"
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u/SparkyPantsMcGee The Question 22d ago edited 22d ago
I don’t have kids, but I have friends with kids starting to hit allowance age. They’re still under 10 so their allowance is like $5 a week with a plan to get closer to $20 by the time they’re like 10-12 years old and maybe get closer to $50 before they reach driving/job age. That’s not a bad deal all things considered.
That said, there are two other factors at play. A lot of these kids also aren’t being let loose out into the wild. If they’re going somewhere it’s usually with their parents. So they’re spending the money on the things they want with parents covering food and a snack or something. You not seeing too many hop on bike head to a comic shop and 7Eleven by themselves. Also, while my friend’s kids aren’t quiet into comics I don’t usually see to many kids in comic stores too often either. It’s unfortunately more people my age and older. If they’re reading them, they’re likely picking up graphic novels or using a tablet. You can still go pretty far with that. I’d also bet most of these kids 10-13 are spending their allowance money on V-Bucks and Robux, but that’s a whole other can of worms.
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u/CulturalChemistry860 22d ago
I started as my dad's runner to get comics at the px and newsstand. I caught tail end of 15 cent comics. I occasionally buy new comics but the feel of the paper doesn't feel the same. I liked when they went to the paper in direct comics
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u/keepkeepinit 22d ago
Yeah it’s crazy. 20 years ago I was the youngest person hanging out in comic shops and today I feel the same way.
I’ve worked with kids a lot over the years and I have given away hundreds of comics to them. I tell them to check out the dollar bins if they can get their mom to take them to a shop.
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u/danteholdup 21d ago
Its not about being priced out so much as our money being priced out, inflation is hitting everything, and comics have become a luxury item in the internet age, where you can access a literal infinite amount of comics for free whenever you want.
I think Comics also fall into that mid form media trap, where people either want 10 second or hour+ long media, to consume extremely quickly, or binge for hours. People at large dont want content they only get 10ish minutes of entertainment out of a month, especially for 5$ a pop.
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u/upgrayedd69 Larfleeze 21d ago
That’s why I appreciate DC putting cheap reprints in Dollar Tree and Giant Eagle. My daughter gets one prettt much every time we go
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u/PhotographMediocre75 21d ago
The $5 your parents gave you in 1975 is equivalent to $32.15 in present value.
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u/TheRealGrifter 21d ago
Comics have outpaced inflation by double since the 1980s. If cover prices followed inflation, there’s be about $2.25 right now, not $5.00 and higher.
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u/Admirable_Dust7749 21d ago edited 21d ago
I’m not super big on comics but my nephew is. There’s a used bookstore by him and he buys the anthology books (sorry, not sure what that is called in the comics world) for $8-$10 each (I’m sure some are higher). He says his allowance isn’t big enough to buy single issues.
Also, I realize I didn’t add anything to this conversation that hasn’t already been said. Just adding a useless vignette of my life.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago edited 21d ago
Nothing wrong with that. And its good to hear your nephew is reading. IF his mom can get him to a library or would let him onto the Marvel or DC apps, or Hoopla, he could get in a lot more reading. A tablet would be best for that though.
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u/Admirable_Dust7749 21d ago
Definitely. I know he does read some on his ipad and likes to collect his favorites. It makes some easy Christmas and Birthday shopping for his favorite uncle.
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u/TripleH18 21d ago
Kids don’t buy floppies. As a youth worker they read plenty of comics bits scholastic books, manga tankaban or sometime a TPB. Never seen a kid in the comic shop tbh
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
I see it some, but always with a parent. They could be looking for manga but I never paid enough attention to notice.
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u/Competitive-Road-206 21d ago
I think their parents are also a lot more cautious about adult content in comic books is my guess.
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u/therempel 21d ago
Damn dude, I got $2 Canadian in the late eighties early nineties and that was usually enough to buy one new comic or a couple from the dollar bin.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
Seems like a was getting a better deal than I knew at the time from the other comments. I was getting good grades - I was in Honor Society - so maybe that was part of it.
This was at 14-15 too, not as a little kid.
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u/therempel 21d ago
You definitely had generous parents! I think I got $2 CAD (like $1.50 USD at that time) a week until I was 13 or 14, by which point I was already working part time.
I was the youngest of seven but my closest sibling was six years older than me. We didn't have honor society but I was taking high school classes at 13 and competing at a high level in competitive swimming, with almost all of the costs paid for by my provincial government.
I just had cheap parents.
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u/Miniscule_Platypus 21d ago
What’s stopping you?
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
The loss of the sense of wonder as a kid. Basically I grew up and know better.
Sad.
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u/epicnachos 21d ago
I got interested in comic books again when my sister got me the first TPB of absolute Batman. I recently went to a comic book shop and saw that issues of different comic book series cost like $5.99 and I was like no thanks I’ll just buy the TPB. There’s lots of TPB that are cheap that I can buy now or just get a digital subscription. I saw absolute Batman #25 variant covers as high as $45. No thanks.
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u/carmachu 21d ago
Comics were unaffordable to kids 10 years ago. I looked at the pricing back then for my kids and got sticker shock. I looked at the nowadays to pick up some graphic novels recently and got sticker shock again. It’s not worth it
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
Yeah, the main post was pointing out how expensive it is for physical these days, but luckily there;s so many options that I didn't have as a kid. The new smaller trades and the Marvel and DC apps make things much more affordable if you're not a collector or need physical.
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u/carmachu 21d ago
I need physical. Digital is great for alot of things but has one very big downside. That’s not just for comics, but games, movies, RPGs, etc….
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u/Serious-Discipline35 22d ago
There’s no way a single
Comic book should cost $5. I feel if you can’t sell it for $1.25 don’t even sell them.
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u/Serious-Discipline35 22d ago
Also I understand inflation but I browsed the new Superman’s at the lcs and $5 each is just too much
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u/StrictFinance2177 21d ago
Deforestation is still a concern if we reintroduce certain collector habits to future generations. But on the flip side, kids can find a lot of comics nobody wants, and a lot of the time they pick up on hidden gems that we missed, since we needed a fresh set of eyes to read glossed over arcs. I never took Deadpool seriously when I was younger. And I didn't really get into Green Arrow. But a new generation made me revisit and realize how good it was/is. I'm sure everyone has their version.
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u/Mugwumpjizzum1 21d ago
LMAO it's funny you mention Deadpool because I had quit collecting comics in the mid 90s besides Dark Horse Star Wars. Years later Ryan Reynolds was campaigning hard to get a Deadpool movie and seeing people all over online begging for Deadpool on the big screen. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why anyone would want a movie about some shitty ass Rob Liefield character who has incredibly vague powers besides having guns.
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u/StrictFinance2177 20d ago
People forget how nobody cared for Deadpool in the early 90s. But you'd think if Rob got one of his characters in movie form, it was supposed to be Stryfe first. See how crazy things are.
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u/Maxpo 21d ago
Did you have any luck with the x-ray glasses? I feel like I'm talking too myself. I only bought comics from end of third grade to beginning of ninth grade. But those were some of the most memorable years of my childhood. I still have 3.5 long boxes. $5 was my weekly. 7-11 is where I bought Secret Wars( and spent change on Mike Tyson Punch Out, Shinobi, Karate Champ and Joust. To name a few). My brother and I (7 and 11) respectively, would take 2 buses Saturday morning to 2 book stores and a comic book shop. $10 collectively went a long way.
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u/Idarran_of_Ulivo 21d ago
The allowance should be 43.25/week now to keep up with regular inflation.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
These days, if I had a teen and gave them that much money every week I'd worry about what they spent it on if there were no guardrails.
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u/Raffaele_Ienco 21d ago
Comics at such high prices is really soul depressing, these wonderful books need to be dirt cheap.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
Luckily there's the apps now if you just want the stories to read and don't need the physical. Its very rare I actually buy a book unless its something special.
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u/Galaxykid84 21d ago
Back when I was a kid & teenager inbetween the 2000s/2010s, I used the library or buy TPB at either Borders or Barnes & Noble to read comics or manga. Kids collecting floppies hasn’t been an accessible thing since the 90s lol
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u/jive_twix 21d ago
I live in Ireland and comics are very hard to get. I travel to the big Sub City Comics shop once every summer and it'll usually cost me an arm & a leg just to get a single comics, and that's without if there's a graphic novel I really want. I hate reading comics online.
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u/youllmeltmorefan 16d ago
Most of the content in them isn't appropriate for kids any more anyway. DC has backed off their extreme gore and rape phase but only just. Most of the covers are softcore, some are hardcore. Kids just aren't a factor for anyone but Scholastic and a couple of other publishers that focus on bookstores like Papercutz.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 16d ago
True. As I mentioned elsewhere there might be more comics coming out than before but very few of them are for kids.
Growing up there was a lot more variety besides superheroes - there were over a dozen Archie titles, all the Harvey titles like Casper, Richie Rich and Hot Stuff, and all the different books by Gold Key - Disney, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, Pink Panther and Hanna Barbera.
Very few like those now and they probably wouldn't sell if they were out there. I'm glad I have a good backlog of these to read along with Marvel, DC and the rest.
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u/LastGoodKnee 22d ago
Children don’t read comics for real
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 22d ago
I hate absolutes.
Do "most" children not read comics? Yes
Do "some" children read comics? Also yes
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u/LastGoodKnee 21d ago
Some children have parents that can afford all kinds of things, comics hasn’t been targeted for kids for like…. 25 years. At least
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u/Competitive-Ad4249 22d ago
I have never been to a comic store. Do titles for mature audiences like DC Black Label, Marvel Red Band and Marvel's Parental Advisory books get placed in a different aisle of the LCS? What if a kid picks them, do the cashiers refuse to ring up the purchase unless the child's legal guardian approves?
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 22d ago edited 21d ago
I never noticed in my store. Every monthly comic is placed along the wall on shelves and I never looked to see if the mature books were there or not. I didn't see a different section for books elsewhere except for the trades and omnibuses.
Of course I don't think I've ever seen a kid in the store without their parents and never seen a bicycle in front of the store either. My store is a in strip mall area with a Target and a lot of other stores, next to a full mall with a large amount of traffic.
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u/raise_the_sails Damian Wayne 22d ago
Yeah great thanks I love hearing about how great and easy and cheap life was for Boomers. Never gets old.
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u/JetScreamer-212 22d ago
When you are 50, you will be the grumpy old man complaining about how life really sucks now and how cheap and affordable the cost of living was back in 2026.
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u/darksideoflondon 21d ago
The thing is, it wasn’t cheap back then, the relative scale has gone up but they don’t realize that! When comics were .40 minimum wage was a buck twenty! Minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation.
What is funny is that comics have never been cheaper (relatively), almost every shop has a dollar bin somewhere. Adjusted for inflation, that’s .25 per comic! There is GOLD in those dollar boxes! I got the whole run of Moore Wildcats recently, such good reading!
The difference between then and now is that there are about a million new comics to read from the last 50 years!
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u/1USAgent 21d ago
“What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but that you're that pissed that so many others had it good."
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 22d ago
Right up there with the present generation complaining about how hard they have it.
The point was inflation sucks for everybody, young or old.
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u/raise_the_sails Damian Wayne 22d ago edited 22d ago
Yeah boomers talking about how great life was is totally comparable to middle aged and younger people discussing how awful your generation has made things for everyone.
I bet it does get old hearing how much of a breeze your life was compared to younger generations. If you have any kind of heart, I imagine it would feel pretty embarrassing to know you lived a cakewalk while for the first time in American history, the generations younger than you are worse off than the ones before them. Your ilk took everything on their children’s and grandchildren’s dime. Shameful.
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 22d ago
Any group or generation is made of individuals and not one mass that's exactly alike. I didn't have a cakewalk growing up, coming from a military family. There are many "boomers" out there barely surviving. And there are many in the new generation that are not worse off than before, but much better. Musk and his Doge stooges were all young kids firing people left and right in the US to make things "better" with no though to the cost of the people fired.
And in this subject one point was that things are better for the younger kids - the ability to subscribe to the two main comic companies and have the option to read any of over 60k comics a month for about $10+ month is amazing
I'm not embarrassed about my life - I had rough times and good times, served in the military, had wins and losses.
I don't have an "ilk" and you sound a bit bitter for this post. Making all older people to be greedy and selfish on the backs of all the poorer younger generations?
Now that's shameful. Way to ruin a post
Oh, and blocked
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u/MechaTyranitar 21d ago
This seems really weirdly and suddenly hostile because this seems more intended to be about a discussion on to reflect about the effects of such inflation rather than bragging about how good he had it. Besides some nostalgic flourishes. I'm pretty sure OP wants modern kids to have the same buying power.
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u/N0m0reh3r03s 22d ago
We got what we voted for.
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u/0rionNe5ula 22d ago
All politicians are corrupt and are only looking out for themselves and the 1%, not you or me.
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u/Brilliant_Dig_8962 21d ago
The more things change. We started collecting when they were 12 to 15 cents a book. 6 for less than a dollar. Then the ominous 'still only 15 cents!' appeared on the covers.... We were gone after the cynical oversized 25 cent books appeared and then disappeared after one month to be replaced by 20 cent books. Besides, Ditko, Kirby, Adams and Steranko had left Marvel, so...
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21d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Randomdays99 The Thing 21d ago
I've been hearing good things about the pricing DC's Compact line and Marvel's Premiere line
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u/wintersmith1970 22d ago
Another important part of what you said is WHERE you bought them. Aside from the price point is the lack of access. When I was a kid, I could walk to a grocery store with a sizeable magazine selection which included comic books,a convenience store with a spinner rack and a bookstore with comics and magazines. This was in a small Texas town.