Mmmmmmmarketing
Ask anyone that knows me. I love marketing. Those TV ads specials that they air periodically? Yeah, I'm all over that.

What does this have to do with cheap-ass comics? It's the latest marketing technique to attract new users in comicdom.

WHAM! POW! Holy Ten Cent Comic, Batman!
The trend was recently spurred on by comic books publisher DC Comics. As a means of launching the seemingly endless Bruce Wayne: Murderer and Bruce Wayne Fugitive tie-in serieses, DC released THE Ten Cent Comic.

While Murderer and Fugitive were both entertaining story lines, they were not nearly as fascinating to me as the successful ploy of luring readers in with an underpriced comic book. Both story lines dragged on for a bit with varying amounts of tangential side plot elements. And I was there for the entire run. But only because of THE Ten Cent Comic.

Fantastic Idea
So well received was this marketing concept, that nearly immediately after the release of THE Ten Cent Comic, Marvel Comics announced a forth coming nine cent issue of Fantastic Four. Whether I completely missed the boat on this (which I suspect I did) or if it still has yet to come out, I have not picked up this nine cent comic.

As much as I'd like to say, "Sure, I'm not really interested in the FF," I have to admit that for nine cents, I'd absolutely buy the damn thing.

Baker's Dozen
Wildstorm, a subprint of DC also picked up the Cheap-Ass Comic marketing vibe for the relaunch of their Gen 13 title. Guess how much issue #0 cost? Yep, thirteen cents.

This, I did pick up. But I was also drawn to this comic because of comic book god, Chris Claremont. But, even the lure of Chris Claremont combined with the Cheap-Ass attraction of the premier issue were not enough to lure me back for a full price subscription.

What's Next? Free Comics?

Actually, this was already recently covered by Free Comic Book Day. I believe this was basically sponsored by the comic book industry as a whole lead by Diamond Distributors. But don't quote me on that.

Who knows what's next on the horizon. We're already seeing an increasingly large number of comics appear on the web, like those on comicsontheweb.com. It runs sort of like drugs. It's free at first to hook you... then you've got to pay.

Still, it's a cool concept. I love marketing.