Today's post points out an example of the second of these: the research thing.
The past couple of decades have seen comic book take a turn for the less financially successful with DC and Marvel losing readership in droves. The causes of this have been debated: too much continuity, increasingly crowded media landscape, the decline of the newsstand, the growth of the direct market, digital comics, the speculators crash in the 1990s, the ceasing of virgin sacrifices to get that vivid read of Superman's cape.
In a post on ComicsAuthority, Von Allen explores a cause that I haven't seen anyone consider yet: the fact that comics are too expensive. Von Allen spreadsheeted the historical cost of comic books per page versus minimum wage and found that the average comic book...
- in the late 1930's cost 0.6% of weekly minimum wage
- in the late 1960's cost 0.2% of weekly minimum wage
- in the mid-late 2000's cost 1.4% of weekly minimum wage
Internet...research...statistics...comic books...how could anything be more perfect?
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