Free comic book day has been an active promotion since 2002, encouraging people to visit their local libraries and independent bookstores, where sample issues of popular comics are distributed for free.
Action City Comics/Instagram
Action City benefiting from Free Comic Book Day with their own sales and customer discounts.
As the event takes place on the first Saturday in May, this year the promotion happened to coincide with national “Star Wars” day (May the fourth), it’s a Barbenheimer level event for nerds across the country.
At Midgard Comics in Federal Way the parking lot is adorned with a small food area, a Monster Energy promotional truck, and boxes of discount comics. Inside are several folding tables with piles of the individual free issues. Guests are welcome to pick out five issues each, given the high volume of visitors who participate in the promotion.
Todd Johnson, regular patron of Midgard Comics, participates in Free Comic Book day every year and spoke on the importance of the day as a family activity. “Being able to share one of my hobbies with my kids is my favorite part of the event,” Johnson said.
Action City Comics also participates in the promotion, this year amassing a line outside the door awaiting opening hours. A rack of free comic books right inside the door precedes the following sales on Marvel, DC, and Star Wars comics.
Many of the participants in the event wore Star Wars or similarly comic themed apparel to celebrate the cherished event in the comic community
Some of the free titles included issues from, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, “Spider-Man”, “Doctor Who”, “Monster High”, and of course “Star Wars”. Despite issues being relatively thin and containing only a few pages of actual plotlines, they’re entertaining nonetheless, with most of the participating issues having colorful biography pages for each character.
The promotion serves as a mutually beneficial event both for independent comic book stores as well as the comic publishers.
Midgard Comics/Instagram
Patrons browsing the stacks of free comics available to choose from at Midgard Comics.
The promise of any sort of free item is one of the best business strategies, despite being relatively unsustainable, especially for independent businesses. By offering free products given to them by publications, independent stores and libraries welcome an audience outside of their regular clientele.
Most participating stores run their own promotions on the day, with bargain bins or BOGO deals encouraging patrons to purchase full issues after collecting their five free ones.
For the publishers, Free Comic Book Day often precedes brand new characters, issues or authors. Leaving the free comic book on a cliffhanger encourages the reader to start buying the following comics.
Often, Free Comic Book Day also serves as a cross promotion with an upcoming movie. This year the free comic “Planet of the Apes: Fall of Man” aligns with the new “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” movie.
Free Comic Book Day is a refreshingly free event in the increasingly expensive era of entertainment and encourages reading in both young and old, while supporting local businesses and libraries. Participating locations often have issues leftover in the following weeks and will continue to offer them to customers.