None of this seems especially pressing, you're probably thinking, so why go to the effort -- and the expense! -- of trying to cram all that into a fairly short time-frame? And what does any of that have to do with comics anyway?
A lot of people have focused on the tariffs -- and I'll get to those in a bit -- but to address some of those other concerns first, I'll start by saying that however much you hate government bureaucracy, simply removing it without having any systems in place to handle the same tasks will result in, at best, government tasks becoming less effecient or, at worst, utter chaos. So my wife and I are trying to update any paperwork that requires federal processing (e.g. passports and social security cards) before any of these cabinet members start shutting down agencies wholesale. Secondly, whatever your thoughts on immigration policies, Trump has indicated his plans are of the "guilty until proven innocent" variety and the intent is to simply "get rid of" anybody who isn't a cis hetero white person and/or speaks with a 'foreign' accent. While the landscapers and electricians we use are American citizens, they do have Mexican accents and they could well get rounded up before anyone thinks to ask them for proof of citizenship. By getting them to get work in now, I'm hoping that affords them a little extra cash for whatever they might have to deal with and, more selfishly, we'll be able to get that work done without having whatever contractors aren't immorally harassed that are left trying to squeeze us into their now-more-loaded schedules. Am I speaking in hyperbole? If I am, then go tell my friends from Chile, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, and South Korea that they shouldn't be worrying either because they're all terrified.
On to tariffs. You may have heard that a number of people and companies are making larger purchases now to beat whatever tariffs are imposed come January. Tariffs -- as apparently not known by many people -- are essentially taxes placed on imported goods. Taxes which are then passed along to consumers. That's all tariffs are: taxes. Taxes on imported goods. The effects of tariffs on other countries largely does nothing but raise prices on the country imposing the tariffs in the first place. (While theoretically, tariffs could be used in very specific circumstances to do very specific things, they are effectively never functionally used like that. Which means that tariffs never work as stated.) The new computer and new oven are specifically to beat tariff price increases. All of which gets us to the comics industry.
Now, because of all of the above, I will admit that I hadn't given any consideration to how any of this might affect the comics industry, but I have really only seen one outlet mention it at all so far. Bleeding Cool has this piece from last week that rightly points out that most comics published in America are actually printed in Canada, using Canadian paper. If a blanket 25% tariff on all Canadian goods goes into effect -- as has been proposed -- that will mean basically a dollar increase for each and every comic book you buy, whether you're reading about Batman or Spider-Man or Luke Skywalker or Archie Andrews. The $20 you spend on comics every week will now be $25, even if you don't change your reading habits at all. Extend that to monthly: $100 a month on comics is now $125.
And that will basically come as an overnight change. I expect some publishers -- perhaps even all of them -- will look for US-based alternatives to avoid the imposed tariffs, but the US paper and printing industries are not at a size that they could absorb that overnight, if at all. Meaning many, if not most, publishers will continue using the Canadian companies they use now. And because of the nature of these tariffs -- all but guaranteed to be in place for at least four years -- I don't think any publisher could hold to a lower price for that long in the hopes that the tariffs would be lifted later. For the major publishers, I believe their profit margins on a given comic are in the 20%-30% ballpark (this would obviously change from title to title, and even issue to issue) -- which would be basically negated entirely by a 25% tariff. In order to keep the same prices, they would essentially be committing to making zero profit for four years minimum. Even with the backing of corporations like Warner Bros. and Disney, I don't think any publishers would be able to tolerate that. They're going to calculate that really quickly as soon as any new tariffs are announced and adjusted their prices accordingly. Fans will likely see the change the next time they pre-order books, and it'll hit their wallet two or three months later when those books actually land in stores.
Can readers, in general, absorb those additional costs? My guess is: not likely. Corporations used COVID-induced supply chain disruptions to gouge consumers with higher prices -- prices that have expressly not come down even after the supply chain disruptions faded away. You are no doubt painfully aware of the hit your bank account takes when you buy groceries now, comared to a few years ago. People can endure that to some degree when it comes to things like groceries that they need. They sacrifice in other areas that aren't so necessary and go out to the movies or sports events less often. Or they shift to cheaper options.
As pointed out in that Bleeding Cool article, that might mean shifting to digital comics. Or waiting for the trade paperbacks to show up at the local library. (Although TPB costs will likely increase thanks to the proposed tariffs on China, where many books are printed. "Wait, why would that matter if I get them from the library?" Well, they might not cost you anything but the library has to pay for them, and if they're paying more per book, that means they'll be able to buy fewer of them. And that's assuming their budgets don't get cut to begin with!) Or potentially just leaving the hobby entirely; I've known people to do that before when it becomes cost-prohibitive for them. Some of those will be more/less problematic for publishers, but none of which are things that comic shop owners want to hear.
I don't have a good solution for this. Publishers might be able to hedge things a bit by buying paper stock now, or switching to domestic printers now. I expect some of them are investigating those options already. But what can comic shops do? What can regular fans do? I suppose fans could switch to subscriptions where you lock in a per year price now before any tariffs are instituted, but that's only available for a small percentage of titles, and certainly wouldn't account for any new ones that come out later. Comic shops can't really do that, though, because they're buying for a changing number of people month to month, whereas the individual consumer is just buying for themself. The only thing I can think to help them would be shifting their business model, but given how many products are made in one of those three countries, I don't know how much that could help.
I said this a lot back when Trump was in the White House before: the best way to think of him and his cronies is to recall the most two-dimensional, superficial, evil-for-the-sake-of-evil villain from the worst Saturday morning cartoon you ever saw, and that's pretty much what we're dealing with. He's not Lex Luthor. He's not Dr. Claw. He's not even Boris Badenov. Trump makes Snidely Whiplash look like a genius philanthropist. There is no amount of negative things you could say about Trump that would be hyperbolic. Be prepared for prices to jump. Be prepared for businesses -- notably local retailers and smaller publishers -- to go under. Maybe we'll get lucky and someone will bribe Trump enough to not go through with some of his stated plans. But don't count on it.
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