Free Comic Book Day - Should it Die?

The end of Diamond means the end of so much more …

Greetings,

The imminent doom for Diamond Comic Distributors is at hand … according to the reports and articles I have read recently the remaining assets of Diamond are going up for auction in March with qualifying bids due March 19th. So it looks like there is no coming out of bankruptcy for them … I have spoken and written about this quite a bit over the last month and there is still so much to say, but for this update - I think I’ll focus on one aspect …

Free Comic Book Day

One of the many assets listed that will be up for auction is Free Comic Book Day … the concept, the brand, the trademark, and the website. When I saw that - I considered the possibility of bidding for it … but then I asked myself - why? I mean how could anyone make money with FCBD without a distribution mechanism in place. I guess if you own the name it could be licensed out - but then that begs the question … is there a need for Free Comic Book Day anymore?

I reached out to my good friend Kevin LaPorte of InversePress/FlatLine Comics & The Comic’s Crowd Substack to get his take on the whole Free Comic Book Day situation. “Honestly, the repercussions for the Free Comic Book Day brand and associated assets (a website, back-stock, vendor/retailer list, and…good will…I guess?) didn’t cross my mind until you invited me to participate in this Substack post considering the subject.”

So from your point of view Free Comic Book Day just wasn’t that important? “For small, independent comic publishers like my own, where we produce 6 to 8 comics a year with a staff of two, Free Comic Book Day was completely inaccessible, and that’s because the only entities in the distribution chain for whom this event was actually free were visitors to comic shops on that storied first weekend in May and Diamond themselves.”

He’s 100% right about that - Free Comic Book Day was started in 2002 (set annually on the first Saturday in May) as a way to bring lapsed readers and new readers into comic book stores to discover the wonderful world of comics. Most if not all comic shops would participate in the event where the retailers would literally GIVE away the books to their customers. The only catch was that the books were NOT free for the retailers and the publishers were still on the hook to produce new FCBD books.

“That’s correct”, Kevin would continue - “publishers still paid to fully produce (script, art, design, etc.) and print the “free” comics, and your local comic shop still paid Diamond (at a volume-dictated discount plus shipping costs) to receive those “free” comics. Printing at the minimum quantities to participate in FCBD, was a huge financial risk for small comics publishers, particularly given the understood imbalanced marketing push for the event-centric Marvel and DC Free Comic Book Day offerings. Should we have taken that fiscal plunge, our comics would have been relegated to the catch-all end table of the FCBD options, tossed about and untended in the organizational chaos of what was a huge annual event for comic shops. FCBD became a showcase for the annual narrative events at the Big Two, with actual comics this side of Dark Horse functionally invisible among the stacks.”

In the early days of Cosmic Times, I would throw my hat into the FCBD ring. I attended local Free Comic Book Day events - even produced 4 unofficial FCBD books. Over the years (especially with the addition of another free comic event - “Halloween Comic Fest”) the whole FCBD event started to lose its sparkle and didn’t feel as special as it once did - so much so that I stopped getting involved with the event. Visiting my local shops - it was clear that many (the majority) of those in attendance would come into the store, grab their free books and leave, defeating the purpose of the event.

Kevin had more to offer - “All that considered and in my estimation, the impending death of Free Comic Book Day matters not a whit to independent comic creators. We were squeezed out of obtaining any value from the event many years ago, and that’s not going to change. Disney and Warner Brothers may still send (not so) free promotional comics from Marvel and DC, respectively, to comic shops in early May, but that’s because they can drop tens of thousands of dollars on a marketing ploy and write it off. If I make that same effort, even proportional to my small business, I’ll be writing off the liquidation of all my publishing assets.”

So that leaves me wondering - is a Free Comic Book Day needed in the current market? Perhaps it just needs to be reinvented. From my perspective as an independent “boutique” publisher, I would like an event that focuses on trying to find new readers for the books we publish. Yes, I know FCBD was designed to attract readers to the medium - however I’ve never seen any metrics to prove that it ever did … so I have to ask what could the event do for ME? - The answer is the same as Kevin’s - not much.

Of course we need to keep in mind - the possible end of Free Comic Book Day not only will impact the publishers and creators - it’s the retailers who are on the frontline of the whole Diamond debacle. So I felt it best to reach out to a few retailers I know to see where they stand on the possible end of Free Comic Book Day.

I spoke briefly to Mark Gallo, owner of Past Present Future Comics & Games (2 locations) in South Florida. He’s owned the stores for four decades so he’s been involved in EVERY Free Comic Book Day since its invention and he still feels that there is life left in the event. “I hope someone saves Free Comic Book Day - to me it’s worth saving. We still see excited children and young adults looking forward to the event every year. So at PPF we hope it doesn’t go away.”

The always optimistic Jen King, owner and operator of the Space Cadets Collection Collection comic book store in Houston, Texas believes that the event is bigger than the sum of its parts - “Free Comic Book Day as an event will live on. Even if we didn’t have variant comics to give away, we certainly have boxes of regular back issues we could give away to make the event still run.” She also highlighted the importance of the event to the community - “It’s also about the comic book creator guests and the Ghostbusters fan group and the 501st and the blood drives and the face-painting. It’s the community of the event that makes it successful. Trust me when I say that it will continue.”

Phil Boyle, founder of Coliseum of Comics in 1983, now a TEN store mega-chain in Florida had this to offer - “Free Comic Book Day is one of our top FIVE sales days of the year for Coliseum, so absolutely NOT on it going away.”

While I understand the point of view of the retailers - from where I sit in the industry … I just feel that it’s time for FCBD to go.

The only retailer to agree with me (sort of) was once again Kevin LaPorte who used to own his own shop from 2001 to 2007. “I regret the possibility that comic shops may lose this unique and popular draw to their doors, but, as was the case with my store, they’re likely to be stuck with a massive back stock of FCBD books anyway, as we literally couldn’t give away all the books we were required to buy at minimum quantities.”

Like Jen, King Kevin feels there is a way retailers can continue the tradition “At least for 2025, many stores are likely in a position to host their own FCBD event using those comics and unsellable bulk inventory (what we once called “quarter bin books”). Regardless, retailers must flex their marketing creativity, because, unless Diamond is shockingly purchased and given new life, there exists no third-party business-side benefactor for FCBD to run through, and that renders the whole affair unprofitable for anyone and, thus, meaningless in the developing comics environment.”

If there is some way to bring Free Comic Book Day back as a more inclusive event - I would be interested. I really think a new type of event is needed - one that will bring the industry together and present it to the public in a way to expand comics as an artistic medium. Perhaps it needs to be run like Scholastic’s Book Fair, where comics are brought to schools in an effort to attract new readers - it worked for Harry Potter and later Dog Man. I don’t have the answers (well … … I do have a few ideas) the industry needs to find something … some way to pull in new readers … I just don’t think it needs to be Free Comic Book Day.

But … that is just MY opinion … what do you think?

Do you think after the dust of Diamond’s husk settles into the earth that there should be a Free Comic Book Day, or maybe something new and better … or just maybe nothing. Feel free to continue the conversation in the comments.

Stay Cosmic,

Martin

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