Price increase on Ravine

boshuda · Post by **boshuda** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:06 pm

I just received this e-mail from DCBS:

Due to an increase in page count, Image has increased the cost of this title from $9.99 to $14.99. The previous DCBS price was $4.99 and is now $7.49. If you would like this title removed due to the price change, please respond to this email. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Just wanted to give peeps a heads up so everybody has a chance to cancel in case they miss the e-mail. I'm planning on getting it anyway.

exharrison · Post by **exharrison** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:38 pm

Just got that, as well. I still plan on getting it as it still sounds worth it to me. But when I got that e-mail I could remember the name, but not what the story was supposed to be. In case anyone else wants a refresher on it, I found the solicit for it:
RAVINE 1
story / art / cover STJEPAN SEJIC
FEBRUARY 13
128 PAGES / FC / T+
$9.99
"THEY ARE A POWERFUL FOE, BUT THEY WILL FALL!"
In a fantastic world far from our own, an ancient magic spell almost split the world in two and left an endless ravine in the north. One man, Nebezial Asheri, driven by the deaths of his wife and daughters will attempt to reclaim that magic and bring his loved ones back to life. The forces of an entire city, Paladia, will rise to oppose him, but his greatest foes will be a ragtag band of an outcast wizard, a dragonrider, and their allies.
Artist extraordinaire STJEPAN SEJIC (ARTIFACTS, WITCHBLADE) branches out into his first ever creator-owned and original property for Top Cow! Presented in a perfect-bound, dramatically oversized issue format, RAVINE is an epic about the lengths one man will go to to reconstruct his family, and the forces of good who must stop him at all costs.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=42221

Post by **JohnMayo** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 4:12 pm

Any idea how many pages are being added?

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 5:27 pm

JohnMayo wrote:Any idea how many pages are being added?

32 extra pages:

http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia ... 680&page=1

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:49 pm

I'm still getting it, but increasing the price 50% when you add 25% to the page count seems out of whack. Seems like the price should have gone to $12.99

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:00 pm

I can get it for $6.99 so I almost have to get it for the art alone. I wish it was hardcover though. It is still softcover I assume? Anyone know?

boshuda · Post by **boshuda** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:26 am

BobBretall wrote:I'm still getting it, but increasing the price 50% when you add 25% to the page count seems out of whack. Seems like the price should have gone to $12.99

I assumed it would at least increase the page count as much as the price increase. I really don't want to support these types of shenanigans so I'm going to drop it. It seems to me that when adding extra pages the percentage price should be less than, or at most equal to, the percentage page count increase due to the sunk costs already being taken care of. Obviously if this new page count forces other changes as well (new printing equipment, different paper type, etc) then that wouldn't be true. Based solely

Idle speculation leads me to think that maybe they weren't going to make as much money as anticipated so they wanted to increase their profits. Justifying a price increase with some extra pages seemed like the way to do that. It's a shame - those pages on Newsarama look gorgeous and I have friends who would probably be all over this assuming the story is decent.

Hopefully I'll forget when this is released as a massive trade so I can enjoy the art. Or maybe I'll convince my brother-in-law to get it and I'll borrow it

.

exharrison · Post by **exharrison** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 8:00 am

boshuda wrote:It seems to me that when adding extra pages the percentage price should be less than, or at most equal to, the percentage page count increase due to the sunk costs already being taken care of. Obviously if this new page count forces other changes as well (new printing equipment, different paper type, etc) then that wouldn't be true.

I do agree with you. However, if the change winds up costing more than a linear increase then I really don't think the consumer should have to foot that bill. If you have to change things at the tail end of the project and that throws out the cost/page of production, then you as the producer should eat the expense of failed projection. I know there isn't a ton of money to be made on that end, but that just stresses the importance of planning and projection.

Honestly, if it weren't only a $2.50 increase on DCBS, I would probably drop it. I remember when they upgraded Midnight Nation to a nicer addition well after the solicitation and jacked the price up from $35 to $100. That one I couldn't justify and had to drop. I'm glad that this is a small increase after the discount and I can justify keeping it.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:22 am

exharrison wrote: Honestly, if it weren't only a $2.50 increase on DCBS, I would probably drop it.

I agree, if the 50% DCBS discount were not present I probably would have skipped this with a $5 price uptick.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:39 am

I just noticed that Ron Marz has now been added as a co-writer, so I'm guessing that adding another creator into the mix who needs to get paid have added additional costs.

I don't mind this, Marz is a solid professional writer & will no doubt improve the final product.

It's also still half the price (on a per page basis) as a Marvel $3.99 book.

boshuda · Post by **boshuda** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:47 am

exharrison wrote:
boshuda wrote: Honestly, if it weren't only a $2.50 increase on DCBS, I would probably drop it. I remember when they upgraded Midnight Nation to a nicer addition well after the solicitation and jacked the price up from $35 to $100. That one I couldn't justify and had to drop. I'm glad that this is a small increase after the discount and I can justify keeping it.

I was actually kind of thinking the same thing but I personally would be annoyed enough that I wouldn't enjoy the book. I'm better off just cutting my losses.

Post by **JohnMayo** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:48 am

It sounds like maybe the solicitation was little premature. I can forgive the change in page count but they really should have know all of the creators before soliciting the item.

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 10:45 am

JohnMayo wrote:It sounds like maybe the solicitation was little premature. I can forgive the change in page count but they really should have know all of the creators before soliciting the item.

I don't know about solicits but from the very first time I heard about this it said the team of Sejic and Marz. So why that initial solicit didn't mention him ... that's weird. It seems like Sejic is the driver though and he just asked for help from Marz, so not sure if Marz wrote anything or just acted as mentor. Either way, it's still $6.99 for me for 160 pages of gorgeous art, so I'll get it.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Fri Jan 18, 2013 11:23 am

abysslord wrote:It seems like Sejic is the driver though and he just asked for help from Marz, so not sure if Marz wrote anything or just acted as mentor.

It seems to me that Sejic came up with the story & Marz is polishing the delivery by co-writing (I'm guessing tightening up dialogue & helping with verbal story flow).

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:30 am

BobBretall wrote:
abysslord wrote:It seems like Sejic is the driver though and he just asked for help from Marz, so not sure if Marz wrote anything or just acted as mentor.
It seems to me that Sejic came up with the story & Marz is polishing the delivery by co-writing (I'm guessing tightening up dialogue & helping with verbal story flow).

You were right

From Sejic himself over at the CBR forum:

Sejic wrote:that is what ron is for those old issue 1 previews were before i really hit my writing stride, this is why i have ron on board to judge objectively what is too much and can be taken out. this is why those placeholder lettered ones are so expansive. i give him all the information he can manipulate and mold into something wonderful. he is a master of streamlined dialogue