Comic book price stunts: Do they work?

Remember when Mark Millar announced Night Club, the Image Comics mini and soon-to-be Netflix series about a teenager becoming a costumed vampire? In the press release, the Scottish superstar scribe declared that the $1.99 cover price he slapped on the book marked the first time in comics history someone charged less money for a new series. That, of course, isn't true. Image Comics’ Fell and Casanova did this back in the mid ‘00s, which the creators also released at the same price point. Granted, that was almost 20 years ago and most comics were going for $2.99 then, not the $3.99 and $4.99 which have become the standard price points in today's market.

What Millar did on Night Club raises some questions. For one, do pricing stunts like these work? And do they work for all? Or is there an easily overlooking downside to releasing comics at a price point that's much lower than the standard? In the end, does it all add up economically for publishers, creators, and retailers alike?

A first easy answer would be to look at the numbers. But since Diamond Comic Distributors no longer represents Image Comics nor most of the bigger publishers – BOOM! Studios and Dynamite Entertainment being notable exceptions – looking at their sales charts is no longer of any use.

Drake Robinson, Director of Logistics at Graham Crackers Comics, the largest comics retailer chain in the US, says Millar's stunt didn't do the trick. "Night Club sold worse than Ambassadors (another new Millar book - ed.) did for us, which came out afterwards and had a $3.99 price point. Customers are more directly influenced by creators on a title, and the content, than by price decreases."

That's a sentiment echoed by other people we spoke to. Filip Sablik, President Publishing & Marketing at BOOM! Studios says, "Most comic shop customer decisions are driven by content first and foremost. If a customer wants a comic they may choose not to purchase it if the price is outside of their budget, but customers generally don't purchase anything they weren't planning to purchase because of a lower price. 'Value priced comic books' is a strategy that has been tried numerous times over the years by a variety of publishers and I've never seen it drive a meaningful enough increase in copies sold to justify the reduction in sales price."

Sablik says that from a publisher point of view it makes more sense to offer more story content, like 48 pages, for the same $4.99 than doing 22 pages at a lower cover price. Jeff Lemire and Greg Rucka, two creators we spoke to for this article, are using the strategy of extra content on some of their new books: Fishflies and The Forged, respectively, both at Image Comics.

Lemire