Wow, lots of well thought out points and discussion going on here (who woulda thunk it? I kid, I kid...)

I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents (not sure what the exchange rate is for you Canadians and Australians in the bunch...

For what I think (in my "pull some ideas out of my hat" way) the industry could do to bolster decreasing sales.

1. Diversify pricing and modality. Many titles (like AF) I would buy at the time of release for say, $2.99. Other titles that I am not enjoying as much or wish to try out I would buy for perhaps $1.99 if they were re-released a few months later with a cheaper paper stock or somesuch. Same idea for digital copies. However, day and date releases should be no more than 2/3 of print price and after 8 weeks should be no more than .99.

2. Have every title stick to a regular schedule. As a kid, I could tell you what week every title that I collected came out in, and it really helped me stay interested in the medium. "Hey, it's 3rd week...Avengers comes out! Cool!" Now I almost have no idea what comes out at any given time because schedules are so erratic. I don't care if it's monthly, bi-monthly, bi-weekly, every six weeks or once a quarter...just find a schedule and stick to it! Which leads into...

3. Hold creators accountable for lateness. I understand that creators are paid more these days than they did in days past, and that is good. A living wage is good. What isn't good is creators who are paid more today for their work then...don't work. Just like in construction, if you don't finish a job by "X" date, then you start getting penalized the later the job is done.

4. Aim for kids, but don't talk down to them. Like Mik (may I call you that? I could be presuming too much, Mister Le Messor) said, when I started reading in January '83 at age 9, I had no problem understanding the complex plots and ongoing themes...or I didn't care because they were fun and exciting! And today, almost 30 years later, those stories are still great, perhaps not for exactly the same reasons. I now get more subtexts and nuances that I missed before. You can aim a concept at kids and still make it accessible to adults in today's world...Harry Potter has proven that.

5. Put 'em where the kids are! I think this one is pretty universally agreed upon. While comic shops are nice, people don't happen to just wander into them looking for comics. I think most people picked them up initially like adults pick up tabloids and magazines...as impulse items at grocery and convenience stores. But that's not the only place. If I were to own a local comic shop, I would do my damndest to make a deal with any local theatres showing these superhero movies to have a rack of comics in the lobbies of the theatres! Or the big 2 could do a direct contract with the theatres to sell their comics. (For those of you with kids...how many times after going to a store after seeing a superhero movie has your child seen some kind of product with that superhero on it and bug you incessantly to buy it and NOT RIGHT NOW TOMMY I AM TRYING TO GET DINNER FOR YOU AND YOUR SISTER BECAUSE YOUR MOTHER HAS TO WORK LATE TONIGHT FINE WE'LL GET IT JUST BEHAVE NOW!!) Wow...not too sure where that came from since I don't even have kids...

6. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on the croissant dough, place the hot dog in the middle and roll the dog up. Bake at 375 degrees for 13 minutes or until golden brown....dang ADD...

6.2 Trim selection. Too many titles with too few characters dilutes both the talent pool and increases supply cost. Trim the number of titles your company produces in order to maximize a smaller, (hopefully) better talent pool while cutting printing costs.

Again, there is no scientific basis for any of these things (except for the weiner wrap recipe...mmm mmm), and I have more, but this will do for now.

~Jason