Trevor

http://www.dcindexes.com/features/ne...995&sort=alpha

Looks like I was on one of my hiatuses and wasnt ordering monthly books back then. And curiously, very few of these covers look familiar. I usually can spot at least 5 or so covers that I've later bought in back issue bins. The only one that I'm 100% sure I own in physical form is:

Batman: Manbat #2

And digitally, I know I own most of the Dark Horse books now.

rocket1312

This was during a year or so that I had stopped buying completely. Looking through the list, the only things that I own are Uncanny X-Men #326, X-Men #46, and the Flash: Terminal Velocity tpb. I'm pretty sure The Flash tpb is the only thing I've actually read, but I may have looked through those X-Men issues at some point. I also see that the Star Wars Dark Empire II tpb is on the list. I don't have the tpb, but I do have the original issues. I've read them, but I probably couldn't tell you a single plot detail from that story.

Edit to add: I also own and have read those Astro City and Starman issues in tpb form. Both are great series.

The Valeyard

Ah. September 1995. Black September had arrived and the Ultraverse began its slow decline into oblivion. Valiant's Birthquake was stillborn. Mark Waid was writing Captain America and the Flash. John Byrne was on Wonder Woman. Rune fought Conan. The Devil arrived at DC. And Peter Parker called it quits as Ben Reilly took over (still as the Scarlet Spider). I had dropped a ton of titles from the Image Era heyday but I was still collecting PLENTY of books. Checking the list, I grabbed 35 books that month.

Good times.

mrhan

I don't recall any of those covers except Exiles. I was still buying but not really reading anymore; I think '95 was the year I started to lose interest until I completely stopped in '98. I know the only series I consistently bought was Uncanny X-Men. I have tons of comics from those years I never read.

PhantomStranger

1995 was the beginning of my self-imposed exile from comics for a fairly extended stretch. Having bought most every Marvel and DC book each month for years, the combination of rising cover prices, life changes, and a growing dissatisfaction with both companies' handling of major characters had me completely dropping monthly comics. I quit cold turkey and it didn't really bother me at the time.

The rising prices for monthly comics made it a very easy decision. While it was never that cheap, you could keep up reasonably well with most of the Marvel or DC line on a monthly basis before the early 1990s. When cover prices quickly started going to $1.75-$3 on a regular basis, it became nearly impossible. It was especially bad for the popular heroes when Marvel and DC realized they could publish 5 or more Spider-Man and Batman books a month.

I would still likely be purchasing monthly books if the price of comics had kept pace with normal inflation since the 1980s.

Trevor

They'd be a dollar a comic today based on the price when I was a kid and the inflation calculator I just used.

Guess I pretty much buy everything I want and rarely pay more than a dollar though. Sure, I have to wait for discount bins and digital sales, but everything's a buck soon enough.

But I'd rather the new issue cover price be $1 obviously!

madcougar

The Big Book of Conspiracies is one of the few Big Books I still have!

fujishig

I recognize far too many of those covers. I don't know why I stuck with Byrne for so long on Wonder Woman, I remember thinking that his art had regressed so much without Austin inking him. Either that or he just liked a really gaunt WW.

Also, Ellis and Deodato on Thor. And the days when you had not one but two Legion books, and both were fun.

And Billy Ray Cyrus, from Marvel? That's not one I recognize.

PhantomStranger

Buying them fresh off the rack in perfect condition was a big thing for me. By the time most issues would hit the bargain bins, they'd get beat up. The only time I would ever buy from the bargain bins was for titles or characters I didn't really care about.

My understanding is that prices started quickly rising at Marvel and DC because the better creative talent realized they could go independent like Image and actually earn a good living during the boom years. One of the big reasons why comics were so cheap before the 1990s is that creators back then were being paid practically slave wages except for one or two superstars.

Trevor

Bah! Bags and boards, condition, and especially CGC are the devil. Comics are meant to be dog eared. Give me a slabbed mint Action #1 and I'll toss that plastic crap away and read that bitch.
I thought I've always heard that paper and printing costs were more of the factor in the price increases.

mrhan

That was always the excuse they wrote down in ads in the back of the book when they explained the increase in the past. I doubt that excuse can be used when the writers/artist getting huge paydays.

Trevor

What's a huge payday?

I don't think comic book professionals make all that much.

PhantomStranger

Outside of the Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Jim Lee level of comic book talent, I don't believe comic book creators are making a killing. That becomes even more of a truth the farther back in time you go. It's why so many slum around going to conventions and appearances on weekends.

fujishig

The creators getting paid better is one factor. But I think a bigger one is the (much) smaller distribution, which increases the cost at the printer per issue, plus the change in targeting. If, as some accounts say, more than 90% of kids were reading comics at one time in the 40s, the circulation numbers were huge, and the comics, printed on cheap newsprint, were not collected so much as read like a periodical or newspaper, largely cheap and disposable. While they resisted raising prices for some time, they cut back on page counts and increased ads. When they went after the direct market and newsstand distribution atrophied, the comic companies decided (not sure if they had any other option) to go after the collector/fan: higher quality paper (ah, Baxter paper), and in some cases they put out stories a year before they hit the newsstand with higher prices to boot.

Now you have this niche market and a smaller distribution model; the advertising market, at least to me, seems to have shrunk with the distribution, and there's not a lot of a variety in the ads (and a lot of house ads as well).

PhantomStranger

The shrinking circulation numbers over the decades definitely played a huge role. Comics got a nice little bump in readers after the first Batman movie, but it has been a downward slope since those unimaginable sales numbers from the 40s.