The publisher will actually lose money for every comic they print with a 3D cover.

Source: Comics Beat

Y'know those 3D covers that DC's putting on all of their September comics? According to Dan Didio, those covers are really expensive to print. How expensive? According to a report from the Comics Beat, DC will take a loss on every cover they print, despite DC raising the prices on all of their September issues to help cover costs.

That's right, the extra dollar you'll be paying for September won't be enough for DC to breakeven on the costs of printing these comics. I suppose this explains why DC couldn't afford to have artists produce individualized backgrounds for many of the comics and instead chose to photoshop villains onto stock pictures of various DC heroes chained up and bleeding.

Here's my take on the whole debacle. According to DC, 65% of their comics are still being sold for $2.99, which means that readers will be paying an additional 33% for those comics come September, as they can't choose to buy a non-3D cover. And despite that increase, DC will still be losing money for every comic. While it's admirable that DC is choosing not to pass off the entire cost onto readers, it's still a lose-lose for everyone involved.

Maybe some corporate beancounter will smack some sense into DC when they catch wind of this and declare a moratorium on short-sighted gimmicks that can't even make a buck...or they'll tell DC to up the price to $4.99 next time they try it.