The Four Color Media Monitor

Another argument being made that comics are a great investment, all at the expense of reading pleasure. I think the riskiest argument MarketWatch is making would have to be this:

Comic books are recession-proof. The only time business growth slowed for Zurzolo was right after the dot.com bust, but it soon rose from its plateau. “When the economy is doing poorly, people are looking for alternative forms of investment,” Zurzolo said. “When the economy is doing great they have more discretionary income and they buy comic books.”

I don't think this makes much sense. They've already reached 4 dollars in price, some employees of the companies were let go, and the mainstream tales are faring the worst from a storytelling POV. And then there's that collapse brought on by the speculator market in the mid-90s. Tons of newer comics that aren't bound to have much value in the future because there's far more of them than there are of classic pamphlets whose sums are smaller, so they have more monetary value. The premiere issue of the sans-adjective X-Men series from 1991 would only be worth $20 if it was still kept in the mylar plastic. And if the story's bad, few will want to invest in that.

Comic-book valuations have yet to decline. (Yes, I know, they used to say this about real estate.) “I can’t tell you how many people I’ve dealt with who are ecstatic about their comic-book investments,” Zurzolo said. In the bleak aftermath of the financial crisis, Zurzolo sold an Action Comics No. 1 for $317,200 — which was then the record. “There were a lot of people with money who did not want to buy real estate and were terrified of the stock market,” Zurzolo recalls.

But are there newer comics other than Action Comics they'd want to invest in? Probably not. I'll bet he can't say how many because truthfully, there aren't really that many looking to invest in comics that aren't making much money today, and probably won't hold much value tomorrow. And when you do invest in comics for money, that's one place I figure playing it safe really would make sense, because lesser known comics like Red Hood and the Outlaws aren't making much in sales now, and aren't bound to interest anybody later on.

Comic-book investments are often more liquid than real estate. [...]

Of course they'd be more liquid. Save for the classics, who'd want to pay with cheques and bonds for something brand new that might not earn the value they hope? It would have to take another 50 years before a lot of this stuff might be worth something, and again, if the story's bad, not many who believe in common sense are going to want to invest.

The most interesting statement would have to be this:

It’s more fun to research a comic book than a bond or a company. Instead of keeping track of CEOs with bad hair, you keep tabs on what comic-book characters are emerging in the movies and the hot starlets playing beside them. “I could tell you more about what’s going on with Spider-Man than I could about a Fortune 500 company with 10,000 employees, where if one of them does one stupid thing, the stock price drops $5 in a day.” Zurzolo said. “There’s nothing you’re going to tell me that’s going to make me not love Superman, Spider-Man and Batman.”

While it's great to love the Man of Steel, Wall-Crawler and Masked Manhunter, among other characters both major and minor, nobody sensible is going to love any of the newest stories they've been stuffed into, and no true Spider-fan wants to read a story where Dr. Octopus takes over the hero's body and Peter Parker is almost completely omitted. Unless, for the retailer they've interviewed, only the costume matters and not the flesh-and-blood beings wearing them. Which brings to mind how much of today's writers care far more about the costume than the character, and demand that the audience do the same. This is not how to form good writing and stories.

And why should we care about the movies and actresses co-starring than the comics? There's little or nothing in this article to suggest they care about the comics per se from an entertainment perspective. That's why it falls flat.

Labels: Batman, conventions, dc comics, marvel comics, msm propaganda, sales, Spider-Man, Superman