NDTV Profit talks about how cover prices in India for comics have gone up, and they seem to worry about how to sell comics by price in India, rather than whether the story is even worth it:
When Marvel surprised the world by announcing Robert Downey Jr., loved by all as Iron Man, as super villain Doctor Doom for the next Avengers movie, director Joe Russo justified it as a proof of the unimaginable possibilities of the multiverse.
But, in the comic book universe, a possibility that is still unimaginable is how to make American superhero intellectual properties more affordable to the millions of fans in India.
This may be a financial section of the news site, but all the same, why doesn’t anybody talk about making the IPs entertaining for anybody? And if they won’t, then the price is all the more unjustified. And as for the movie multiverse, I’m sorry, but there’s little justification for “possibilities” with the PC way they’re going now.
Hollywood superhero blockbusters, especially those from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, have sent the popularity of comic books to soaring heights. They have probably never been more recognisable or more profitable throughout their entire 85-year history, dating back to the official comic book debut of the character Superman in Action Comics #1 in 1938.
Despite this popularity, comic books, the medium that invented them, seem to have seen a rise in costs in India over the decades, with the average cost of a comic book published by either DC (the publishers of Batman and Superman comics) or Marvel (the publishers of X-Men and Spider-Man comics) being in the range of Rs 500 to Rs 9,000, making them a comparatively hefty investment that adults would have the financial means to acquire.
This contrasts with the idealism, escapism and power fantasy that is traditionally associated with these stories that would primarily appeal to children and young teens.
Oh, this isn’t new. They should consider that back in the USA, the price of a pamphlet rose to nearly 5 dollars or more ever since, and in rupees, it’s obviously been the same inflation that’s led to the rise of price for comics in India too. And where have they been all these years? Idealism, escapism, power fantasy, wish fulfilment and heroism have been marginalized for the sake of wokeness.
Between 1998 and 2008, superhero comic books sold at a much more affordable rate of Rs 10 or Rs 20 for a single issue to Rs 100 for a thicker collected edition that collected the single issues into one volume. In comparison to the current situation, they were sold in bookstores, stationery shops and newsstands alike.
This was made possible by Gotham Entertainment, a company started by entrepreneurs Sharad Devarajan and Gotham Chopra. They struck a distribution deal with American publishers like DC, Marvel and Dark Horse and MAD Magazine to reprint their comics in India. They would come in smaller sizes and on cheaper paper, and sold a low cover price, so they were accessible to many in India.
They also created the comic book character and the miniseries of the same name Spider-Man: India, in collaboration with Marvel, who also showed up in the animated movie Spider-Man: Across The Spiderverse, voiced by actor Karan Soni of Deadpool fame.
A movie that, unfortunately, was a product of the wokeness ideology that’s become a sad staple of many entertainment products in the past decade or so, and raises questions as to whether the original comics matter anymore to the moviemakers or anybody else. Whatever the quality of the Indian Spidey, it unfortunately doesn’t redeem the shambles the USA Spidey was reduced to under Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas.
This partnership seemed to have ended in 2008, when Gotham Entertainment Group turned into Virgin Comics due to a partnership with Richard Branson’s Virgin and started publishing its own IPs, such as Devi and 18 Days.
They partnered with writers like Stan Lee, who created Spider-Man, filmmaker Jon Woo and renowned creators like Grant Morrison who is responsible for critically acclaimed works like All-Star Superman—cited as the main inspiration for the upcoming Superman movie in 2025—and Garth Ennis who is best known for writing the comic book series that inspired Amazon Prime’s The Boys, which was one of its most-watched shows in 2024.
So now, they unsurprisingly sugarcoat overrated writers like Morrison and Ennis, and if the upcoming Superman movie uses the former’s writings as “inspiration”, that’s decidedly all the more reason to feel discouraged. What’s so special about Morrison’s story that isn’t so special about what was produced in the 1960s-70s? I seem to recall Woo’s films are pretty violent to boot, and it’s ludicrous to take his resume as “inspiration” too. Why don’t they ever seem to form partnerships with veterans like Chuck Dixon, if they have to choose somebody whose resume includes violent stories? These publishers are so unbelievably cheap, always going for the easiest paths.
And again, where’s all the discussion of story merit? Or even whether creator-owned comics are proving better fare these days? As usual, it’s thoroughly obscured for the sake of all this overblown mainstream fare that’s not worth paying a cent for.
Originally published here.
English (US) · 