How did the price of a comic book go from being 10/12 cents to $3.99 an issue ?? I'm just really curious now?

The price of ink tripled in the past 5 years, and paper costs have skyrocketed, which also affects any magazine or book printing production.

Then there's the actual printing production costs (machines, salary) of the printers which has not stayed dormant over the decades. Shipping costs went up too. And the amount of the print run also plays a factor. When you look at all the actual $ spent to do the same production run today compared to 1960, it's pretty easy to see why the cost is at $4 now.

In 1973 a 1 lb box of dry catfood was 89 cents, the 6 ounce cat food cans were 20 for a $1, and tuna cans were 10 for $1. I did a marketing research project on those three items back then for school. Those are low cost foods, even they didn't stay the same.

There are a number of factors:
*costs of production - Modern comics have higher quality paper than those from the past
*inflation - $0.25 in 1939 equals to $3.99 in 2016
*competition - In addition to other comic publishers, there is also TV and film.
*collector's market - Some comics' price maintain the rarity of physical comics.

inflation probably. plus comics aren't as popular as they used to be, and it's easy to find them online for free, so they charge even more than it costs to make to make up the difference

They just figured they could charge this much and get it. When I was a kid, comix were 10¢ - 15¢ for the FAT ones. But a loaf of bread was 15¢ - I remember buying a can of peas for 6¢. So figure how many times those prices have gone up.

And then comics went from being stupid stuff for kids and dopes to kind of a cult collector item.

Printing paper media is a niche now..