Superman and Spider-Man have not shown any signs of weakness — yet. But they are facing one of the biggest foes in their comic books’ histories: a bad economy.
“We are seeing a little bit of a backlash to the bad economy,” says Dave Allread, owner of Heroes Comics in Fresno, Calif. “We will know a little better in a few months whether a person who was buying eight to 10 comics each week drops down to five or six.”
Roy Gallagher, owner of Visalia, Calif.’s Collectors Choice, has seen a small drop as sales are down about 4 percent to 5 percent from a year ago.
One reason for concern is the rising price of comic books. The average price of a comic book is $2.99. But Marvel Comics, the publishing company behind such costumed comic characters as Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man, will raise the price of six of its monthly titles to $3.99.
No such price increases have been announced at DC Comics for its main line of comic books, such as those featuring Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman.
Artist Dave Gibbons has seen the comic book world change dramatically during his 35 years in the business. The British artist, who has worked as an illustrator on comic books from “Green Lantern” to “Captain America Lives Again,” is best known for his work for the much-heralded “Watchmen” series.
More Top Picks Linsoul Kz Zsn Pro X
During an interview to talk about the film version of the comic book series that arrived in theaters this week, Gibbons talked about what he sees as the future for comic books.
“I saw the other day there were going to be $4 comics. That is a lot of money for a person who buys 10 titles a week,” Gibbons says. “What I think is going to happen is that comic readers will buy the first book in a series. Then, if they like it, they will wait until all of the books in the series are combined into a graphic novel.”