Forced to cope with paper tariffs, small comic book and game stores in Iowa are getting creative

You might recall the Stamp Act from 5th grade social studies. Passed on March 22, 1765, it was the mechanism used by the British to fund the standing troops lingering in the American colonies after the Seven Years’ War. In practice, the Stamp Act required that colonists pay a tax on all paper products, ranging from newspapers, legal documents and almanacs to playing cards. 

This “taxation without representation” prompted protests, boycotts and a meeting of the Continental Congress. British merchants and manufacturers raged over lost profits. Parliament repealed the act, but went on to levy a series of other taxes, precipitating the Revolutionary War.

Trust the Trump administration to make historically bad policy relevant again. It so happens that the mechanics of the Stamp Act are not all that disconnected from Trump’s current set of tariffs on paper and pulp products. Basically, when paper-based products are imported into the country, an additional tax (usually of at least 10 percent, but this is dependent on the country the paper has come from) has to be paid before deliveries can be made to the business intending to process and sell those products.

The cold reality is that these tariffs force businesses to either absorb the cost of the tax themselves and lose profits, or to raise their prices to cover the difference. 

Even in the age of the internet, there are still plenty of popular products made possible by paper, from comic books to trading cards. With this in mind, Little Village took a look at how two local businesses who trade in paper products are handling a second Stamp Act.

Power Pulp is a collective of independent self-publishing comics creators headquartered in Des Moines. Its mission is to create better opportunities for artists and writers to find their audience, according to one of its four founders, John Coats. The business has no salaried employees, but utilizes members’ shared expertise in graphic design, public relations, the mechanics of working with different retailers and more. You can think of Power Pulp as a comics distributor as opposed to a traditional publisher, passing all of the profits from sales of books directly back to the creatives behind them. 

They’re still new to the comics scene, but after just a few months Power Pulp has “sold over a thousand books,” Coats reports. “We’ve got 15 stores on board already, and new ones sort of jumping [in] every couple weeks.” 

Unfortunately, paper tariffs are limiting Power Pulp’s options when it comes to printing new books in their catalog. 

Most of Power Pulp’s authors were already printing state-side prior to the Trump tariffs because foreign printers, like those in China, typically won’t do runs of less than 10,000 copies. Now, overseas print orders come with additional and often unpredictable costs at port — something self-publishers are not able to absorb easily without warning. 

Even if they haven’t personally paid a paper tariff, Power Pulp authors must still contend with a strained industry. Coats said he’s contacted various American printers to get quotes, but since material prices are so volatile, they weren’t even able to offer a ballpark estimate of the total cost of a run of books.

But it’s not all bad news. Power Pulp has the ability to band together multiple authors at once in talks with printers.

“If we have like 20-plus creators, and everyone is looking to print their own stuff, even like 1,000 copies of something, then that gives us the power to negotiate some deals with printers,” Coats explained. “And we’ve been able to get a couple who are on board to give us at least a little discount as members. And with the margins we’re working with, even if you get 15 cents off per copy you print, that’s a win.”

Still, Power Pulp knows that the future of printing prices remains unknown. To prepare for the possibilities ahead, they are hoping to build an audience that appreciates the higher quality of their products.

“There’s still this stigma around [comics] as cheap throwaway material … But that’s just not really what they are anymore,” Coats said. Power Pulp is hoping that they will be able to continue to price their books in a way that allows them to absorb fluctuations in the cost of printing, but are asking readers to adjust their expectations around what comics typically cost.

Paper tariffs are also affecting board game sellers like Diversions Tabletop Game Lounge, which opened its brick and mortar location in Coralville this spring. Co-owner Sean Finn told Little Village that they “have seen prices go up on several board games and some small publishers have closed as a result” of tariffs, especially on China, where most games are produced. 

As a result, Diversions is “focusing our energy as much as possible on supporting local board game designers and working with local artists to promote and sell their work.”

But like Power Pulp, Diversions is at the mercy of the larger industry’s tariff-based fluctuations. For Finn, the solution lies in “doubling down on connecting the local community” and pivoting to stocking “small-box games” (games that have fewer material pieces) and games that can be manufactured domestically or in low-tariff (at least for now) countries like Canada. 

While there is no doubt that Iowans are also feeling the squeeze of the Trump administration’s economic policies on their own pocketbooks, it is a good time to support local businesses like Power Pulp and Diversions, as locals are able.

Power Pulp wants to encourage you to head over to their website and give one of their titles a try. Perhaps even better, you could pay a visit to your local comics shop and ask if they have Power Pulp titles available. Even if they don’t, it could open the door to more independent titles finding a home on their shelves. 

For Diversions, heading out with your friends and family to play some games at the shop and then “shop[ing] locally as we approach the holiday season,” Finn said, could make all the difference in how they weather this storm.  

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This article was originally published in Little Village’s November 2025 issue.