As the American dollar and Canadian dollar reach parity for the first time in three decades, many Canadian readers are wondering why they’re still paying more for their comic books. Don MacPherson delves into it:

One recent Image Comics release boasted a cover price of $2.99 US/$3.35 Cdn, which represents only a 12 per cent different between the Canadian and American prices. It’s still not that close to par, but it’s closer than DC and Marvel prices. Image revises its Canadian pricing on a frequent basis. Dark Horse doesn’t print a Canadian price on its direct-market releases. Johnston said that means he has to sticker those comics with a Canadian price. Oddly enough, Dark Horse’s newsstand comics in Canada do carry a U.S. price and a Canadian one.

DC’s and Marvel’s reviews of their Canadian pricing are far more sporadic than Image’s. I can’t recall them revising their prices more frequently than once a year, and I suspect it’s actually less frequent than that. Furthermore, I’ve noticed that when it comes to DC and Marvel, when one alters its Canadian price, the other follows suit rather than following the currency market.

We’re at a point today when both prices should reflect the same number. It remains to be seen if that will come to pass.

There’s some interesting discussion in the comments section, too.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 9:38 am and is filed under Comic Books, Fandom, Industry, Retailers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.