Because min seems to be missing some pages.
See, the first issue of DC’s big summer event series (which will, of course, last well into winter) cost $3.99 and was 40 pages long. But the second issue, which still costs $3.99, is only 24 pages long (27 if you want to count the three-page illustrated prose back-up, presented as an excerpt from Blackhand’s diary.)
DC didn’t deliberately publish fewer pages in the second issue of a miniseries while leaving the price at the elevated, for-40-pages level, did they? (The solicitation on their website says the book is 40 pages long; that’s counting ads though, as #1′s solicitation says it’s 48 pages long, and the average 22-page DC book is solicited as 32 pages—22 story pages and 10 pages of ads. But even subtracting 10 pages for ads, that 40 page figure is still off by three-to-six pages).
Because that’s not very cool. That’s what Marvel Comics did with Secret Invasion—start the series with an oversized $3.99 issue and then drop back to 22 pages for the rest of the $3.99 sereies—which was the point at which $3.99-for-22-pages pricing went from something reserved for Max and Marvel Knights imprint books to being commonplace among the Marvel Universe books too.
With their embrace of back-ups in their $3.99 books, I thought DC was going to eschew Marvel’s strategy of “Eh, the suckers will buy it no matter what we charge for it! Mwa ha ha ha!” It was looking like DC might be less evil in their pricing strategies, but perhaps they’re just slower to be evil…?
This does not bode well for future.
August 12th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I’ve already dropped all my standard Marvel titles; their editorial plans made it extremely difficult to stick solely with only $2.99 books.
If DC follows, it’s probably the end of me buying singles. I simply can’t justify the cost-to-benefit ratio.
-J
August 12th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I had trusted DC to treat their customers more fairly than Marvel has, and I was purchasing a LOT more of their books as a result.
Yes, this badly reflects on DC’s pricing strategies….
August 12th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Not good news – not at all. More because they provided less than they said than the price/page ratio. That kind of thing infuriates me.
August 12th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Don’t forget the Superman: Secret Origins” preview in the back. From what I see from DC’s site the next few issues of Blackest Night wil be “40″ pages. A first issue bonus of extra pages is not uncommon in the comics business.
August 12th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Alright,In our current economy all things are slowly becoming more expensive.I don’t see people saying ” they raised the price of milk, i guess i don’t eat cereal anymore”.The fact of the matter is that comic companies (and stores) are a business.They need to make money to continue to be able to supply us with the stories we love to read.to complain about a couple of pages is insane. especially since the green Lantern series has been one of the best series published by DC lately and perhaps even ever. Geoff Johns is an amazing writer and if that extra dollar is what it takes to continue to publish such great material then we should happily spend that extra dollar.This is not about an evil company counting their money and laughing. look into the actual circulation of these books, it is not very high at all.If you are going to complain about a few pages missing then you missed the point. i did not see any comment about the quality of the book at all. did you even like it or is your heart too black to heart too black to do anything but count pages and dollars? At the end of the day if you want a Ferrari you are not going to get it for the same price as a Toyota.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Drew, I agree with most of your points. Green Lantern has been my favorite DC book since they brought it back. However Blackest Night #2 did read a bit short. Personally, I could have done without the “Superman: Secret Origin” preview. Those pages would have been better off adding to the Blackest Night story.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
While awesome, you’re right – it was a short read. I mean, did they just forget about the Atom at the beginning and skip to Hawkman showing up at the end? I guess they could flashback in the next issue, but it just seems like it was missing.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
This is why I only buy books I REALLY want to read. Personally, if the last issue of Planetary was $10 for 22 pages, I would buy it. Not so much for anything else. I honestly don’t mind paying $4 for 22 awesome pages of Blackest Night, Green Lantern, and Flash. But for now, that’s about it.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
The difference Drew is that food is a necessity and comics are a luxury. And likely, if folks are paying more for food, they are less likely to spend money on luxuries like comics, which seems to me to say that it’s really insane to raise prices 33% in the middle of a recession.
I’ve stuck to my guns on no $4-regular sized comics, and i’m happy for it. my pulls between 1/2 and a 1/3 what it was a year ago, but i am stickin’ to my guns. (I also go to way less movies these days then i did when they were $6-8, too few are worth the $10+ most theaters are charging now)
August 12th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Is there still time to add this to the current call for “20 Questions for Dan Didio”???
August 12th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Are you effing serious, DC?
I never check DC books’ pages because I’m only used to Marvel, but this is B.S. I wish I had realized this before I got it today, because I’ve been cutting books and was debating on whether or not to keep getting BN or just tradewait it, since I’ve even dropped Green Lantern already. If issue 3 is 22 pages for 4 bucks, I’m just going to Amazon-wait this series.
August 12th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Advance solicits for Blackest Night tie-ins for November are up at ign. First of all, there are 8 regular DC books crossing over with it, which I thought was the kind of thing they weren’t planning to do. I mean, some of them sound pretty good, so I’m not complaining about that. But they’re also all $3.99. It says they’re 40 pages, but only about half of them mention co-features or being oversized stories. What’s up with that?
August 12th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
“In our current economy all things are slowly becoming more expensive.”
Clearly, Drew is not in the market to buy a house, and probably hasn’t bought gas since last summer, either (I kid, I kid!). With this economy, many things have gone up, but many things have also gone down, too.
I’m dismayed when book prices creep up when there’s always news of “good” writers (or editors, artists, etc. in all industries) being let go for dubious reasons (re: Wizard layoffs, various creators unceremoniously booted from a book, Chicago Tribune wanting to squeeze a few extra bucks of profit).
Johns is a great writer, but there’s a reason I’ve stopped buying most of my floppies. When I add it up and then compare it to the TPB, it doesn’t make sense. It’s still the same writing, it’s still the same artwork, and it’s not the 1940s where individual comic books will actually be worth something some day … I have patience, and I can wait for the better (cheaper) value. Preston has the right idea.
I wonder what kind of fan reaction would happen if DC suddenly announced a limited series (6-12 ishes) with A-list talent and a price tag of $1 — for every issue. It would be an interesting experiment (something I wish they did with Wednesday Comics …).
August 13th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Just to see Green Lantern shatter the Batsignal and Aquaman back in undead action was worth the price of admission for me. And that last page? Spin-off please!
August 13th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Too much whining over price.
Not enough praising over how badass this book is.
Drew and Jim are right on the money.
Oh, and did it occur to anyone that maybe the 40pg solicitation was the misprint?
August 13th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
But if it was a misprint… are you guys going to ask Dan about this in the next 20 questions? Or are you going to use the kid-gloves?
August 13th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
That’s some misprint. And if it was a misprint, why haven’t they corrected it yet? I’m still pissed off with DC over that Final Crisis Libra one-shot that was a “misprint”.
August 15th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Ah… Glad I’m skipping this one too. I admit, it’s odd to be reading GL/GLC while skipping the main BN series, but I’ve been reading those other two books all along so I figured I’d stay the course, save some cash, and go back and read BN in trade if I really wanted to (at a discount, from Amazon).