“It Could Be Quite Disastrous”: The Comics Industry Is Bracing For Ruin Ahead of Looming Tariffs

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The comic book industry, from the big two publishers, Marvel Comics and Marvel Comics, to the many smaller independent companies that make up an equally vital part of the medium, is bracing for the advent of tariffs under the new U.S. administration – a fiscal policy that many are gravely concerned will have negative consequences for comics.

In a lengthy article published by The Comics Journal, Jeff Trexler of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, along with higher-ups at several indie publishing companies, offered insight into the negative trickle-down effect the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs would have on the comic industry.

In short, the most likely outcome would be higher prices; considering that inflation is something comic book publishers are already struggling with, this has the potential to be disastrous for independent publishers, as well as deleterious to the major publishers.

The Comic Book Industry Could Be Severely Impacted By Proposed Tariffs – From Publishers To Readers

Why Tariffs Are An Issue For Comics, Explained

Jeff Trexler, Interim Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, did the arithmetic for comic book readers in regard to how tariffs function, and how that impacts industries like comics. As Trexler told The Comics Journal:

The total amount paid in tariffs is based on the customs value when the item is imported, not the item’s ultimate retail value. Customs value typically includes other costs beyond materials and manufacture, such as shipping and insurance. However, to keep things simple we’ll use the $1.00 value to illustrate how the increase in a tariff rate can have a substantial impact. Under current law, at the 7.5% rate the tariff would be 7.5 cents per book – $1.00 x .075 – for a total of $1.075. A 100% tariff rate would effectively double the cost at the border – in addition to paying $1 for the book itself, the publisher would also pay an additional $1 tariff for a total of $2.

“This would lead to a significant increase of the sales price,” Trexler concluded. Currently, it is possible the U.S. could impose anywhere from a 10% to a 100% tariff on goods from China, which TCJ noted represents nearly one-quarter of comic book production for U.S. companies.

What is most stressful for comic book publishers right now, of course, is the uncertainty of what to expect in the next several years. Like the increased cost of the comics themselves, some of this anxiety gets passed on to fans. As prices for everything rise, the share of an average person’s income that they can reasonably devote to purchasing comics is necessarily impacted – meaning that while some industries can brace themselves to weather inflation, it is increasingly disastrous for comics.

Independent Publishers In Particular Are Girding Themselves For The Consequences Of Increased Tariffs

Indie Publishers Explain Why They Produce Books Outside The U.S.

The Comics Journal spoke with nearly twenty comic publishers from across the industry, who together offered a detailed explanation of the reasons many companies rely on overseas production for their books. “The decision to print overseas isn’t just about cost (though they are cheaper),” Silver Sprocket’s Avi Erlich stated, “but really about quality and options.” In other words, working with production companies outside of the U.S. is more than just the cheaper alternative – it is often quicker, and according to the publishers’ consensus, offers higher quality.

In addition to generating revenue for the country, the idea behind instituting tariffs on foreign goods and services is nationalistic – the desire is to bring more of the production that is going to foreign countries back stateside, boosting American companies’ numbers, while also theoretically increasing the number of jobs in the country. For better or worse, this is not as easy as it might sound on paper. As Fantagraphics VP and Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds pointed out, the revival of American publishing is limited by infrastructure concerns.

Reynolds said:

I read somewhere that there hasn’t been a new paper mill built in the U.S. in something like 35 years, and that the number of existing paper mills is a small fraction of U.S. printing’s 20th-century heyday. I wish there was an infrastructure here that tariffs would kickstart, but there just isn’t. It’s not like there are paper mills and printing presses just waiting to have the lights turned back on. Even if the tariffs spurred a long term investment in paper and printing, with new mills and presses being built, it would take years and a lot of publishers may well go out of business before that bears fruit. It could be quite disastrous.

Meaning, in essence, that the imposition of increased tariffs would put comic book publishers in a bind – the logistical difficulties of cutting ties with their existing overseas production partners would mean they would have to continue importing their books, and as a result, pay the increased tariff price. The direct consequence of this is increased prices for consumers. The only other alternative would be reductions in the number of titles produced, staff layoffs, and other cuts that ultimately wind up having a tangible impact on readers anyway.

Forecasting The Short-Term Future Of Comics

As Ben Applegate, who oversees Penguin Random House’s manga imprint, summed up the problem of tariffs for comic book publishers:

The only possible responses to higher costs are to take the hit, increase prices, or cut costs elsewhere. None of these are desirable.

As the indie publishers who spoke to The Comics Journal uniformly explained, tariffs are already a concern when it comes to comic book production – and so tariff increases would do further harm to American publishing companies, rather than being a boon for American printers. And beyond the economic implications, the reality is tariffs will impact what companies choose to publish in the years to come.

As Beehive books publisher Josh O’Neil put it:

If there were a massive tariff on all foreign goods, we would have to figure things out here somehow. Which would probably involve completely changing our business model…

From changes in the types of books produced, to the number of titles a publisher can put out per year, it is evident that increased U.S. tariffs would have a significant impact on the industry, starting as early as the middle of 2025. It is possible the comic book industry will look very different a year from now, or two years from now, and while companies like Marvel Comics and DC Comics might look largely the same, the cost to independent publishers could be truly frightening.

Source: The Comics Journal

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