Skybound’s Energon Universe is holding the line on price. Speaking at a roundtable interview after the Energon Universe panel at New York Comic Con, Robert Kirkman confirmed to The Beat that the line’s ongoing titles will stay at $3.99 throughout 2027.
“Yeah, that’s important to us,” Kirkman said. “We’re starting to see cover prices creep up again.”
“Fewer readers buying more copies”
Kirkman argued that rising prices and the flood of variant covers have hidden a bigger problem. “I think there is a thing in the industry where people maybe aren’t recognizing how much the rise of variant covers and the fact that every book has multiple covers is hiding that there is a diminished overall readership,” he said. “There’s fewer readers buying more copies of every book. I think some of that is that some people have been priced out.”
He pointed to monthly costs adding up for fans. “When you’re looking at $4.99 a month, $5.99 a month just to read a comic book, and you’ve got Netflix and everyone else raising their prices too. Inflation is a big thing,” Kirkman said. “I understand that companies have to do what companies have to do to stay solvent. Anything we can do to make our books as affordable as possible for as long as possible, Image and Skybound are very committed to that.”
Blind bags, ROM and Howard Porter
Kirkman also talked about Skybound’s blind bags, which have slipped surprise future issues into packs alongside new #1s. “I don’t ever want to do a blind bag where everything in the bag is expected,” he said, adding that the goal is to give a fan the feeling that “this is the most exciting thing that has happened to me in comics.”
The line keeps growing. ROM and the Micronauts have joined the universe, and Kirkman said the Visionaries’ future is uncertain: “We don’t want to expand to so many different characters that you can’t keep track of things.” Howard Porter is also coming aboard to draw an issue of Transformers in January, which Kirkman credited to editor Ben Abernathy’s “rolodex.” That follows the Dinobots’ arrival, which RCG covered in Grimlock and the Dinobots Debut in Skybound’s Transformers #42.
With Marvel and DC regularly pricing books at $4.99 and up, a firm $3.99 promise for another full year is a notable pitch to readers and retailers alike.
