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$3.99 And $2.99 – Marvel In September

Published Mon, 03 Oct 2011 08:00:10 -0500

Last updated Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:41:29 -0500

We have September's figures in for page counts versus price for Marvel titles. It's been noted that more and more Marvel titles have dropped to 20 pages, even those marked at $3.99 instead of $2.99.

But with DC challenging Marvel like never before last month, with a bevy of twenty page or more books for $2.99, how did Marvel shape up?

Of the 55 $2.99 page comics, 49 had 20 pages, 3 had 21 pages (Captain America Corps #4, All Winners Squad: Band of Heroes #4, New Avengers #16.1), 2 had 22 pages (Ka Zar #4, Mystery Men #5) and 1 had 23 pages (Thor: Heaven & Earth #4)

Of the 38 $3.99 comics, none had 19 pages, 14 had 20 pages , 3 had 21 pages, 15 had 22 pages 3 had 23 pages, X-Men Schism #4 had 24 pages, Annihilators: Earthfall #1 had 25 pages and Wolverine Debt Of Death #1 had 34 pages.

That's a total of 1935 pages for $316.07 or 16.5 cents a page. For their $3.99 comics, that's an average of 18.7 pence.

It looks like your best bet of avoiding Marvel's page cut is to stick to their $3.99 minis. 10 of the 17 comics with 22 pages were in this category, and 5 of those 10 were licenced and literary lines (Anita Blake, Dark Tower, Halo, The Stand, and the Oz series).

Past months:

In July, Marvel published 45 $2.99 comics and 32 $3.99 comics.

The $2.99 books had 20 story pages each. Of the $3.99 comics, 1 had 19 storypages (Ultimate Fallout #2), 9 had 20 storypages, 2 had 21 storypages, 16 had 22 story pages, 3 had 23 and 1 had 25 (Captain America #1). And Ultimate Fallout #4 is 21 cents a page.

That's a total of 1587 pages for $262.23, or 16.5 cents a page. For their $3.99 comic, there's an average of 18.5 pence.

In August, Marvel published 58 $2.99 books and 35 $3.99 books. A five week month there.

Of the $3.99 comics, 1 had 19 pages (Moon Knight #4), 13 had 20 pages, 1 had 21 pages, 19 had 22 pages. 1 had 23 (Amazing Spider-Man #668)

That's a total of 1901 pages for $313.07, or… 16.5 cents a page. For their $3.99 comics, that's closer to 19 cents. And Moon Knight #4 is 21 cents a page.

Meanwhile, DC's monthly comics are remaining at $2.99 for 20 story pages or more, or $3.99 for around 30, which put the price per story page at between 2 and 1.5 cents cheaper than Marvel every month. It may not sound a lot, but for ten comics, on average, that would mean DC is giving you around $3-4 more value right now.

Naturally value changes from comic to comic. And a bad comic is still a bad comic, no matter how many pages it has.

Thanks to Brian O'Sullivan from the Bleeding Cool boards for help with the numbercrunching.

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