Here is another mutant for the D&D Gamma World game (game by Wizards of the Coast).
This one is a Wheeled-Magnetic
STR: 8 (-1)
DEX: 16 (+3)
CON: 18 (+4)
INT: 9 (-1)
WIS: 10 (0)
CHA: 5 (-3)
Fortitude Defense: +15
Reflex Defense: +16
Willpower Defense: +11
Armor Class: 11
Hit Points: 30
Skill Bonuses: +8 bonus to Athletics, +4 bonus to Mechanics
Mutant Powers
All-Wheel Drive
Magnatized Body
Maximum Overdrive
Lodestone Lure
Background
Wegg was a normal humanish kid. As he approached adulthood he began to manifest magnetic powers. In one failed experiment with these powers he accidentally fused his body with a nearby shopping cart.
To-day he appears to be an obese man with greasy black hair overflowing out of a shopping cart. No sign of any legs under the mass of flesh. Despite this appearance, Wegg is incredibly acrobatic since he can magnetically move the shopping cart that makes up his lower body.
He usually tries to hid his true mobility and tumbling skills and plays up being a clumbsy oaf. When it comes time for conflict, however, he is very daring and usually catches his adversary by surprise.
28 December 2010
27 December 2010
Vacation Homes in Sims 2
I Played a little more Sims 2 over Christmas. The Fugg family has made its way on another vacation. This time their vacation was to a new vacation home. There are many advantages to owning a vacation home in the Sims 2 for both Legacy Challenges and for the normal game.
The primary advantage is that while staying at a vacation home your Sims can build up their skills as if they were home. Given that the aging clock is on pause while they spend time on vacation, this can give many extra days of skill and badge building in your Sims’ life, It makes it possible to max out all skills before even starting college.
Additionally as you meet new NPCs while on vacation it is easy to spend one or two days of a seven day vacation and throw parties at the vacation home. This helps to build up relationships and gain new friends during the Sims holiday.
The most recent Fugg family vacation had a number of highlights. A few new family friends have been added, fishing badges have been advanced for most family members, some slight modifications and additions have been made to the vacation home, and Albert learned to teleport from a ninja.
The teleportation is going to come in handy. It’ll be neat to add some sections to the Legacy Lot that don’t have any doors. Albert will have his own Fortress of Solitude away from other pesky sims.
Over the next few game days I’ll focus on building up the family business. They have purchased a large park lot in the center of town because it had a lot of land and was inexpensive. Now I’ll be developing it and trying to create a level 10 business out of it. It’ll be a shame to wreck the look of the center of town by adding a bunch of buildings but there are luckily no zoning laws for Albert to deal with.
Eventually I’ll have to decide which of the three sons will become the official heir of the family. Once I figure that out that character will move off to college and the others will move out on their own. Looks like I’ll have to keep the offspring down to one or two each generation, at least if I want to continue breeding dogs.
This whole Legacy Challenge thing is taking longer than I thought, but I just don’t want to push it too much and get burnt out.
Another update will come soon.
The primary advantage is that while staying at a vacation home your Sims can build up their skills as if they were home. Given that the aging clock is on pause while they spend time on vacation, this can give many extra days of skill and badge building in your Sims’ life, It makes it possible to max out all skills before even starting college.
Additionally as you meet new NPCs while on vacation it is easy to spend one or two days of a seven day vacation and throw parties at the vacation home. This helps to build up relationships and gain new friends during the Sims holiday.
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| Family & Friends fishing on Green Thicket Manor vacation home lot |
The most recent Fugg family vacation had a number of highlights. A few new family friends have been added, fishing badges have been advanced for most family members, some slight modifications and additions have been made to the vacation home, and Albert learned to teleport from a ninja.
The teleportation is going to come in handy. It’ll be neat to add some sections to the Legacy Lot that don’t have any doors. Albert will have his own Fortress of Solitude away from other pesky sims.
Over the next few game days I’ll focus on building up the family business. They have purchased a large park lot in the center of town because it had a lot of land and was inexpensive. Now I’ll be developing it and trying to create a level 10 business out of it. It’ll be a shame to wreck the look of the center of town by adding a bunch of buildings but there are luckily no zoning laws for Albert to deal with.
Eventually I’ll have to decide which of the three sons will become the official heir of the family. Once I figure that out that character will move off to college and the others will move out on their own. Looks like I’ll have to keep the offspring down to one or two each generation, at least if I want to continue breeding dogs.
This whole Legacy Challenge thing is taking longer than I thought, but I just don’t want to push it too much and get burnt out.
Another update will come soon.
21 December 2010
Mutant of the Week - Pementa
Here is a random mutant rolled up using the new D&D Gamma World game. I think I'm going to do some more of theses as a weekly series just to show some of the strange things you can get with the new Gamma World. Descriptions of the mutant powers can be found in the rule book.:
Pementa
Plant-Pyrokinetic
STR = 12 (+1)
DEX = 11 (0)
CON = 18 (+4)
INT = 13 (+1)
WIS = 16 (+3)
CHA = 5 (-3)
Hit Points: 30
Speed: 6
Fortitude Defense: 17
Reflex Defense: 12
Will Defense: 14
Armor Class: 12
Abilities
+2 Bio Overcharge
Vulnerable to Fire
Fire Resistance
Fiery Aura
Lashing Creepers
Fiery Flare
Character Background
Pementa is a mutant chili pepper. It was born in southern North America a number of years ago.
Being both vulnerable and resistant to fire means that Pementa is in a state of constant pain. It made its way norht over the years hoping that the cooler climates would reduce its suffering.
Having a fire aura makes it difficult for Pementa to make friends. It now lives in the outskirts of the ruins of ancient Rah-Chez-Tur.
(Gamma World is owned by Wizards of the Coast, go to their website and poke around for more info)
Pementa
Plant-Pyrokinetic
STR = 12 (+1)
DEX = 11 (0)
CON = 18 (+4)
INT = 13 (+1)
WIS = 16 (+3)
CHA = 5 (-3)
Hit Points: 30
Speed: 6
Fortitude Defense: 17
Reflex Defense: 12
Will Defense: 14
Armor Class: 12
Abilities
+2 Bio Overcharge
Vulnerable to Fire
Fire Resistance
Fiery Aura
Lashing Creepers
Fiery Flare
Character Background
Pementa is a mutant chili pepper. It was born in southern North America a number of years ago.
Being both vulnerable and resistant to fire means that Pementa is in a state of constant pain. It made its way norht over the years hoping that the cooler climates would reduce its suffering.
Having a fire aura makes it difficult for Pementa to make friends. It now lives in the outskirts of the ruins of ancient Rah-Chez-Tur.
(Gamma World is owned by Wizards of the Coast, go to their website and poke around for more info)
20 December 2010
Review - Futureworld
***WARNING – SPOILERS FOR A THIRTY-FOUR YEAR OLD MOVIE***
Westworld (1973) was an awesome movie. It had all sorts of cool stuff including a fancy resort where people could live out their fantasies, androids, gunfights, Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin… well Richard Benjamin in a serious role.
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| Hey, you've got Futureworld in your eye |
Three years later the sequel was released, Futureworld! The Delos resort has opened two years after the disaster at Westworld. Over 50 guests were killed and 95 staff were inured or killed during that mishap. Now, in the far future year of 2002, they claim to have worked out the problem and are again open for business. The Westworld area has been shut down and the new Futureworld has been added as an option for the guests.
A couple of reporters are sent to do preliminary work on a news story about Delos . They have names, but that isn’t really an important part of the story. Now a protagonist should basically be a character or characters in the story that the audience is supposed to care about and identify with on some level. Then when they face the obstacles and challenges of the story we actually give a rat’s buttocks what happens to them. Our protagonists for Futureworld are lame and annoying. I was hoping to see Yul blow one of them away at some point.
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| The Protagonists |
During the whole trip and arrival at Delos we are continually told how safe everything is and how nothing could possibly go wrong. After the eighth or ninth time I hear the reassurances I was certain we’d have a repeat of the Westworld disaster. They weren’t going to use the same story again were they?
Anyway our two protagonists go to Futureworld instead of Medievalworld or Romanworld, it’s the fancy new addition to the resort and it also happens to be the name of the movie. After a simulated rocket ride they arrive on the ‘spaces station.’ There are cool things to do in Futureworld, including skiing on Mars (where the snow is red and the gravity is one-third of Earth’s), spacewalking around the space station, and other activities. However there are really two activities that people go to Delos for, I’ll go into those in detail down below.
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| The Future looks a lot like the '70s |
We next get a strange scene where a demonstration is made of some sort of dream recorder. Our female protagonist is strapped in and falls asleep and her dream is shown on a video monitor for all to see. It involves some strange bad guys harassing her and then she is rescued by The Gunslinger. After he saves her they begin a strange dance and end up in bed together making out. It is the most absurd scene in the movie and does not seem to make too much sense since before leaving on the trip she watched the video footage of The Gunslinger going around Westworld murdering people. Strange what turns some people on.
 |
| This scene made me cry because it was so stupid |
The movie continues with our heroes…. I mean the main characters of the movie… stumbling around in some restricted areas of Delos . They meet an engineer and his out-of-date android, ‘Clark .’ With his help they uncover the real plot of the movie. Delos is replacing world leaders and generals and such with organic androids which are indistinguishable form the originals and totally loyal to Delos . Yikes, world conquest from an android brothel!
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| Clark, the real hero of this movie, and all he did was cheat at cards |
As might be guessed from a simplistic film from the ‘70s the originals defeated their android duplicates and pretended to be the androids in order to escape Delos . And as they escape Todd turns to the director of Delos and appears to give him the finger. In actuality I believe he was giving the audience the finger because we had to sit through all that… the exploitation of Yul, the under-utilization of Clark , and the rather lame story.
Oh well. At least Westworld is still awesome.
SEX & VIOLENCE
The actual purpose of Delos is for the guests to fulfill their dreams of sex and violence. The androids do whatever the guests want including being their sex slaves. Many of the androids are also designed to be murdered. Charming.
Additionally, back in the movie Westworld, they explained how the resort’s weapons worked. They had heat sensors that would be able to tell the difference between a living being (it would be warm) and an android (it would be room temperature). The weapons would work only against the poor room temperature bastard and the guests would be fine. So the androids are room temperature… that’s kinda creepy considering the other use for androids is sex. Delos is a necrophliac’s dream come true. Now they just have to add on Whitechapelworld so the guests can try their hand at stalking and killing prostitutes.
FINAL GRADE
I’d have to give this film a four out of thirteen. There was a good idea buried in there somewhere, so that’s worth a couple of points. There was a cool cover of the Famous Monsters of Filmland that featured Clark the andoid, so that’s worth another point or two. I’m rounding up to four since I’m a generous and awesome person.
This rating makes it worth watching for background noise as you do something else. It is suggested you watch Westworld first to get the whole backstory.
If you’ve seen Futureworld please let me know what you think.
16 December 2010
Star Frontiers!
As I've been thinking back to the early days of gaming I remembered a great little science-fiction game by TSR back in the early '80s, Star Frontiers. Dralasites, Vrusk, Yazarians, Sathar and all sorts of cool stuff were included in that role-playing game. I did some quick web searches looking for memories people may have had of that game and I came across Starfrontiers.com.
This site claims to be the official Star Frontiers site, with permission from Hasbro. That's cool. Especially since they happen to have PDF copies of nearly every Star Frontiers supplement and boxed set. If you remember the good-old-days when Star Frontiers was new or just want to do some research on the early days of gaming a visit to that site would not be wasted.
I'm not sure if I'd use that old system if I ran a Star Frontiers campaign again. Some d20 variant or GURPS might work better. But I could be wrong, despite how simple the Star Frontiers system is, it might still be a functional system viewed nearly 30 years later.... 30 years? Dang I'm getting old. I still remember as a youngling spending hours designing starships for the Knight Hawks supplement. I might have to design a couple of ships this weekend for old time's sake.
This site claims to be the official Star Frontiers site, with permission from Hasbro. That's cool. Especially since they happen to have PDF copies of nearly every Star Frontiers supplement and boxed set. If you remember the good-old-days when Star Frontiers was new or just want to do some research on the early days of gaming a visit to that site would not be wasted.
I'm not sure if I'd use that old system if I ran a Star Frontiers campaign again. Some d20 variant or GURPS might work better. But I could be wrong, despite how simple the Star Frontiers system is, it might still be a functional system viewed nearly 30 years later.... 30 years? Dang I'm getting old. I still remember as a youngling spending hours designing starships for the Knight Hawks supplement. I might have to design a couple of ships this weekend for old time's sake.
13 December 2010
Happy Wold Newton Day
On 13 December 1795 the first observed meteorite strike in Britain took place near the village of Wold Newton. The meteorite was an L6, ordinary chondrite, with a mass of about 25 kilograms. This event was used as part of a literary concept developed based on some of the works of Philip José Farmer.
In the Wold Newton Universe a couple of carriages were passing by when the meteor struck. The people inside were irradiated by the strange energies of the impact. Their descendants would become some of the greatest literary characters of all time including: Tarzan, Doc Savage, Phileas Fogg, Nero Wolfe, Sherlock Holmes, Allan Quartermain, Sam Spade, and many others.
It started with Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke where Farmer examines Tarzan’s life in detail and gives links to many other fictional characters. It is written as if Tarzan was an actual person and that Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Lord Greystoke’s highly fictionalized memoirs.
Later came Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. In this Mr. Farmer gives Doc Savage the same treatment he gave Tarzan and expanded the Wold Newton Universe.
Other people have also added to the WNU as well. Attempts are made to connect other characters to the existing works. It is sort of like genealogical research for fictional characters. More info can be found on Wold Newton Universe website which is maintained by Win Scott Eckert.
The whole Wold Newton concept has gotten me to read a large number of old books that A decade ago I never would have imagined I’d read. I’ve even started searching out interesting but nearly forgotten books form the 19th century and finding Ebook copies on Google Books. This has expanded my horizons and been both entertaining and educational; that’s why I’m wishing everyone a Happy Wold Newton Day. I want to inspire others to have fun reading again.
If I ever make my way to England one of the stops I’d have to make is to visit the site of the meteor crash. However that is still secondary to spending a couple of nights in Portmeirion.
In the Wold Newton Universe a couple of carriages were passing by when the meteor struck. The people inside were irradiated by the strange energies of the impact. Their descendants would become some of the greatest literary characters of all time including: Tarzan, Doc Savage, Phileas Fogg, Nero Wolfe, Sherlock Holmes, Allan Quartermain, Sam Spade, and many others.
It started with Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke where Farmer examines Tarzan’s life in detail and gives links to many other fictional characters. It is written as if Tarzan was an actual person and that Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Lord Greystoke’s highly fictionalized memoirs.
Later came Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. In this Mr. Farmer gives Doc Savage the same treatment he gave Tarzan and expanded the Wold Newton Universe.
Other people have also added to the WNU as well. Attempts are made to connect other characters to the existing works. It is sort of like genealogical research for fictional characters. More info can be found on Wold Newton Universe website which is maintained by Win Scott Eckert.
The whole Wold Newton concept has gotten me to read a large number of old books that A decade ago I never would have imagined I’d read. I’ve even started searching out interesting but nearly forgotten books form the 19th century and finding Ebook copies on Google Books. This has expanded my horizons and been both entertaining and educational; that’s why I’m wishing everyone a Happy Wold Newton Day. I want to inspire others to have fun reading again.
If I ever make my way to England one of the stops I’d have to make is to visit the site of the meteor crash. However that is still secondary to spending a couple of nights in Portmeirion.
07 December 2010
Wiki on a Stick
I've finished repairing some minor corruption on my Wiki on a Stick. It took a total of about five or six hours, but I got to listen to one of my audio books as I worked.
What is a wiki on a stick? Well it is your own personal wikipedia on a thumb drive. It starts with no entries but can quickly be filled with information useful to the owner. I'm filling up mine with role-playing campaign notes, old blog entries, and other writings of mine. I've even added journal entries and plan to add research notes for my family tree.
Basically it is for personal information management. It is also great for note taking since you can link individual words in your notes to pages given more information and categories to organize various entries.
Sure there are online sites where you can set up your own wikia. However, those have the disadvantage of being online instead of hidden away on a thumb drive. A wiki on a thumb drive can be more secure and can be used on your laptop where no wireless is available.
As with anything else related to computers just be sure to make regular back-ups. that's what saved me countless hours fixing my file the last couple of days.
And which audio books have I been listening to? Harry Turtledove's After the Downfall as well as some episodes of the old radio show Dimension X.
What is a wiki on a stick? Well it is your own personal wikipedia on a thumb drive. It starts with no entries but can quickly be filled with information useful to the owner. I'm filling up mine with role-playing campaign notes, old blog entries, and other writings of mine. I've even added journal entries and plan to add research notes for my family tree.
Basically it is for personal information management. It is also great for note taking since you can link individual words in your notes to pages given more information and categories to organize various entries.
Sure there are online sites where you can set up your own wikia. However, those have the disadvantage of being online instead of hidden away on a thumb drive. A wiki on a thumb drive can be more secure and can be used on your laptop where no wireless is available.
As with anything else related to computers just be sure to make regular back-ups. that's what saved me countless hours fixing my file the last couple of days.
And which audio books have I been listening to? Harry Turtledove's After the Downfall as well as some episodes of the old radio show Dimension X.
18 November 2010
Famous Monsters of Filmland is back
As a kid I was really into horror movies and monsters and cool stuff like that. I would buy issues of Creepy and Eerie magazines. Eventually I started to collect Famous Monsters of Filmland, but I had to drop collection the other magazines due to the fact that my allowance would only go so far. Famous Monsters had won out.
From the late seventies and into the first few years of the eighties I would pick up the latest issue of the magazine. I remember bugging my father to take us to World Wide News downtown every month so I could pick up my magazine. I ordered a number of back issues and wanted to order half of the stuff advertised in the back pages.
Famous Monsters was a black-n-white magazine printed on newspaper quality paper, but it was always entertaining. I collected it until shortly before it stopped publication. Luckily at that point I was getting pulled into comic books to keep my allowance burning a hole in my pocket.
Today I was at a book store during my lunch break and I saw a copy of the latest issue (#252) on the rack. It's back! And they continued the numbering from where they left off!
My old issues are mostly long gone except for a couple of ragged copies now stashed away in plastic bags but this new one looks great. Full color glossy pages with some great articles. Right out of the gate I get to read about some of the old Hammer horror films (I loved those when I was a kid), an article on the new Walking Dead television series, the remastering of Metropolis (I have to see this at some point), and the creatures form Nightbreed. There is a lot more in there too, I'll have to finish reading it this weekend.
The one drawback was the $12.99 cover price. Dang! Thirty years ago it only set me back $1.75. The price has gone up at the same rate as comic books have the last 30 years.
I'm not sure how long I'll be picking up issues. I'll have to see how the quality is. I've given up on collecting anything so I won't be rushing out to pick up every issue. I'll just have to flip through each issue to see if it is worth the hefty investment. But in either case I'll have to go browse the next issue at World Wide News and see how that place has changed over the last 28 years.
Search Amazon.com for Famous Monsters
From the late seventies and into the first few years of the eighties I would pick up the latest issue of the magazine. I remember bugging my father to take us to World Wide News downtown every month so I could pick up my magazine. I ordered a number of back issues and wanted to order half of the stuff advertised in the back pages.
Famous Monsters was a black-n-white magazine printed on newspaper quality paper, but it was always entertaining. I collected it until shortly before it stopped publication. Luckily at that point I was getting pulled into comic books to keep my allowance burning a hole in my pocket.
Today I was at a book store during my lunch break and I saw a copy of the latest issue (#252) on the rack. It's back! And they continued the numbering from where they left off!
My old issues are mostly long gone except for a couple of ragged copies now stashed away in plastic bags but this new one looks great. Full color glossy pages with some great articles. Right out of the gate I get to read about some of the old Hammer horror films (I loved those when I was a kid), an article on the new Walking Dead television series, the remastering of Metropolis (I have to see this at some point), and the creatures form Nightbreed. There is a lot more in there too, I'll have to finish reading it this weekend.
The one drawback was the $12.99 cover price. Dang! Thirty years ago it only set me back $1.75. The price has gone up at the same rate as comic books have the last 30 years.
I'm not sure how long I'll be picking up issues. I'll have to see how the quality is. I've given up on collecting anything so I won't be rushing out to pick up every issue. I'll just have to flip through each issue to see if it is worth the hefty investment. But in either case I'll have to go browse the next issue at World Wide News and see how that place has changed over the last 28 years.
Search Amazon.com for Famous Monsters
17 November 2010
My Kiva Update November 2010
I’ve just made my 11th Kiva loan today. This time I loaned money to someone in Sierra Leone who sells clothing. I have now made loans to people in eleven different countries across the world.
Repayment has been mostly on time as well. Three of my loans have been fully repaid and only one of the people I loaned to is having trouble making payments on time, but they are eventually getting made.
At this point I have now loaned more money than the average Kiva user. I haven’t lost any money yet while the average user has lost $1.52. So far, so good.
I’m now seeing more loans for being offered for people living in the United States. At first I didn’t want to see that on Kiva, but I’ve changed my mind. Any micro-lending should be available on the site, if it happens to be someone from the USA people who are interested have one more option for lending. It’s just when I see someone form America, Canada, or Western Europe needing a loan I just begin wondering why they can’t get a regular loan.
When I’m looking for loans to make I won’t loan to groups. I personally prefer to read about an individual and their plan, not a mass of people. That’s me, but I’m glad they have groups available for those who would like to loan to groups.
So, anyway, 11 loans down and many more to make in the coming months. I still have to do some research on this whole micro-financing thing, but I do know that the individuals who have received these loans are grateful and nearly all of them manage to pay the loan back.
Repayment has been mostly on time as well. Three of my loans have been fully repaid and only one of the people I loaned to is having trouble making payments on time, but they are eventually getting made.
At this point I have now loaned more money than the average Kiva user. I haven’t lost any money yet while the average user has lost $1.52. So far, so good.
I’m now seeing more loans for being offered for people living in the United States. At first I didn’t want to see that on Kiva, but I’ve changed my mind. Any micro-lending should be available on the site, if it happens to be someone from the USA people who are interested have one more option for lending. It’s just when I see someone form America, Canada, or Western Europe needing a loan I just begin wondering why they can’t get a regular loan.
When I’m looking for loans to make I won’t loan to groups. I personally prefer to read about an individual and their plan, not a mass of people. That’s me, but I’m glad they have groups available for those who would like to loan to groups.
So, anyway, 11 loans down and many more to make in the coming months. I still have to do some research on this whole micro-financing thing, but I do know that the individuals who have received these loans are grateful and nearly all of them manage to pay the loan back.
16 November 2010
The Graying of Comic Book Fans
When I go to comic shops these days I’ve rarely seen anyone under the age of about 20 in them. I’m not sure if that is good for the comic industry in the long-run. Sure a thirty-something overweight comic collector may be able to afford stacks of overpriced comics, but who will replace him in twenty years when heart attacks have culled the herds of collectors?
Perhaps in this age of the internet, DVD players, video game systems, and such kids may not be as inclined to read comics like our parents & grandparents were, but the ever increasing cost of comics isn’t helping.
1938: Action Comics #1 – cover price ten cents. The regular price for a comic book would remain at this level until about 1962.
1979: comics were crossing into the 40 cent range from 10 cents over a 17 year period. This is when I got the first comic book I remember having (Action Comics #500, which was a huge issue so it cost $1.00). A dime from 1938 adjusted for inflation is about 52 cents, so comic books are still a great value.
1982: Cover prices increase to the 60 cent mark. This was the time I was getting into the Legion of Super-Heroes. Despite the 50% increase from just a few short years ago, the inflation adjusted dime from 1938 is 69 cents. Comics still cost less than in 1938.
1986: The post-Crisis on Infinite Earths comics start to show cover prices of 75 cents. Our good-old Action Comics #1 cover price adjusted for inflation is 78 cents.
1988: $1.00 for a comic book! Are they nuts?!? They sure were, our inflation adjusted dime is only worth 84 cents. Looks like things are going to get ugly.
1992: Now that the dollar point has been passed the increases continue. $1.25 is the new price of your average comic book – That dime from 1938 is adjusted to $1.00.
1995: $1.50 – a few years have gone by since the last price increase. I’m sure no one will notice if we round up to $1.50. Adjusted for inflation our old dime is worth $1.08.
1997: $1.99 – Just two years after a buck & a half we get another big jump in the cover price of a typical comic book. Our dime is not able to keep up, it’s sitting at $1.13.
2006: $2.99 for a comic book? If you are lucky you can find one that cheap from the two big companies. Small press books go for a lot more. The big publishers are also tempting fate by pushing up towards $3.99 by 2010. Insanity. That inflation adjusted dime is worth $1.42 in 2006. Comic books now cost more than twice they did back in ‘the day.’
The change in the type of paper used in comic books is factor in the price increase. I’m sure the overhead at the largest publishers has gone up considerably over the decades as the business world continues to increase in complexity. That doesn’t change the fact that kids aren’t going to be able to buy as many comics as they did in prior years.
On top of that the stories today are overly complex. Part of this complexity is just an attempt to hook the reader into buying additional books every month as well as special issues that explain the ‘universe-wide’ story arc. So now the reader is buying perhaps three books just to keep up on his hero for $8.97 when his grandfather could just buy one book for the inflation adjusted amount of $1.42.
Oh, and that Action Comics #1 could fetch up to $1,500,000 today. In 2082 issues of a comic bought today won’t appreciate in value by nearly as much. That better paper I mentioned earlier, as well as mylar bags, climate controlled storage, etcetera will keep too many copies of today’s comics in good condition to reduce the supply and drive up prices.
Perhaps in this age of the internet, DVD players, video game systems, and such kids may not be as inclined to read comics like our parents & grandparents were, but the ever increasing cost of comics isn’t helping.
1938: Action Comics #1 – cover price ten cents. The regular price for a comic book would remain at this level until about 1962.
1979: comics were crossing into the 40 cent range from 10 cents over a 17 year period. This is when I got the first comic book I remember having (Action Comics #500, which was a huge issue so it cost $1.00). A dime from 1938 adjusted for inflation is about 52 cents, so comic books are still a great value.
1982: Cover prices increase to the 60 cent mark. This was the time I was getting into the Legion of Super-Heroes. Despite the 50% increase from just a few short years ago, the inflation adjusted dime from 1938 is 69 cents. Comics still cost less than in 1938.
1986: The post-Crisis on Infinite Earths comics start to show cover prices of 75 cents. Our good-old Action Comics #1 cover price adjusted for inflation is 78 cents.
1988: $1.00 for a comic book! Are they nuts?!? They sure were, our inflation adjusted dime is only worth 84 cents. Looks like things are going to get ugly.
1992: Now that the dollar point has been passed the increases continue. $1.25 is the new price of your average comic book – That dime from 1938 is adjusted to $1.00.
1995: $1.50 – a few years have gone by since the last price increase. I’m sure no one will notice if we round up to $1.50. Adjusted for inflation our old dime is worth $1.08.
1997: $1.99 – Just two years after a buck & a half we get another big jump in the cover price of a typical comic book. Our dime is not able to keep up, it’s sitting at $1.13.
2006: $2.99 for a comic book? If you are lucky you can find one that cheap from the two big companies. Small press books go for a lot more. The big publishers are also tempting fate by pushing up towards $3.99 by 2010. Insanity. That inflation adjusted dime is worth $1.42 in 2006. Comic books now cost more than twice they did back in ‘the day.’
The change in the type of paper used in comic books is factor in the price increase. I’m sure the overhead at the largest publishers has gone up considerably over the decades as the business world continues to increase in complexity. That doesn’t change the fact that kids aren’t going to be able to buy as many comics as they did in prior years.
On top of that the stories today are overly complex. Part of this complexity is just an attempt to hook the reader into buying additional books every month as well as special issues that explain the ‘universe-wide’ story arc. So now the reader is buying perhaps three books just to keep up on his hero for $8.97 when his grandfather could just buy one book for the inflation adjusted amount of $1.42.
Oh, and that Action Comics #1 could fetch up to $1,500,000 today. In 2082 issues of a comic bought today won’t appreciate in value by nearly as much. That better paper I mentioned earlier, as well as mylar bags, climate controlled storage, etcetera will keep too many copies of today’s comics in good condition to reduce the supply and drive up prices.
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