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DC and Marvel plan to drop price of comics

In a sign of the economic times, both DC and Marvel Comics have announced plans to drop prices on most of their titles back to $2.99. The plan is, of course, to ensure financially strapped fans can continue following their favorite books, and even maybe buy more books.

This is probably a smart idea. Even smarter -- and I've said this a million times -- would be for the big publishers to reclaim the news stand. The "direct market" of comic book shop-centric sales has resulted in an aging, dwindling readership of comics over the past few decades. It's difficult to find regular comics titles in grocery stores, drug stores, etc. Moving back into this realm, with titles that are easy to jump aboard and appropriate for kids, could help save the monthly title format.

Kids are still interested in superheroes. They wear Spider-Man t-shirts, watch Batman cartoons, etc. If they saw comic books featuring such characters in places where kids go, i.e. to the store with mom and dad, the publishers could gain a larger, new generation of fans.

Publishing a few kid-oriented titles for the comic book shop doesn't cut it. The publishers' mainstream fair should be geared to a target age of 10-12. All the flagship titles: Batman, Superman, Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, etc., should be geared to this age group and available everywhere with storylines that don't require a graduate degree in funnybook history to understand.

This would be an enormous change and could result in the loss of some older fanboy fans. But it also could reverse the slow death of monthly superhero comics.